Both siblings, however, blamed Rickenbacker for encouraging and aiding Carroll in this maneuver. Rickenbacker denied this. ”I said, `That`s a loony idea. Don`t do it.` ”
But she did, according to Rickenbacker. Carroll enlisted in the Army on June 30, 1977, under the name of Katherine Kelly, using a Social Security card issued in that name and a false birthdate of Nov. 30, 1951. In fact, Carroll Douglass Rickenbacker was 37 at the time.
Army records show that aat Ft. McClellan, Ala., followed by training in helicopter repair, at Ft. Rucker, Ala., completed in 1978.
Kelly then was accepted in Warrant Officer School, a step consistent with plans to become an Army helicopter pilot. However, Kelly was discharged in September, 1978.
Unable to dissuade his wife from joining the Army, Rickenbacker said, he had presumed she`d flunk out of training and so had done nothing to stop her until a friend convinced him of the possibility that his wife ”might well get a pilot`s license and take up a helicopter with 30 handsome, all-American boys on board and she might kill all of them.”
At that point, according to Rickenbacker, he informed his wife`s commanding officer of the fraudulent nature of her enlistment, which led to her discharge. Kelly`s file lists no reason for the discharge, according to an Army spokeswoman.
The Rickenbackers divorced shortly afterward.
Carroll was childless in both of these marriages and, despite an almost obsessive interest in small children, a characteristic she was to display later, Rickenbacker said she never expressed any desire to have a child of her own.
Carroll moved into an apartment building owned by the Douglass siblings in Washington, at some point reverting to her maiden name. However, she spent much of her time traveling in the U.S. and abroad, using credit cards and funds borrowed from friends, according to her brother and sister.
Her mental state deteriorated during this time, they said. She was detained for ”irrational behavior” and held for observation briefly on a few occasions in the U.S., Ireland and Scotland and voluntarily hospitalized briefly in Maryland, but she was never institutionalized or under a psychiatrist`s care, according to her brother.
”She has never seen that she has a problem. That`s part of the problem,” he said.
Finally, in 1982, convinced that Carroll could no longer manage her own financial affairs, John and Diane Douglass petitioned a Washington court for conservatorship of Carroll`s estate, which amounted to an estimated $229,000 in trusts and inheritances, in addition to a share of about $33,000 in the family-owned building in Washington. John Douglass said this was done with Carroll`s cooperation.
The petition stated that Carroll had ”acquired a romantic and unreasonable fixation for the person of the Pope and the plight of the people of Poland.” The petition went on to state that Carroll had tried to purchase a Rolls-Royce for the pontiff`s use, had made out a check for $70,000 payable to ”His Holiness for the Polish Project,” and had attempted to purchase a $40,000 helicopter for Pope John Paul II, with the intention of becoming his pilot.
In the next four years, Carroll continued her travels, which took her to New York in 1986. In May she began to be seen constantly with Sir Rudolf Bing. –
”In the beginning, I thought it was harmless,” said restaurateur Roberto Mei. ”Frankly, I thought she was after his money. We all knew he was worth something and had no family.” Mei admits he did find her frequent half- hour stays in the restaurant`s ladies` room unusual, but he was favorably impressed with the fresh-cut flowers she had delivered daily to Sir Rudolf`s table at the restaurant and with the overall effect of her presence on the impresario.
”Sir Rudolf seemed happy with her. His walk was brisker, and he was happier than he had been in a long time. They would hold hands.”
Hand-holding quickly led to talk of marriage. Mei recalled a conversation he overhead between Carroll and Bing later that summer. ”I heard her saying that they should go to Europe and have a honeymoon there and he`s agreeing, saying, `Honey, honey, yes, we should.` But the next time I came around to their table, he was staring into her eyes and saying, `And, what did you say your name was?` ”
Mei said it all still seemed harmless enough to him, but ”Dick Boehm thought it was more than that. He was concerned the whole time.”
