Someone left a comment clarifying the difference between the “Valentino family” and the “Alberto Valentino family”. I try to always make that point because I agree it is an important one. I think the point was first made long ago by George Ullman when he wrote how Rudy was an, “eagle born to a nest of owls”.
There were many surprises for me when I began researching Valentino, now more than twenty years ago. Alberto Guglielmi was one of them. Before I found the court records and learned the true story, I believed his hype, (nice word for lies). But there it was in black and white... filed officially in a long, lost case file...all the numbers, perfectly laid out... of just how much Alberto did receive from his brother's estate. It was not "pennies" as he claimed but by today's exchange rate nearly a half a million dollars. (See below)
The change in my opinion about Alberto went further than fact-checking his utter bull about the money. My respect for him plummeted when I learned about his deceptions and his being so irrationally hell bent on ruining George Ullman. Ruining the truth, ruining his brother's estate in the process, ruining George Ullman's life and livelihood. It became extremely difficult for me to believe Alberto and Rudy were even related because the contrasts between the two were many and profound.
My writing about these discoveries about the loving brother relationship fiction brought me decades of abuse from those fake experts who are just as “ruinous” in their actions and intent as the man who started the “ruining” in Valentino's name... Alberto Guglielmi.
I know they will howl and have howled how I “ruined” Alberto, but did I not bring forth an enormous amount of documentation as proof of what I said? My god the story needed a wild turnaround. Because what Alberto was saying was wrong. What he was doing was wrong. And this is not a moral judgment on my part but facts.
I never doubted Alberto and Rudy had a typical sibling relationship with many ups and downs. Someone once asked me if I thought Alberto cried at Rudy's funeral. I said I imagine he sure did. But this does not excuse the passing of Rudy's deserved mantle of success onto the undeserving Alberto. It does not excuse his arrogance in thinking he could just take Rudy's place...and it does not excuse his lying for decades about Ullman's performance as executor and does not excuse Alberto's sickening line he handed out for years how he only got pennies from Rudy's estate. He milked it dry and then some. And boy he sure neglected to share the news that he was not even one of his brother Rudy's heirs and legally entitled to nothing more than a weekly stipend.
So yes, I concur there is a big difference between the Alberto Valentino family, those “owls” and the Valentino family, that “lone eagle”.
One point I would make is that after all I learned, I would not call the Alberto Valentino family, "owls", but vultures... birds which feed on the carcasses of the dead.
(Below an excerpt from the Appeals Court records. With the current exchange rate as of today multiplied by 13.3, this makes the total paid out to Alberto Guglielmi, $497,566.30 which would be almost 50 million "pennies" which is hardly a few.
