Jennifer Graylock/Associated Press

Leona Helmsley, a notoriously evil human being, passed away last August and left a pile of money for her estate’s executors to sift through and distribute. The “Queen of Mean” earned her nickname over many years of tyrannical leadership of her New York real estate empire. Demanding to a fault, she required superhuman perfection of her employees and as a result would often fire them for the slightest offense. “Lawyer Alan Dershowitz said he once had breakfast with Leona at one of the Helmsley hotels and the waiter brought him a cup of tea with a tiny bit of water spilled on the saucer. Alan says Leona grabbed the cup from him and smashed it on the floor, then demanded that the waiter get down on his hands and knees and beg for his job.”
The only apparent object of Helmsley’s affection was her dog, Trouble. The pooch was a constant companion, and upon her death was handsomely rewarded for his loyalty…to the tune of $12 million. His was the largest allotment in her will; bigger than any of her children’s takes. In fact, a couple of her grandchildren didn’t receive a single red cent of her estimated $5 billion net worth!
Actually, the largest portion of her will was not doled out to individuals, but was instead earmarked for the masses…of dogs.

Her instructions, specified in a two-page “mission statement,” are that the entire trust, valued at $5 billion to $8 billion and amounting to virtually all her estate, be used for the care and welfare of dogs, according to two people who have seen the document and who described it on condition of anonymity…The two people who described the statement said Mrs. Helmsley signed it in 2003 to establish goals for the multibillion-dollar trust that would disburse assets after her death.
The first goal was to help indigent people, the second to provide for the care and welfare of dogs. A year later, they said, she deleted the first goal.

Wow. See the links below for the full Nytimes article and the Wikipedia entry.
Helmsley’s Fortune May Go to Benefit Dogs (New York Times)
Leona Helmsley (Wikipedia)