Some Really Crazy Final Will Bequests

Your final will and testament sometimes says a lot about you and how you felt about some people in your life – especially family members. When businesswoman and hotel owner Leona Helmsley – known as the Queen of Mean died in 2007 she left $12-million to her dog. She completely cut off two of her grandchildren and they have no idea why. Her other two grandchildren were left a small inheritance in yearly payments as long as they made regular visits to their father's grave, where they’d have to sign a registration book to prove they were there.

Luis Carlos of Portugal never married and never had children. So he decided to pick 70 names out of the Lisbon phone book at random. When he died in 2001 those 70 strangers were told they stood to inherit all of his cash, his home and his car.

Canadian attorney Charles Millar died in 1928. He too never married or had children. In ordered that his half a million dollar estate be given to the woman who gave birth to the most children in the 10 years following his death. In Toronto it became known as the “Baby Derby” to win the fortune. In the end in 1938, four women split the prize after each giving birth to nine babies each.

German poet Heinrich Heine left his entire fortune to his wife. There was one catch – she had to remarry "because then there will be at least one man to regret my death."

Iowa lawyer T.M.Zink must have had some pretty bad experiences with women. When he died in 1930 he left his daughter five bucks and his wife got nothing. He then directed that the rest of his $100,000 estate be used to create the Zink Womenless Library. It would have no feminine decorations, no books or magazine articles written by females and was to have the words "No Women Admitted" appear over the entrance. His daughter went to court and had him declared “of unsound mind” and she was awarded everything.