The ill-starred Johnson & Johnson dynasty is being put under a microscope by best-selling author Jerry Oppenheimer. The deal with St. Martin’s was signed within days of Casey Johnson’s death, we’ve learned.
Oppenheimer, who has written biographies of the Hilton and Kennedy dynasties, had been researching the Johnson & Johnson family fortunes and misfortunes at the time of Casey’s death. “Poor little rich girl Casey is the latest in a continuum of Johnson dynasty excess, tragedy and scandal,” Oppenheimer told us. “The Johnsons are to baby oil, Q-Tips and Band-Aids what the Kennedys have been to politics — a royal family and an all-American Greek tragedy.” The book will include the story of Seward Johnson, who married his Polish chambermaid when he was 76 and left her $400 million, and Seward’s daughter, Mary Lea Johnson, who claimed her father had sexually assaulted her starting when she was 9 years old.