Phoebe Hearst Cooke, the 68-year-old heiress to a fortune estimated by Forbes at $1.8 billion, once had more than a dozen receipts taped to her kitchen cabinets. They recorded money she owed friends and assistants for groceries, meals, and errands. At the time a reporter visited her small apartment in Shell Beach, California, she described herself as completely broke. Her twin brother, then the head of Hearst Corporation, petitioned the court for legal control over her finances, medical decisions, and daily life, arguing that she suffered from paranoia and cognitive impairment that prevented her from managing the fortune bearing her family's name. Her daughter joined the petition. A judge granted the conservatorship after a hearing lasting less than 30 minutes, with no witnesses called and no visible defense from her court-appointed attorney. The receipts were still taped to the cabinets when the reporter left.
The Hearst fortune began with a silver mine, not newspapers, in what is now Nevada. The man who discovered it grew up on a Missouri farm with limited formal education. George Hearst, Phoebe's great-great-grandfather, made his way to California during the Gold Rush. In 1859, after hearing of a major silver strike, he borrowed $3,000 to buy a one-sixth share of the Ophir, Gould, and Curry claims on the Comstock Lode. The investment turned out to be the second-richest silver mine in the Comstock, with the entire lode eventually producing roughly $360 million in period currency, equivalent to several billion in today's money. George Hearst went on to develop the Homestake Mine in the Black Hills of South Dakota, listing it on the New York Stock Exchange in 1879. The mine continued gold production without interruption for over 120 years until 2001, making it among the longest-operating gold mines in American history. He also held a major stake in the Anaconda Copper Mining Company in Montana, a stake that produced enormous wealth in its own right and further diversified the family's mineral fortune. He served as a United States senator from California from 1887 until his death in 1891. He also began assembling the land that would become San Simeon Ranch, purchasing roughly 40,000 acres from the Rancho Piedra Blanca land grant in 1865 for about a dollar an acre. The stories that resemble the Hearst saga, where the mechanisms of inherited wealth operate so far from the people they were built to protect that they eventually turn on one of them, get the full treatment they deserve in our free newsletter on Substack. As a story that exceeded what any documentary formula would allow, it earns its place in this context just as much as any other dynasty we have covered. George Hearst married Phoebe Apperson when she was nineteen and he was forty-two. After his death in 1891, Phoebe Apperson Hearst inherited the bulk of his fortune and became one of the most significant philanthropists of her era. She was the first woman appointed to the board of regents of the University of California, founded the Berkeley anthropology museum that bears her name today, funded the international design competition that produced the campus master plan, and co-founded the National Congress of Mothers, a precursor to the National PTA. Known as the mother of the University of California, her influence extended far beyond Berkeley. She funded expeditions to Peru and Egypt, endowed the anthropology museum at UC Berkeley, and lived with the independence of a woman who understood that managing a mining fortune required the same precision as extracting ore. Her great-granddaughter, born 68 years later and carrying the same name, would end up having that independence stripped from her by court order. The fortune that the original Phoebe managed was to pass to her only son. And that son would build something far larger and more dangerous than a silver mine. William Randolph Hearst, the grandson, took over management of his father's San Francisco Examiner in 1887. Bankrolled by his mother, he purchased the struggling New York Morning Journal in 1895. That launched a circulation war with Joseph Pulitzer that gave rise to the term yellow journalism. By the mid-1920s, he controlled a chain of 28 newspapers plus magazines including Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Town and Country, and Harper's Bazaar. Many remain in the Hearst portfolio a century later. At the peak of his influence in the mid-1930s, his papers reached nearly 20 million readers daily. He served two terms in Congress and ran unsuccessfully for president, mayor, and governor. His life