Why Brooke Astor’s son could die in prison

What now for Anthony Marshall, the 85-year-old New Yorker convicted of first-degree grand larceny and 13 other counts of manipulating his Alzheimer's-afflicted mother, the Manhattan socialite and philanthropist Brooke Astor, who died in 2007 at the age of 105?

Marshall was found guilty yesterday of swindling Astor out of much of her $198 million estate. Marshall and Francis X Morrissey, his lawyer and co-defendant, were described by the prosecution as "two reverse Robin Hoods who stole from charity in order to enrich themselves".
 
Free for the time being, Marshall will be sentenced on December 8. He faces the prospect up spending a minimum of a year and a maximum of 25 years in jail. He is already a frail, grey-haired old man of 85, who collapsed in the courthouse lavatory at one stage during his five-month trial, so even the minimum sentence could see him die in jail. "I'm stunned by the verdict," Marshall's lawyer, Frederick Hafetz, said. "We are greatly disappointed in it, and we will definitely appeal."
 
Marshall's treatment of his mother, once a hugely glamorous champion of worthy causes and much-loved grande dame of the 'Silk Stocking District' on the Upper East Side, became known after his own son, Philip Marshall, accused him of 'elder abuse' in 2006. He said then that Anthony Marshall was forcing Astor to "sleep in the TV room in torn nightgowns on a filthy couch that smells, probably from dog urine".
 
After more tales of cold-hearted abuse and greed emerged, Marshall was put in the dock for a trial which featured 74 witnesses, all but two of them appearing for the prosecution, including former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and television host Barbara Walters.

The prosecution told how, in Janaury 2004, Marshall had gone into his doting, ailing mother's library and persuaded her into altering her will, which had been mostly intended for charity. His intention was that he and his younger wife, Charlene, would receive more than the $20 million they had been due to inherit. Three months later, Morrissey forged Astor's signature on another amendment.
 
As Astor's capacities and confidence decreased, Marshall used her money to buy a $920,000 yacht and appoint a skipper with a $50,000 salary to sail it. However, he wouldn't pay $2,000 to install a safety gate in Astor's Park Avenue duplex to prevent her from falling. And he tried to force her to sell Holly Hill, the home in Westchester she loved and where she wanted to die.
 
Marshall has yet to explain why he acted so cruelly, or how he thought he would get away with such brazen criminality. Many believe he was trying to provide a better future for his wife Charlene, who is 20 years younger than him. As one witness revealed in the trial, Brooke Astor hated Charlene, and once said that she would rather spend Christmas with Boysie and Girlsie, her dachshunds, rather than "that bitch".
 
After the guilty verdict was announced yesterday, Charlene hugged Marshall, and told reporters "I love my husband" before the couple disappeared in a limousine. Anthony Marshall was once a CIA agent, then a US Ambassador, and more recently a Tony-winning Broadway producer. Now he's going to jail. ·