PALM BEACH IS HOME TO RICH AND FAMOUS
“That’s a house Yoko Ono bought. Six weeks later John Lennon was killed. That house has a secret tunnel to the beach. Oh, and that was owned by a rich socialite who allegedly had his wife killed by a hit man dressed as a clown.”
Leslie Diver, a former stockbroker, is giving me a tour of the most exclusive island in North America. Palm Beach, a 21 kilometrelong strip of land, is the legal abode of folks who have collected roughly one-third of the wealth of the entire United States.
Diver loves her city, but she is not afraid of poking fun at some of its wacky citizens. She talks about Howard Stern paying some $53 million for his home, then threatening to conduct his radio show from the house.
Movie stars and entertainers make up a large part of the celebrity gossip on Diver’s tours, which she does not advertise in print and can only be arranged by phone or through her website (islandlivingpb. com). She does driving tours as well as tours of the area’s fantastic gardens.
We pass homes owned by the likes of Estee Lauder and a posh club owned and renovated by Donald Trump. Gorgeous homes with thick, brilliant green hedges line the road fronting the beach, littered with famous name residents.
“That house belongs to author James Patterson,” Diver says as we drive past a large, imposing structure with gorgeous ocean views. “That’s his bedroom there in the front. He never closes his drapes at night. Luckily he wears pyjamas to bed.”
We also cruise past a lovely, somewhat understated seaside home Diver says was purchased by Yoko Ono in 1980.
“Six weeks later John Lennon was shot and killed in New York. Hustler magazine’s Larry Flynt later bought the house. He was stabbed not long after that.”
The house is now owned by a lower-profile family who, Diver
says, have not suffered any fatal attacks.
Crazy antics and marital difficulties have a long history in Palm Beach.
“That house was owned by a socialite named Jim Sullivan,” Diver tells me. “He allegedly sent a hit man dressed as a clown with a dozen roses to his wife’s home in Atlanta and had her killed.”
Sullivan was caught years later in Thailand, she explains.
“There’s a moral to the story,” Diver says. “If someone comes to your house with roses and they’re dressed like a clown, don’t answer the door.”
Diver also tells the story of how Henry Flagler, former partner of John D. Rockefeller at Standard Oil and the man who pretty much created Florida tourism by building railways and hotels up and down the state, went through several wives. At age 71, Flagler married his third wife, Mary Lily Kenan, who was 34.
“We like to say,” Diver says with a wry smile, “that Flagler began what is now a long-standing Palm Beach tradition.”
In addition to talking up failed marriages and murder, Diver explains some of the area’s gorgeous Spanish-style architecture on tours of the numerous shopping courtyards off Worth Avenue. She also talks about the social dynamics of a city with only one access road from the mainland: a drawbridge that can be opened and closed at any time should trouble ever break out.
“Starbucks was finally allowed to open here,” Diver says. “But the store is hidden away in a courtyard. One lady said she didn’t want it because they’d have free Wi-Fi and she was worried about the sort of people that would attract.”
Of course, these days Diver says you can find the likes of Rod Stewart there on many a morning, lining up with what passes for commoners in this very uncommon city.