The Tragic Death Of Liberace

May 2024 · 2 minute read

Liberace was actually quite conservative and sought legal action against many people to protect his reputation. He sued two newspapers, the UK's Daily Mirror and the American magazine Confidential in the 1950s for insinuating that he was gay.

In reality, he did invite men to his home and had romantic relationships with several of them. People around him told stories about his conquests and how he sometimes wasn't discreet about whom he slept with. USA Today reported that once, a man he invited to his house had stolen money from him. He told a friend who had introduced them not to call the police. Liberace said he didn't want the public to know the man had been in his bedroom, since that's how the money was stolen.

Liberace then met 17-year old Scott Thorson. The New York Times wrote that Liberace treated Thorson as a lover, a son, and employee — Biography describes Thorson as Liberace's "former bodyguard and chauffeur" — paying for cosmetic procedures, shopping sprees, and gifts.

In 1982, Thorson sued Liberace for palimony and asked for $113 million. That year, Liberace's entourage kicked Thorson out of his Los Angeles house, possibly because of his drug habit and the pianist's promiscuity. It was a hard battle, mainly because Liberace still denied he was gay. They settled in 1986 because, as Thorson said, he knew Liberace was dying.

And it was true. Liberace died on February 4, 1987, from cytomegalovirus pneumonia, a complication from HIV.

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