Patricia O’Neill
Patricia O’Neill had plenty of dosh to spread around, being the daughter of the Countess of Kenmore. Did she leave it to her family? Her friends? Did she have her ashes mixed into a portrait of herself, or stipulate that her family had to enter her perfectly-preserved body into a triathlon? None of these, unfortunately.
Instead, she simply left the entirety of her forty million pound fortune, the equivalent of more than fifty-three million dollars, to her pet Chimp Kalu. Unfortunately for Kalu, O’Neill’s financial state tanked thanks to bad investments and management, meaning there isn’t much left for him once she passes – O’Neill has to exist on gifts from friends.
Gloria Bechal
While British millionaire Gloria Bechel led a normal life – as much as a British millionaire does, at least – but one thing about her tends to stand out. She really, really loved Cantonese food. She loved one restaurant in particular so much that she left almost her entire fortune, to the tune of about ten million pounds, to the restaurant when she died.
Her family disputed the will – you have to admit, it's an odd one – but the courts ruled in favor of the restaurant. Notice that we said the restaurant, not the owners. No doubt their lives were enriched, but it's not like she gifted them the money personally.
Benjamin Franklin
One of the founding fathers of the United States of America was also a father to a few children, and in his will, he left a portrait frame, and a specific request, to his daughter Sarah. The request was that she “not engage the expensive, vain, and useless pastime of wearing jewels.” Ben was never one to mince words.
But why give his daughter such an odd request? The portrait frame he left her contained over four hundred diamonds – no doubt he wanted to avoid her plundering the frame. According to the history we know, Sarah Franklin Bache ignored his request and tore the frame to shreds for the diamonds.
Charles Vance Miller
We kind of wish we knew more about Charles Vance Miller. He seems like a hoot. This Canadian attorney's will stipulated that in the decade following his death (which occurred in 1926), whichever Toronto woman produced the most offspring would acquire a large sum of money from his estate.
Four different women – each with nine children during that time span whoa – won the contest, receiving about $125,000 each. Nowadays that many kids for that amount wouldn't be worth it, but in 1936, that was equivalent to one million, eight-hundred thousand in USD today. That's enough to cover everything, including college.
Thomas Shewbridge
As a Californian prune rancher, Thomas Shewbridge wasn't all that well known during his life, and that's okay. His will, of all things, brought him into the public eye when he left twenty-nine thousand stock shares in the local electric company to his two dogs, Mac and George.
For the most part, this didn't really mean that much, but since they were major shareholders, it did mean that the dogs had to be present for the board of directors' meetings. The two dogs also inherited an estate worth almost $250,000. The dogs weren't very interested in the meetings, but that's not because they're dogs. It's just because shareholder meetings are boring.