Audrey Jean Knauer had a death wish for Charles Bronson.

The Kentucky woman left an estate worth about $300,000 to the macho movie star, whom she never even met.

Now her family is waging a legal battle to get backthe money – which the super-rich Bronson doesn’t intend to keep.

“He’s giving it to charity,” Bronson’s spokeswoman, Lori Jonas, told The Post yesterday.

The strange situation stems from the last will and testament that Knauer scribbled on a list of emergency phone numbers before she died in December 1997.

“Under no circumstances is my mother, Helen, to inherit anything from me – blood, body parts, financial assets, etc.,” the 56-year-old woman wrote.

“I bequeath to Charles Bronson (the talented character actor) and what he doesn’t want can pass thru to the Louisville Free Public Library.”

The estate is in probate. Bronson reportedly has received half of Knauer’s money – but whether he can keep it is still up in the air.

Knauer’s sister, Nancy Koeper, filed suit in Louisville two months ago to challenge the will, arguing that she should be the beneficiary.

The court papers claim Knauer was mentally incapable of making the will and “evidenced an inappropriate and unnatural obsession with Bronson … amounting to monomania.”

Koeper, a California exercise instructor, said her sister became fixated on Bronson – collecting newspaper clips and photos and renting his hit “Death Wish” flicks.

“I don’t feel he deserves the money, and I doubt he needs it,” Koeper told a newspaper after the suit was filed.

Bronson, 77, who married 36-year-old Kim Weeks in December, is now on vacation and couldn’t be reached for comment.

His spokeswoman said she couldn’t discuss the case.

The Louisville library has contacted Bronson and is anxious to hear from him – because the will says if he doesn’t want the money, it should get it.

“It would be the third-largest bequest in the last decade and in the top 12 in our history,” library director Craig Buthod said.

“It’s enough for us to buy 15,000 or 20,000 new books, which is enough to stock a small branch library. Or it’s enough to keep our summer reading program going through the years.”

Buthod said Knauer, a retired chemist, was a regular library user, but her contact with the staff was apparently limited to the checkout desk.

Still, he can understand why she was such a big fan of Bronson.

“I’m a fan from way back,” he said. “My favorite movie of my youth was ‘The Great Escape,’ and I really like his portrayal of the miner.”