Harry Helmsley

Harry B. Helmsley was an American real estate billionaire whose company, HelmsleySpear, became one of the countrys biggest property holders, owning the Empire State Building and many of New Yorks most prestigious hotels. From humble beginnings, Helmsley moved up in property through natural salesmanship, a willingness to delegate, and shrewd acquisition policies that were ahead of their time. His second marriage to Leona Roberts led to charges of false accounting and tax evasion, and a celebrated trial, where Harry was judged too frail to plead, but Leona was fined and jailed.

Henry Brakman Helmsley was the son of Henry Helmsley, a wholesale dry goods buyer, and the former Minnie Brakmann. He was born in Manhattan and brought up in the Bronx, attending Evander Childs High School, where he did not graduate. The family could not afford a college education, but his grandfather got him a job as office boy in a real estate firm, Dwight, Voorhis amp Perry, where he showed a keen talent for the business and was made a partner. In 1938, he bought the firm, renaming it Dwight, Voorhis amp Helmsley. In the first half of his career, his portfolio consisted mainly of smaller properties in lessaffluent parts of New York City, though it was extensive and highly profitable.

Source: Wikipedia