Leona Helmsley, Real Estate Developer and Hotel Owner, Dies

Leona Helmsley, the real estate developer and hotel operator who took over her husband's property empire and was imprisoned for tax evasion, died today. She was 87.

Helmsley died of heart failure at her home in Greenwich, Connecticut, said spokesman Howard Rubenstein. She owned interests in the Empire State Building and the Lincoln Building, the Park Lane Hotel on Central Park South, the Helmsley Hotel on 42nd Street and properties in Florida.