Louis Wolfson Louis Elwood Wolfson ( January 28 , 1912 - December 30 , 2007 ) was a Wall Street financier and one of the first modern corporate raid ers , labeled by Time Magazine as such in a 1956 article . In later years he was a major thoroughbred horse racing participant best known as the owner and breeder of 1978 American Triple Crown winner , Affirmed . In 1967 and 1968 , he was convicted of selling unregistered shares and of perjury and obstruction of justice for which he served one year in a federal prison . The conviction eventually led to the 1969 resignation of Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas , who first returned a $ 20 , 000 retainer to a Wolfson foundation . Young Wolfson . Wolfson was born in St . Louis , Missouri , but his family moved to Jacksonville , Florida , when he was one year old . The child of Jewish - Lithuanian immigrants , Wolfson and his seven siblings grew up in Jacksonville , where his father was a junk man / scrap metal dealer . In his teens , he boxed professionally under the name " Kid Wolf " , earning from $ 25 to $ 100 per fight . Wolfson was an outstanding athlete and an All - Southern end for Jacksonville ' s Andrew Jackson High School , who went to the University of Georgia to play football . He left the university after two years , never graduating . After dropping out of college , he raised $ 10 , 000 : half from a wealthy Georgia football fan , Harold Hirsch , and half from his family . Financier . He started the Florida Pipe and Supply Company to trade in building materials . Within a few years , he built this into a successful large business and was a millionaire at age 28 . In 1949 , Wolfson purchased the Capital Transit Company from the North American Company for $ 2 million . Capital Transit held the streetcar and bus service franchise for Washington , D . C . ; it had been managed conservatively and beyond its physical assets had a 7 million dollar cash reserve . When the company disbursed $ 3 million in dividends to shareholders , the government revoked Capital Transit ' s right to operate , and Wolfson sold his shares for $ 13 . 5 million . A 1951 takeover of Merritt - Chapman & Scott made Wolfson Chairman and CEO of the marine construction and salvage firm , but Wolfson expanded the company into ship building , chemicals , and money lending , becoming one of the first conglomerates . The corporation won numerous multi - million dollar contracts for high - profile projects , including the Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona , the United States Navy Supercarrier Kitty Hawk and the Mackinac Bridge , linking Michigan ' s lower and upper peninsulas . Wolfson became nationally known when , in 1955 , he unsuccessfully attempted a hostile takeover of Montgomery Ward and Co . His Universal Marion Co . owned the " Miami Beach Sun " and the " Jacksonville Chronicle " newspapers and made movies through a subsidiary . The firm co - financed the production of Mel Brooks ' first movie , " The Producers " , which won an Oscar and later became a major Broadway play . The building now known as the JEA Tower in Jacksonville was called the Universal - Marion Building when the firm was the largest tenant . At its peak , his industrial and commercial empire had total assets estimated at a quarter of a billion dollars . Place in American financial history . Dean Henry G . Manne of the George Mason University School of Law put forward the view at the time of Wolfson ' s death that Wolfson was a unique and immense contributor to the wealth of the U . S . ( and world economy ) for having invented the modern hostile tender offer . " Wolfson ' s contribution to human welfare far exceeded the total value of all private philanthropy in history . He invented the modem hostile tender offer . This invention , which activated and energized the market for corporate control , was the primary cause of the revolutionary restructuring of American industry in the 1970s and ' 80s , and the ensuing economic boom . " Philanthropy . The Wolfson name is evident all over the city of Jacksonville Florida . As chairman of the Wolfson Family Foundation for 35 years until the late 1980s , Mr . Wolfson directed much of the foundation ' s gifts to Jacksonville medical , educational , research and religious charitable entities . Louis ' s father , Morris David Wolfson , began the philanthropy with a gift of $ 500 , 000 in 1946 to create Wolfson Children ' s Hospital . Other gifts included the " Wolfson Student Center " at Jacksonville University , the " River Garden / Wolfson Health and Aging Center " and the " Louis E . Wolfson Wellness Center " at Baptist Medical Center Downtown . Louis Wolfson also worked to honor the memory of his older brother , Sam . The Duval County School Board named Samuel W . Wolfson High School after his brother and the Wolfson family funded construction of Sam W . Wolfson Baseball Park , the minor - league baseball facility in Jacksonville for decades until the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville was built in 2002 - 3 . Legal troubles . In 1967 and 1968 , he was convicted by two different federal juries on charges stemming from stock sales . The first conviction arose when Wolfson sold unregistered shares in Continental Enterprises , Inc . to the public . Continental Enterprises was an unlisted company that he controlled . He never denied the charges but argued that the law was misapplied in his case . The second conviction was for charges of perjury and obstruction of justice during a U . S . Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into Merritt - Chapman . He served nine months at the at the Federal Bureau of Prisons Federal Prison Camp , Eglin , Eglin Air Force Base . He also paid a substantial fine . Wolfson started a charitable foundation , which in 1966 paid Supreme Court Justice and Wolfson friend Abe Fortas a $ 20 , 000 lifetime annual retainer for unspecified consultation . Researchers suspect this sum may have represented an attempted bribery to secure Fortas ' s assistance with the Securities and Exchange Commission . Wolfson had appealed his conviction all the way to the Supreme Court . Although the Supreme Court had refused to review his conviction and Fortas did not participate in that decision , it was viewed as an attempt to buy his way out of a conviction . Controversy surrounded Fortas and he returned the $ 20 , 000 retainer and ultimately resigned from the Supreme Court in 1969 . In 1971 , Wolfson was in the news again . He filed a complaint against Larry King — then a Miami radio host , now a CNN personality — for allegedly pocketing $ 5 , 000 , part of a $ 25 , 000 payment destined for New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison , who was investigating President John F . Kennedy ' s assassination . King was arrested for grand - larceny , but criminal charges were eventually dismissed because the statute of limitations had run out . However , King was fired after Wolfson wrote to TV and radio executives at WTVJ & WIOD claiming that King was " a menace to the public , " and that his employers should pay for King ’ s " treatment in a mental institution for six months so he can do no further harm in this community or any other . " Wolfson and King had been friends until King admitted that he had tricked Wolfson into giving him $ 48 , 500 to influence President Richard Nixon ' s incoming US Attorney General , John N . Mitchell , into reviewing Wolfson ' s conviction . Crusade . After his incarceration , Wolfson became a prison - reform advocate . He told The Miami Herald in 1971 that he had watched sadistic wardens and guards " contribute to the increase of crime . . . . The medical attention was unbelievably bad . There was absolutely no uniform sentencing . . . . Officials may say rehabilitation exists , but I assure you it doesn ' t . " As a result of his efforts , the SEC began making hearing transcripts and testimony more available , and the U . S . Senate considered changing federal penal code to eliminate harsh sentences for first - time offenders . " It was a horrible 10 months and it ruined his life and changed him forever , " his son said . " If you ever said the word " judge " , he ' d bring out a stack of papers to show you how he was railroaded . " Harbor View Farm and thoroughbred racing . In 1960 , he established Harbor View Farm in Fellowship , Marion County , Florida . He raced a number of successful thoroughbred horses including 1963 co - champion 2 - year - old male Raise a Native , and 1965 Horse of the Year , Roman Brother . Champion Hail to Reason , bred by Beiber - Jacobs Stable had raced in the name of Patrice Jacobs , his second wife . Together , in the name of Harbor View , they bred and raced the 1978 American Triple Crown winner Affirmed . Affirmed was voted Horse of the Year twice , in 1978 and 1979 , and also was champion at 2 in 1977 , at 3 in 1978 , and at 4 in 1979 . The Wolfsons ' stable led all North America n owners in money earned in 1978 , 1979 , and 1980 and was the Eclipse Award winners as top breeder in 1978 . Additionally , two of Wolfson sons , Steve and Gary , bred It ' s In The Air , American Co - Champion Two - Year - Old Filly in 1978 , in the name of Happy Valley Farm . Wolfson tried to buy Louisville ' s Churchill Downs — home of the Kentucky Derby — for $ 46 . 1 million in 1985 , but was unsuccessful . In 1992 , Louis Wolfson was inducted into the Horsemen ' s Benevolent and Protective Association Hall of Fame . His second and final marriage was to Patrice Jacobs , daughter of Hall of Fame trainer Hirsch Jacobs and Ethel D . Jacobs . Death . Louis Wolfson succumbed to Alzheimer ' s disease and colon cancer on December 30 , 2007 , in Bal Harbour , Florida . He died at age 95 on his 35th wedding anniversary to his second wife , Patrice . He had four children : a daughter Marcia Drake , and three sons - Stephen , Gary , and Marty . His first wife , Florence Monsky Wolfson , died in 1968 from cancer .