Gypsies, tramps and thieves find old ones the best

ANDREW Vlasto had managed to get through 85 years of his life without getting hitched. Despite having over US$250,000 (HK$1.9 million) in savings and substantial land holdings in his native Greece, the confirmed bachelor lived a frugal existence in a rent-controlled apartment in New York.

But in August 1993, 28-year-old Sylvia Mitchell walked into his life - or rather, into the restaurant where he was eating. Apart from her youthful attractions, no-one knows quite what turned this gentle elderly man into a belated suitor, but within two weeks they were wed.

The honeymoon didn't last long. Within days, Mitchell began making ATM withdrawals on Andrew's account, culminating, it would later be claimed, in a US$70,000 withdrawal which she had wired to an Atlantic City casino.

Meanwhile, the retired newspaper editor wasn't feeling too good. Perhaps he didn't like his wife taking his Sugar Daddy role quite so literally; whatever, he was admitted to hospital in a drugged-up state in October, where he soon died.

An autopsy would later show Andrew died of an overdose of barbiturates, complicated by pneumonia. More sinister, tests also showed high levels of a drug called digitalis, meant for treating heart ailments, but which in high doses can cause heart dysfunction and death.

Enter James Vlasto, Andrew's nephew, who along with other relatives had never even heard his uncle had a fresh young wife until he turned up at the hospital just before his death, and was turned away by the blushing bride. One thing that stood out was that James knew his uncle did not have a heart condition, nor been prescribed digitalis. Naturally suspicious, he got involved in a legal tussle with Mitchell, who was demanding she be appointed sole executor of the old man's estate.