Howard Hughes and the Mormon Will

Howard Hughes the billionaire aviator, industrialist and filmmaker died on April 5 1976, at the age of 70, without a will. Hughes’ assets were governed by the Summa Corporation, and were valued at more than $2 billion. At the time of his death no one was certain if Hughes had left a will, and as he resided in several cities probate was opened in Houston, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles.

Summa conducted an extensive search, but failed to discover a valid will. However an unsigned carbon copy of a 1954 will was presented to a probate court as the best available evidence of Hughes’ intentions. Summa argued that although a written will could not be found, Hughes’ wished to leave his whole fortune to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Florida.

Some days after Hughes’ death a letter addressed to Spencer W. Kimball, president of the Mormon Church enclosing a document dated March 19, 1968 and signed Howard R. Hughes, but not witnessed and therefore invalid. This document immediately raised suspicions because it was totally out of character for the increasingly neurotic Hughes. However there was conjecture among a number of handwriting experts as to whether the document was in Hughes’ handwriting.

This document known as the Mormon will named a number of beneficiaries including Melvin Dummar. Dummar claimed that he picked up the hitchhiking Hughes in 1968, loaned him a quarter, and dropped him off, although Dummar later admitted that his story was false.

Dummar originally claimed that he knew nothing about the will and told his story of picking up Hughes by the side of the road. Following the discovery of Dummar’s fingerprint on the envelope, he claimed that a well-dressed man had left the will in a sealed envelope at Dummar’s service station. An enclosed note, Dummar claimed, instructed him to deliver the will to the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which had also been left 1/16 of the estate.

Further investigation revealed that Dummar’s wife Bonnie had worked for a magazine distributed to wealthy Americans that allowed her access to Hughes’ memos and Hughes’ signature. However, Bonnie denied forging the will.

The “Mormon Will”, was ruled a forgeryby a Nevada jury in June 1978. Dummar received no portion of Hughes’ estate, but no criminal charges were filed against him or his wife.

In 2006 Dummar claimed that a conspiracy to defraud him of his rightful share of the Hughes estate through perjured testimony and concealed evidence was conducted in the 1978 trial. Dummar’s complaint demanded the $156 million which he would have received from the estate as well as punitive damages and interest.

In 2006 Dummar’s lawsuit was dismissed with the Court finding that Dummar’s claims had been “fully and fairly litigated” in Las Vegas in 1978 when a jury decided the “Mormon Will” was invalid.

In a further complication Hughes had three maternal second cousins who under Texas intestacy law would inherit if there was no valid will. Twenty-three of Hughes’ maternal and paternal relatives combined to fight Summa. In June 1978, after a seven-month trial, a jury decided that Hughes did not author the Mormon will. As no valid will was discovered, the court awarded the Hughes estate to the billionaire’s surviving relatives appointing one of them to administer the estate.

Next, “wives” and children started emerging from Hughes’ past, taking advantage of his reclusive reputation to explain why no one had heard of them before. One claimed to be the lovechild of Hughes and Amelia Earhart though Earhart never had any children. At least two were black, but their claims were thrown out as Hughes was known to be quite the racist.

According to the Wall Street Journal, although a lot of the money went to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute around 1000 people have benefited from the estate; collectively they were awarded about $1.5 billion.

The legal battle over the Hughes estate was not settled for 34 years. If Hughes had completed a will the expense and rancor that followed his death may have been avoided.