Doomsday believer donates entire inheritance to Family Radio

When the world didn't end on May 21, many people who had given up their earthly possessions were left with nothing.

But one believer never lived to see the day. She left nearly her entire estate -- around $300,000 -- to the group behind the failed prediction, leaving some family members out in the cold.

Eileen Heuwetter was shocked to find out that her aunt left the majority of her estate to Family Radio, the group responsible for the doomsday warnings that the world would end on May 21. She and her sister were each left $25,000 from their aunt's estate. The rest is going to Family Radio.

The network of Christian radio stations based in Oakland, Ca., is almost entirely funded by donations. According to IRS filings, the group brought in $18 million in contributions in 2009 alone.

Heuwetter, the executor of the will, knew how much her aunt loved the radio station and admired its leader, Harold Camping, who is viewed as a prophet by many of his followers.


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Doomsday-believer-donates-cnnm-2627911146.html

And being bummed about $25k because it could have been so much more is also tacky.

I also think going to the news and crying about it was tacky. Hell, I'd be happy to get 25k!

That would come in kind of handy right about now.

Heuwetter didn't initially contest the conditions of the will. She knew little about the Christian radio station, but knew her aunt, Doris Schmitt, found comfort in it.

Schmitt had lived a tough life, struggling with alcoholism and losing her two children to drug addictions before dying alone at 78 on May 2, 2010 in her small home in Queens, New York.

"This was not a woman who had anything. She literally had Family Radio on day and night -- she went to bed with it and woke up to it," said Heuwetter. "That was all she had."

It wasn't until recently that Heuwetter learned who was really getting her aunt's bequest. She said she first realized this was the same group when she saw buses driving around New York City the weekend before the supposed end of the world, spreading the doomsday message. "I'm looking at these brand new buses drive around with Family Radio's name on them, saying 'Doomsday is May 21', and I said, 'Oh my god, this is who my aunt gave all of her money to," Heuwetter said. "I didn't know he was so crazy, and at this point I was incensed that this man was going to get everything my aunt had left."





Camping is a scumbag con man. I would have no problem with a relative leaving all of their money to a good cause and none to me, but if someone conned them out of it when it could have gone to a good cause, I would be pissed.

I wouldn't talk to the media about it, though. Especially if my aunt died "alone" and the radio station was "all she had." There's no way the niece comes out of it looking good. Take the $25K and run!

to a group that would presumably no longer exist to spend it.

:banghead:

I just *hate* it when people cry about someone giving away *THEIR* inheritance. It's not *THEIRS* until the person they're getting it from dies.

dg

inducement to donate.