Nation: Case of the Missing Widow

Helen Brack left behind $21 million—and no clues

When Chicago Candy Tycoon Frank Brach died in 1970 at the age of 80, he left $21 million to his third wife, Helen, a former Miami country club hostess who had married him 18 years earlier. Thereafter, the 58-year-old widow became a recluse, living in a stone mansion on seven wooded acres in suburban Glenview. She consulted a fortuneteller by phone almost daily and produced a drawerful of psychic writings while in a trance-like state. Suspicious of most people, Mrs. Brach preferred the companionship of her...

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