In fact, five minutes after meeting Carroll Douglass at Fontana Trevi, Boehm said, he says he concluded, ”She was straight off the wall.” He became troubled over what he felt was her domineering manner with Sir Rudolf, over her habit of wearing the same sundress and sandals ”day after day” and over phone conversations he had had with Mary Fahy, a nurse employed by Bing since 1978, who was anxious about the increasing role Carroll was playing in Bing`s life.
Later, Boehm became even more concerned over an incident in which Carroll suggested that Boehm`s 83-year-old mother might like to be Lady Bing, that Carroll and Boehm could play the part of their children and that perhaps she could find some small children to be their offspring.
Paul Guth, Bing`s personal attorney for 30 years, also was concerned, particularly about the checks that Bing was writing to Carroll, sometimes as many as three in one day, starting in May, 1986. They added up to about $30,000 before Bing married Carroll in January, 1987, according to court papers. Guth subsequently was named conservator for Bing`s estate.
Retired Surrogate Court Judge Millard Midonick was appointed Bing`s guardian ad litem, representing him in the welter of legal proceedings.
In late November, 1986, Bing and Carroll suddenly left New York for Washington, where they were spotted holding hands at the opera and at other musical events. Paul Guth began proceedings in New York that in January, 1987, would result in Bing being declared incompetent due to Alzheimer`s disease;
his estate, estimated at $900,000 plus $130,000 in annual income, was put under the control of a conservator.
But on Jan. 9, on his 85th birthday and three days before a scheduled competency hearing in Manhattan Supreme Court, Sir Rudolf surprised them all. Filling out a license stating that neither had been married before, Bing and Carroll Douglass were married in a magistrate`s office in Arlington, Va.
That was when the trouble really began.
Pursuaded to return to New York with her husband for Bing`s competency hearing on Jan. 12, Lady Bing was ordered by the court not to remove her husband from New York. She responded by taking him to the Caribbean island of Anguilla and later to Britain, where a series of bizarre incidents reportedly occurred.
In April, 1987, British courts appointed a lawyer to represent them when they couldn`t pay a $600 bill at a hotel near Leeds. In May, they were offered three months of free room and board by the sympathetic owner of a motel in the Yorkshire town of Mirfield. They left nine days later for London, and motel owner Peter Bunch was relieved, he told reporters, because Lady Bing had driven the staff mad with her demands.
Back in London, Sir Rudolf was found wandering the streets twice in May and June, both times missing for more than 10 hours after he had gone out to buy cigarettes.
Back in New York, a state Supreme Court justice found Lady Bing in contempt of an order to return Sir Rudolf to the U.S., had fined her $45,000 and had authorized Guth to begin annulment proceedings.
–
Since their return to New York last November, Lady Bing`s behavior has been such that she has been banned from the Fontana di Trevi, where Mei was horrified when she threw a glass of water at Sir Rudolf in an apparent fit of jealousy.
She is also extremely unpopular with the management of the Essex House, where, in addition to disruptive behavior, her unwanted attentions paid to small children in the lobby has alarmed guests and staff, according to guest- relations director Annette Maggio.
If faced with eviction or, ultimately, annulment, Lady Bing`s future is uncertain. Her siblings have done all that they can afford to do emotionally and financially, her brother said. ”She doesn`t really have a family to return to. The homestead is no longer.”
Judge Ciparick will not decide whether Lady Bing will be evicted from the apartment until after hearings resume May 23.
Meanwhile, the overall annulment proceeding grinds slowly on. According to the lawyers, most contested marital actions take a year or more to resolve. ”I don`t know if it will ever be over,” said Alice Brennan, the nurse on duty one night last week. ”I can`t imagine what will be the end of it.”
John Douglass has his own theory about what will happen if his sister is separated from her husband. ”I think it`s going to be very sad, very unfortunate for everybody. I think she`ll up end up with the police, and he`ll end up dead.”
