In the past, eminent domain had been used to build roads or schools or hospitals - now, it was being used to chase out homeowners for a private development that would pay more tax dollars. The New London Development Corporation persuaded the city of New London to give them eminent domain and they went after the Fort Trumbull neighborhood. Once she talked Pfizer into it, she had to acquire all of the land she wanted for the project. Claire decided that Pfizer Corporation should locate their new research and development headquarters on the Thames River in New London and would stop at nothing to get her way. At around the same time, Claire Gaudiani was appointed chairman of the New London Development Corporation. She worked on the house, even sanding the hardwood floors by hand. She bought a little cottage near the Thames River in the Fort Trumbull neighborhood of New London, Connecticut. ![]() Susette Kelo survived a troubled childhood and two unhappy marriages and had decided to start her life all over again. In Little Pink House, award-winning investigative journalist Jeff Benedict takes us behind the scenes of this case - indeed, Suzette Kelo speaks for the first time about all the details of this inspirational true story as one woman led the charge to take on corporate America to save her home. ![]() Kelo and fourteen neighbors flat out refused to sell, so the city decided to exercise its power of eminent domain to condemn their homes, launching one of the most extraordinary legal cases of our time, a case that ultimately reached the United States Supreme Court. Little did she know that the City of New London, desperate to revive its flailing economy, wanted to raze her house and the others like it that sat along the waterfront in order to win a lucrative Pfizer pharmaceutical contract that would bring new business into the city. The house wasn't particularly fancy, but with lots of hard work Suzette was able to turn it into a home that was important to her, a home that represented her new found independence. ![]() Suzette Kelo was just trying to rebuild her life when she purchased a falling down Victorian house perched on the waterfront in New London, CT.
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