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On the day he was indicted for income tax evasion, Harry B. Helmsley was fingerprinted and heard the charges read against him in a building he'd once controlled.
At 7:45 a.m. on April 14, a limousine bearing Mr. Helmsley and his second wife, Leona M. Helmsley, arrived at the Equitable Building at 120 Broadway, where the couple reported to the offices of the New York state attorney general.
Thirty years earlier Mr. Helmsley led a group of investors to purchase the building, a typical Helmsley property during the 1950s: well-located, modestly attractive, suitable for a collection of small tenants.
But on this spring morning Mr. Helmsley saw the Equitable Building from a different perspective. On the 26th floor his wife, who watches over the opulent Helmsley Palace Hotel, used a public restroom to wash her hands of ink stains from the fingerprinting pad. Later the couple were led through the building's marble-trimmed lobby, where a crowd of journalists shoved cameras in their faces and shouted questions at them.
On the street, police squeezed Mr. Helmsley's frail, 6-foot-4 frame into the back of a squad car parked beside another Helmsley building -- the sleek 51-story office tower at 140 Broadway that he erected in 1967.
Wherever he traveled the rest of that day -- to police headquarters for booking, to state Supreme Court for arraignment, home to his Park Lane penthouse overlooking Central Park -- the man formerly known as the gentleman of New York real estate saw reminders of his extraordinary, once-celebrated career.
Harry Helmsley might have retired as the grand old man of New York real estate, a quite, unassuming Quaker who made few enemies in a long working lifetime. But now, at 79, he had become the subject of banner headlines in the tabloids.
Starting out nearly 60 years ago with no experience and no personal fortune, Mr. Helmsley had amassed an enormous portfolio of New York properties. Some, like the Empire State Building and the Helmsley Palace, are renowned, but there are scores of lesser-knowns, including dozens of ordinary office towers and a few huge middle-class residential projects.
In New York City alone, Mr. Helmsley still controls 3,000 hotel rooms, while nationwide he has 50,000 residential apartments and 50 million square...