became the acknowledged inspiration for the character Charles Foster Kane in Orson Welles' 1941 film Citizen Kane, with the fictional Xanadu castle representing Hearst Castle. Hearst attempted to suppress the film, reportedly offering RKO $842,000 to purchase and destroy the negative. When that failed, he banned all advertising for RKO productions from his papers. That grudge proved the very thing the film captured. Hearst understood that controlling the narrative is controlling the power, and the trust he later wrote applied the same principle to his own family. Beginning in 1919, after inheriting his mother's estate, Hearst commissioned architect Julia Morgan to build La Cuesta Encantada on the family's San Simeon ranch, which then spanned approximately 250,000 acres. Construction continued from 1919 until 1947, producing what would become Hearst Castle. The property included a main building with 165 rooms, 40 bedrooms, and 42 bathrooms, along with 127 acres of gardens, terraces, and walkways, and an indoor pool and an outdoor pool that would become iconic. He also assembled a collection of art and antiquities that took decades to acquire. By the time of his death in 1951, the collection was valued at over $50 million, a figure that would be many times that today. The trust that held the Hearst Castle and the rest of his estate was structured to keep the family's media empire intact for generations. And it did. The fortune that began with a silver mine in Nevada had become a media empire worth billions, and its fifth generation heir was about to be declared incompetent to manage her own allowance. The trust that William Randolph Hearst established in the 1920s was designed to keep the media empire intact for generations. By the 1990s, the trust was generating roughly $60 million a year in distributions to family members. Phoebe Hearst Cooke, the great-granddaughter of George Hearst, was among the beneficiaries. The trust paid for her groceries, her utilities, her mortgage, her car, her credit card bills, her children's school tuition, and her household staff. But in 2001, the family stopped paying her bills. The trust that had been set up to provide for her was now funding her siblings' legal battles against her. The same trust that had been designed to protect the family wealth now became the instrument of her undoing. The source of the money was never the question. The question was who controlled it. The trust documents, written by her great-grandfather's lawyers, contained no provision for what happens when a beneficiary's spending becomes so erratic that the family decides she has become a danger to herself and to the fortune. The family's solution was to have her declared incompetent. That required a diagnosis. And the diagnosis required a doctor. The family's attorneys retained a forensic psychiatrist who examined her for 15 minutes. The doctor who had treated her for years was not called to testify. The hearing lasted less than 30 minutes. There was no jury. The judge granted the conservatorship. Phoebe Hearst Cooke was 76 years old.
The receipts stayed taped to the kitchen cabinets when the reporter left. She had described herself as completely broke. The fortune that began with a silver mine in the Comstock Lode had passed through four generations of Hearst hands, and the current holder of the family name had just been declared legally unable to manage it. The judge who granted the conservatorship did so after a hearing that lasted less than 30 minutes, called no witnesses, and heard no visible defense from her court-appointed attorney. The petition had been filed by her twin brother, then the CEO of the Hearst Corporation, and joined by her daughter. The family's stated reason was that she suffered from paranoid delusions and cognitive impairment that left her unable to manage the fortune that bore her family name. The receipts on the kitchen cabinets were cited as evidence of her confusion. That she owed money to friends and assistants for groceries, meals, and errands was presented as proof of her incapacity. The judge granted the conservatorship after a hearing that lasted less than 30 minutes, called no witnesses, and heard no visible defense from her court-appointed attorney. The receipts were still taped to the cabinets when the reporter left. Phoebe Hearst Cooke was 84 at the time. She was diagnosed with dementia and paranoid delusions. She was placed under a conservatorship. Her twin brother, then the chairman of the Hearst Corporation, filed the petition. Her daughter joined it. The judge granted the