How a New York heiress made her nurse a millionaire

How a New York heiress made her nurse a millionaire


November 23, 2011

She was Daddy’s little rich girl who never grew up, a centenarian with a vast fortune who could have had the world at her feet, a life of parties and pleasures, of people and influence.

Huguette Clark shrank from society instead. She barricaded herself inside a hospital room for decades and was emotionally shackled to her collections — art, music and thousands of soulless French dolls.

She let few into her rarefied life — and, in the end, she wasn’t surrounded by ambassadors and billionaires, but by a handful of house staff.

And one person to whom she had always said good night.

That woman, Hadassah Peri, had walked into the heiress’ home by sheer chance, assigned there randomly by a home health-care agency.

For the next 20 years the Philippine-born nurse spent virtually every day with the solitary heiress, forging an unbreakable bond as Peri cared tirelessly for her.

She became the daughter Clark never had, the one Huguette made sure to call each and every night to bid sweet dreams. When the 104-year-old’s eyes became too weak for her to dial the phone, Peri made sure she made the nightly call and the comforting ritual continued.

The 61-year-old mother of three treated Clark like family and was showered with affection — and unspeakable riches — in return.

LAWYER AND ACCOUNTANT WITH SHADY PAST MET WITH OPPOSITION IN EFFORTS TO ADMINISTER CLARK’S ESTATE

CLARK’S DOLLHOUSE

Peri’s current station is a far cry from her modest upbringing in the Philippines, and one the immigrant hardly could have imagined when she came to America in 1972.

Struggling to make ends meet, Peri slaved away in hospitals in New York and Philadelphia, picking up shifts as a private-duty nurse along the way, when she was sent to work for Clark.

She now has a $204,000 2001 Bentley Arnage sedan and a $42,000 Lincoln Navigator SUV in the driveway of her three-story, waterfront home in Manhattan Beach, one of five homes she owns.

Her American dream is only getting better. When Clark’s will is finally cleared by the courts, Peri stands to inherit $33.6 million and a priceless doll collection.

Generosity marked Clark’s life, but when the copper-mining scion died in May, questions were raised about the wondrous gifts she lavished on Peri, other close staffers and her money handlers.

Investigators from the Manhattan district attorney and the state attorney general are focused on the management of Clark’s $400 million fortune by lawyer Wallace Bock, 79, and accountant Irving Kamsler, 64.

As part of those probes, a judge ordered Bock and Kamsler to account for every penny they spent in Clark’s name as they handled her affairs in the last 14 years of her life. The Post obtained the 2,800-page accounting, which offers the first detailed glimpse of the mysterious millionairess’ financial and emotional life.

The Paris-born Clark was the daughter of Sen. William A. Clark, a Montana rail and mineral baron whose wealth at the turn of the century was said to be second only to the Rockefellers.

One of the last denizens of the city’s Gilded Age, she considered herself an artist and briefly married a law student in 1928. She divorced shortly after, possibly without consummating the union.

Huguette spent the rest of her life with her mother, Anna, who died in 1963. Mother and daughter shared a love of music, and on Huguette’s 50th birthday, she received a special gift: a 1709 Stradivarius violin.

One of Huguette’s most prized possessions, La Pucelle, or The Virgin, is one of the finest violins of its kind. In 2001, she sold it for $6 million — an unlikely decision that is now raising questions about the influence of her money managers.

When collector David Fulton bought La Pucelle, he was asked to sign a bizarre 10-year confidentiality agreement that would bar him from even divulging the gender of the seller.

He refused, but eventually followed through with the purchase, signing a different agreement that expired earlier this year.

“I had no personal contact with her,” he said. “I just bought the fiddle.”

Clark owned three massive estates — in Connecticut, California and at 907 Fifth Ave., but for decades didn’t set foot in any besides the $40 million, 42-room apartment overlooking Central Park.

But the manse was empty — save for the thousands of handmade dolls she avidly collected and paintings by the masters, including Renoir, Monet and Sargent.

The aging doyenne began to withdraw into her gilded cage. She would hide in the bathroom while the bedsheets were changed and had meals left outside the closed bedroom door, a former worker told The Post.

“Huguette was extremely, extremely private. The people that worked for her when she lived on Fifth Avenue, the actual household staff, never saw her,” said Lyn Strasheim, who worked for one of Clark’s doctors.

Clark would retreat to a handful of rooms, living in a small corner of the home, periodically moving to another enclave.

She maintained a small army of advisers, lawyers, doctors and accountants, but her only friend and connection to the outside world seemed to be fellow French countrywoman Suzanne Pierre, 89, the wife of her physician.

The two women gabbed in their native language as though they were members of a secret club, and Pierre eventually became a sort of social secretary for the sheltered lady.

Pierre, who died in February, helped handle the art collection, selling off pieces at Clark’s direction, and ferrying orders about the heiress’ affairs to Clark’s lawyers and accountant.

It was a good job, one anyone would be lucky to get: Pierre earned about $56,000 a month at one point while working for Clark, the court documents show.

In 2000, Pierre, like Peri after her, earned a special present: a $10 million gift, according to the papers.

Others benefitted from their small roles in Huguette’s tiny world.

A Connecticut caretaker was bequeathed a year’s salary; the California property manager received two years’ pay; an assistant, Christopher Sattler, got $500,000, as did both Bock and Kamsler.

But no one was treated better than the nurse.

Peri earned $131,000 per year in salary, as she sat, day after day, at Clark’s bedside.
In August 1999, Peri got a single $133,950 payment, for reasons that are not specified in the court documents.
In February 2009, the nurse bagged a substantial bonus — $5 million. And later that year, Clark wrote $60,000 checks to both Peri and her husband, Daniel.

Clark doted on Peri’s kids like a grandmother would, making sure they lived in two comfortable Upper East Side condos while they went to college, instead of dorm rooms.

The apartments are among the five homes Peri now owns, including a $500,000 Jersey Shore vacation home and another house in Brooklyn where her relatives stay.

Peri would not comment for this story, but her spokesman said, “Ms. Clark was a very generous woman.”

Working for Huguette Clark led nurse Hadassah Peri to a life of luxury that included:

* A 2001 Bentley, worth $204,000

* Stacks of cash, including a $5 million bonus

* Five homes, including this three-story brick residence overlooking a swan-filled canal in Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn

* Clark’s priceless collection of thousands of dolls, including antique, modern, French and even Barbie figurines

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