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The Astor Circus
But although it was Henry Kissinger’s and Barbara Walters’ star power that filled the courtroom to capacity for the first time during the trial, it was the confrontation between Tony Marshall and his two sons earlier in the week that provided the greater drama. Philip Marshall, 56, set this family tragedy in motion when he filed papers in 2006 challenging his father for guardianship of his grandmother. But it may have been his soft-spoken twin brother Alec whose testimony did his father the greater damage.
Alec said that in 2001 or 2002—he wasn’t sure which—his grandmother offered him Holly Hill, her Westchester County weekend estate. “No, no,” he said he replied. “That’s fine.” He told the jury: “It was too late. Her demeanor was to the point where…” But the defense objected and Mr. Marshall was unable to complete his thought. Still, the jury couldn’t have missed the point: that Alec declined to take advantage of his grandmother’s dementia two years before the prosecution claims his father and his stepmother had no such qualms.
Ralph Gardner, Jr. is freelance writer whose work has appeared in New York magazine, the New York Observer, the New Yorker and other publications.
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scough
Hint for Miss Graydon Carter: Margaret Thatcher has requested you return her hair-do.
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