Margarine heir spreads wealth

We’ve heard of greasing the wheels of change, but margarine heir Michael James Brody Jr took it one step further.

A loved-up Brody offered to give his £10 million fortune away to anyone who asked for it. He told newspapers that in new wife Renee he had everything he needed and that he wanted “to make people happy”.

When one reporter asked if he was serious, Brody wrote him a £1,000 cheque. Unfortunately, many of the cheques bounced and the “hippie angel” spiralled into mental ill-health over the next few years.

Separated from Renee, Brody was charged with threatening to kill US President Nixon in 1972 and shot himself to death just a year later.