The astronaut’s family made $6 million from his death. Not by capitalizing on his fame, but in exchange for her silence.
August 25, 2012
He dies at the age of 82 Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the moon, uttering the legendary phrase: One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
What few know is how much few money took Armstrong to walk on the moon. At that time, his salary was 27,401 dollarswhich would equate to nearly $200,000 in today’s money.
Yes, the crew of Apollo 11 he was not paid extra for space travel.
Of course, most astronauts found ways, later in life, to capitalize on their fame. THE Buzz Aldrin he’s asking $50,000 to $75,000, private jet travel and VIP accommodations to speak at conferences.
THE Charlie Dukethe 10th and youngest astronaut to walk on the moon, is asking $5,000 for an interview.
But Armstrong did not show much interest in this during his lifetime. He lived away from the public eye and the only times he raised money were for his alma mater, Purdue.
Not so with his family, who made $6 million from the astronaut’s death. Not by capitalizing on his fame, but in exchange for her silence.
The unknown story
When Neil Armstrong died in 2012, his death was officially attributed to complications arising from heart surgery. But seven years later, the New York Times brought to light the darkest circumstances of this death.
The newspaper received by mail 93 pages of documents which reveal a feud between the family of the most famous astronaut in history and the small Ohio hospital where he was treated and operated on.
According to what he revealed, the family had threatened to publicly accuse the hospital of medical error.
Eventually, it came down to one secret agreement that prevented a scandal from going public, with the hospital paying $6 million. Of that, 5 million went to Armstrong’s two sons, Rick and Markin exchange for their silence.
In a July 2014 email, Mark’s wife, Wendy, who is a lawyer, threatened to make announcements during the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission.
“If this matter were to become public, the damage to your client’s reputation would cost far more than any court decision we can imagine,” he wrote
The case was about his decision hospital in Fairfield, Ohio not to immediately take Armstrong to the operating room when he began experiencing rapid internal bleeding several days after bypass surgery. Also, the initial decision to perform the operation was questioned.
However, Armstrong’s widow, Carol, who was his second wife, wanted it known that she was not part of the deal.
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