Her $12 million inheritance from an eccentric hotel tycoon set tongues wagging in New York’s high society and led the press to dub her the “rich bitch”. It also attracted the attention of a more sinister group: blackmailers and kidnappers.

Their threats forced concerned friends to bundle her onboard a private jet under a new identity and take her into hiding. Her location is a closely guarded secret but she is reportedly living somewhere in Florida under 24-hour guard.

The fate of Trouble, the white Maltese dog formerly owned by Leona Helmsley, has America on edge. “We were alarmed by the number of threats – 20 to 30, something of that order,” said John Codey, Mrs Helmsley’s former aide. He told CBS’s Early Show that blackmailers had threatened: “I’m gonna kill the dog, I’m gonna kidnap the dog, I need the $12 million.”

Mrs Helmsley, the owner of the Helmsley hotel chain and a property portfolio that included an interest in the Empire State Building, died in August at the age of 87. She was given Trouble by Mr Codey after her billionaire husband, Harry, died in 1997. She earned notoriety as the “Queen of Mean” when she was jailed for tax evasion in 1989 after declaring: “Only the little people pay taxes.”

Her aides have argued that she should instead be remembered as the “Queen of Kindness”, saying that she gave away $100 million (£48 million) in the last years of her life and left about $8 billion to charity.

Mrs Helmsley, who cut two of her four grandchildren out of her will, also established a $12 million trust fund for Trouble. The dog used to live in luxury at a 46th-floor apartment on top of the Helmsley Park Lane Hotel in Manhattan, eating food prepared by the hotel chefs.

The will stipulated that Mrs Helmsley’s 80-year-old brother should care for her beloved pet, but he refused to do so and it passed to the care of her staff.

“Trouble is like any other dog. If it’s loved by its master, it’s going to be taken care of. Leona was just a little more generous,” Mr Codey said.

The publicity about Mrs Helmsley’s extraordinary bequest provoked a flood of death threats. Trouble was flown out of the 28-room estate in Connecticut where she had lived since her owner’s death.

“We’ve had problems keeping her identity confidential, and we had to change her name even to take her on the aircraft. We called her Bauble instead of Trouble,” Mr Codey said.

The drama does not appear to have affected Trouble. A video aired on the Early Show showed the 4½lb dog frolicking in the garden of an undisclosed location. TheNew York Post reported that she was holed up with her security team at a Helmsley property near Sarasota, Florida.

Trouble’s upkeep costs more than $300,000 a year, including a rotating security team, a guardian, visits to the vet for her liver problem and a weekly grooming. But she has given up her expensive eating habits and now eats petfood from a bowl.

“Today, Trouble spends most of her time relaxing and playing in the afternoon,” Mr Codey said.

After Trouble’s television appearance, viewers called the network to ask if their dogs could mate with her so that their puppies could inherit her fortune. Mrs Helmsley’s will, however, dictates that any money left when Trouble dies goes to charity. Trouble herself will be buried beside Mrs Helmsley in the family mausoleum.

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