Lawyer: Astor's Son Worried About Wife "Only" Having $3 Million

During the latest day in the trial of Anthony Marshall, the late philanthropist Brooke Astor's son, a lawyer who represented both son and mother testified that Marshall diligently crunched the numbers to calculate what his wife would get, in the case of his death. Because Astor despised daughter-in-law Charlene Marshall that she explicitly told lawyer-turned-witness Henry Christensen that she didn't want to leave anything to her. Christensen said that Anthony Marshall gave him a 2001 memo, titled, "Concern: My ability to provide sufficient financial assistance to Charlene upon my death after distributions and expenses, including taxes." But Christensen said that in spite that Charlene owned their $2 million apartment plus had a $1 million trust fund (that would earn $115,000/year in interest) set up by her husband, Marshall was "concerned she wasn't going to have anything." Marshall is accused of forging his mother's signature on a will and asking her to sign another will—while she was in mental decline—to give him $60 million meant for charitable groups.