Will Power

The most astonishing and extraordinary bequests and last requests found in people's wills.

"This will is uncommon and capricious." As beginnings go, this opening line shows how our final words don't need to be written in standard legalese but can instead be creative and individualistic. Will Power tells the stories of big names and ordinary people writing their last wills and testaments who did just that.

There's the eccentric will that left a mansion and its grounds to a parrot. Developers could do nothing until it died -- and parrots have long lives. There are cautionary tales of family conflict, including the one-page will fought over for two decades by three generations. Want to write a parting shot? Read about the will that mocked the beneficiaries, such as the bequest that said, "For my sister because she is married to a minister who (God help him) she hen pecks." Or the contested will that ordered the deceased's horses to be killed by a police firing squad; the bigoted will that bequeathed everything to a neo-Nazi organization; and the will that left far more money to sons than daughters, sparking a landmark gender discrimination case.

These stories and many more will amuse, entertain, and inform -- for your consideration when you write or revise your will.