[Editor's Note: We thank Steve Krask for contacting TI Life and most of all, for sharing his memorabilia. In the research world, this is called Gold! We know that there was an auction after Winnie Bird died and that her husband’s many cars were sold. However, the circumstances surround the auction and the winners of the bids is just one of Steve’s stories, which he shares here.]
The Setting
Guess who bought lot #7 from the Batterman’s on Hill Island in the Thousand Islands over a century ago? If you guessed Wallis C. Bird, you are correct! In fact, the Batterman family estate was located right next to the Bird family estate on Long Island, NY. The Battermans and the Birds were neighbors, 400 miles to the south.
You can see the lot relationship in the aerial photograph below. Isn’t it interesting the way things work out, when things are sold? It is also interesting to note that what is referred to as the “Car Auction of the Century,” by automobile enthusiasts and collectors, took place at this exact location on a spring day in 1962, after the untimely death of Mrs. Bird a year earlier. After she had passed away, her husband’s car collection was auctioned off outside the garages circled in red in the photograph.
Car Auction of the Century Was a Sham
The 1962 “Car Auction of the Century” was a “Sham” according to my dad, Ken Krask. Granted this is just one man’s opinion, but when you take a deeper dive into the eye witness accounts of the attendee’s, they support his claim. A great source for this information can be viewed here: https://www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/blog/article/classic_car_magazine_the_wallis_bird_estate_classics#] And all the pieces will come tighter when you get to the end.
Backdrop:
The event showcased the Wallis C. Bird car collection, 11 months after the death of the owner, Marjorie Winifred Kendall Bird, aka Aunt Winnie. She passed away in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1961, from an apparent overdose of drugs administered by Dr. Gerard Savoy with the complicit Nicholas Sturdza nearby. The course of events that unfolded were the key drivers of the auction, although they were unknown at the time.
Edward E. Watts Jr, a lawyer with a New York Law firm and former Princeton classmate of her late husband, was dispatched to Switzerland to help Winnie. But by the time he arrived, she was already dead and buried. He knew that he had to locate her will. It wasn’t at the hotel. Where was it? Everyone he questioned knew nothing about her will. Even Savoy and Sturdza, her closest people, seemed to know nothing.
Subsequently, the law firm dispatched Gilbert Frei to Lausanne, a specialist in Estate Administration. He hired a local lawyer, Robert Piccard to assist. After initial discovery, the legal team thought it best to approach the authorities in order to proceed.
They contacted the Swiss Police and Interpol, who began an investigation. It was discovered that Sturdza (Winnie’s handler) and Savoy (her doctor) were using safe deposit boxes to conceal money, jewelry, and her wills. In fact, there were two wills. One from 1948, which Winnie drafted after WWII and before she travelled to Europe, and another version drafted in 1960, while she was in Switzerland.
A copy of the 1948 will was found ‘torn-up’ and missing the signature page. Another copy was located in a separate deposit box, and yet another surfaced in box in Basel. After sorting through the wills, one thing was apparent. She wanted to be buried next to her husband in the family mausoleum in New York. Hence, the body was exhumed and during the process another autopsy was performed, which determined that Mrs. Bird did not die of a cerebral hemorrhage, as indicated on her death certificate filled out by Dr. Savoy, but rather by a large amount of various drugs found in her body.
How did they get there? A murder investigation was initiated, which entailed the two prime suspects – Sturdza and Savoy. Murder investigations take time. Court hearings are booked well into the future. It is my understanding that in light of the circumstances, a temporary administrator was appointed by the Nassau County Surrogate Court in New York, to begin administration/probate of the estate. After the subsequent wills were found, which one should be probated? The first one? Or the second one?
My grandfather said that the second will was bizarre. Winnie left millions of dollars to her dogs and cat. She was clearly not of ‘sound mind.’ The heirs contested the will. This meant that the money in her bank accounts was frozen until things were settled in court. My dad said, “The lawyers were not getting paid. They wanted (needed) money. [They] cooked up the idea of an auction and hired an art gallery company, O’Reilly’s of New York, to conduct the sale.”
The Auction
An exhibition was scheduled for Friday May 11th, 1962, with the auction commencing the following day, a Saturday. The morning session included the sale of furniture and housewares from the mansion, and a car auction in the afternoon.
The event was shrewdly planned and calculated. A couple of local newspaper ads were placed to ‘draw a crowd.’ But not much was advertised to real car enthusiasts of the world to garner top dollar, according to my dad. He said, “The lawyers sent their own people and invited a handful of car enthusiasts from their inner circle to the auction with the promise of getting a good deal.” That they did. He said, “It was a real shame to see those cars go on the cheap. It was a total sham.”
My dad got to personally see the car collection in 1956. Winnie returned from Europe to seek treatment at the Harness Pavilion in NYC, because she caught the “vapours” during her stay. My mom and dad were in New York on their honeymoon and had the chance to stop by for a visit.
Below are pictures of the Bird garage (inside and out). The cars are identified in the Berdan scrapbook, hand-written in blue ink by my grandfather. Take a close look at the two cars in the upper right. They are actually the same car that helped to solve a 40-year old mystery.
A gentleman in Oakland California reached out to me after he saw this photograph. He had purchased this same car and knew that it was from the Bird Collection. But as a car aficionado, he could tell some things weren’t right. He said that, “parts and pieces just didn’t seem to match up. He and his family members could never put then finger on it”. Then he saw it right before his eyes. ‘His Car’ was actually a 1924 model that was rebuilt in 1935. He said “Thank You, Thank You, Thank You. You just solved a mystery that has been in our family for over 40 years!” Now that’s pretty cool.
Hopefully this article sheds some light on the mysteries linked to Hill Island’s past. But yet there is one more. And it is the most amazing of the bunch. Stay tuned.
By Steve Krask
Steve Krask recently retired from a corporate career in the Life Science’s and Greens Industry. He lives outside of Atlanta, GA and is married with 2 children and 3 grandchildren. He currently consults in professional sales training, fertilizer technology development and is a licensed Arborist. Current hobbies include Golf, Gardening and Music. Plans are to finish writing a collection of songs. Compile them into a ‘pitch-book’ and sell them to the top talent in Nashville.
(Links to be added) See also: Amazing Links to the Thousand Islands, even Murder, by Steve Krask posted on June 2024 Issue. Marjorie Winifred Kendall Bird - Find a Grave; and [Hill Island’s Link to Monsters and Murderers… by Susan Smith with the Heberlings posted on October, 2010
Posted in: Volume 19, Issue 7, July 2024, History, People, Places
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