In a fit of rage, a man hurls a cell phone at his grandson, violently striking him in the chest.1 An elderly woman prepares to flee the country to prevent her daughter from managing a cent of her multi-billion dollar fortune.2 A man shoots his brother to death at point blank range. He then turns the gun on himself.3 Apparently quite displeased with the way his uncle was treating him and running the family’s well-known diner, a New Jersey man was recently charged with "putting out a hit" on his uncle (and allegedly directing the hitman to torture the uncle before killing him).4
No, these are not storylines from a scripted drama. These events played out on the real life stage and were the direct result of family-owned business disputes that spiraled out of control. Take the Gucci family, for instance. Maurizio Gucci, who inherited half of the family business after his father died in 1983, was forced to sell his shares in the family business after repeated losses, thus depriving his children of any inheritance and angering his ex-wife Patrizia. The result? In a sequence of events befitting a tragic Italian opera, Maurizio was murdered at the hands of an assassin hired by Patrizia and she was sentenced to 29 years in prison.5