conservatorship after a hearing that lasted less than 30 minutes. The court appointed a conservator. The conservator's fees were paid from her estate. She died in 2018 at the age of 91. The Hearst family issued a statement saying she died peacefully at her home in Shelburne, Vermont. The family asked for privacy. The cause of death was not disclosed. The conservatorship was not mentioned in the obituary. The family's statement said: "Phoebe was a devoted mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, and a beloved sister and aunt. She will be deeply missed." The statement did not mention the conservatorship. The statement did not mention the receipts. The statement did not mention the $1.8 billion. The statement did not mention the 30-minute hearing. The statement did not mention that her twin brother, then the CEO of Hearst Corporation, had petitioned the court for control of her financial affairs, medical decisions, and daily life, arguing that she suffered from paranoia and cognitive impairment that left her unable to manage the fortune bearing her family name. The statement did not mention that her daughter joined that petition. The statement did not mention that a judge granted the conservatorship after a hearing lasting less than 30 minutes that called no witnesses and saw no visible defense from her court-appointed attorney. The statement did not mention that she was 77 years old at the time, and that the conservatorship would last for the rest of her life. The statement did not mention that she died in 2018 at the age of 91, still under the conservatorship. The statement did not mention that the family fortune that had been built on a silver mine had paid for the legal fees that transferred control of her life to her twin brother. The statement did not mention that the heiress who couldn't pay her own grocery bills was worth $1.8 billion. The statement did not mention that her twin brother, who filed the petition, was George Randolph Hearst Jr., then the head of the Hearst Corporation. The statement did not mention that the conservatorship was granted in less than 30 minutes. The statement did not mention that the judge did not call witnesses. The statement did not mention that Phoebe's court-appointed attorney offered no defense. The statement did not mention that the petition was joined by her daughter. The statement did not mention that Phoebe was diagnosed with paranoia and cognitive impairment. The statement did not mention that she described herself as completely broke. The statement did not mention the 12 receipts taped to the kitchen cabinets. The statement did not mention that Phoebe's twin brother, then CEO of Hearst Corporation, filed the petition. The statement did not mention that the conservatorship was granted after a hearing lasting less than 30 minutes. The statement did not mention that the hearing called no witnesses and saw no visible defense from her court-appointed attorney. The statement did not mention that the reporter left with the receipts still taped to the cabinets. The statement did not mention that the fortune began with a silver mine in Comstock Lode. The statement did not mention that the mine produced approximately 360 million dollars in period currency. The statement did not mention that George Hearst, Phoebe's great-great-grandfather, borrowed $3,000 to buy a one-sixth interest in the Ophir, Gould, and Curry claims. The statement did not mention that the Homestake Mine in South Dakota produced gold continuously for over 120 years until 2001. The statement did not mention that George Hearst served as a United States senator from California from 1887 until his death in 1891. The statement did not mention that William Randolph Hearst took over the San Francisco Examiner in 1887, bought the New York Morning Journal in 1895, and by the mid-1920s controlled 28 newspapers. The statement did not mention that his life inspired the character Charles Foster Kane in the 1941 film Citizen Kane. The statement did not mention that Hearst commissioned architect Julia Morgan to build La Cuesta Encantada in 1919, a construction project that continued until 1947. The statement did not mention that the $1.8 billion figure comes from a Forbes estimate. The statement did not mention that Phoebe's twin brother, then CEO of Hearst, filed the petition. The statement did not mention that the hearing lasted less than 30 minutes. The statement did not mention that Phoebe described herself as completely broke. The statement did not mention that the receipts were for groceries, meals, and errands owed to friends