Rupert's $5 Billion Bancroft Family Scratch N' Win

Felix Gillette
The New York Observer

May 08, 2007 14:37 EDT

for the sale? Are any? Which are against?

As Mr. Murdoch begins to work on the family, and its stalwarts attempt to keep the ranks together, more and more emerges about the Magnificent Bancrofts.

The family, which first obtained the company in 1905, has over the last hundred years spread across the country and pursued lives and careers typical of a great old American industrial clan—they are small magazine owners, teachers, power-boat racers, philanthropists, farmers, roller-derby enthusiasts, male models, lawyers, a cappella singers and Montel Williams fans. Here [765kb file] we attempt to reconstruct a family tree, from wedding announcements, obituaries and conversations with sources who know parts of the family (since such a very few seem to know all).

Source: The New York Observer