# "You’re Not Howard Hughes!"

An episode of [Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1484511465), 26 Aug 2022, 36 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdrl.fm/18db03/tracking.swap.fm/track/SxlTEPDY7xDg35RXkASs/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/c0ae8c6e-22f0-4e9b-ac1c-ae390037ac53/dcf19750-8e66-4945-9b04-aef90115c2e5/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=7f5a4714-6b10-4ccf-a424-ae390037ac70

By the 1970s Howard Hughes was the "invisible billionaire”. A business tycoon, a daring aviator and Hollywood Lothario, Hughes had an amazing life story... but hiding away in luxury hotels he wasn't sharing his memories with anyone. Then the recluse told a respected publishing house - via intermediaries - that he was working on an autobiography. The book would be a blockbuster... only it was all a lie. For a full list of sources go to timharford.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:15] Speaker 1: Pushkin. In nineteen seventy one, the prestigious New York publishers
[0:26] Speaker 1: McGraw hill made a sensational announcement Howard Hughes had written
[0:33] Speaker 1: his autobiography. The announcement was sensational because Howard Hughes had
[0:38] Speaker 1: lived one of the most extraordinary lives of the twentieth century.
[0:43] Speaker 1: Born in Texas in nineteen oh five, he became a
[0:46] Speaker 1: movie mogul in the Golden Age of Hollywood and a handsome,
[0:50] Speaker 1: dashing lover of movie stars. From Betty Davis, I just
[0:54] Speaker 1: washed my hair to Katherine Hepburn fath Here to Ginter Rogers.
[0:58] Speaker 1: No one could teach you to dance in a million year.
[1:00] Speaker 1: Take my advice and save your money. Hughes was an
[1:03] Speaker 1: aviator back in the days when planes were novel and dangerous.
[1:07] Speaker 1: He set air speed record in nineteen thirty eight. He
[1:11] Speaker 1: flew around the world in half the time anyone had
[1:14] Speaker 1: managed before New York City through him a ticker tape parade.
[1:18] Speaker 1: Hughes designed new and audacious aircraft and insisted on test
[1:23] Speaker 1: piloting them himself. Twice. He was nearly killed in spectacular crashes.
[1:29] Speaker 1: Between the movies and the planes. Investments in real estate
[1:32] Speaker 1: and the oil drill company he'd inherited from his father.
[1:36] Speaker 1: Howard Hughes became one of America's richest and most famous men,
[1:42] Speaker 1: but his fortune couldn't buy him mental health. Hughes suffered
[1:47] Speaker 1: from obsessive compulsive disorder. At first, the symptoms were manageable.
[1:52] Speaker 1: He insisted on the same dinner every night, medium rare
[1:56] Speaker 1: steak with salad and peas. He'd eat only the small peas.
[2:01] Speaker 1: He was a germophobe, picking things up in a tissue.
[2:04] Speaker 1: As he got older, his behavior became stranger. In nineteen
[2:09] Speaker 1: fifty eight, Hughes went into a studio's darkened screening room
[2:14] Speaker 1: to watch a movie and didn't come out for four months.
[2:18] Speaker 1: He sat there, often naked, watching movie after movie. He
[2:22] Speaker 1: didn't shower. He had his assistants bringing chicken, glasses of
[2:26] Speaker 1: milk and chocolate bars. He wrote the memos reminding them
[2:30] Speaker 1: not to look at him. When he eventually left the studio,
[2:34] Speaker 1: he took to living in the penthouse suites of luxury hotels.
[2:38] Speaker 1: He'd traveled between them, from Las Vegas to Beverly Hills
[2:42] Speaker 1: to the Bahamas. He disappeared completely from public view. Years
[2:49] Speaker 1: went by the longer Hughes spent as a recluse, the
[2:53] Speaker 1: more the rumors swirled. Was he mad? Was he dead?
[2:58] Speaker 1: Then in nineteen seventy one, that press release by McGraw
[3:02] Speaker 1: hill Howard Hughes had written a rollicking thousand page account
[3:07] Speaker 1: of his incredible life story. The media went wild. It
[3:11] Speaker 1: was going to be the publishing event of the decade.
