Robert Theodore Ammon (30 August 1949 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - 22 October 2001 in East Hampton, New York) was an American financier and investment banker. He was murdered by Daniel Pelosi, the boyfriend of his estranged wife Generosa.[1]
Ammon graduated from Bucknell University, then followed his first wife to London, where he worked as a solicitor. His second wife, Generosa Rand, was a realtor he met during an apartment search; they married in 1986. The couple adopted twins from the Ukraine, Gregory and Alexa. Their five homes included two townhouses in Manhattan and an estate in Surrey, England. Ammon became one of the youngest partners at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and was involved in the RJR Nabisco buyout earning an estimate of $50-100 million.
Ammon's marriage turned hostile after Generosa found a receipt for a divorce lawyer in his desk. They were days from finalizing their divorce when he was found bludgeoned to death with a lamp in the East Hamptons vacation home. Because their divorce was not finalized and Ted's will had not been updated, Generosa inherited 50% of his estate, in accordance with the will, with the balance going to the Ammon Foundation. On 15 January 2002, Generosa married Pelosi, then sold the properties she had owned jointly with Ammon. [2]
JPMorgan Chase & Co. was appointed along with Generosa as co-executor of the estate. While she and Pelosi were considered persons of interest in Ted's murder there was no evidence linking her to the murder. Ultimately, Generosa's estate inherited 50% of Ted's estate. The estate did not pass until after her death.
In the months before Ted Ammon died, he was apparently undergoing a metamorphosis. For the past year or so, he had been trying to take the long view: he’d made a bundle, and was now giving some of it, and of his time, away. In 1996, he set up the biggest-ever scholarship fund at his alma mater, Bucknell, and he became steadily more involved with civic activities, joining the boards of the YMCA and the Municipal Art Society, dedicated to New York’s historic preservation.
After his death, a small group gathered in London to remember Ammon; in December, thousands of people would attended a Manhattan memorial service in Alice Tully Hall, the home of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Among the Wall Street dignitaries in attendance were Henry Kravis, head of Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co, Apollo Capital chief Leon Black, and Roger Altman, Deputy Treasury Secretary under U.S. President Bill Clinton. Ammon’s two children sat with the family but without their mother since, at the request of Ammon’s sister, Sandra, Generosa did not attend.
At the service, Ammon’s close friend Wynton Marsalis honored him with a quintessential New-Orleans-style jazz send-off. Before playing the funeral march, Marsalis spoke to the congregation. “We want to know the particulars of death—it repulses us, it calls us, it fascinates us…but only the dead know the facts of death, and they never tell.”
Generosa died of breast cancer in August 2003. She left a majority of her estate to the twins and legal guardianship of them to their nanny, Kaye Mayne. Full custody of the twins was eventually awarded to Ted's sister. Pelosi was convicted of Ted's murder in December 2004 and was sentenced to 25 years to life.
David Sutcliffe played Ammon in the TV movie Murder in the Hamptons (also known as "Million Dollar Murder").