On June 27, 1994, J. Howard Marshall married Anna Nicole Smith. The billionaire was 89; Smith, a former stripper, was 26. Their marriage raised eyebrows — and Marshall’s death just 14 months later threw Smith and Marshall’s family into a decades-long dispute about his fortune.

But both Marshall and Smith long insisted that their marriage had nothing to do with money. Rather, they described their connection in October 1991 at a Houston strip club as the meeting of two lonely, lost souls.

So who was the billionaire who fell in love with Anna Nicole Smith before she was famous? What led them both to a club called Gigi’s on that fateful day? And how did Marshall’s death after just 14 months of marriage lead to one of the greatest legal fights in American history?

How J. Howard Marshall Became A Billionaire Oil Tycoon