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A margarine heir, a $25 million giveaway and 30,000 unopened letters

By Jennifer Schuessler
New York Times·
9 mins to read
A margarine heir, a $25 million giveaway and 30,000 unopened letters
A margarine heir, a $25 million giveaway and 30,000 unopened letters

One day in early January 1970, Michael James Brody Jr stepped off a Pan Am jet at John F. Kennedy Airport and into what would be one of the new decade's shortest, strangest 15 minutes of fame.

Brody, the previously obscure 21-year-old heir to a margarine fortune, was returning from

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