A one-time actress and accused cult leader cut her two kids out of her $3 million estate because they “betrayed” her, according to court papers.
Sharon Gans Horn, who had a bit part in the film adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five,” died in January 2021 at age 86.
For decades, Gans Horn and her late husband Alex Horn ran the Odyssey Study Group, a cult that allegedly siphoned cash from adoring followers to support their wealthy lifestyle, including posh homes in the Hudson Valley and a ranch in Montana.
Odyssey met twice weekly to study philosophers who say labor and intentional suffering lead to self-development, former members have said, with some claiming they were forced to work on properties owned by Horn — and paid $400 monthly”membership fees” for the privilege.
In her will, Gans Horn wrote she “intentionally excluded” son David Kulko, 60, and daughter, Ilsa Lee Kaye, 59, “for reasons that are known to David and Ilsa.”
n 2015, Kulko sued Kaye, step brother Michael Horn, and Davail Inc, the partnership which owned the family’s Montana ranch.
The mom claimed in the will, filed in Manhattan Surrogate Court, that she had “deep regret that Isla has betrayed her so terribly, and followed in David’s footsteps,” noting the pair “shall not be considered [her] children.”
Gans Horn did dole out cash from her $3.275 million estate to a cousin, friends, Odyssey leaders, and even her housekeeper, court papers show.
The cult was co-founded by the Horns in San Francisco in the 1970s — moving to New York in the 1980s when accusations of abuse and financial misdeeds became public. Two New Yorkers who claim they were turned into unpaid servants for Odyssey sued the group in Manhattan Supreme Court in September.
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