What do you think?
Rate this book
Trust No One: The Glamorous Life and Bizarre Death of Doris Duke
The first book written with a member of her personal staff, Trust No One reveals the fascinating and frightening story of golden-girl socialite and heiress Doris Duke. With a fortune estimated at over 3 billion dollars and fabulous houses in Hawaii, Newport, Beverley Hills, and New York City, Doris Duke was one of the richest women in America, if not the world. Heiress to the American Tobacco Company fortune made by her father, James Duke, she took to heart her father's admonition "Trust no one!". Although she was a fixture on the international social scene and had countless lovers, ranging from celebrity Errol Flynn to Hawaiian beach boys, she remained desperately lonely. After two failed marriages and a notorious scandal, Duke became a semi-recluse whose behavior grew increasingly strange. But nothing in her life could compare with the headlines about her death, which included allegations of murder.
- GenresBiography
240 pages, Paperback
First published March 15, 1997
2 people are currently reading
51 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 31, 2021
For this book, writer Ted Schwarz teams up with Tom Rybak who served as a chef for Doris Duke for two years. The book is uneven in both the coverage of her life and in its documentation.
The early chapters on Doris’s parents and her young life are very good. There is a lot of information on Buck Duke (Doris’s bold and loving father) and his first wife, Lillian McCredy and his second wife, Doris’s mother, Nanaline Holt Inman Duke. The chapter on Doris’s first husband Jimmy Cromwell is precious.
While the prose, at times, is as engrossing as the story, at other times it gets lost in side issues. At times the text is well documented, other times, documentation is non-existent.
Chapter 10 has the fantastic stories and myths surrounding Doris’s second husband, Rubi Rubirosa. You can imagine that the US State Department was concerned that Rubirosa might kill her and take her wealth (perhaps 1% of the US GDP) for his patron Raphael Trajillo, but on what authority do the authors say Doris feared this too? There are no footnotes at all for the many claims of this chapter.
Subjective comments on the Chandi Hefner and the Bernard Lafferty years are most likely from Tom Rybak, who, while only employed by Duke for two years, undoubtedly had access to many on the staff who would and could talk after he death.
In the later chapters, you can get lost in litigation of the many suing the Duke estate, some claim promises of lifelong employment or perks promised by Doris. There is detailed reporting on (and documentation of) the drugs and treatments (I couldn’t see the forest for the trees in this part) given to Duke in her final years for which there were investigations. As of the writing … most of litigation on the cause of her death and her estate was inconclusive and the finger pointing regarding her death continued. … While this is not the authors' fault, there was a lot of wandering text here, perhaps the authors were trying to show all sides of these issues.
Doris Duke is one of the most provocative figures of 20th century America. Her family history not only spans, but in some eras represents, the nation’s history: the Civil War, Gilded Age and the debutante balls, the Jazz age, Industrial Development, WWII, the cultural explosions of the 1960’s and consumer culture still with us today. Too many weak and dubious “biographies” like this one followed her death. The 1999 book: The Richest Girl in the World: The Extravagant Life and Fast Times of Doris Duke can be considered a first cut, To my knowledge, it has not been improved or expanded upon.
My recent reading of The Silver Swan Lib/E: In Search of Doris Duke, prompted my going backward – and Sallie Bingham’s thesis on the sad state of Duke biographies is well taken.
The early chapters on Doris’s parents and her young life are very good. There is a lot of information on Buck Duke (Doris’s bold and loving father) and his first wife, Lillian McCredy and his second wife, Doris’s mother, Nanaline Holt Inman Duke. The chapter on Doris’s first husband Jimmy Cromwell is precious.
While the prose, at times, is as engrossing as the story, at other times it gets lost in side issues. At times the text is well documented, other times, documentation is non-existent.
Chapter 10 has the fantastic stories and myths surrounding Doris’s second husband, Rubi Rubirosa. You can imagine that the US State Department was concerned that Rubirosa might kill her and take her wealth (perhaps 1% of the US GDP) for his patron Raphael Trajillo, but on what authority do the authors say Doris feared this too? There are no footnotes at all for the many claims of this chapter.
Subjective comments on the Chandi Hefner and the Bernard Lafferty years are most likely from Tom Rybak, who, while only employed by Duke for two years, undoubtedly had access to many on the staff who would and could talk after he death.
In the later chapters, you can get lost in litigation of the many suing the Duke estate, some claim promises of lifelong employment or perks promised by Doris. There is detailed reporting on (and documentation of) the drugs and treatments (I couldn’t see the forest for the trees in this part) given to Duke in her final years for which there were investigations. As of the writing … most of litigation on the cause of her death and her estate was inconclusive and the finger pointing regarding her death continued. … While this is not the authors' fault, there was a lot of wandering text here, perhaps the authors were trying to show all sides of these issues.
