His total assets grew to $455 million before being disbursed in 1997, the paper said.

Mrs. Heinz inherited most of the estate, except for gifts to children, godchildren and longtime employees - which grew to more than a billion dollars by 2004, according to a financial estimate published by the Los Angeles Times.

The estate records, however, contained no information on Mrs. Heinz's charitable contributions, which are known to include substantial sums to controversial groups like the Tides Foundation, which bills itself as an environmental action group that "partners with donors to increase and organize resources for positive social change."

Tides, in turn, helped fund the Ruckus Society, which attempted to disrupt the 2004 GOP convention. The group also bankrolled the "September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows," which harshly criticized Bush campaign ads that alluded to the 9/11 attacks.

The unsealed estate records also failed to clear up questions about the Beacon Hill townhouse purchased by Mrs. Heinz, which was re-mortgaged through a Pittsburgh bank in December 2003 to generate desperately needed campaign funds for John Kerry's presidential bid.

"Kerry used an appraisal pegging the value of his Beacon Hill townhouse at twice the amount listed on City Hall records in order to get the $6.4 million loan he needed to resuscitate his presidential bid," the Boston Herald reported at the time.

The Kerry campaign insisted that the loan represented just half of the $12.8 million total value of the property. But a quick check by the Herald with Boston's Assessing Department revealed that the value of the five-story mansion was just $6.6 million.

Asked to release their own appraisal putting the Heinz mansion's value at $12.8 million, a Kerry campaign lawyer told the Herald: "I can't release any documentation. It's confidential."

Editor's note: