Birthright

by Ronald J. Watkins

This is the sordid story of the family of L. S. Schoen, the one-time migrant worker who, having founded the $4-billion U-Haul trailer and truck rental empire, saw his dynastic dreams shattered by feuding among the 13 offspring of his four marriages, culminating in the sensational, unsolved 1990 murder of a daughter-in-law in Telluride, Colo. Using access to Schoen pere , other relatives and their personal documents, Watkins ( Evil Intentions ), dramatically recounts how the family, dominated by Schoen's driving personality, was evidently riven by maniacal greed, leading to a succession of boardroom fights, lawsuits and financial crises that diminished the company's profits and ruined lives. Of his entanglement with sons Joe and Mark, who fought with their brothers and ousted him as chairman, Schoen came to say "I created a monster." The family of the slain sister-in-law, Eva Berg Schoen, have offered a $250,000 reward for information concerning the murder