Mystery of the murdered millionaire

Dennis Murphy Correspondent • Profile

Gerald Shargel: A murder in a small town has its own cache. And I didn't know that the small town would be East Hampton.

Say the Hamptons to some people and they think of the magnificent beaches on the far end of Long Island, but for many New Yorkers, the Hamptons aren't just about the surf, it's about the scene: the beach towns where celebrities and hedge fund Gatsbys, collide in a gaudy summer dance of A-list parties, and tablehopping at the "be seen" restaurants. The Hamptons are a place where are mansions hidden behind hedges, not crime scene tape.

Gerald Shargel: You know that's the stuff novels are written about.

It was October 22, 2001 in a house on a street to lust for, just a block from the ocean, and on that day the "Architectural Digest" perfection of the mock English cottage was blemished by something very ugly inside:

The homeowner--a handsome millionaire--had been found beaten to death lying in a pool of blood.

East Hampton hadn't had a murder in nearly 20 years.

Local News Coverage: “The cause of death is blunt force trauma and the manner of death is homicide”.

The murder victim was 52-year-old Ted Ammon, a Wall Street investment banker whiz who'd already scored his first $50 million before he was 40.

He was a benefactor of the arts and there were whispers a-plenty about his marriage among New York City's charity ball crowd.

The chatterers gossiped that Ammon's estranged wife had a taste for the high life and low men. One in particular, they sniffed, about the tool-belt guy from the wrong side of the Hamptons canal.

At the time he was beaten to death, Ted Ammon's multi-millions were the stakes in a rough and tumble ugly divorce.

It was a delicious story that sold newspapers and the cops fed the beast with cautious updates.

Cops From Local Coverage: “At this point in time everything is a motive, his stature, his financial status is certainly things to be taken into consideration.”

Reporters began digging into the history of Ted Ammon and his wife Generosa and found a lot of juicy stuff there.

Michael Shnayerson: Ted Ammon was sort of a small town kid who made very, very good.

Michael Shnayerson wrote about the Ammon murder for "Vanity Fair" magazine.

Michael Shnayerson: As one colleague put it, you know, he'd have 697 wacky ideas and 3 brilliant ones.

And the brilliant ones bought him exotic cars, a luxury apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, the six-bedroom cottage in the Hamptons and a virtual castle in England.

Michael Shnayerson: By one account, it had 50 rooms, but another account it had 65 rooms. Apparently, it took $100,000 just to maintain the thing every year and just to pay the bills.

In 1983 Ted Ammon met Generosa Rand, a California transplant who dabbled in the art world before becoming a real estate agent.

Blond and attractive, Generosa looked to the society pages born but her blood was anything but blue.

Michael Shnayerson: Very modest upbringings. And after her mother died, apparently she was shunted from, you know from foster home to foster home. She did go to college at Irvine, California. But then came to New York pretty much on her own.

One of Generosa's real estate clients was Ted Ammon. Ammon had been recently divorced and the broker-client relationship soon became personal. They married in 1986 and lived in a townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

They eventually bought a weekend house in exclusive East Hampton, two hours east of the city.

With her artist's eye, Generosa, poured all of her energies--and tons of the couple's money--into the renovation.

Michael Shnayerson: And she turned it into this extraordinary kind of English cottage-- cottage meaning really mansion. And it-- it looks like something right on Surrey.

They tried to have children--unsuccessfully. Then in 1992 Ted and Generosa adopted twins--Alexa and Grego--from the Ukraine.

The 90's were very very good to the Ammons and their young children.

Kieran Crowley: They were flying on private jets, they were going to all the resorts…

Kieran Crowley wrote about the Ammons, and the Ammon murder in his book "Almost Paradise".

Kieran Crowley: And these kids were given every advantage. They had a whole staff, nanny, you know, butler, cook, chauffer, and for a while, also security.

But even with money pouring out of Wall Street....

All his Porsches and all her decorating...

Wasn't enough to keep the teetering Ammon marriage off the rocks.

Kieran Crowley: Generosa was capable of great warmth and generosity. But if provoked, and some say she didn't need provocation, she could be vicious.

Ted was growing frustrated with Generosa's erratic behavior.

Kieran Crowley: Ted had become very tired of having Generosa burn their bridges socially and otherwise. A perceived slight very often mistaken and never have anything to do with that person again.

According to writer Michael Shnayerson, Generosa was becoming more and more volatile with her friends and retainers.

Michael Shnayerson: One contactor told me about planting 600 tulips for her in their East Hampton house, in a shade agreed upon by her. And the next weekend she was ripping them all out in a fury, saying that it wasn't quite the right shade. Well it turns out that tulips look slightly different in the start of the day than at the end of the day depending on what the light is.

And even with her showplace, Generosa was doing a slow burn, suspicious that her husband was unfaithful.

Kieran Crowley: Ted was not an angel. But he--Ted liked the ladies. And the ladies liked Ted. I mean, he was tall, dark, rich, handsome.

In an attempt to save their marriage, the Ammons moved to the castle in England in 1999. But Ted was spending much of his time in New York, on business. The ocean of distance between them didn't make Generosa any more trusting. She was certain he was with someone.

Michael Shnayerson: She began to be very suspicious of him living on his own in New York. And she apparently hired a personal or private detective to follow him. And with what she found, blew the whistle and initiated divorce proceedings. Generosa basically came in with both guns blazing.

In August 2000, she filed for divorce. Ted tried to keep it civil by making arrangements for Generosa and the children in Manhattan.

Michael Shnayerson: He had actually bought an apartment at 1125 5th--for Generosa thinking that that would be the one that she and the kids would move into when they got separated. Then she decided that she didn't like that, and that's when she bought the-- decided to buy the townhouse on 87th.

It cost $9 million.

As she'd done with the weekend house in the Hamptons, Generosa ordered the townhouse gutted.

The millions in renovation were part of a divorce strategy, according to Kieran Crowley.

Kieran Crowley: Generosa had been told by some people that the judge will freeze your level of living. So she-- she ratcheted it up till she was living-- like a queen.

And, of course, she was a queen with an opening for a king...an unlikely consort eventually got the position, an electrician on the townhouse job site named Danny Pelosi.

Ted was out and Danny was on his way in.

Danny Pelosi: I'm hooking up with a woman that's gonna be worth at least $20 million. Danny, the electrician, the blue-collar worker from Long Island has hit power ball.

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