The Inheritance Wars That Turned Violent (Documentary)

In this video, we explore two American inheritance wars that turned violent: the Dodge family of Detroit, whose car fortune was followed by rumours of poison, a fatal honeymoon explosion and decades of court battles, and the Shoen family of U-Haul, whose fight for control ended in punches, a billion-dollar verdict and a murder that went unsolved for three years. ------------------- Gain FREE access to secret full-length documentaries on wealthy families "too scandalous for YouTube" by joining our newsletter: https://www.substack.com/@oldmoneyluxury ------------------- John and Horace Dodge opened a machine shop in Detroit around 1900 and soon became essential suppliers to the new Ford Motor Company, taking a share in the business. In 1913 they ended their Ford contract to build cars of their own, and the first Dodge Brothers car appeared in 1914. In 1919 Henry Ford bought back their Ford stock for 25 million dollars. The hard-drinking brothers did not live to enjoy it. In January 1920, after a trip to the National Automobile Show in New York, both fell ill. There was speculation that Horace had drunk tainted bootleg liquor, but their doctor diagnosed influenza. John died on January 14, 1920. Horace died that December in Palm Beach. Their widows were left with one of the greatest fortunes in America. In 1925 Matilda Dodge and Anna Thompson Dodge sold Dodge Brothers to the bankers Dillon Read for 146 million dollars. Matilda remarried and built Meadow Brook Hall, a 110-room Tudor mansion. Anna married the actor Hugh Dillman and lived at Rose Terrace in Grosse Pointe. But John Dodge's will had already divided the family. His son John Duval Dodge was disinherited in 1918 for eloping, and later settled for 1.6 million dollars. The bulk of the fortune went into a trust that would last for decades. In 1938 tragedy struck John's youngest son. Daniel Dodge, 21, married a 19-year-old telephone operator, Laurine MacDonald, against his family's wishes. Thirteen days later, at the family lodge on Manitoulin Island in Canada, he was badly injured while playing with dynamite. As he was rushed by boat to get medical help, he fell overboard and vanished. His body was found more than three weeks later. Gossip spread of foul play, but an inquest ruled the death an accidental drowning, and his widow inherited 1.25 million dollars. On Horace's side, his son Horace Jr. married five times. His widow, the former actress Gregg Sherwood, sued his estate and his mother, and said she collected about 9 million dollars in settlements. When Anna died in 1970, her grandchildren fought over an estate estimated at more than 100 million dollars. John's trust finally ended in 1980, when a judge divided about 40 million dollars among his heirs. The Shoen family fought a different kind of war. Leonard Shoen founded U-Haul with his wife in 1945 with 5,000 dollars, building a company with a name almost every American knew. Out of a sense of duty, he gave most of the shares to his children, keeping just 2 percent of control for himself. It was a decision he came to regret. In 1986, his sons Joe and Mark gathered enough support from their siblings to oust their father and take control of the company he had built. In 1988, Leonard and his allies tried to win it back and failed. The feud became physical. At the company's annual meeting, Leonard watched his sons taunt, grab and punch each other. The family split into two camps, with Leonard and his eldest son, Sam, on one side, and Joe and Mark on the other. Then came a murder. On August 6, 1990, Eva Berg Shoen, Sam's wife, was found shot in the back in her home near Telluride, Colorado, by her young children. Because of the feud, suspicion immediately turned towards the family war. The case stalled for three years, until a television segment prompted a tip that led to a man named Frank Marquis, who confessed and was convicted in 1994. The legal battle continued. Leonard and the children on his side sued the company's directors, and in 1994 a jury awarded them about 1.48 billion dollars, the largest jury award in Arizona history. A judge later reduced it to 461.8 million. In 1999 Leonard Shoen died after crashing his car into a telephone pole, and the coroner ruled his death a suicide. The central question is whether these families were destroyed by money itself, or by the way their founders handed it down, with wills, trusts and gifts of stock that turned children against each other. This is the story of the Dodge and Shoen families, and the inheritance wars that turned America's great fortunes into tragedies. #DodgeFamily #UHaul #OldMoneyDocumentaries