Unmanaged item in managed class

[gior]

Environment: Visual Studio 2005
Type of program: C++CLR

1. I have a class:

public ref class Token
{
Byte* pStr;
...
}

Normally pStr is initialized as NULL; when required, it is initialized as:
pStr = new Byte[len];

It seems to run perfectly, but there is a hidden issue as I'll say below.

2. Since pStr is unmanaged, I thought it a good idea to release the memory in the destructor / finalizer:

Token::~Token() { this->!Token(); }
Token::!Token() { if (pStr) delete [] pStr; }

This flashes an error message when the program exits, stating HEAP CORRUPTION DETECTED.

3. I added the following just before exiting my program:

...
_ASSERTE(_CrtCheckMemory());
return nRetCode;
}

It indeed asserts - regardless of wheteher I use the destructor / finalizer or not.

My program runs perfectly with no reported error if I simply remove destructor, finalizer and _ASSSERTE ... however, I am puzzled by this behaviour.

Any explanation?