The Dream Builder

UNABLE TO PAY for treatment at the hospital he gave millions of dollars to build, a dying Bill Levitt was still hoping for another roll of the dice. Forty-two years after he completed his last house in Levittown and 26 years after he sold his company for $92 million, Levitt teetered on the verge of bankruptcy, amid allegations that he looted family charities and cheated homebuyers. Still, the man who once claimed to be America's biggest homebuilder was sure he could save his business and his family's good name.

By Charlie Zehren