[3:15] Speaker 1: There was only one problem. Howard Hughes didn't know a
[3:19] Speaker 1: thing about it. I'm Tim Harford and you're listening to
[3:25] Speaker 1: cautionary tales. In December nineteen seventy, Clifford Irving was leafing
[3:53] Speaker 1: through a copy of Newsweek on an overnight ferry from
[3:56] Speaker 1: Barcelona to the Ballyarics, a small chain of islands off
[4:00] Speaker 1: the coast of Spain. Six ft two, suave and smooth talking,
[4:05] Speaker 1: Irving had grown up in New York, but he made
[4:08] Speaker 1: his home on the Baliaric island of Ibitha, where he
[4:11] Speaker 1: shared a fifteen room house with his fourth wife, a
[4:15] Speaker 1: Swiss German artist called Edith. Their two small children, local servants,
[4:20] Speaker 1: and a pet monkey. Irving had just turned forty. His father,
[4:26] Speaker 1: a famous cartoonist, had just died. Irving himself was an author,
[4:31] Speaker 1: though not a famous one. He'd written a few novels,
[4:35] Speaker 1: and most recently a biography of a fellow ibitha resident,
[4:39] Speaker 1: a master art forger, published by McGraw hill. As the
[4:43] Speaker 1: sun rose over the Mediterranean, the Faery stopped first at
[4:47] Speaker 1: neighboring ma Yorker. That gave Irving a few hours to kill,
[4:51] Speaker 1: so he called up his friend, Dick Suskind, another American
[4:55] Speaker 1: writer who'd relocated to a sunny island. Suskind met Irving
[5:00] Speaker 1: off the ferry and they drove back to his house. Listen,
[5:04] Speaker 1: said Irving, I've got a wild idea. He pulled out
[5:09] Speaker 1: copy of Newsweek and showed Suskined an article about Howard Hughes.
[5:13] Speaker 1: It was titled the Case of the Invisible Billionaire. I
[5:18] Speaker 1: read this on the boat last night. Irving explained his idea.
[5:24] Speaker 1: Imagine if they wrote a biography of Hughes but published
[5:28] Speaker 1: it as an autobiography, pretending that it was actually in
[5:32] Speaker 1: Hughes's own words, as told to Clifford Irving, an autobiography
[5:38] Speaker 1: would be a much bigger deal than a biography. It
[5:41] Speaker 1: would sell better and bring in lots more money. They
[5:43] Speaker 1: could make millions. The idea was wild because Hughes might
[5:49] Speaker 1: deny it, but Irving was willing to bet that he wouldn't.
[5:53] Speaker 1: As the newsweek piece made clear, Hughes hadn't spoken to
[5:57] Speaker 1: the media for well over a decade. Even more promising,
[6:00] Speaker 1: he seemed phobic about appearing in court. There's a story
[6:05] Speaker 1: about a lawsuit involving Hughes's airline. His lawyer him to
[6:09] Speaker 1: do one simple thing in person. Go to a courthouse,
[6:14] Speaker 1: let a judge watch him sign a certain document, and
[6:18] Speaker 1: leave again. Hughes winced. Supposing he didn't do it, He
[6:24] Speaker 1: asked how much might it cost him? Maybe a hundred
[6:28] Speaker 1: million dollars, said the lawyer. Okay, said Hughes. I won't bother.
[6:35] Speaker 1: So if McGraw hill published an autobiography of Hughes, would
[6:40] Speaker 1: he really take them to court? Surely the chances were
[6:43] Speaker 1: that he wouldn't contest its authenticity. You've flipped your lid.
[6:48] Speaker 1: McGraw hill's the most conservative publisher in New York. Let
[6:52] Speaker 1: never go for an idea like that. You're probably right,
[6:57] Speaker 1: said Irving. They drank coffee at breakfast and talked about
[7:02] Speaker 1: other things. Then it was time to drive back for
[7:05] Speaker 1: Irving's ferry. What if they didn't know it was a hoax.
[7:11] Speaker 1: Suppose I told McGraw hill I was in touch with Hughes.
[7:15] Speaker 1: Assume I could work out a phony private contract between
[7:18] Speaker 1: me and Hughes forbidding communication between him and the publishers
[7:22] Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. That could work, replied Suskind, What a fantastic idea.
[7:27] Speaker 1: You know it could work. We could do it. They
[7:30] Speaker 1: have to learn everything they could about Hughes's life. Suskind
[7:33] Speaker 1: was good at research. Then that have to make it
[7:36] Speaker 1: sound like Hughes had told the story. Irving had the
[7:40] Speaker 1: literary flair for that. They went back and forth planning
[7:43] Speaker 1: out the details. First, Irving would write to Beverly Loo,
[7:48] Speaker 1: his editor at McGraw hill. He could say that Howard
[7:51] Speaker 1: Hughes had known his father, and that had sent Hughes
[7:54] Speaker 1: a copy of his latest book, The Biography of the
[7:57] Speaker 1: Art Forger, along with a note about his father's recent passing.
[8:01] Speaker 1: He'd say that Hughes had written back to express his
[8:04] Speaker 1: condolences and also to say that he had enjoyed the
[8:07] Speaker 1: biography had started to correspond, Hughes had expressed an interest
[8:12] Speaker 1: in meeting with Irving so he could write Hughes's life
[8:15] Speaker 1: story too, McGraw hill would want evidence. Of course, Irving
[8:20] Speaker 1: would have to try his own hand at forgery. The
[8:23] Speaker 1: Newsweek article contained a photo of a note in Hughes's handwriting,
[8:27] Speaker 1: including his signature. It also mentioned that Hughes always wrote
[8:33] Speaker 1: on yellow lined notepads of the kind used by lawyers.
[8:37] Speaker 1: Suskind had just such a notepad at home. What about money.
