Empty Mansions

against Huguette’s accountant.
    More than seventy-five members of the family gathered at the Corcoran in October 2008, including descendants not only of the senator but also of his siblings. It was less a reunion than an introduction: Most of the far-flung relatives had never met. They arrived from France, England, California, New York. There were Republicans and Democrats and independents, Protestants and Catholics, Jews and Buddhists and atheists. Two had been classmates at the same prep school without knowing they were cousins.
    It was a grand affair. The Clark relatives bonded as they toured the Salon Doré, studied Boutet de Monvel’s six paintings of Joan of Arc from W.A.’s billiard room, and posed for photos with W. A. Clark by standing with his portrait by William Merritt Chase.
    They also heard a presentation froma Clark-friendly graduate student who had written his master’s thesis on the wrongs that history haddone to W.A.’s reputation. The scholar assured the Clarks that the senator had never been convicted of a crime and hadn’t been thrown out of the Senate but had resigned—all true, but skirting the less pleasant part of the story. His Senate trial, the Clark relatives were told, had been a parody of justice and jurisprudence. Clark’s reputation had suffered, the scholar assured them, because Roman Catholic religious fervor colored the accounts of historians, who sided with the Irish Catholic Marcus Daly over the Scotch-Irish Presbyterian Clark. And besides, the scholar explained, all elections on the frontier were bizarre. The presentation was focused on burnishing, not examining, their relative’s legacy.
    Huguette was often mentioned. Carla had written to her, through attorney Bock,seeking $22,000 to pay the costs of the reunion, and Huguette had sent $10,000 for the steak banquet. Carla made effusive remarks thanking Huguette. Large photos of her and Andrée were included in a display. Many of the Clarks signed a card for her.
    “Dear Tante Huguette,” wrote Ian Clark Devine, her half-great-grandnephew. “Thank you for helping the whole family gather for the first time. A glorious weekend. Merci.”
    None of this was enough for Huguette’s invited representative at the reunion, her accountant, Irving Kamsler.He made a scene, complaining to Carla that insufficient attention was being paid to Huguette’s status as the senior family member. He made quite an impression.
    After the second day of the reunion, one relative shared with others the headline she found when she typed Kamsler’s name into Google: “Porno sting nabs temple president.”
    Irving H.Kamsler had been arrested on September 6, 2007, in Nassau County, New York. He had resigned his position as president of his Reform Jewish synagogue in the affluent Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx.The fifteen-count indictment alleged that on five different days in 2005 and 2007, when he was between fifty-eight and sixty years old, he had tried to entice a thirteen-year-old girl and two fifteen-year-old girls via AOL instant messaging, describing sex acts and saying he wanted to meet with them for sex. Kamsler was using the AOL screen names Taxirv and IRV1040 (from his first name, Irv, and the accountant’s usual tool, the IRS income tax form).
    The thirteen-year-old was not, as IRV1040 soon learned, a middle-school-agedgirl who wanted to date sixtyish accountants. She was an adult, volunteering as an investigator for the Long Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. The fifteen-year-old girls were adult investigators from the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office.
    Kamsler was indicted on six felony counts of attempting to disseminate indecent material to minors and nine misdemeanor counts of attempting to endanger the welfare of a child.He admitted to police that he was IRV1040 and that he had discussed sex acts, but he said he had thought he was in an adult chat room and was just “pretending” to talk with girls. Although at first he pleaded not guilty, Kamslerchanged his plea to guilty on September 29, 2008. That was less than a month before he represented Huguette at the Clark reunion, while he was awaiting sentencing.
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    One of the relatives found something else on the Web. An estate lawyer in New Jersey posted on her blog a note about her friend, Irving Kamsler. At that time, the tax laws were in flux, with the estate tax scheduled to expire at the end of 2009 if Congress didn’t