The deaths of the eccentric scions of the wealthiest families in the world tend to make the news. And the more eccentric and wealthy, the bigger the news stories. While not especially eccentric, unless you count conspiracy theories, the death of Lord Jacob Rothschild in February was a major story. Even long-faded fortunes merit obituaries when one of their heirs dies – such as the death of Rockefeller heir David Kaiser in 2020.

On Wednesday, November 27th, another Rothschild heir, William de Rothschild, met an untimely end in a house fire in the Hollywood Hills. Naturally, there was a flood of stories about the elderly scion’s death and his apparently eccentric life full of classic cars and even possible hoarding, with the LA Times leading the way. The story seemed to confirm his identity, with neighbors talking about how he freely spoke of his status in one of the wealthiest families, and how he owned two properties on Lookout Mountain, one of the wealthiest streets in LA.

But a few days later there are no obituaries in the New York Times. There aren’t any stories about his philanthropy and largesse, or even reminiscences from other members of the Rothschild family. William de Rothschild simply vanished from the news.

There are a lot of reasons why that could be. His death broke on Thanksgiving, and during a frantic stretch of news when President-Elect Trump is nominating a clown car of conspiracy theorists and grifters to his new cabinet. William had little public footprint, and seemed almost totally unknown outside his neighborhood. Maybe it just wasn’t newsworthy past the first day.

Or maybe it’s because William de Rothschild likely had no actual lineage in that famous family, and wasn’t one of those Rothschild at all.

In the LA Times story, William’s identity as a member of the banking family comes entirely from neighbors. Certainly William has the trappings of wealth – the story talks of his love for classic cars, including a Porsche once owned by Michael Jordan, as well as busts of “great thinkers” in front of one of the two properties he owned on Lookout Mountain.

But just because someone says they’re a Rothschild doesn’t mean they are. And as I write about in JEWISH SPACE LASERS, my history of the myths and conspiracy theories about the family, numerous frauds and grifters have made hay off pretending to be a Rothschild, from Mar-a-Lago crasher “Anna de Rothschild” who was actually a Ukrainian scammer, to NYC art world grifter and investor “Paul-Kyle de Rothschild Deschanel.”

And while it’s hard at this point to rule out that William isn’t a distant relative or in-law who took the name, there’s also no compelling evidence he has any link to the family beyond him claiming to have one. And from what I’ve been able to piece together, both the Times piece and the stories that followed, which were mostly based on the Times, simply took the neighbors’ claims as truth.

To be clear, there is no “William de Rothschild” or any version of that name in the official Rothschild Archive’s genealogy, meaning William isn’t a direct relation to Mayer Amschel Rothschild or any of his ten children. (I reached out to a contact at the family Archive in London to confirm if William was a family member, and received no reply). There’s no reporting anywhere about anyone named William with a direct lineage to Mayer or his family, and keep in mind that this is one of the most well-known families in the world.

The only William listed in the Rothschild archive is someone who married into the family, the former husband of Lord Jacob Rothschild’s daughter Hannah. But William Lord Brookfield is an actual person, a screenwriter and producer who is also nearly two decades younger than the 87 years old given for William de Rothschild.

Or maybe he was 77. It’s hard to tell, because even as the Times story admits, property records for the two houses on Lookout Mountain give different ages for “William de Rothschild” as well as at least one different name.

And there’s where things start to get even weirder. The initial press release from the LAFD about the fire gives the address as 8551 Lookout Mountain Road. Both property records and public listings for that property given the owner’s name not as William A. De Rothschild, but as William A Kauffman, Jr. This matches the CA Unclaimed Property website, which also lists William A. Kauffman as living in the house at 8551.

Such records are not always accurate, but this one has some clues that point the way toward it being correct, including one very big one: the ownership of two properties on Lookout Mountain, with the other being 8582.

Sure enough, 8582 Lookout Mountain lists a William A. Kaufman, age 77, as a former owner along with a “Wm Derothschild” and several other names. And Kauffman is also listed as a former owner of 8551 Lookout Mountain, where “William de Rothschild” met his unfortunate fate.

One of the names listed as an owner or the trustee of 8582 is Margaux Mirkin, the daughter of Budget Rent-a-Car founder Morris Mirkin and a minor celebrity in LA in the 1980’s who apparently once made an appearance on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.

There are plenty of other tangents to go down here – such as 8582 seeming to have a lot of former owners or residents, or William Kauffman owning what appears to be an office complex in Chatsworth, CA. But William Kauffman is a pretty common name, and a pretty thorough search didn’t turn up anything more about his life, much less his death.

I couldn’t find any biographical information on who he is or how he ended up on Lookout Mountain in a house fire. And I found nothing that corroborated the existence of anyone named “William de Rothschild” with a link to the Rothschild banking family.

At least one conspiracy blog thinks it uncovered a marriage listing for William de Rothschild and Margaux Mirkin, but again, online property records and genealogy listings are extremely inaccurate. It’s also not proof that “William” is a Rothschild, merely that he used the name at one point. And William de Rothschild has no social media presence, except for a few Twitter accounts that are obvious fakes, full of nonsense about the Illuminati and using the image of an Italian fashion designer for their profile picture.

Baron William Rothschild was described by neighbors as an eccentric millionaire – or even billionaire – with multiple properties and dozens of expensive cars.

On a street lined with multi-million-dollar homes and mansions, occupied by celebrities and the powerful, Rothschild was… pic.twitter.com/oUUNwvFMlw

— History On Internet (@history_thngs) November 28, 2024

And with nothing else to go on, conspiracy theories are a natural way to fill in the many blanks in this story. Blogs and social media posts are full of accusations that “de Rothschild” was in hiding under the name “Kauffman,” that he faked his death, that he was murdered by anti-Rothschild forces, that “Kauffman” was a master Mason, or that it took the LAFD 33 minutes to extinguish the fire due to ritual purposes. Even other folks named William Rothschild have been pulled into the mess, including an unfortunate resident of South Carolina whose image is being used by conspiracy theorists, despite looking 50 years younger than the fire victim.

All of this is typical of the nonsense spewed about the Rothschild family – even those who simply share the name. And at this point, without some other evidence or confirmation from the family archive, I’m pretty certain that whoever William A. Kauffman was, he might have used the name “de Rothschild” at some point, but he wasn’t related to Mayer Amschel’s descendants.

Not that any of the reporting on the fire cared to look. All of the stories about the Lookout Mountain fire, from Newsweek to the New York Post, relied on the initial LA Times story as their source. And the Times relied on neighbors’ testimony, a magazine found at the scene with “Wm. Rothschild” as its subscriber, and conflicting property records as evidence. This all points to nothing other than Kauffman using the name or claiming he shared lineage with the family. It also fits with other phony Rothschilds who have eventually been uncovered – they act the part by throwing money around, and because the Rothschild name has so much mythos and aura attached to it, nobody bothers looking into who the person actually is.

And I have no idea who William Kauffman was. I’m certainly not accusing him of anything untoward. It’s clear from the reporting that he was an elderly man, and may have had at least some trouble with hoarding according to reports after the fire. Why he used the name, when he started, or what caused the fire are all unclear right now. Was he a relative by marriage? A distant relation who played up his connection? Or did he simply pretend to be part of the descendants of “money’s prophets” for personal gain? I don’t know, and we might never know.

But whoever Kauffman was, it’s fairly clear that he wasn’t a Rothschild, or at least there’s no public record of him being one. I hope his family can find some peace in the year ahead.