Sources: Mailer set up trust for family

NEW YORK, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- The will of author Norman Mailer, who died in New York late last year, created a private trust dedicated to taking care of his family, sources say.

Sources said Mailer, who gained fame for literary works such as "The Executioner's Song," left most of his $2.5 million estate to the trust that will serve to financially aid his widow and nine children, the New York Post reported Sunday.

The author's will was officially filed in Massachusetts Nov. 27, 2007, more than two weeks after the author died of acute renal failure.

Sam Radin, Mailer's cousin and executor of the author's will, said the estate bestowal shows Mailer did intend to care for his family after his death.

"Mr. Mailer was a devoted husband to his wife, Norris Church Mailer, and father to his nine children. Any inference that Mr. Mailer somehow did not provide for his wife and children is false," Radin said.

The Post said Radin's comments came after it was revealed that none of Mailer's nine children or first five wives were mentioned by name in the 11-page probate filing.