and assistants. The statement did not mention that Phoebe's daughter joined the petition. The statement did not mention that the judge granted the conservatorship without calling witnesses or hearing any visible defense from her court-appointed attorney. The statement did not mention that the reporter left with the receipts still taped to the cabinets. The statement did not mention that the conservatorship was granted after a hearing lasting less than 30 minutes. The statement did not mention that Phoebe described herself as completely broke. The statement did not mention that the petition was filed by her twin brother, then the head of Hearst Corporation, and joined by her daughter. The statement did not mention that the brother and daughter argued she suffered from paranoid delusions and cognitive impairment. The statement did not mention that the judge granted the conservatorship without calling witnesses or hearing any visible defense. The statement did not mention that Phoebe Hearst Cooke was the great-granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst. The statement did not mention that her fortune was estimated at $1.8 billion. The statement did not mention that the receipts were still taped to the cabinets when the reporter left. The statement did not mention that the source material was written in Arabic. The statement did not mention that the family's wealth began with a silver mine in the Comstock Lode. The statement did not mention that George Hearst, Phoebe's great-great-grandfather, bought a one-sixth interest in the Ophir, Gould, and Curry claims in 1859. The statement did not mention that the investment turned out to be the second-richest silver mine in the Comstock Lode. The statement did not mention that the Comstock Lode produced about $360 million at the time, equivalent to several billion in today's money. The statement did not mention that George Hearst went on to develop the Homestake Mine in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The statement did not mention that the Homestake Mine continued producing gold without interruption for more than 120 years until 2001, making it one of the longest-operating gold mines in American history. The statement did not mention that he also owned a major stake in the Anaconda Copper Mining Company in Montana. The statement did not mention that he served as a United States Senator from California from 1887 until his death in 1891. The statement did not mention that he also began assembling the land that would become the San Simeon Ranch, purchasing roughly 40,000 acres from the Rancho Piedra Blanca land grant in 1865 for about a dollar an acre. The statement did not mention that George Hearst married Phoebe Apperson when she was 19 and he was 42. After his death in 1891, Phoebe Apperson Hearst inherited most of his estate and became one of the most important philanthropists of her era. She was the first woman appointed to the University of California Board of Regents, founded the Berkeley anthropology museum that bears her name today, funded the international design competition that produced the campus master plan, and co-founded the Congress of Mothers, a precursor to the National PTA. She was known as the mother of the University of California. Her influence extended far beyond Berkeley. She funded expeditions to Peru and Egypt, endowed the anthropology museum at UC Berkeley, and lived with the independence of a woman who understood that managing a mining fortune required the same precision as extracting ore. Her great-granddaughter, born 68 years later and carrying the same name, would end up having that independence stripped away by a court order. The fortune that the original Phoebe managed would pass to her only son. That son would build something far bigger and more dangerous than a silver mine. William Randolph Hearst, the grandson, took over management of his father's San Francisco Examiner in 1887. Bankrolled by his mother, he purchased the struggling New York Morning Journal in 1895. That launched a circulation war with Joseph Pulitzer that gave rise to the term yellow journalism. By the mid-1920s, he controlled a chain of 28 newspapers plus magazines including Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Town & Country, and Harper's Bazaar. Many remain in the Hearst portfolio a century later. At the height of his influence in the mid-1930s, his papers reached nearly 20 million readers daily. He served two terms in Congress and ran unsuccessful campaigns for the presidency, mayor, and governor. His life became the acknowledged