I was watching The Hoax yesterday, which starred Richard Gere as author Clifford Irving. A while back, I blogged about writers who faked their stories and came under shame for it once it was revealed to the public. However, I didn’t know about Clifford Irving and his Howard Hughes “autobiography.” Well, I think I had heard of a fake Hughes autobiography, but didn’t know the whole story, which I found quite fascinating after watching the movie.
As you may know, by 1958, billionaire Howard Hughes had become a recluse, even refusing to appear in court. This gave Irving an idea. He met with old friend and fellow author Richard Suskind in 1970 and they decided to write a Hughes “autobiography.” Because Hughes was such a recluse, they figured they could get away with it because he would never want to file a lawsuit for fear of having to appear in court.
Suskind was in charge of the research while Irving worked on forging letters. Irving told his publisher, McGraw-Hill, that he had been in touch Hughes and provided three forged letters as proof of Hughes’ interest in an autobiography. Oddly enough, Irving had previously written a biography about Elmyr de Hory, who was known for selling forged paintings.
McGraw-Hill agreed to the terms Irving said Hughes had insisted on, that being that the autobiography be kept under wraps. Meanwhile, Suskind and Irving gained access to private Time-Life files and a manuscript by James Phelan which told the story of Hughes’ former business manager Noah Dietrich.
McGraw-Hill gave Irving an advance of $100,000 and set aside $750,000 for Hughes. The publisher gave Irving a check made out to H. R. Hughes. Irving had his wife Edith Sommer deposit it in a Swiss bank account.
By winter 1971, the manuscript was ready and Irving delivered it to McGraw-Hill. McGraw-Hill, in part due to a forged Hughes letter that a forensic document analyst had said was real, announced they would publish the book in March 1972.
Naturally, this caused a bit of an uproar. When people who had known or worked for Hughes expressed disbelief that he would authorize such a book, Irving merely said that Hughes just hadn’t told them about it, which seemed logical given his reclusiveness. After reading the manuscript, the last journalist who interviewed Hughes, Frank McCullough, said he felt it was legitimate.
But, Hughes wouldn’t let Irving get away with the ruse and soon the walls started tumbling down. In January 1972, Hughes held a conference call with seven journalists who knew him. Hughes denounced Irving, but Irving simply said the call wasn’t Hughes.
Chester Davis, Hughes’ lawyer, filed suit against McGraw-Hill, Time-Life (because they had paid McGraw-Hill to publish excerpts from the book), Clifford Irving, and Dell Publications. Meanwhile, in Sweden, officials were investigating a $750,000 check deposited by a female under the name of “Helga R. Hughes.”
James Phelan read the manuscript and saw that it was taken in part from his own. Once the Swiss officials determined it was Edith Sommer who had deposited the check, both Edith and Clifford confessed on January 28, 1972.
Sommer, Irving, and Suskind were all found guilty of fraud. Irving served 17 months in prison, Suskind served five months, and Sommer served two months in an American prison, then fourteen months in a Swedish prison.
And what became of author Clifford Irving? Well, of course, he wrote a book, titled The Hoax about his misadventures in 1981. In his career, he has written 18 books, with the most recent being in 2008.