[8:42] Speaker 1: McGraw hill would pay Irving for his part in the book,
[8:46] Speaker 1: but they'd have to pay more to Howard Hughes. After all,
[8:49] Speaker 1: it was his autobiography that presented a problem. If McGraw
[8:55] Speaker 1: hill wrote checks to Howard Hughes that didn't clear, they'd
[8:59] Speaker 1: get suspicious. Irving and Suskin would need some way to
[9:03] Speaker 1: pay those checks into a bank account. Irving had an idea.
[9:09] Speaker 1: His wife, he told Suskind, just happened to have a
[9:12] Speaker 1: spare Swiss passport. The last one she had applied for
[9:16] Speaker 1: had seemed lost in the post. She got a replacement,
[9:20] Speaker 1: then the first passport belatedly turned up. What if he
[9:24] Speaker 1: could doctor that passport to change the name, say to
[9:29] Speaker 1: Helga Hughes. Edith could open an account with a Swiss bank.
[9:34] Speaker 1: They were famous for protecting their client's privacy. He'd just
[9:38] Speaker 1: have to make sure that McGraw hill made the checks
[9:41] Speaker 1: out to H. R. Hughes rather than Howard. But would
[9:48] Speaker 1: Edith be up for the subterfuge? How would you like
[9:51] Speaker 1: to change your name to Helga Ranata Hughes, said Irving,
[9:56] Speaker 1: expatriate Swiss businesswoman who conducts her financial affairs only with
[10:00] Speaker 1: her initial A. Well wig sure and dark glasses and lipstick.
[10:06] Speaker 1: Maybe maybe not. I think about that. I thought you
[10:09] Speaker 1: might not do it. I wasn't sure it was fair
[10:11] Speaker 1: to ask. I help you. I don't let you down.
[10:16] Speaker 1: They seem to have covered every angle except one. It
[10:21] Speaker 1: seemed unlikely. But what if Hughes did appear in public
[10:26] Speaker 1: to deny he'd been involved in the book. What then
[10:29] Speaker 1: you say, but you're not Howard? Use said, suskind, help,
[10:32] Speaker 1: I've been duped. The plan seems full proof. Irving has
[10:40] Speaker 1: a go at mimicking Hughes's handwriting. He drafts a series
[10:44] Speaker 1: of letters on the yellow legal pad. They look convincing enough. Next,
[10:49] Speaker 1: he tackles Edith's spare passport. Passports in those days were
[10:54] Speaker 1: less sophisticated than they are today. No microchips or holograms
[10:58] Speaker 1: or biometrics. Irving explores the art supplies he's inherited from
[11:03] Speaker 1: his cartoonist father and gets to work. He uses inca
[11:08] Speaker 1: radic cater to raise Edith's name, takes a black felt
[11:13] Speaker 1: tip and carefully writes in helga ranata hughes. He changes
[11:19] Speaker 1: the number on the passport, turning threes into eights. He
[11:23] Speaker 1: takes a photo of Edith in a wig and lipstick
[11:26] Speaker 1: and replaces the existing passport photo. Now he tries to
[11:30] Speaker 1: raise Edith's signature, but the ink eradicator starts to bleach
[11:35] Speaker 1: the watermarked paper. He's getting tired and frustrated. He signs
[11:40] Speaker 1: Helga nata hughes over the top and hopes it'll be
[11:43] Speaker 1: good enough. Suskind isn't impressed. You must be kidding Christ.
[11:50] Speaker 1: It looks like it was made by a six year
[11:52] Speaker 1: old kid with a felt tip laundry marker. You're out
[11:55] Speaker 1: of your mind. Look here at the helga. You can
[11:58] Speaker 1: see Edith coming through like a palincest. It doesn't matter,
[12:03] Speaker 1: Irving replied, I've talked to a few people who have
[12:05] Speaker 1: bank accounts in Switzerland. They don't give a damn about
[12:08] Speaker 1: those id papers. If the money's real, that's all I'll
[12:11] Speaker 1: care about. I sure hope you know what you're doing,
[12:14] Speaker 1: said suskind. So do, I replied Irving. Cautionary tales will
[12:21] Speaker 1: be back after the break. On the twentieth floor of
[12:39] Speaker 1: the offices of McGraw hill and New York, Clifford Irving
[12:43] Speaker 1: and his editor, Beverly loo A meeting Beverly's boss. What
[12:48] Speaker 1: I don't understand is why a man like Howard Hughes,
[12:51] Speaker 1: who's avoided publicity all his life, should suddenly want to
[12:55] Speaker 1: have his biography written, and, with all due respect to
[12:58] Speaker 1: you as a writer, why he should choose you to
[13:00] Speaker 1: work with him. He had to choose somebody, replied Irving.
[13:05] Speaker 1: He wouldn't pick someone very well now on someone like
[13:07] Speaker 1: Norman Mailer, would he? Then the book would be Mailer,
[13:11] Speaker 1: not Hughes. Beverly Lou has been completely taken in. Cliff's
[13:15] Speaker 1: a perfect choice. He's a professional, he delivers. She's not
[13:18] Speaker 1: just Clifford Irving's editor. She's his friend, or so she thinks.
