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distributing deeds to those who were living his wife for her money, he had placed most of
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in his properties and money to nearly the estate in separate trusts for the children,
everyone. leaving Bibi Fatima just ten thousand dollars
In the course of doing so, his children told plus a monthly allowance. Under Wyoming law,
me, he got into a dispute with a ne’er-do-well she was entitled to more, and, with the guidance
grandnephew by the name of Sultan Khan. of a lawyer, she sued for it. Eventually, she was
When Sultan was a kid, just sixteen or so, he awarded half the estate.
had been involved in a violent crime; rich Uncle Thus began the afterlife of the Wyoming
Redefining America
Zarif in America had helped bail him out and Khans. At the time of Louie’s death, Fatima was
got him into private school, but the kid had not twenty-six years old, responsible for six children
shown signs of reforming. Now Sultan was thirty under the age of ten, uneducated, illiterate,
years old, and rich Uncle Zarif was no longer unaccustomed to so much as leaving the
inclined to be generous. Sultan screamed and house on her own. She brought a brother and a
threatened; Khan held his ground. nephew over from Pakistan to help, and then,
The next day, Khan and a different in an act of self-creation that rivalled Khan’s,
grandnephew left Bara early in the morning to set about figuring out how to thrive in Sheridan
run an errand in a neighboring town. In keeping under radically changed circumstances. She
with Khan’s lifelong habit, they went by foot. hired an English tutor, learned to read and write,
Partway along the route, Sultan was waiting with and joined the PTA. She got her driver’s license
a knife. It was June 23, 1964. Khan was roughly the same day as her oldest daughter. In 1970, she
eighty — one of the few eighty-year-olds of became an American citizen. Two years later,
whom it could be said that he still had most of she bought the J.E. Motel and Café in Sheridan.
his life ahead of him. In a picture taken earlier Ever since then, the Khan family has been in the
that year, he is holding the toddler Nazir on his hospitality business — which, in a sense, Zarif
lap, surrounded by his wife and other children. was, too.
The oldest is barely ten, the next one eight, the In time, the relatives whom Fatima brought
next one seven. The others are too young to have over to help with her children married and had
begun salting away memories of their father, children of their own. Some of them brought
and they would never get to make new ones. over other relatives, who also married and had
Sultan Khan killed his cousin, then stabbed his kids. Many of those kids now have children as
uncle seven times. Zarif Khan died in the dirt in well. As the family multiplied, it also dispersed.
a place as important to his life as any other: the In 2003, the brother Fatima brought to Sheridan
road out of town. moved to Gillette to open a hotel; these days,
his branch of the Khans owns eleven hotels in
• • •
the area, and his grown children have young
The shock of Khan’s death was followed 40 kids of their own. In total, there are now some
by the surprise of his will. Other than his hundred and fifty or two hundred Khans, mostly
accountant and his lawyer, no one, not even in Wyoming, though also in South Dakota,
his wife, had known that he was rich. When Colorado, and beyond. As with most families,
the will was probated, his estate was worth there have been fallings out, about the kinds
around half a million dollars — almost four of things families fall out over: who got more
million in today’s money. Supposedly, he money, who got more affection, who slighted
had an equivalent amount back in Pakistan. so-and-so at such-and-such a time. Still, most of
Apparently worried that someone would marry them get along, and they try to get together — at
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