Posted on 04/30/2013 12:45:25 AM PDT by lowbridge
When Roman Blum died last year at age 97, his body lingered in the Staten Island University Hospital morgue for four days, until a rabbi at the hospital was able to track down his lawyer.
Mr. Blum, a Holocaust survivor and real estate developer, left behind no heirs and no surviving family members — his former wife died in 1992 and the couple was childless. His funeral, held graveside at the New Montefiore Jewish Cemetery in West Babylon, N.Y., was attended by a small number of mourners, most of them elderly fellow survivors or children of survivors.
Much about Mr. Blum’s life was shrouded in mystery: He always claimed he was from Warsaw, although many who knew him said he actually came from Chelm, in southeast Poland. Several people close to Mr. Blum said that before World War II, in Poland, he had a wife and child who perished in the Holocaust, though Mr. Blum seems never to have talked of them, and the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, Germany, has no record of them in its database. Even his birth date is in question. Records here give it as Sept. 16, 1914; identity cards from a German displaced persons camp have it as Sept. 15.
But perhaps the greatest mystery surrounding Mr. Blum is why a successful developer, who built hundreds of houses around Staten Island and left behind an estate valued at almost $40 million, would die without a will.
That is no small matter, as his is the largest unclaimed estate in New York State history, according to the state comptroller’s office.
“He was a very smart man but he died like an idiot,” said Paul Skurka, a fellow Holocaust survivor who befriended Mr. Blum after doing carpentry work for him in the 1970s.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
My step-father is like this. 95 with a huge estate and no living relatives except for me and my siblings (who are actually not related to him at all). My mother passed in February and it remains a mystery what will happen to his estate.
I am one hep cat, Daddio!
I know an individual who has made a practice of befriending elderly widows with the intention worming his way into their wills, and cashing in upon their deaths. And, in addition, he gets whatever he can acquire in the way of sellable antiques along the way. He’s a true scumbag.
Perhaps Mr. Blum found that the people he really cared about, or cared about him, were all gone, and the only ones left were the ones who just wanted his cash.
That was my thought too... but, sadly, o’Bummer will get it :p
“He was a very smart man but he died like an idiot,” said Paul Skurka.
No, he died like an unhappy guy whom no amount of money could or would ever compensate for all the personal losses and all the sorrow.
Actually he is my uncle. I need help getting his $40 million out of the country. Send me $100,000 for the legal fees and I will mail you a check for half.
Read the article, this is one of those guys that you never want to meet or have to deal with, man he sounds like a nasty fellow.
Too bad; the State will take it. I bet the State workers were elated to hear this.
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