NEWPORT, R.I. — Oil heiress Carolyn Skelly was robbed of $3 million to $5 million worth of jewelry today--the fourth time she has been robbed in four years.
Skelly, the daughter of the late William Skelly, who amassed a fortune as a business associate of the late J. Paul Getty, was awakened in her Bois Dore mansion about 3:30 a.m. by a man wearing a ski mask and a dark sweat suit and brandishing a long knife, Sgt. Francis Tessina said.
"The intruder came into her bedroom, threatened her with a knife and told her he would tie her up if she made any noise," Tessina said, adding that Skelly's daughter was also in the mansion but unaware of the intruder.
"He proceeded to go through the house about 30 minutes before fleeing on foot with a small amount of cash, about $50, and multimillions in jewelry," Tessina said. "We estimate between $3 million and $5 million."
Skelly and her daughter were not injured. Investigators were not sure how the man entered the two-story estate.
Skelly's Narragansett Avenue mansion is just off famed Bellevue Avenue, the heart of the ocean resort's "Millionaire's Row," and about a mile from the Summer Wind mansion, which was robbed of more than $1 million last month.
In 1983, Skelly was robbed of $2.2 million of gold, diamond and other jewelry by a former maid. In August, 1985, three teen-agers broke into Skelly's estate and stole about 15 pieces of gold and diamond jewelry. The items were recovered in both cases.
In 1982, Skelly lost $1 million in family jewels when a man commandeered her chauffeur-driven limousine at gunpoint outside La Guardia Airport in New York.
