Much to the chagrin of their American sponsors, she consorted with Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and Fidel Castro. Her legendary shopping sprees ultimately included the assembly of a splendid portfolio of secretly acquired American real estate, featuring such jewels as the Crown Building on Fifth Avenue and a Long Island estate that is once again on the market. State Department sources have told me that Imelda may even have planned the brazen 1983 murder of the opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino, shot down on the Manila airport tarmac in front of a planeload of foreign journalists.
