Widow Buys $15.9M Manhattan Mansion to Live With Escort, Then Faces Lawsuit

A grieving widow, Marianne Flippo, spent $15.9 million to buy the landmarked James F.D. Lanier House in Manhattan’s Kips Bay to live with a male escort she later says coerced her into a bogus $10 million buyout; a Manhattan Supreme Court filing seeks to claw back funds as bank balances dwindled. The six-story, 11,638-square-foot Beaux-Arts mansion features 12 bedrooms, a wellness floor, and high monthly carrying costs (including roughly $14,000 in property taxes), while Flippo continued to split time between New Hampshire, where she has long been based.