[13:24] Speaker 1: They've known each other for years. She's vacationed at his house.
[13:28] Speaker 1: It would hardly cross her mind that Irving was flat
[13:31] Speaker 1: out lying about his access to Hughes. Well let's see
[13:35] Speaker 1: these famous letters. Irving takes out the correspondence he's forged
[13:40] Speaker 1: from Howard Hughes. One of the letters contains an answer
[13:43] Speaker 1: to the boss's first question, why Hughes was suddenly embracing publicity.
[13:49] Speaker 1: It would not suit me to die without having certain
[13:53] Speaker 1: misconceptions cleared up, and without having stated the truth about
[13:57] Speaker 1: my life. That sounds plausible. Beverly lou seems less skeptical
[14:03] Speaker 1: than perhaps she should be. This match is certain. These
[14:07] Speaker 1: are from Hughes, he always writes on that yellow legal paper.
[14:12] Speaker 1: It's a pattern we've seen time and again in cautionary tales.
[14:16] Speaker 1: If you want to believe, you'll find reasons to believe.
[14:20] Speaker 1: Irving draws Beverly Loo further into his world of make believe.
[14:26] Speaker 1: He tells her that Hughes told him to stay at
[14:28] Speaker 1: a particular hotel in New York and await instructions. Those
[14:33] Speaker 1: instructions have now come through. Irving must go to a
[14:37] Speaker 1: certain American Express office, where he'll find that Howard Hughes
[14:42] Speaker 1: has bought him a plane ticket to their first rendezvous.
[14:45] Speaker 1: Would Beverly like to come along and see where he'll
[14:48] Speaker 1: be going? She certainly would They go to the American
[14:52] Speaker 1: Express Office. Do they happen to have a ticket for
[14:55] Speaker 1: mister Clifford Irving. Yes, it's to Wahaka in southern Mexico.
[15:02] Speaker 1: Irving pretends to share Beverly's surprise. Of course, he bought
[15:06] Speaker 1: that ticket himself, and not just one ticket. He's going
[15:10] Speaker 1: to Wahaka with his long time mistress. Of course, Irving
[15:14] Speaker 1: has a mistress. She's a Danish aristocrat and folk singer,
[15:19] Speaker 1: once famous as part of her husband and wife duo,
[15:22] Speaker 1: now struggling to make a new solo career. The Baroness
[15:26] Speaker 1: Nina von Palant. Irving has solemnly promised his wife Edith
[15:31] Speaker 1: that he will never see his Danish lover again. Irving
[15:35] Speaker 1: and Nina check into their Mexican hotel and go straight
[15:39] Speaker 1: to bed. Listen, Nina, I want to tell you something.
[15:43] Speaker 1: I need your word that this stays with you, that
[15:46] Speaker 1: your lips are sealed. You have it. I'm not meeting
[15:51] Speaker 1: Howard Hughes. It's all a lie, a hoax. The letters
[15:55] Speaker 1: are forged, and I never spoke to the man in
[15:57] Speaker 1: my life. What's so funny? I think that you're quite
[16:03] Speaker 1: quite mad, but the word is mad. So what's the
[16:07] Speaker 1: bloody difference. When Irving gets back to New York from
[16:12] Speaker 1: his Mexican vacation, he tells Beverly Loo all about his
[16:16] Speaker 1: meeting with Howard Hughes. The more details he gives, he decides,
[16:21] Speaker 1: the more believable his tale will be. He was woken
[16:25] Speaker 1: at five am in his hotel by a phone call
[16:28] Speaker 1: from a man called Pedro, who picks him up in
[16:31] Speaker 1: a Volkswagen, then flies him in Assessna to a town
[16:35] Speaker 1: called to a Hantapeck. Howard is waiting for him in
[16:39] Speaker 1: a little hotel and they drink orange juice together. The
[16:43] Speaker 1: publishers are completely duped. They agree to Howard's fee five
[16:49] Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars and to his demands for secrecy. He
[16:53] Speaker 1: wants to deal only with Irving McGraw hill draw up
[16:58] Speaker 1: a contract and give it to Irving for him to
[17:00] Speaker 1: get Hughes to sign. This time, he flies to Puerto
[17:04] Speaker 1: Rico and comes back with a story about driving with
[17:08] Speaker 1: Hughes into the tropical rainforest, where the billionaire instructs him
[17:12] Speaker 1: to buy a bunch of bananas, very fat, short, sweet bananas.
[17:18] Speaker 1: Irving explained, I said, I thought that Puerto Rican bananas
[17:22] Speaker 1: were the best art ever eaten, and then he got
[17:24] Speaker 1: very friendly. He likes a man who appreciates a good banana.
