Anna Nicole Smith Was Bankrupt But Didn't Know Why -- Probably Because She Was High

Newly released government files offer a glimpse into the money troubles that plagued Anna Nicole Smith at the height of her notoriety, ranging from millions in missing jewels to unpaid utility bills, reports the AP.

The Department of Justice files that detail her 1996 bankruptcy filing (which came a year after her billionaire husband's death) also note her lack of understanding of her financial woes.

"She did not know why she was in bankruptcy," an unidentified Chapter 11 examiner wrote in a 1996 report that was part of the government file obtained by The Associated Press under a Freedom of Information Act request.

Assets noted in her file include a Russian lynx coat appraised at $43,343.75 and a necklace with a 500-carat sapphire, but also six potbellied pigs and a $12,000 doll collection. A safety deposit box at a New York bank held nearly $1 million in jewelry, but also a bottle of her perfume and a copy of her calendar. And while filings list $154,142 in income from modeling and royalties in 1994 and $274,514 the next year, left unpaid were taxes in numerous jurisdictions and even a gas bill for $265.63.

Also detailed in the files is Anna's apparent loss of some $2.7 million in jewelry, including two pieces valued at nearly a half-million dollars apiece: a ring with three diamonds, including one weighing 8.45 carats, and a platinum necklace with 226 diamonds totalling nearly 74 carats. The whereabouts of both were never determined, nor is it known if they were stolen.

In the bankruptcy examiner's report, the writer often expresses exasperation with Smith, saying she appears drugged during the interview and takes additional pills in the course of the meeting at her home.

"She could barely walk, her speech was slurred, she had to lay down in a darkened room as the light bothered her and she could not remember what she said from one moment to the next," the examiner reported.

That was the story of her sad, short life.


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