Who Wants to Be a Billionaire?

The numbers do, however, add up to precisely $20,000, the value of Annie's term life policy, according to TI.

From here Sam makes a leap of logic and asserts that the $12,999.99 was transferred by TI to its pension or profit-sharing plans, from whence it could increase in value. In federal court pleadings, TI says this is impossible. "Under no circumstances were unpaid life insurance proceeds under the Connecticut General life insurance policy in effect at the time of Annie Lee Gross's death deposited in/transferred to/invested in/or in any way placed in any TI account or any account of a TI insurance or benefit plan."

Remember, too, that the checks were written by Connecticut General to the beneficiaries. The money never passed through TI's accounts; TI's only role in the distribution of the life insurance proceeds was to hand out the checks to the people on the policyholder's beneficiary card.

Sam has no proof that TI didn't follow its usual policy. He provides no TI document indicating a transfer of funds, only papers showing the total value of TI's pension and profit-sharing plans at much later dates. At some point, he provides what he describes as a TI "plan record reflecting the receipt of such insurance proceeds," according to federal court documents, but TI says this isn't a TI record, and furthermore, Sam has never "establish(ed) the source of this microfiche or what it purports to prove. Rather, [Sam Gross] has created his own story as to the meaning of this microfiche in order to support his otherwise unsubstantiated claim." He does offer a hunch and a conspiracy theory, though--that TI, with nefarious intent, at some point changed his mother's name to A.L. Green in order to hide her millions of dollars of lost assets from Sam. He gathers this from the fact that Annie's name appears one time in Social Security earnings records as "A.L. Green."

He has no proof, however, that the name change was anything beyond what it appears to be at first glance--a clerical error that had no effect on Annie Gross' earnings totals recorded with the Social Security Administration. Sam complains in a 1996 letter to then-U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, "I understand that some people can drop the ball sometimes, but I don't understand how my Mother's Estate has been open for 26 years and I...have not received any of my inheritance." Sam's own court filings, however, are riddled with misspellings, grammatical errors, non sequiturs and shifting information. It doesn't seem unreasonable to believe that the Social Security Administration made a simple typographical error. But to Sam, the single mention of "A.L. Green" in the Social Security earnings record is the starting point of an elaborate conspiracy with worldwide reach and billion-dollar import.

Whatever the case, TI denies it has any money or property belonging to Annie Lee Gross, A.L. Green or any individual with that Social Security number. And it resented the fact that Sam harassed its employees, repeatedly showed up unannounced at its offices and attempted to get information "under false pretenses." It describes his tale of "changed identities, secret transfers and hidden money" as "fanciful--and utterly unsupportable."

In his court filings and in media reports, Sam Gross makes many colossal leaps of logic--far too many to chronicle here--but if these central assertions collapse, the whole case collapses. That has never swayed Sam or his closest supporters; there seems to be an endless supply of people blinded by that billion-dollar light. But a window into Sam's bizarre reasoning can be found in a one-page document from the probate file titled "Sam Gross short story of chain of event [sic]." In it, Sam is giving the concise version of his legal saga, and he alludes to some later consequences of the alleged name change from Annie Lee Gross to A.L. Green. The following excerpt is reproduced verbatim:

"...[S]o her assets continued to be used and undetected as if she were still alive under a sole-proprietorship under a employer tax identification number under a assumed name Annie Lee Green, which referred to Alfred G. Green, who I believed to be the Whistle Blower, who was paid off by the State of Texas...I believe that these particular crimes could not be accomplished without the involvement of the system working together. I believe that certain individuals created a way to defraud Annie Lee Gross Estate so they could use and continue to draw the interest of the Estate. Due to news articles I have received in which one is stating, that over 400 companies are being investigated for taken funds from employee savings and health plans. This shows that my mother's Estate could be the actual tip of the iceberg in uncovering the fraud and criminal activities that have taken place against the public that is the peace and dignity of the state."

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Dallas lawyer Linda Wiland has patiently pointed out some of the finer points of probate law, speaking in measured words about Sam Gross' many accusations against her former client, probate lawyer Joan Armstrong, who died a few years ago. Then she hears that Sam has done an interview with Oprah Winfrey, presumably for an upcoming show.