Drama and intrigue reached a new level Wednesday in the puzzling case of Joseph Stancak, the frugal, secretly wealthy Southwest Side recluse whose record-setting unclaimed estate is valued at $11 million.
Cook County Probate Judge Daniel O. Tiernan decided to admit a mysterious will that is purportedly the last will and testament of Stancak into the probate case that will ultimately determine who gets the money.
The decision leaves in limbo more than 119 distant Stancak relatives around the globe who had been expecting to share a portion of the proceeds before the will that surfaced over the summer.
Attorneys representing the heirs said they needed to reach out to their clients about the judge’s decision, but they anticipated a legal challenge to the will would be mounted in the coming weeks.
The baffling tale can be traced to the modest brick bungalow in Gage Park where Stancak lived and, somehow, accumulated his millions.
It’s unclear what Stancak even did for a living. Neighbors thought that maybe he was an electrician or an electrical engineer. They’d occasionally see him tinkering with his old car or a broken lawnmower.
Then, in December 2016, he died at 87, with no will then surfacing and no immediate family left behind — but $11 million in the bank. That made it the largest unclaimed estate in U.S. history and an immediate media sensation when Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs shared details of the case in October 2022.
A search turned up more than 119 distant relatives around the world, and checks divvying up Stancak’s fortune were being prepared to be sent to them.
That is until a court petition filed in June asked the judge overseeing Stancak’s probate case to accept a newly turned-up will.
According to the purported will — dated Aug. 19, 2015 — Stancak left his entire estate to Smart Kids Child Care Inc. and that company’s president, Asad Mahmood.
Attorneys representing Mahmood claim that only two copies of the will were produced: One was to be kept by Smart Kids, and one went to the lawyer who drafted the will, John Alleman.
One unusual line in the will attributed to Stancak reads: “I am a recluse individual in the state of Chicago, Illinois.”
Stancak, in the will, assigned Alleman the task of notifying Mahmood of Stancak’s death.
But Alleman died in a plane crash months after Stancak supposedly signed the document.
And the copy of the will that went to Alleman, a personal injury attorney from Downstate Carbondale, hasn’t been located.
Ken Piercey, who was appointed last year by the judge to be the independent administrator of Stancak’s estate, said Wednesday that admittance of the will negated his role as administrator of the estate.
His future on the case is uncertain. The heirs will need to decide who will represent them going forward, Piercey said.
Piercey said in court filings that he is “highly suspicious” of the authenticity of the “poorly drafted” will that was “found” only after the case made international headlines — and seven years after Stancak died.
Piercey raises the possibility that Alleman’s copy of the will hasn’t been found because “it was never held by him in the first place as the purported will is a fraud upon this estate and this court.”
On Wednesday, the judge acknowledged “the allegations are concerning” and noted that admission of the will “was not final word on validity.”
But without evidence of “fraud, forgery, compulsion or improper conduct,” the document would be admitted because it contained what is, by law, necessary: namely the signatures of Stancak and witnesses, Tiernan said.
“We’re very happy with the result. This is just the beginning,” said Gregory Markwell, an attorney representing Smart Kids.
Markwell declined to share any details on how his client knew Stancak.
Piercey had found zero connection between Stancak and Smart Kids.
In court filings, Piercey cast a wary eye on why a recluse from the Southwest Side would hire an attorney from southern Illinois and travel to New York to finalize the document, as is purported to have happened.
He told the Chicago Sun-Times that Stancak’s signature on the will doesn’t appear to match previous signatures.
Piercey also notes that Smart Kids has no phone number or website and that another company is operating out of its listed address in New York City.
Piercey was left with the difficult task of informing the heirs who had expected to receive their portion of the money by now of their loss in court.
“It’s no fun being the bearer of bad news, even if it’s only temporary because the will may end up being successfully contested,” he said.
“Wow, that’s unbelievable. That’s a turn of events, eh?” said Mike Griglak, 63, a retired Canadian oil sands worker who lives outside Windsor, Ontario, and was an heir to the fortune.
Griglak had planned to use the money to retire to Florida, waving a final toodle-oo to Canada and its bitter winters.
“It’s sad in a way, but then again, it’s not over until it’s over.”
