Anna Nicole's stepson, mortal enemy dead at 67

So all the trouble E. Pierce Marshall went to trying to keep his stepmom, Anna Nicole Smith, from inheriting his oil tycoon father's fortune ended up being, well, a bit of a waste: Marshall died last week after what the family called a "brief and extremely aggressive infection." He was 67.

Marshall and Smith have been fighting for more than a decade over who was entitled to J. Howard Marshall II's millions. Smith married Marshall in 1994 when she was 26 and he was 89. The elder Marshall died 14 months later, and though Smith claimed he verbally promised her half his estate (valued at up to $1.6 billion), his last will — from 1994 — named Pierce Marshall the sole beneficiary. Smith accused Pierce Marshall of altering the will, and the rest is courtroom history. Before his death, the most recent news in the case was a Supreme Court decision in Smith's favor that gave her the go-ahead to keep fighting for part of the money.

It's not clear what will happen next in the legal battle. Before Marshall's death, the case was set to return to a California court.