The Strange Story of Jack Kerouac's Estate

When Jack Kerouac died, wallowing in alcohol and obscurity, the bank estimated his estate’s value at $1. He left everything to his mother, and when she died, she left it to Kerouac’s third wife, Stella Sampas—or so everyone believed. Recently a Florida court ruled Gabrielle Kerouac's will a forgery. But thanks to an earlier summary judgment, the $20 million estate, which Stella’s family inherited after her death, is staying put.

When Kerouac’s disowned daughter Jan saw the will, she immediately suspected it was a forgery. “It was all weird and scraggly and misspelt,” she told the Telegraph. But Jan died before the case could be resolved, and a judge issued a summary ruling legitimizing the Sampas family’s claim. Only then did Kerouac’s nephew turn up with a letter in which the late author said he didn’t want to leave “a dingblasted f---ing goddamn thing to my wife’s one hundred Greek relatives.” It was too late; the ruling stands.
(More Jack Kerouac stories.)