Three more individuals who allege their father was the late Hugh O’Brian filed court papers seeking a share of his estate, bringing the number of claimants to four in the last week.
San Francisco-based attorney Adam Ross filed court papers Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of himself, Jim Venverloh and Donald Etkes. They join Kimberly Rallo, who filed her own petition on Thursday. Rallo stated that her mother, Carol Ann Schaeffer, dated “The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp” actor from January 1962 to February 1963. She is seeking half of what was O’Brian’s separate property before his death.
Etkes’ former name was Hugh Donald Krampe, the petition states. O’Brian’s real name was Hugh Charles Krampe.
Ross, 49, said Wednesday he believes he is the youngest of the four claimants. He said they have all been in contact with each other, they all have different mothers and he was unaware of Rallo’s petition until he read about it in the media.
Ross said he is too young to remember when O’Brian was at the peak of his Hollywood career. He said he does not know if any more people may come forward with petitions also claiming to be O’Brian’s “omitted children.”
Like Rallo, Ross states in his court papers petition that he and the two other men in his petition are willing to give DNA evidence to prove their claims.
Ross said he does not know how large O’Brian’s estate is or whether the actor received royalties before his Sept. 5, 2016, death at age 91 at his Beverly Hills home.
In February or March 1963, Schaeffer found out she was pregnant, the petition states. Because O’Brian was out of the country filming a movie, she contacted the actor’s agent at the time, according to the petition brought Thursday.
“The agent gave Schaeffer money and the address of a doctor in Tijuana and told her to `take care of it,”‘ according to the petition. “She did not do so.”
Rallo was born Aug. 31, 1963, and O’Brian paid the doctor who delivered her for his services, the petition states.
Although another man who was romantically involved with Schaeffer is listed as Rallo’s father on her birth certificate, that information is false, according to the petition.
“Rallo is a child of O’Brian and is alive,” the petition states. “O’Brian failed to provide for Rallo in the (O’Brian) trust and in any applicable will, solely because O’Brian was unaware that Rallo was his child at the time of execution of his testamentary instruments at the time of O’Brian’s death.”
In June 2006, O’Brian married for the first time at age 81 to his longtime girlfriend, Virginia Barber. In his trust, O’Brian stated that he believed he never had any children. In their petitions, the claimants maintain they are entitled to a share of O’Brian’s estate equal in value to what they would have received had the actor died without a trust.
“The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp” aired on ABC from 1955-61. In 1958, O’Brian created the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Foundation, a non- profit youth leadership development program for high school scholars that has sponsored more than 400,000 students since he founded the program.
–City News Service
Very GREAT plan to SPECIFICALLY name people who will inherit from a Trust and who will NOT. We did it with softening language that we do NOT bear ANY animosity to those NAMED who will NOT inherit One Nephew and his mother made my parents lives miserable and were CONSTANTLY looking for money from them and trying to jail my brother even though she was given a lot of money to cover the child support at the divorce. Unfortunately, my father did NOT keep copies of the checks. Several others are VERY wealthy and do NOT need our money. A niece is a really NASTY person.