[17:29] Speaker 1: Irving presents them with the signed contract and leaves with
[17:33] Speaker 1: a check made out to H. R. Hughes. The eccentric
[17:38] Speaker 1: old man insists on using his initials. Irving says. He
[17:43] Speaker 1: takes the check home to a Beitha and gives it
[17:45] Speaker 1: to Edith. She packs her bag for Zurich with her helga,
[17:49] Speaker 1: hues wig and lipstick. She's nervous. She picks a bank
[17:54] Speaker 1: at random and gives them the passport that Irving doctored.
[17:58] Speaker 1: She steeled herself for awkward questions. They barely even look.
[18:05] Speaker 1: The money is deposited without a problem. Relieved and triumphant,
[18:10] Speaker 1: Edith heads home to a Betha, where Irving has been
[18:14] Speaker 1: with Nina von Palant, His mistress believes the island just
[18:19] Speaker 1: in time. By summer, Irving and Suskind realize they have
[18:27] Speaker 1: a problem. They've read every public document about Howard Hughes
[18:32] Speaker 1: that they can lay their hands on. They have a
[18:34] Speaker 1: lot of detail about some parts of his life, but
[18:37] Speaker 1: none at all about others. It's going to be difficult
[18:40] Speaker 1: to keep up the pretense that Irving has interviewed Hughes.
[18:43] Speaker 1: If they're gaping omissions from his life story, they start
[18:47] Speaker 1: to think that they might have to pull the plug
[18:49] Speaker 1: on the project. Hughes is known for his eccentricity. Irving
[18:54] Speaker 1: can simply tell McGraw hill that Hughes has changed his
[18:57] Speaker 1: mind and returned the money he's received so far. They
[19:00] Speaker 1: needn't know it was all a hoax in anyway, What
[19:04] Speaker 1: if they did find out we haven't stolen anything, reasoned Irving,
[19:08] Speaker 1: I've lied, that's all. What can they do to me?
[19:10] Speaker 1: As long as they get their money back? The worst
[19:12] Speaker 1: thing they can do is yell, and I have a
[19:14] Speaker 1: feeling they won't yell too loud because they might look
[19:17] Speaker 1: pretty foolish. Before they give up, Irving and Suskin decide
[19:22] Speaker 1: to make one last trip to the States to see
[19:24] Speaker 1: what other information they can on earth. Driving past Palm Springs,
[19:29] Speaker 1: Irving decides to call in on his aunt, and there
[19:33] Speaker 1: they have a stroke of luck so ludicrous that you're
[19:36] Speaker 1: going to believe Irving must have made it up, But
[19:40] Speaker 1: he didn't. With the aunt, they see an old friend,
[19:44] Speaker 1: a television producer who'd once encouraged the young Irving's ambitions
[19:48] Speaker 1: as a writer. I might have a project for you,
[19:52] Speaker 1: says the friend. Have you heard of someone called Noah Ditrick?
[19:56] Speaker 1: Irving certainly has. Noah Ditrick was Howard Hughes's right hand
[20:01] Speaker 1: man for thirty two years. Well, he's written and tell
[20:05] Speaker 1: all memoir that he's trying to get published. But he's
[20:08] Speaker 1: not any luck. The writer he employed did a lousy job.
[20:12] Speaker 1: He's asked for my advice. Maybe you could take a
[20:15] Speaker 1: look at the manuscript and see how to improve it.
[20:17] Speaker 1: I'll lend it to you, but keep it confidential, won't
[20:20] Speaker 1: you sure? Says Irving. Somehow, keeping a straight face, he
[20:25] Speaker 1: and Suskin take the manuscript straight to the nearest Zerox shop.
[20:30] Speaker 1: Jesus marveled Suskin. Could you imagine using a coincidence like
[20:35] Speaker 1: this in a novel? The editor would laugh you out
[20:37] Speaker 1: of his office. The manuscript has everything they needed, not
[20:42] Speaker 1: just for the anecdotes, but for the insight into Howard
[20:45] Speaker 1: Hughes's voice, the rhythms of his speech, his favorite expletives.
[20:50] Speaker 1: Irving types up a list of recurring phrases and exclamations.
[20:55] Speaker 1: He and Suskin learn it by heart. Then they write
[21:00] Speaker 1: the book by interviewing each other taking turns to play
[21:04] Speaker 1: the role of Hughes. Where they don't know a detail,
[21:07] Speaker 1: they simply make it up. Their fictional hues. For example,
[21:12] Speaker 1: traces his germophobia to a time his mother told him
[21:16] Speaker 1: he could catch leprosy from cornbread. What about his first
[21:23] Speaker 1: sexual experience, They make that up too, at the age
[21:27] Speaker 1: of fifteen with his father's mistress, not knowing that his
[21:31] Speaker 1: father drunk was watching. You know, said Irving, I have
[21:36] Speaker 1: the feeling I know more about this man than anyone
[21:39] Speaker 1: else in the world. Don't get carried away by all this,
[21:43] Speaker 1: Launce Suskind. It's fiction. He made it up. Don't forget that.
[21:53] Speaker 1: In December, a year after his wild idea, Irving is
[21:57] Speaker 1: putting the finishing touches to his manuscript. He's on yet
[22:01] Speaker 1: another Caribbean island with yet another woman, not his wife,
[22:06] Speaker 1: supposedly conducting his final meeting with Howard Hughes. Back in
[22:11] Speaker 1: New York. Meanwhile, McGraw hill make the official announcement they
[22:17] Speaker 1: will be publishing the autobiography of Howard Hughes. This is
[22:24] Speaker 1: the story of my life in my own words, says
[22:27] Speaker 1: the press release, quoting someone claiming to be Hughes. This
[22:32] Speaker 1: Hughes then pays fulsome tribute to his co author, Clifford
[22:36] Speaker 1: Irving for his discernment, discretion, and integrity as a human being.
[22:44] Speaker 1: It doesn't take long for Irving to get a nasty shock.
[22:49] Speaker 1: Howard Hughes. His company puts out a statement there is
[22:53] Speaker 1: no such book, and Hughes himself will speak to the
[22:58] Speaker 1: press to confirm that cautionary tales will return soon. In
[23:16] Speaker 1: her book The Confidence Game, the psychologist Maria Konokova analyzes
[23:21] Speaker 1: what's happening at each stage of a contrick. It's a
[23:25] Speaker 1: step by step process. The con artist must carefully choose
[23:29] Speaker 1: their victim, sucker them in, make them believe, and keep
[23:33] Speaker 1: ratcheting up their commitment. Up to now, Irving has done
[23:38] Speaker 1: a textbook job. The final stage of the con she
[23:42] Speaker 1: calls the blowoff. That's when the victim realizes they've been
[23:47] Speaker 1: had and the con artist needs to avoid any unpleasant consequences.
[23:54] Speaker 1: In this way, cons are no different to many other
[23:57] Speaker 1: risky ventures starting a business, say, or a war. They
[24:01] Speaker 1: make sense to think about an exit strategy. If this
[24:05] Speaker 1: doesn't go to plan, how do I get out with
[24:08] Speaker 1: minimal damage? The blowoff is often easier than we might think,
[24:13] Speaker 1: says Connakova, Many victims of cons don't make a fuss
[24:18] Speaker 1: because they don't want a reputation as a schmuck. If
[24:21] Speaker 1: everyone knows you were taken in by a con artist,
[24:24] Speaker 1: you'll be seen as an easy touch. Other people will
[24:27] Speaker 1: try to fool you. You might decide it's better to
[24:30] Speaker 1: keep silent, swallow your loss, and preserve your reputation. As
[24:36] Speaker 1: Connakova puts it, we ourselves are the grifter's best chance
[24:40] Speaker 1: of a successful blowoff. We don't want anyone to know
[24:44] Speaker 1: we've been duped. Like all good con artists, Clifford Irving
[24:50] Speaker 1: instinctively understood the importance of reputation to his victim. Remember
[24:55] Speaker 1: what it'd said to Dick Suskind when they'd fretted that
[24:58] Speaker 1: McGraw hill might find out about the hoax. The worst
[25:02] Speaker 1: thing they can do is yell, and I have a
[25:04] Speaker 1: feeling they won't yell too loud because they might look
[25:07] Speaker 1: pretty foolish. That might have been true if they'd discovered
[25:12] Speaker 1: Irving's con before the book was public knowledge, But once
[25:16] Speaker 1: mc graw hill had made their announcement, keeping quiet was
[25:20] Speaker 1: no longer an option. That left the other exit route
[25:24] Speaker 1: Irving could say help, I've been hoaxed by someone pretending
[25:28] Speaker 1: to be Howard Hughes. In other words, he could get
[25:32] Speaker 1: off the hook by sacrificing his own reputation. But whenever
[25:36] Speaker 1: you start a risky venture with an exit strategy in mind,
[25:40] Speaker 1: there's a danger you can get so caught up in
[25:44] Speaker 1: chasing success that you forget what your plan to do
[25:47] Speaker 1: in case of failure. With every detail he'd improvised to
[25:52] Speaker 1: make his meetings with Hughes seem more believable to mc
[25:55] Speaker 1: graw hill, Irving had closed off his escape route. The
[25:59] Speaker 1: impostor Hughes would have needed an accomplice called Pedro who
[26:04] Speaker 1: could fly, assessner, that's a lot of trouble to go to.
[26:08] Speaker 1: Irving had even that in one clandestine meeting, Hughes had
[26:12] Speaker 1: introduced him to the Vice President of the United States,
[26:15] Speaker 1: Spiro Agnew, another impostor. Just how stupid would Irving have
[26:21] Speaker 1: to say he'd been. It would never work. Clifford Irving
[26:26] Speaker 1: had blown his blowoff. His only hope now was that
[26:30] Speaker 1: Howard Hughes wouldn't go public after all. On the seventh
[26:36] Speaker 1: of January nineteen seventy two, seven journalists sat around a
[26:41] Speaker 1: semicircular table in a conference room in a Los Angeles hotel,
[26:45] Speaker 1: surrounded by cameras and facing a telephone on loudspeaker. They
[26:51] Speaker 1: had been carefully selected by Howard Hughes's representatives. Most had
[26:56] Speaker 1: known Hughes back in the day. If anyone could vouch
[26:59] Speaker 1: for the voice that was about to come through the
[27:01] Speaker 1: phone line, they could. I only wish I was still
[27:05] Speaker 1: in the movie business, because I don't remember any as
[27:09] Speaker 1: wild or as stretching the imagination as this yarn has
[27:12] Speaker 1: turned out to be. I take it, sir, you do
[27:15] Speaker 1: not know a man named Clifford Irving, then I don't
[27:19] Speaker 1: know him. I never saw him. I've never heard of
[27:22] Speaker 1: him until a matter of days ago when this thing
[27:25] Speaker 1: first came to my attention. The air conditioning in the
[27:28] Speaker 1: room was too loud, so the hotel had turned it off.
[27:32] Speaker 1: The television lights were sweltering. The journalists began to wilt,
[27:37] Speaker 1: but on the other end of the line, Hughes seemed
[27:40] Speaker 1: to be having fun. He reminisced about the technical details
[27:44] Speaker 1: of aircraft he had designed for two and a half hours.
[27:48] Speaker 1: Har'd be happy to talk to you all just as
[27:51] Speaker 1: long as you want, Irving and Suskind watched the press
[27:55] Speaker 1: conference on TV, and hearing the voice of Howard Hughes
[28:00] Speaker 1: was a shock. It wasn't just that they'd bet on
[28:03] Speaker 1: him staying silent. They were shocked to remember he actually existed.
[28:09] Speaker 1: They've got so used to thinking of Howard Hughes as
[28:12] Speaker 1: their own fictional creation. But with no way out of
[28:16] Speaker 1: the hoax, Irving had to double down. If he couldn't
[28:20] Speaker 1: claim that his Howard Hughes had been an impostor, he'd
[28:23] Speaker 1: have to insist that this one was instead. That's not him,
[28:28] Speaker 1: said Irving. It's a damn good imitation of what he
[28:31] Speaker 1: might have sounded like a few years ago when he
[28:33] Speaker 1: was healthy. But it's not him. A disembodied voice on
[28:37] Speaker 1: a speaker phone is one thing, Irving reasoned, A flesh
[28:40] Speaker 1: and blood Howard Hughes in a courtroom was another thing altogether.
[28:45] Speaker 1: If only he could keep some doubt alive, he might
[28:49] Speaker 1: force Hughes to sue him, and maybe Hughes wouldn't go
[28:53] Speaker 1: through with that. It was a desperate throw of the dice,
[28:57] Speaker 1: and it convinced hardly anyone. Most people thought it really
[29:00] Speaker 1: had been Howard Hughes on the phone, but they also
[29:04] Speaker 1: doubted what Howard Hughes had said. One journalist summed up
[29:09] Speaker 1: the consensus view, it's entirely consistent with the personality of
[29:13] Speaker 1: Howard Hughes to dictate his autobiography and then deny it.
[29:19] Speaker 1: McGraw hill continued to insist that their book was genuine
[29:23] Speaker 1: and they'd publish it as planned. The boss held a
[29:27] Speaker 1: press conference despite his denial. Today McGraw hill has in
[29:31] Speaker 1: its possession a tremendous amount of documentation which, in our
[29:35] Speaker 1: opinion indicates beyond the shadow of a doubt, that this
[29:39] Speaker 1: is the authentic autobiography and that we have the authorization
[29:43] Speaker 1: to publish it. They weren't just taking Clifford Irving's word
[29:46] Speaker 1: for it. They'd sent the letters from Howard Hughes to
[29:49] Speaker 1: a firm of handwriting analysts. Irving surprise, the well respected
[29:54] Speaker 1: firm confidently declared the odds of a forgery to be
[29:58] Speaker 1: a million to one. At his press conference, the boss
[30:02] Speaker 1: of McGraw hill brandished some of that tremendous amount of documentation,
[30:08] Speaker 1: including fact similars of checks that h. R. Hughes had countersigned.
[30:14] Speaker 1: The checks revealed at which bank they had been paid in.
[30:17] Speaker 1: That was a crucial piece of information. Hughes on the
[30:23] Speaker 1: phone had zeroed in on the key question, this money
[30:27] Speaker 1: didn't enter any of my bank accounts. Where is it again?
