It's the loudest story this morning even if you can't see it:
"‘Contrarian’ investor leaves a trail of bitterness" by Andrea Estes Globe Staff March 19, 2016
Morris Stern lived in his parents’ Brookline home until the day he died in 2012, a lonely bachelor who quietly built a lucrative real estate portfolio — and a reputation as a first-class cheapskate.
He wore temporary dentures for five years because he didn’t want to pay for permanent ones, friends said. When his diabetes left him barely able to see, he wouldn’t spend $10 for a pair of reading glasses. He returned unwanted groceries, like bread or rotisserie chickens, to Stop & Shop and once brought back a package of his dead father’s unopened underwear to Marshall’s.
So, when Stern’s friends and family heard that a stranger was claiming that Morris gave him two town houses in a prime Brookline location for $100, they were incredulous, but they had never dealt with anyone quite like Brian R. Burke Sr., the self-styled “contrarian” real estate investor, builder, and broker who showed up.
Burke, who grew up in the South Boston housing project where James “Whitey” Bulger once ruled the roost, admits his connection to Morris Stern, the miserly son of Holocaust survivors, was unlikely, but....
I'm told they were “diametrically opposed, so opposite in so many ways,” and I hear that.
--more--"
I didn't want to see anymore, sorry. Been that way a lot lately.
This may bring boos, but I need to go play some ball where the only cheers I will hear are in my own head.
