Perched on the southernmost point of Aquidneck Island, the 'island' in Rhode Island, Newport is a world all its own.

It is a fantasyland full of Cinderella castles, colonial charm and enchanting eccentricity. From the Civil War to the turn of the century, Newport was America's Riviera, its premier summer resort for the idle rich.

The legacy lives on in Newport's mansions but these days, the summer cottages of captains of industry are the biggest tourist attraction in the state, a cottage industry in their own right.

There was a time when Newport's Gilded Age brilliance was more than a little tarnished. During the 1950s and 1960s, many of the town's mansions were boarded up or even torn down. This explains how, in 1956, Ruth and Harold Tinney purchased the aging Belcourt Castle for $25,000.

Far from Robber Barons, the Tinneys, their son Donald and daughter-in-law Harle struggled to maintain the rundown, rambling 22,000 square foot house. To cut costs, they did much of the work themselves and opened the house for tours to help pay for upkeep. However, they still had trouble making ends meet.

So, in 1974, when unlicensed plumber Kevin Koellisch did some work for them on the cheap, they invited him to move in and work as a handyman full-time in lieu of rent. For more than a decade, Kevin lived and worked in the mansion. Then, in 1989, Harold died and Koellisch's relationship with the family took a bizarre turn.