Delivery man challenges Howard Hughes' will
A delivery man from Utah has gone to federal court to argue that he is owed a large fortune from the estate of Howard Hughes that he says was promised to him as a reward for rescuing the reclusive billionaire from a bed of dust in the desert more than 40 years ago.
It is a return trip for Melvin Dummar, 63, whose first attempt to lay claim to $156m he said was left to him by Hughes was thrown out by the courts in a lengthy probate trial in 1978. Though he was widely branded a liar at the time, he says he is trying again with a new witness ready to back him up.
His Good Samaritan tale is already well known, not least because it became the inspiration for an Oscar-winning film directed by Jonathan Demme in 1980 named Melvin and Howard.
Mr Dummar still sticks by its every detail. He relates driving from Utah to California in December 1967, stopping at a place called Lida Junction in the middle of Nevada to relieve himself by the side of the road and finding a man face down in the desert scrub. The filthy figure, who he deposited at the Sands Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas strip, turned out to be none other than Hughes.
Read entire article at Independent (UK)
It is a return trip for Melvin Dummar, 63, whose first attempt to lay claim to $156m he said was left to him by Hughes was thrown out by the courts in a lengthy probate trial in 1978. Though he was widely branded a liar at the time, he says he is trying again with a new witness ready to back him up.
His Good Samaritan tale is already well known, not least because it became the inspiration for an Oscar-winning film directed by Jonathan Demme in 1980 named Melvin and Howard.
Mr Dummar still sticks by its every detail. He relates driving from Utah to California in December 1967, stopping at a place called Lida Junction in the middle of Nevada to relieve himself by the side of the road and finding a man face down in the desert scrub. The filthy figure, who he deposited at the Sands Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas strip, turned out to be none other than Hughes.