ILOILO , Philippines – Now it can be told. A woman who hails from Sapian, the smallest town in Capiz, was the Filipina-American nurse who inherited houses and cars worth $30 million and $30 million in cash.
In his forthcoming book “Empty Mansions,†Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and NBC Universal investigative reporter Bill Dedman identified the woman as Gicela Oloroso, whose father served as mayor of Sapian in the late 1960s.
The identity of the 58-year-old nurse (some reports said she is now 63 years old) was unknown to many Capizeños as she was only previously identified by her Jewish name, Hadassah Peri.
According to Sapian Mayor Arthur John Biñas, Peri’s fortune was not known in Sapian or elsewhere in Capiz province.
“I know the family although but I don’t know Mrs. Peri. My classmate is her cousin. She told me a few years ago that her cousin, which happened to be Mrs. Peri, is taking care of a wealthy old woman,†Biñas added.
But the cousin apparently did not know of Peri’s inheritance. “She seemed shocked when she heard
the news,†Biñas said.
The mayor said Peri’s immediate family members are living abroad or staying somewhere in Metro Manila.
As early as 2011, several news agencies carried the story of Peri’s windfall from famed New York copper mining heiress Huguette Clark.
Reports said she migrated to the United States in 1972. Ten years later, the Roman Catholic-raised nurse converted to Orthodox Judaism after she met and married Daniel Peri, an Israeli immigrant and New York taxi driver.
In 1991, the agency where Peri worked for assigned her to take care of Clark.
Apparently, she endeared herself to the heiress and became a “friend and loyal companion,†according to the heiress’s will.
According to a story on http://www.dailymail.co.uk on Nov. 20, 2011, Peri took care of Clark for 20 years where she earned $131,000.
The reclusive Clark died in June 2011 at the age of 104 with a $400-million fortune.
In his book, Dedman said when Peri was assigned to Clark, she and her husband owned a small apartment in Brooklyn.
But by the time of Clark’s death, the Peris owned seven residences, six of which Clark reportedly bought.
Peri, a mother of three, also amassed properties, including two apartments at the Gatsby and a pre-war building with a view of Central Park on East Ninety-Sixth Street in Manhattan.
It was also reported that the Peris owned a 2001 Bentley Arnage sedan costing $204,000 and a Lincoln Navigator SUV worth around $42,000.
Clark took care of the taxes and monthly dues of the Peris’ properties and also shouldered the school expenses of the couple’s three children.
Clark also shouldered the Peris’ medical bills and even their children’s piano, violin and Hebrew lessons, and their basketball and summer camps in upstate New York, Dedman wrote.
Peri worked for Clark 12 hours a day, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week for 20 years.