Doris Duke is one of the most provocative figures of 20th century America. Her family history not only spans, but in some eras represents, the nation’s history: the Civil War, Gilded Age and the debutante balls, the Jazz age, Industrial Development, WWII, the cultural explosions of the 1960’s and consumer culture still with us today. Too many weak and dubious “biographies” like this one followed her death. The 1999 book: The Richest Girl in the World: The Extravagant Life and Fast Times of Doris Duke can be considered a first cut, To my knowledge, it has not been improved or expanded upon.
My recent reading of The Silver Swan Lib/E: In Search of Doris Duke, prompted my going backward – and Sallie Bingham’s thesis on the sad state of Duke biographies is well taken.
November 22, 2007
One of the worst-written books I have ever read. So poorly written that I had to re-read sentences to figure out what they meant. And for that, it was fascinating. Still a good story...
May 23, 2023
A DNF. Made it about half way, but finally gave it up.
This author seems to be overly concerned about Doris Duke’s sexuality- with continual references to Doris Duke’s ‘insatiable appetite’ desire for experimentation- constant references to her ‘being serviced’, but with very little to back it up, other than what seemed to me like conjecture. Every relationship she had was described in those terms- it got boring and so repetitive. Very little about the emotional life of Doris Duke, very little sense of her as a person, other than crude descriptions of the sexual relationships she had, according to the author. Clearly I was not a fan.
It just irritated me.
This author seems to be overly concerned about Doris Duke’s sexuality- with continual references to Doris Duke’s ‘insatiable appetite’ desire for experimentation- constant references to her ‘being serviced’, but with very little to back it up, other than what seemed to me like conjecture. Every relationship she had was described in those terms- it got boring and so repetitive. Very little about the emotional life of Doris Duke, very little sense of her as a person, other than crude descriptions of the sexual relationships she had, according to the author. Clearly I was not a fan.
It just irritated me.
July 4, 2012
After touring Dukes Farm with my parents in the spring (it is an amazingly beautiful 2700 acre estate in nearby Hillsborough, NJ -Duke Farms), I was very interested to learn about Doris Duke- the Richest Girl in the World when her father, tobacco and energy magnate Buck Duke, died when she was 13 years old. She was a very smart little girl, and went on to lead a very interesting life (she was a spy during WWII). Doris Duke was a very complex woman. She was a philanthropist, and a very savvy businesswoman who multiplied her fortune by billions. She was also an avid art collector, a self-taught botanist and, last but not least, a fine jazz musician. Doris was also very flawed: she was an alcoholic; a drug abuser; and, was anorexic. All of this is explained in great detail in the book. She could never trust the people around her, from friends to lovers, to even her butler who may have contributed to her death.
I have been in a biography mood lately, having finished Rupert Everett's autobiography (not very good- I didn't even review it), and I'm currently finishing David Beckham's. I enjoyed this book; Doris Duke was a very interesting woman, who really tried to get the most out of life.
I have been in a biography mood lately, having finished Rupert Everett's autobiography (not very good- I didn't even review it), and I'm currently finishing David Beckham's. I enjoyed this book; Doris Duke was a very interesting woman, who really tried to get the most out of life.
February 28, 2013
It is horrible to be born being a slave. Being a prisoner in a golden cage. Although she enjoyed luxuries and good food; she was actually a victim of her wealth.
May 23: The book is not very good because it is very apparent that it was written to capture the reader's curiosity about not very profound but nasty details. It is obvious that this was written by some bitter ex-employee; and you get pretty bored pretty soon.
May 23: The book is not very good because it is very apparent that it was written to capture the reader's curiosity about not very profound but nasty details. It is obvious that this was written by some bitter ex-employee; and you get pretty bored pretty soon.
June 20, 2012
If you're curious about her life, it's worth reading. Not particularly well written and not particularly fascinating information but worthy glimpse into her life and the remnants of the Duke fortune.
October 11, 2014
I wanted to read all of it, but it was written so poorly, it drove me nuts and I abandoned it!
I had seen the TV movie with Richard Chamberlain and it was a good story.
I did however learn a lot about how her family shaped a lot of things in our society.
I had seen the TV movie with Richard Chamberlain and it was a good story.
I did however learn a lot about how her family shaped a lot of things in our society.
January 19, 2016
The only reason I gave this one a '3' was that it's a very interesting look into Doris Duke's life with interesting insider perspective(one of the co-writers was her chef). However, this book looks entirely unedited and had atrocious spelling, grammer, mistakes ALL OVER and it was unacceptable.
November 25, 2009
Interesting to read about her life and sad death. I found the "living" part of Doris Duke more interesting than the sadness of the way she died. It still left many unanswered questions.
November 2, 2009
Doris Duke's life reads like a novel - bizarre and sad at times. Visited her home in Newport R.I. which she donated to a preservation society - you can view today how she lived in it.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews