The Money: The Battle for Howard Hughes's Billions - Hardcover

Phelan, James R.

4.11

9 ratings by Goodreads

9780394556376: The Money: The Battle for Howard Hughes's Billions

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0394556372 ISBN 13: 9780394556376

Publisher: Random House, 1997

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Howard Hughes's death in 1976 exposed a unique American horror story. Hughes wandered six years in exile in a self-constructed private asylum, the victim of such gross neglect that neither he nor his keepers dared disclose him to public view. When he died, he weighed ninety-two pounds and was indistinguishable from a street derelict, dehydrated and ravaged by drugs.


There was no discoverable will, and thousands of people became involved in a bitter struggle to claim his fortune. There were those who lied, fantasized, and forged in an effort to seize a prize that, in the opinion of most contemporary financial experts, was worth $2 billion. More recently, however, Hughes's worth at the time of his death has been shown to be in excess of $6 billion--approximately three times J. Paul Getty's wealth at his death.


Among the motley of contenders fighting for The Money were two powerful groups. On one side was Will Lummis, a soft-voiced conservative lookalike cousin of the billionaire, and twenty other Hughes cousins claiming legal heirship. On the other side were the people who had managed the empire of the phobia-ridden Hughes during his last six years. They were headed by an executive triumvirate: Chester Davis, Hughes's aggressive and abrasive chief counsel; Frank W. "Bill"  Gay, his mousy, low-profile executive vice president; and Nadine Henley, a plump, peroxided one-time secretary.


When Hughes died, both Texas and California claimed him as their taxable own, setting off years of litigation that went several times to the U.S. Supreme Court.


The final irony of Hughes and The Money was that the fight for his fortune demolished the privacy it had bought for him at great cost in his later years. The secrets came flooding forth as the men who had hidden him and those who ran his businesses were put under oath and required to talk.


This remarkable story--revealed here for the first time--is told by two of the most knowledgeable "Hughes watchers."  James R. Phelan, for years one of the most respected independent investigative journalists in this country, was the first to reveal the true story of Hughes's final days in the bestselling Howard Hughes: The Hidden Years. Lewis Chester is a former editor of Insight, The  Sunday Times (London) investigative team, and is the coauthor of Hoax: The Inside Story of the Howard Hughes -Clifford Irving Affair.


Based on interviews and a massive collection of court documents, sworn testimony, and depositions, The Money tells the bizarre--and truly almost unbelievable--story of the palace struggles that ensued when the emperor died and a contentious cast of contenders, a collection of characters rivaling those on TV's Dallas, fought over his billions.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

The Money: The Battle for Howard Hughes's Billions, by James R. Phelan and Lewis Chester, who each penned earlier books on the extraordinarily eccentric tycoon, focuses on the heated competition for a piece of the notorious recluse's enormous estate following his 1976 death. In spite of his well-known predilection for control, Hughes apparently died without leaving a valid will. And despite his lifelong penchant for secrecy, his curious demise set off a string of courtroom skirmishes and corporate infighting that involved more than 1,000 people and ultimately revealed much of the bizarre behavior that continues to fascinate us.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Howard Hughes departed his own bizarre world and the real one two decades ago. If you've ever wondered what finally happened to his closely guarded fortune, you'll find the fascinating answer here. Phelan (Howard Hughes: The Hidden Years, 1977, etc.) and former London Sunday Times staffer Chester cogently reprise the crazy death and fabulous curriculum vitae of the industrialist, gambling czar, movie maker, aviator, womanizer, drug addict, and lunatic billionaire. Then the authors, both longtime Hughes watchers, concentrate on the true protagonist: The Money. Was Hughes's legacy relatively chump change of $165 million or really more than $5 billion? Another mystery: Howard's end initiated a search for his last will and testament. To date, no will has been found. But there soon appeared, together with some decidedly odd stories, lots of fakes, along with putative heirs, grieving widows, and lost relatives. California and Texas, mindful of death taxes, each asserted domicile. (Nevada did not impose a death levy, and the obvious domicile for Hughes, La-La Land, was not heard from). The Homeric battle for The Money centered on control of the Summa Corporation and of the principle owner of the fortune, the Medical Institute, originally organized as a tax dodge. As villains, the authors provide the controlling privy councillors, and as hero, Hughes's nephew, Will Lummis, who finally got the thing settled. With the fascination of a visit to a crime scene, the text describes what lawyers daily do for a living, albeit usually for less monumental stakes. Finally, The Money went to doctors (for research), relatives, tax collectors, and even some lawyers--all people Hughes disliked intensely. A great tale, told adroitly, and a worthy addition to the great library of Hughesiana. (16 pages b&w photos, not seen) (Author tour) -- Copyright �1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.