More on Bronson, and other odds and ends
A couple bloggers (Gwenda Bond, for example) picked up on my post of the old newspaper story regarding Audrey Jean and her bequest to Charles Bronson. So I had a look to see if I could find the original story, and came up with a whole article over at stiffs.com (one of the oddest and most interesting sites, you should have a look at the main page, too).
BRONSON INHERITANCE STIRS FIGHTThis provides more detail, but not detail I like or would want to use. I'm going with my own take on Audrey Jean and Charles B.By BRUCE SCHREINER Associated Press Writer
02-25-99 09:11 EST
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- A star-struck fan has carried her obsession with Charles Bronson to the grave.
Audrey Jean Knauer never met or corresponded with the actor, but left him her entire estate, worth nearly $300,000. Knauer's sister has contested the will, dated April 1996 and scribbled on a typed list of emergency phone numbers.
Knauer, who died in 1997 at the age of 55, asked that nothing -- not "blood, body parts, financial assets" -- go to her mother, Helen, and whatever Bronson didn't want be given to Louisville's public library.
Bronson has already received about half the money, but Knauer's sister, Nancy Koeper, filed a lawsuit two months ago, saying Knauer was mentally unfit and the money should go the family.
"This is a few really kind of like hysterical lines scribbled, scratched on top of a phone list," said Koeper, who lives in Chula Vista, Calif. "I can't help but sit here and think this could have taken care of me."
Relatives had thought Knauer's assets amounted to about $20,000. A lawyer for Koeper, Ed Schoenbaechler, said a handwritten will dated 1977 left everything to relatives.
"It's much more authentic," he said. "It was witnessed."
Lori Jonas, a spokeswoman for the 77-year-old Bronson, didn't immediately re- turn a call Wednesday but told the New York Post that Bronson will give the money to charity.
Koeper said her sister was obsessed with Bronson, the macho actor who starred in several "Death Wish" movies. "She saw him as this avenging person who was generous and kind, kind of a father figure."
Library director Craig Buthod said he hopes Bronson -- who was one of his fa- vorite actors as a child -- will give the money to the library. It's enough, he said, to buy 15,000 to 20,000 books or pay for the children's summer rea- ding program for several years.
Koeper said the library's only connection to her sister was that she fre- quently went there, often to find out information about Bronson.
"I can't imagine a public library wanting to keep me -- her sister -- who's in need of the money, from having it," she said.
If given the chance, Koeper said she would appeal to Bronson: "You didn't know her, you didn't love her. I did."
On another matter entirely, it seems that the latest thing in book promotion is multimedia: vidlits. I'm wondering, is this a flash in the proverbial pan, or will it take off? Will people check out a novel's preview before they toddle off to buy? And how will this work for books that are serious in nature? Somehow I have trouble imagining the vidlit for, say, Cold Mountain. But I'm interested.
I've got a huge stack of books I'm reading all at once. There are three or four thriller/suspense titles in the pile; I dunno why, but I usually turn to this kind of thing in the spring. Some of the titles: Closing Time (Jim Fusilli); Misdemeanor Man (Dylan Schaffer) and I just finished John Sandford's newest, Broken Prey. Which I liked, but am still thinking about because something (but what?) felt a little off. More, hopefully, soon.