Model Testifies in Battle Over Oil Wealth

Dabbing tears, former Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith testified in federal court in Santa Ana Wednesday that her Texas oil tycoon husband promised her half his fortune and lavished her with homes, envelopes of cash and diamond rings during his many marriage proposals.

Smith contends that the wishes of J. Howard Marshall II were undercut by his son, however, who coveted his father’s wealth and despised her to the point of having armed guards chase her out of the family home in Houston.

“I loved my husband because my husband saved my life. He took me out of a horrible place. He told me that once we were married, half of everything he had would be mine.”

The hearing before U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter is the third act in a fierce legal battle over the estate of her husband, the multimillionaire who declared Smith the “light of my life” shortly after meeting her at a Houston strip club in 1991.

Smith, a former Guess jeans model whose legal name is Vickie Lynn Marshall, was 26 when she married the 89-year-old Marshall II in 1994. He died 14 months later in August 1995.

In May, Carter vacated a $475-million judgment the former Playboy pinup won against her husband’s estate last year in a Los Angeles court, where she had filed for bankruptcy in 1996. Carter decided the ruling warranted a full review to determine whether Bankruptcy Court was the proper jurisdiction for awarding Smith the money. He began the review last week. Smith’s testimony is expected to continue at least one more day.

Attorneys for Marshall’s son E. Pierce Marshall requested the federal review of the Bankruptcy Court decision. No matter which side prevails in the current court battle, further appeals are likely.

In March, a probate court in Texas ruled that Smith had no claim to Marshall’s estate and that Pierce Marshall, was the sole heir of a fortune of stocks and other assets that has been valued at up to $1 billion.

In that case, Pierce Marshall and his attorneys dismissed Smith’s accusations against him as well as her characterization of having had a loving marriage. They accused the model of trying to soak Marshall’s estate for more money after she squandered more than $6 million in cash and gifts from her husband while he was alive.

Smith contends that Pierce Marshall deliberately interfered with her ability to inherit her share of her husband’s wealth and may have doctored legal documents detailing his father’s estate plan to ensure that Smith received nothing. Pierce Marshall has denied the allegation.

The rivalry between the two was so bitter that, after J. Howard Marshall’s death, they fought in court over his ashes.