It was extremely foolish of the old man to dream that ANS would ever be faithful to him! She LOVED Clay and many other men and women in her life and she screwed around on ALL of them too!
She lived at the ranch and had a house in California and was traveling for business extensively (she was still the Guess spokesperson at this time). ANS was attributed with bringing him out of his funk over the death of his mistress and she made him very happy for a period of years. After they were married she wasn’t as attentive and certainly not the model wife...
the question is not whether we “like” her or think she “deserved” the $$$$$. It is WHAT not J. Howard Marshall promised her to induce her to marry him and what Pierce and his lying, scheming attorneys did to block her received that promise.
What cooked Pierce’s goose in Federal court was NEW evidence that was not presented in the probate court case.
ANS’s attorney’s were able to prove that Pierce was lying when he said he DIDN’T know about his fathers wedding until it was over.
As soon as Pierce found out his father was marrying ANS he and the attorneys IMMEDIATELY started draining his fathers assets. They set up a trust and had J.Howard sign it...and then added a new page making it irreversible. He made it impossible for his father to get any money out of his oil company so he could not give Anna any gifts. All of these documents were backdated in order to make it look like they were executed BEFORE the wedding.
Additionally, Pierces lawyers had claimed that they knew nothing about J. Howard wanting to provide for ANS in catchall trust or give her half of his “new community” (amount that his net worth increased during their marriage). HOwever, upon extensive additional discovery including billing statements it was shown that these same attorneys had billed for preparing drafts of possible catchall trusts and corporations that could be set up to provide for ANS.
It doesn’t matter that ANS was terrible with money and didn’t invest wisely. It matters that Pierce secretly ROBBED his father of his assets and blocked his ability to provide for his wife as he wished. Pierce completely controlled the lawyers and paid them off to manipulate and fool the old man. They joked about in private memos even.
It’s disgusting and he needs to punished even if it is posthumously.
A great deal of that *was* covered in the TX trial and found not to be credible with the jury.
Then there’s the Christmas video that *wasn’t* around for the TX trial, either.
I agree with you totally ms. gumshoe! What Pierce did to his father, J. Howard, was IMO WAY WORSE than what J. Howard, JR. did, and Pierce should be punished for it. Also, I believe that the Pierce Marshall family could be convinced to ‘settle’ the case since Anna is no longer alive. I think they would be fine with setting up a TRUST FUND for Dannielynn (in a FAIR amount, but not half of J. Howard’s fortune), but I think that will ONLY happen if HKS is COMPLETELY OUT OF THE PICTURE!! I agree that the Marshall family has no love lost for Anna, BUT they also have NO AFFECTION for HKS!
I agree. Here’s another interesting thing: this example shows the way assets can be drained from companies, so in theory, one could speculate that HKS pulled this trick on Anna, while she was alive. You could make a case by saying Howard drugged Anna up so she would sign anything he put in front of her. It worked for Pierce, but only for a while and he got found out, and he had a bunch of real smart lawyers helping him. If assets were drained, chances are they were drained before Anna died and not so much afterwards. Personally, I don’t think this ever happened, but if it did, it will be found out.