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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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122589
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12258900.013
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1990-09-22
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NATION, Page 35American NotesJUSTICEJudgment Day For Leona
The sentence seemed to satisfy even the most vengeful
spectators. Four years in a tiny cell shared with two or three
other prisoners. A $7 million fine. A $1.6 million bill for unpaid
federal and state taxes. And once the jail term is up, 750 hours
of community service caring for infants born with drug addictions
or AIDS.
Tears failed to save hotelier Leona Helmsley, 69, the "Queen
of Mean," who once sneered that only "little people pay taxes."
Imploring Federal Judge John M. Walker Jr. not to imprison her for
tax evasion, Helmsley wept, "I am more humiliated and ashamed than
anybody could ever imagine." The judge was unmoved. Her attempt to
charge off as business expenses items ranging from a $12.99 girdle
to a $1.2 million pool enclosure for her mansion was the "product
of naked greed," he declared. Helmsley is appealing the verdict,
but as she left the courtroom, one of the little people had the
last word: "There goes Marie Antoinette."