Reporting from New York What did the butler hear? Can the peeved French maid and the combative ex-chauffeur be trusted? If only the pet dachshunds, Boysie and Girlsie, could talk. It would make it far easier for the jurors who this week are expected to begin reviewing four months of often contradictory testimony to decide if the son of Brooke Astor, the late philanthropist and New York social doyenne, fleeced his mother of millions.Final arguments began Monday in the trial of the son, Anthony Marshall, and Astor's estate attorney, Francis X. Morrissey Jr. They are accused of altering Astor's will to ensure her approximately $198-million estate went to Marshall when she died in 2007 at the age of 105.On Tuesday, defense attorneys sought to portray Astor as a mother driven by love for her only son to change her will in 2004. She was not, they reasoned, a demented old woman strong armed by Marshall and Morrissey, as the prosecution has alleged."Underlying this case is the love of Brooke Astor for Tony Marshall," his attorney, Frederick Hafetz, said as defense summations stretched to the 10-hour mark.The trial has revealed the clashing worlds of New York where Wall Street's collapse and the Bernard Madoff scandal have ended many high rollers' lavish ways, but where a rare few still have untold millions to spend. In Astor's case, those millions often went to supporting institutions geared toward improving life for less fortunate New Yorkers libraries, universities, hospitals, public gardens and conservation pairs among them.
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