Only two days earlier it had been reported Luc Rochefort would be filing two lawsuits — one for libel — and demanding $1 million. The libel accusation apparently stemmed from Stillman's stated suspicion that Rochefort had used his wife to create a situation he could exploit for financial gain.

Stillman was an obvious target. The banking executive had been involved in an incredibly long and dirty divorce action throughout the 1920s, accusing his then-wife Anne Urquhart Potter of having a child by a half-blood Canadian guide. After almost five years of battling, the Stillmans apparently reconciled, but in 1931 she quietly divorced him and quickly married Harold Fowler McCormick Jr., a grandson of John D. Rockefeller. The new Mrs. McCormick was 18 years younger than her husband.

Stillman, certainly no angel throughout his marriage, continued his womanizing ways, but never remarried. Mrs. Rochefort said, in this case, Stillman was a supportive, nothing more, and had financed a beauty parlor she opened in Havana with a friend, Astrid Haug.

Mrs. Rochefort's mother, Mrs. Emily Baker, agreed, adding Rochefort was upset because his wife wouldn't share the money Stillman had contributed to the business venture.

Both women agreed the Rochefort marriage had been little more than a series of separations. There was no love for Stillman to steal.

As for those three letters signed "Jim," they meant absolutely nothing. Rochefort quickly dropped the libel lawsuit, and asked for $200,000 in "heart balm." He persisted for about two years before the case was dismissed. Or laughed out of court. One or the other.

Luc Rochefort was a Canadian who made an unsuccessful run for mayor of Montreal. Along the way he patented an umbrella, which he hoped to promote in the United States. People were always saying what the country needed was a good ten-cent cigar; well, Rochefort thought he could make a lot of money selling ten-cent umbrellas.

Neither the umbrellas nor his lawsuit paid off for him.

As for Stillman, he died in 1944, leaving his four children and his ex-wife wondering what happened to all his money. When he passed away, the man, who at one time had about $11 million, was more than $200,000 in debt.

Miss Tercini may have wished Carnera luck in hopes of finally collecting her $14,000 — $14,616, to be exact. With that victory over Sharkey on June 29, in New York City, Carnera became the world heavyweight boxing champion.

The woman's lawyer tried to collect the money from Carnera's share of the purse, but a New York State Supreme Court judge, with the dubious name of Peter Schmuck, ruled in favor of the boxer, who had shrewdly purchased land in Italy, and had already assigned his winnings to his manager, who happened to be the seller of that land.

The number one challenger for Carnera's title was Max Baer, himself the defendant in a breach of promise suit which, after lingering for two years, was thrown out on July 13, 1933.

A woman named Olive Beck contended Baer jilted her to marry actress Dorothy Dunbar. The Baer-Dunbar marriage lasted just a few weeks longer than the lawsuit. They were divorced on October 4, 1933. Though it endured only 27 months, this was the longest of Miss Dunbar's first five marriages. Number six, Russell Lawson, proved to be a keeper. They married in 1937 and remained together until he died in 1965.

Heavyweight boxers seemed to be fair game. In 1921, piano-playing song writer Al Siegal sued Jack Dempsey for $250,000, claiming Dempsey had alienated the affections of Mrs. Siegal, much better known as Bee Palmer, a popular singer-dancer. The suit was eventually dropped.

In 1929 Mrs. Katherine Fogarty tried to collect $500,000 from then-champion Gene Tunney, for breach of promise. Tunney settled the matter for $35,000 and the return of his letters.

Buffalo Courier-Express, March 17, 1933
ROCHESTER, New York, March 16 (AP) — A would-be bridegroom today sued the woman he courted for three years for breach of promise, demanding $20,000. A supreme court jury awarded him $500.

The woman, formerly Miss Emily Beaney, now Mrs. Hugh J. Coyle, 36, of Spencerport, failed to appear to defend the suit. Nevertheless, the jury took five hours to determine the extent of the damages claimed by Joseph J. Penders, Geneva real estate and insurance man.

Penders, one of the few men to bring such a suit against a woman, alleged he gave the former Miss Beaney an engagement ring and even went so far as to obtain a wedding ring and a marriage license on June 9, 1930.

When she “left him at the altar” to marry Coyle, 58, less than a month later, he suffered a nervous breakdown, Penders told the jury.

Meanwhile, about 90 miles to the east, an alienation of affection suit was almost comic relief for Mrs. Esther Goler of Syracuse.

The lawsuit asked for $12,000 — marked down from the original demand of $25,000. Mrs. Goler was separated from her husband, Michael. The couple had been battling in court almost three years. They ran a fish market together until, he complained, she kicked him out of their home and their business. She then hired William Brenner to help at the fish market, which led to the alienation of affection suit filed in 1931 by Brenner's wife, Lena.

The case dragged on for two years before it finally was heard on March 16, the same day as the Rochester case (above). Only here the jury ruled Mrs. Brenner had no cause for action.

Since 1931, Mrs. Goler had been the plaintiff or defendant in nine cases involving her husband or Mrs. Brenner, and she won them all. Twice during that time, burglars tried to break into her house and she chased them off both times. Finally, a short circuit caused an electrical fire at her home, but the Syracuse fire department responded quickly and put out the fire with slight damage.

It would be three years before this case went away, and it was all for nothing. Mrs. Decker actually won a judgment for the full amount at one point, because Kenna failed to answer the suit, but he then convinced the court he had never been served with papers so that he could file an answer.

Finally, on October 27, 1936, the situation was reversed. Mrs. Decker failed to respond after the case was called for trial.

Notice of the lawsuit in 1933 reminded people of the large deposits the policeman had made. Samuel Seabury, who led an investigation a few years earlier, believed the money came from speakeasy graft. Kenna and his mother claimed the money came from rent charged to tenants in buildings she owned. To me, the kicker was the claim Kenna's mother also loaned money to people. A loan shark?

Kenna was so upset that he sued Seabury and members of his committee for $500,000 for defamation of character, another case that went nowhere.

In 1941, then-Deputy Inspector John W. Kenna was under investigation again. He and his wife, Zena, whom he married in 1935, were about to go on vacation in late April when he committed suicide by shooting himself at his home in Forest Hills.

A few weeks later, his widow started court proceeding to find out what happened to the $250,000 her husband was supposed to have. All she received from his estate was $1,200.

If you were paying very close attention to the first item on this page, you'd have noticed the name Harold F. McCormick as the second husband of Anne Urquhart Potter, aka the first Mrs. James A. Stillman.

Well, that was Harold F. McCormick Jr. It was his father who was sued for $1.5 million by Mrs. Rhoda Tanner Doubleday.

There was speculation in November that lawyers for McCormick Sr. would agree to settle for $250,000, but the actual offer, not made until 1934, was much lower. Mrs. Doubleday pocketed $65,000, minus her lawyer's fee, of course.

McCormick Sr. was chairman of the board of International Harvester Company. His first wife was Edith Rockefeller, youngest daughter of John D. Rockefeller. They had five children, but divorced in 1921. A year later he married Ganna Walska, a native of Poland, who, at 35, was still determined to become an opera star. Apparently she didn't have a particularly good voice, though it's difficult to believe she was as bad as some people have written.

McCormick did his best to help, mounting an expensive production at the Chicago Opera to feature her in the starring role. The result was a disaster that was incorporated into the married life of Charles Foster Kane in Orson Welles' classic film "Citizen Kane," though most of its was based on William Randolph Hearst.