Helmsley Takes Company Jet to Kentucky, Goes to Prison in Limo

Leona Helmsley held on to her lavish lifestyle until the end Wednesday, when she took her company’s Boeing 727 to Kentucky and reported to a federal prison as inmate No. 15113-054.

The jet landed in Louisville, and she arrived in a limousine at the prison in Lexington, 80 miles to the east, about 4:15 a.m. on Tax Day.

Helmsley, 71, sentenced to four years for tax evasion, slipped by reporters and into the minimum-security Federal Medical Center for women. She will have to serve at least one-third of the sentence.

Her publicist, Howard Rubenstein, said Helmsley was “very subdued” as she arrived at the prison. She carried a small bag with her allotted clothing and wore a plain wedding band.

“She was greeted with courtesy by officials of the prison. Her safety was assured. They comforted her about that,” Rubenstein said.

Rubenstein quoted her as saying when she went to prison: “I’ll do what I have to do so that I can return to take care of Harry.” Harry Helmsley, 83, is her ailing billionaire husband. He was indicted with her but was found mentally incompetent to stand trial.

Decorative lights illuminating the top of the Empire State Building, which the Helmsleys own, were turned off Wednesday night at Harry Helmsley’s orders, said Freddie Colon, a building employee. He said the lights, normally prominent on the Manhattan skyline, would stay off indefinitely.

“In a symbolic gesture, Mr. Harry Helmsley has instructed that the tower lights of the Empire State Building and the Helmsley Building not be lit this evening,” his company said in a statement.

Helmsley lost her last bid to stay out of jail on Tuesday, when a federal appeals court ruled that U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa acted within his authority in refusing to substitute community service for prison time.

A prison spokeswoman said Helmsley would be assigned to a dormitory housing at least 15 other women and it would take three years before she gained enough seniority to get her own room.

She will spend her first week in prison in orientation sessions and then be assigned a job in either landscaping or housekeeping if she is found medically fit. She can wear a black skirt and white blouse or blue pants and shirt.

The daily routine includes a 6 a.m. wake-up call, followed by breakfast, work, lunch break, more work, dinner and free time in the recreation yard. From 9 p.m. until midnight, the inmates can watch television, play board and table games or read.

About 63% of the inmates are serving time for drug or liquor offenses, and only 1% are in for white-collar crimes, according to prison figures.

During her last days at home, Helmsley got her hair styled and said goodby to a few close friends, the Daily News in New York reported Wednesday.

Helmsley was convicted in 1989 of evading $1.7 million in taxes by billing personal expenses such as renovations on a mansion in Greenwich, Conn., to her companies. She has paid about $8 million in fines and restitution.

Her lawyers argued that a four-year term could amount to a death sentence for Leona Helmsley, who has high blood pressure, and for her husband, from whom she would be separated.

But Griesa said that her health problems can be treated in prison and that she has had 2 1/2 years to find suitable medical care for her husband.