[30:33] Speaker 1: Irving hadn't thought things through the Howard Hughes he imagined
[30:37] Speaker 1: so vividly. The fictional Howard Hughes might ponder legal action,
[30:42] Speaker 1: but would then shy away, made helpless by his fear
[30:45] Speaker 1: of appearing in public. But the actual, real life Howard Hughes,
[30:50] Speaker 1: the billionaire Howard Hughes, had plenty of other options. For example,
[30:55] Speaker 1: he could instruct a private detective to assemble evidence for
[30:59] Speaker 1: the police, and he did. Thanks to those images of checks,
[31:05] Speaker 1: the private detective had a lead. The detective did some
[31:08] Speaker 1: digging at the Swiss bank and soon discovered that the
[31:12] Speaker 1: Hr Hughes who paid in the checks was a woman
[31:16] Speaker 1: in her mid thirties, five ft three and German that
[31:20] Speaker 1: sounded remarkably like Clifford Irving's wife. The detective sourced some
[31:26] Speaker 1: photos of Edith and showed them to the cashier who
[31:29] Speaker 1: dealt with Helga Hughes. She looked at them. The hair
[31:33] Speaker 1: wasn't right, but yes, the face looked very close to
[31:37] Speaker 1: what she remembered when the law got involved. The end
[31:45] Speaker 1: came quickly. Irving's trial was a media circus, and there
[31:49] Speaker 1: was no doubt about its star performer, The Baroness Nina
[31:54] Speaker 1: von paaland the beautiful charismatic mistress captivated the public. She
[32:00] Speaker 1: was on magazine front pages and TV chat shows. Edith
[32:05] Speaker 1: meanwhile got two years in prison in Switzerland forgery and fraud.
[32:11] Speaker 1: Later she got a divorce. Clifford Irving was given a
[32:16] Speaker 1: similar sentence in New York. He promptly wrote a memoir
[32:19] Speaker 1: about the hoax, in which he seems to struggle with
[32:22] Speaker 1: the thought that he really did anything wrong. He talks
[32:26] Speaker 1: about his magnificent shape and how it had a certain grandeur,
[32:31] Speaker 1: a reckless and artistic splendor in the oppressed, middle class
[32:35] Speaker 1: world of America, where so few men try to do
[32:38] Speaker 1: anything other than cut along the dotted line. Could the
[32:41] Speaker 1: failure itself of a bold and lunatic scheme be the
[32:45] Speaker 1: image of ultimate success. It's one way of looking at it.
[32:50] Speaker 1: Although perhaps the person who got most success from this
[32:53] Speaker 1: bold and lunatic scheme was a once famous Danish folk
[32:57] Speaker 1: singer with a career to rebuild bookings flooded in and
[33:03] Speaker 1: parts in Hollywood movies. The publicity said Nina's manager was
[33:09] Speaker 1: earth as much as an Academy award. The story of
[33:15] Speaker 1: the fake autobiography has a coda. In two thousand and six,
[33:20] Speaker 1: thirty five years after The Hoax, Clifford Irving's memoir was
[33:25] Speaker 1: turned into a film. It was called The Hoax. Clifford
[33:30] Speaker 1: Irving was played by Richard gear. Irving hated the film.
[33:36] Speaker 1: He complained that it portrayed him as a sleazy, money
[33:40] Speaker 1: grubbing low life. That wasn't true at all. He said
[33:44] Speaker 1: his motives weren't base, they were noble. Having thought of
[33:48] Speaker 1: the hoax, he simply had to do it like a
[33:51] Speaker 1: mountaineer has to climb a mountain because it's there. Irving
[33:57] Speaker 1: made clear that the film was nothing to do with him.
[34:01] Speaker 1: He didn't want people to think that this fictional version
[34:05] Speaker 1: of himself was who he really was. Perhaps at last
[34:11] Speaker 1: he'd come to understand how Howard Hughes must have felt.
[34:24] Speaker 1: For a full list of our sources, please see the
[34:26] Speaker 1: show notes at Tim Harford dot com. Portionary Tales is
[34:39] Speaker 1: written by me Tim Harford with Andrew Wright. It's produced
[34:43] Speaker 1: by Ryan Dilley with support from Courtney Guarino and Emily Vaughan.
[34:48] Speaker 1: The sound design and original music is the work of
[34:51] Speaker 1: Pascal Wise. It features the voice talents of Ben Crow,
[34:55] Speaker 1: Melanie Gutridge, Stella Harford, and rufus Wright. The show also
[34:59] Speaker 1: wouldn't have been possible without the work of Mia La Belle,
[35:03] Speaker 1: Jacob Weisberg, Heather Fane, John Schnas, Julia Barton, Karlie mcgliori,
[35:08] Speaker 1: Eric's Royston, Basserve, Maggie Taylor, Nicole Mrano, Danielle Lakhan, and
[35:14] Speaker 1: Maya Kanig. Cautionary Tales is a production of Pushkin Industries.
[35:19] Speaker 1: If you like the show, please remember to share, rate
[35:22] Speaker 1: and review, tell a friend, tell two friends, and if
[35:25] Speaker 1: you want to hear the show, adds free and listen
[35:27] Speaker 1: to four exclusive Cautionary Tales shorts. Then sign up for
[35:32] Speaker 1: Pushkin Plus on the show page in Apple Podcasts or
[35:35] Speaker 1: at pushkin dot fm, slash plus

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