Forbes' list of "The 400 Richest Americans" is out, and 13 of 'em are from Dallas. To save you some time (because time is money), we're including only the locals here--chief among them the man who owns the company that owns Omni Hotels and Gold's Gym...and Waldo's Dollar Mart in Mexico. Guess it doesn't hurt that Robert Rowling also oversees Tana Exploration Company's oil and gas exploration program in the Gulf of Mexico; seek petroleum products, and ye shall find yerself at the top of the richest Dallasites. Me, I can't find my ass with both hands.
Sitting at No. 45 is Robert Rowling, the 53-year-old worth $5.2 billion. He's followed by the very familiar face of 76-year-old H. Ross Perot, worth $4.3 billion; Perot's at 57 on Forbes' list. After that, at 61 on the list, is 75-year-old Harold Simmons, whose worth is estimated at $4.1 billion. Laura Miller's best friend Ray Hunt comes in at 73 on the list; the 63-year-old oil and real estate developer's worth $3.5 billion.
Thirty spots down, at No. 103, is 78-year-old T. Boone Pickens, worth $2.7 billion. And 30 spots down from him is the second-youngest Dallasite on the list, Mavs owner Mark Cuban, who is worth $2.3 billion; his business partner, 46-year-old Todd Wagner, is down at No. 278, his worth estimated at a, uh, mere $1.4 billion. Oddly, Forbes lists Wagner's business as Broadcast.com, which he sold years ago in order to make his billion-plus.
At No. 215 is 62-year-old banker Gerald J. Ford, who's got $1.6 billion in the bank. Oilman Trevor Rees-Jones, the 56-year-old founder of Chief Oil & Gas (and not, oh, Princess Diana's former bodyguard), comes in at 242 on the list, with $1.5 billion in the bank. Jerry Jones' myriad facelifts have done little to his bank account: The 63-year-old Dallas Cowboys owner still has $1.3 billion, which puts him at No. 297 on the list. He's followed at No. 322 by 58-year-old Kenny Trout, who made his $1.2 billion in 1998 when he sold his Excel Communications multi-level marketing business. And tied at No. 354 are 56-year-old Timothy Headington, the oilman-turned-Wyndham Hotel operator who recently saved the artwork in the Mercantile Building, and 71-year-old Samuel Wyly, who's been in all kinds of hot water with things like hedge funds, energy deregulation and the Bush family and some offshore tax shelters that helped Wyly make and pocket a few hundred in untaxable millions. Headington and Wyly are worth a mere $1.1 billion each. --Robert Wilonsky