When I first lived in Manhattan in 1987, I walked along 50th Street to work. Newcomers in New York City stare at the towering architecture, and I always noticed the Helmsley Building, 36 blocks south as I crossed Park Avenue.

Its eponymous dominatrix, Leona Helmsley, was prosecuted two years later for tax evasion. The most memorable evidence against her came from a housekeeper who recalled the “Queen of Mean” jeering, “We don’t pay taxes; only the little people pay taxes.”

Recommended Stories

Jerry Brown: Climate change ‘an enemy’ as ‘devastating’ as the Nazis

Gavin Newsom faces a new recall after he spun last attempt into major fundraising success

California recall runners and riders: Larry Elder and Caitlyn Jenner head diverse pack