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Kerouac will ruled a fake

A 15-year-long lawsuit over the estate of author Jack Kerouac has ended with a Florida judge ruling that the writer’s mother’s will was fraudulent. When she died in 1973, Kerouac’s mother, Gabrielle Kerouac, left her son’s assets to his third wife, Stella Sampas Kerouac. Since Gabrielle’s death, the Sampas family has maintained control of Kerouac’s manuscripts and personal belongings, but Kerouac’s daughter and nephew believed the will to be a fake and filed a lawsuit in 1994. From the Associated Press:

In an order filed Friday in the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court, Judge George W. Greer ruled the will was a forgery. The ruling does not make any decision on who allegedly forged the document.

“Clearly, Gabrielle Kerouac was physically unable to sign the document dated February 13, 1973 and, more importantly, that which appears on the will dated that date is not her signature,” Greer wrote.

Previous estimates have placed the estate’s value at $20 million.

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