Death Wish Star Settles Will

In February, Death Wish hard man Charles Bronson was sued by one Nancy Koeper of Chula Vista, California. The suit concerned Koeper's sister - Audrey Knauer - who had willed the 77-year-old actor her entire Louisville, Kentucky estate valued at $300,000. In a questionable move, Bronson accepted. The trouble started when Koeper put forward that her sister was, in fact, mentally ill at the time she scribbled the will onto the back of a grocery list in 1996. Therefore, claimed Koeper, the will was invalid. Even so, family bonds clearly weren't at their strongest as the document in question mandated that nothing - not "blood, body parts, financial assets" - go to the family. Thin air and lots of it was all the remaining, very much alive relations were going to receive; Malibu-residing Bronson on the other hand, would have everything. Anything he didn't want - and this is the salt in the wound - should go to the Louisville Free Public Library, where Knauer went to read about her hairy-lipped hero. Koeper claimed in her suit that a signed and witnessed will made by her sister in 1977, which gives everything to the family, should have been followed instead. However, this all now water under the bridge, as Bronson last week settled out of court with Koeper with an undisclosed amount to be paid to the family. Just why anyone would leave their fortune to Bronson is as mysterious as why Bronson himself is an actor, however, Koeper had said in an earlier interview that her sister saw Bronson "as this avenging person who was generous and kind, kind of a father figure." Right. Lest we forget Louisville Free Public Library, originally to receive any junk that Bronson didn't want from the generosity of Koeper. If reports surrounding the affair are to be believed, green-eyed librarians declined an alleged offer of $10,000 from Bronson - less than 10% of the estate in the will. With suggestions that it was hoping for a greater sum out of the deal, with the messy chapter now closed, the library gets nothing.