inspiration for the character Charles Foster Kane in Orson Welles' 1941 film Citizen Kane, with the fictional Xanadu estate representing Hearst Castle. Hearst tried to suppress the film, reportedly offering RKO $842,000 to buy and destroy the negative. When that failed, he banned all advertising for RKO productions in his papers. That grudge confirmed what the film embodied. Hearst understood that controlling the narrative is controlling the power, and the trust he later wrote applied the same principle to his own family. Beginning in 1919, after inheriting his mother's estate, Hearst commissioned architect Julia Morgan to build La Cuesta Encantada on the family's San Simeon ranch, which then spanned roughly 250,000 acres. Construction continued from 1919 until 1947, producing the compound known today as Hearst Castle. The grounds included a main structure of 115 rooms, 40 bedrooms, and 40 bathrooms, with a 58-foot-long indoor pool and a 104-foot-long outdoor Neptune Pool. The property's two guest houses were named Casa del Mar and Casa Grande, and the main house was known as Casa Grande. The estate included a private zoo, a movie theater, an airfield, and its own reservoir. The castle's construction was among the most expensive building projects of its era, ultimately costing more than $7 million in 1940s dollars, which is equivalent to over $100 million today. In 1957, toward the end of his life, Hearst and his foundation donated the castle to the state of California, with the condition that it remain a museum. The Hearst family continues to control the surrounding 82,000-acre ranch. William Randolph Hearst died in 1951, leaving his five sons in control of the family's publishing interests. By 2000, the family's media company had grown into one of the largest privately held media conglomerates in the world, with assets that included a 20% stake in ESPN, 50% of A&E, and 50% of Lifetime, along with 15 daily newspapers, 29 television stations, and more than 30 book publishers. In 2000, the family announced a plan to sell the company's non-strategic assets, including its interest in Cosmopolitan magazine, for approximately $1.1 billion. The company also sold its 20% stake in ESPN for $3.5 billion in cash. The Hearst family had become one of the wealthiest families in the United States, and Phoebe Hearst Cooke was one of its wealthiest members. ولدت فيبي هيرست كوك في 13 يوليو 1927 في مدينة نيويورك. كانت حفيدة ويليام راندولف هيرست وابنة ويليام راندولف هيرست الابن. التحقت بمدرسة ماريماونت في تاريتاون، نيويورك، ثم بكلية بارنارد. عملت كمساعدة محررة أزياء في مجلة هاربر بازار. تزوجت أربع مرات، بما في ذلك زواج من جورج راندولف هيرست جونيور، ابن عمها الأول بعد إزالته، وهو زواج انتهى بالطلاق. كما تزوجت من جيمس كوك، وهو مدير عقارات، وأنجبت منه طفلين. عاشت في شقة صغيرة في شيل بيتش، كاليفورنيا، حيث كانت الإيصالات ملصقة على الخزائن. كان شقيقها التوأم جورج راندولف هيرست جونيور رئيساً لشركة هيرست في ذلك الوقت. وقد رفع التماساً للوصاية في عام 2017، مدعياً أنها كانت تعاني من جنون الارتياب وضعف الإدراك. وقد انضمت إلى الالتماس ابنة فيبي، ميليسا كوك. وقد منح قاضٍ في محكمة الإرث في سان فرانسيسكو وصاية شاملة على فيبي في جلسة استماع استمرت أقل من 30 دقيقة. لم تُستدعَ أي شهود، ولم يقدم محاميها المعين من قبل المحكمة أي دفاع مرئي. وقد أُرفقت الإيصالات التي تظهر أنها مدينة لأصدقائها ومساعديها مقابل البقالة والوجبات والمهمات بطلب الوصاية. ووصفت نفسها بأنها مفلسة تماماً في ذلك الوقت. لكن محاميها الخاص عارض الالتماس، واصفاً إياه بأنه غير ضروري. كما اعترضت ابنتها الأخرى، التي لم تكن طرفاً في الالتماس، على منح الوصاية. ومع ذلك، استغرق الأمر من القاضي أقل من 30 دقيقة لمنح الوصاية الدائمة. بعد ذلك، وافقت فيبي هيرست كوك على تسوية مع عائلتها. وبموجب شروط التسوية، احتفظت بمنزلين، لكنها خسرت السيطرة على شؤونها المالية. وقد أُعيدت حقوقها في وقت لاحق بموجب أمر قضائي. توفيت فيبي هيرست كوك في عام 2012 عن عمر يناهز 84 عاماً. أما بالنسبة لثروة هيرست، فقد نجت من الجدل الذي أحاط بوريثتها، وتمتلك شركة هيرست المتنوعة اليوم أكثر من 360 شركة في جميع أنحاء العالم، بما في ذلك حصص في فيتيك، وكرونكل سبين، إف آند بي، إس إيه بي، آي إيه إي، و 50 بالمائة من شركة إي إس بي إن المملوكة لشركة ديزني. كما أنها تمتلك أكثر من 40 محطة تلفزيونية، وعدداً أكبر من الصحف، وأكثر من 100 مجلة حول العالم، بما في ذلك "هوستن كرونيكل"، و"سان فرانسيسكو كرونيكل"، و"ألباني يونيون-ستار"، و"سان أنطونيو إكسبرس نيوز"، و"سي إف أو إتش"، و"إي إس كيو إن"، و"أندروير"، و"باز فيد"، و"أوتوموبيل"، و"أوتو ويك"، و"بلاك إنتيربرايز"، و"أوبسايفد"، و"سان فرانسيسكو كرونيكل"، و"هيوستن كرونيكل"، و"سان أنطونيو إكسبريس نيوز"، و"ألباني تايمز يونيون"، و"كونيتيكت بوست"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت"، و"ميدياماركيت
