Fourth Wife Cooked By Jack’s Will Multi-Millionaire Cooke Leaves Marlene Nothing

Thirteen weeks before he died, Jack Kent Cooke changed his will to deny fourth wife Marlene Ramallo Cooke any part of his estate, but the document creates a charitable foundation to help gifted and underprivileged children, according to papers filed Wednesday by Cooke’s lawyers.

The will filed in Fauquier County (Va.) Circuit Court also could set in motion the eventual sale of Cooke’s Washington Redskins football franchise, while positioning his one surviving son to be the team’s buyer.

Cooke gave son John Kent Cooke, president of the Redskins, $10 million outright and put $15 million in a trust for him and John’s wife, Rita. Cooke gave his 9-year-old daughter, Jacqueline, a trust fund of $5 million but gave nothing to the girl’s mother, Suzanne Elizabeth Martin.

Each of his five grandchildren received a $1 million trust fund. He also made bequests ranging from $10,000 to $500,000 to a dozen friends, relatives and employees.

The will’s major legal feature is the creation of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, which will handle the bulk of Cooke’s money, estimated at several hundred million dollars. The foundation’s mission is to award scholarships to young men and women who have shown unusual intelligence and character, and to start and run special schools for underprivileged children, the will said.

The will, originally written in 1988, shows Cooke at his most mercurial; he made eight amendments to the document between March 1989 and Jan. 3 of this year. The crusty millionaire evidently changed his mind repeatedly about how much of his sports and real estate empire to leave to his sometimes estranged wife, Marlene, and her children.

At various times over the years, she was to receive a cash sum of $5 million and the income from a $10 million trust.

But in January, Cooke changed his mind for the last time and, in the dry legalese of a codicil, revoked his bequests to Marlene, even denying her permission to take books from his library.

Cooke also singled out his third wife, Suzanne, saying in his will that he did “not wish her to share in any of the assets in my estate” and forbidding “any disposition to her from my estate … because of her misconduct and behavior which were calculated to harm me.”

Marlene Cooke said Wednesday that “I really have no idea” why he made the final changes to his will. “Brendan is taking care of all of that,” she said. Brendan Sullivan, a Washington lawyer, declined to comment Wednesday night.

Dennis I. Belcher, an estate-planning attorney for the Redskins owner, said Marlene Cooke failed to comply with the requirements of a prenuptial agreement signed by her and her husband. He declined to elaborate.

Also on Wednesday, Cooke’s executors announced they had filed suit in Fauquier County Circuit Court to identify the estate’s “obligations” to Marlene Cooke. One longtime Cooke adviser said he believed Cooke’s executors were eager to block Marlene Cooke’s access to her late husband’s two estates.

Cooke, 84, who built a fortune after humble beginnings in Canada, died on the first Sunday in April of congestive heart failure.

His will says that a school and orphanage should be created at Redskin Park, the team’s practice facility, and that none of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation’s money should go for athletic scholarships.

Once Cooke’s executors have administered his estate, paying off bills, taxes and heirs, they can then distribute assets to the foundation. The foundation must dispose of those assets within a five-year period, according to federal tax law.

The creation of a private foundation offers heirs enormous tax benefits by shielding their money from federal and state estate taxes, a number of tax specialists said; in Cooke’s case, the millions of dollars used from his estate to create the foundation otherwise would have been taxed at a rate of 55 percent.

Belcher, the estate attorney, said the Redskins might have to be sold to comply with the will, but that could take years and the buyer could be John Kent Cooke, who said he intends to keep the team in his family.

“The team could be sold eventually,” Belcher said. “But there is plenty of time and there is no rush.”

In a statement issued Wednesday, John Kent Cooke said he intends “to retain control of the Redskins and Jack Kent Cooke Stadium in the Cooke family as my father wished.”