The wife of the former 274th richest person in the United States has died. Leona Helmsley, the Manhattan hotelier and real-estate magnate who notoriously declared that “only the little people pay taxes,” was convicted in 1989 of tax evasion and served time at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Conn. We didn’t hear much about her after she spent time in prison. This was the same prison where Martha Stewart served her time. Just a note of trivia there. She and fourth husband Harry Helmsley owned such sumptuous properties as the Palace Hotel on Madison Avenue, a block from Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, the Park Lane and the New York Helmsley.

She died Monday at the age of 87. Helmsley was a great philanthropist.