Ever since American courts granted corporations the legal status of persons-in the most woeful misapplication of the 14th Amendment's due process clause prior to the imbecilic Rehnquist court ruling in Bush v. Gore-the traditional upper-caste battle royale over a robber baron's legacy has been an especially fraught family matter. Should a litigating person qua person emerge triumphant, a carefully constructed family ownership trust can become the plaything of a crass interloper, in no way to the manor born. Company assets and proprietary business plans can turn into just more fodder in courtroom campaigns of personal destruction-as carelessly repurposed and quickly tossed away as one of Larry King's elective affinities or a U2 concept album. That, at any rate, is the plain moral of the harrowing tale of John Hearst's divorce, as recounted in Fortune writer Mark Fass's epic reconstruction of the sordid drama, Citizen Bunky. READ MORE