SAN DIEGO -- Grace Thackeray was a beauty in her 20s. She worked as a recruiter during World War II, and was also an interior designer and savvy investor, amassing a fortune by the time she was widowed.

Much of that fortune she ended up willing to a doctor she met by chance named George McClane.

Her friend, Donna Vinton said, "She met Dr. George in the emergency room."

It was 1996, and Thackeray's husband, George, was taken to the hospital in respiratory arrest. He was unconscious.

McClane revived him briefly, before Thackeray was taken to an upstairs floor of the hospital where he died.

Court records show a friendship blossomed between the young, married doctor and the widow, who was 79 years old at the time.

Her letters to the doctor revealed the closeness of the friendship.

"If I'm going to have a heart attack or anything, there's no place I'd rather be than in the arms of my personal doctor," she wrote.

McClane showed up at the widow's Ocean Beach home within six days of her husband's death.

In his deposition, the doctor said he got her address from the emergency room medical record.

"Maybe she was lonely, maybe she was vulnerable," said Vinton.

Vinton is not passing judgment, but wondered about details of their doctor-patient relationship, including his love notes to the widow.

They read, "An apple a day won't kept this doctor away, xo xo George", and "Gigi, I love you so much, xo xo, me."

In the 10 years since their meeting, the doctor received an increasing piece of the Thackeray trust, eventually inheriting the largest piece of it.

The American Medical Association has guidelines about wills to doctor, stating, "The physician should consider declining the gift" if it poses "a significant hardship, (financial or emotional) to the family."

Thackeray had no children, but she did have a niece who disputed the will and called the whole ordeal "sick."

Attorney Mick Meagher said, "It sure seems suspicious as heck to me that a guy can go from a $50,000 gift to a $2 million gift while he's providing health care."

Meagher was briefly involved in the court battle when the final will was disputed by members of Thackeray's family.

"It certainly looks pretty funky to me," Meagher said.

McClane ended up settling with the Thackeray family, including the niece and two cousins. He paid them about $500,000. He ended up with roughly $500,000 after the settlement and the house was sold.

Thackeray was 89 when she died at her home. McClane was there, ruled the cause pneumonia and signed her death certificate.

The doctor stopped working in the ER the year after Thackeray's death. He would not agree to an interview with the 10News I-Team.

His attorney denied any wrongdoing, and said the doctor is cooperating with a California Medical Board inquiry launched after complaints that the doctor used undue influence to benefit from the trust of his patient.

Here is the full statement from Dr. McClane's attorney:

The allegations that Dr. McClane committed misconduct are not new, and are false and unjust. Some of Ms. Thackeray's relatives raised the same claims before in the trust dispute, and Dr. McClane vigorously defended against them in that case. The case has already been settled to Dr. McClane's satisfaction, and is concluded. Dr. McClane is aware that the same relatives have repeated the same allegations to the California Medical Board. He is cooperating fully with the Medical Board's inquiry, and will continue to do so until that investigation is resolved. In the meantime, Dr. McClane will not try this matter in the media, but will address it in the appropriate legal forums.

Thank you,
Kenneth P. White