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From the World Encyclopedia of Con Artists and Confidence Games
Oldest known version of this page was edited on 2008-02-09 11:01:05 by MarD []
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Irving, Clifford, 1930-, U.S., fraud. Clifford Irving, a hustling writer with a three-book contract with
McGraw-Hill Publishers of New York, picked up a copy of Newsweek in December 1970 and in an article came across the signatures of Howard Hughes and of Hughes' aides, Chester David and Bill Gay. Knowing Hughes was a fanatical recluse who had not made a public appearance in years, Irving decided to fake an "authorized" biography. He spent considerable time developing phony correspondence between himself and Hughes, duplicating Hughes' handwriting from the samples appearing in Newsweek. In one of the fake letters, Hughes agreed to "tell all" to Irving in the only authorized version of his fabulous and secretive life.
Irving presented the idea to his publishers,
McGraw-Hill, offering the fake correspondence to authenticate his relationship with Hughes.
McGraw-Hill hesitated, especially when Irving demanded a $750,000 advance for the priceless biography. Editors wanted to know how the relatively unknown Irving had met one of the world's most elusive men. Irving was evasive, hiding behind the commonly accepted notions that Hughes was eccentric, occasionally befriended strangers, and lived and operated in near complete secrecy. In the end,
McGraw-Hill seized the opportunity to publish a book they believed would make millions.
Irving went to work faking the biography, piecing together Hughes' life from various other books written by those who had known the recluse. Some time earlier he had been asked to work on a book about Hughes by a friend, Stanley Myers, who assembled considerable research from the investigations of James Phelan, a newsman, and Noah Dietrich, once a top executive for Hughes. Myers sent this research to the unscrupulous Irving who copied and then returned it, saying he was not interested. He then used the insider research for his own faked book on Hughes.
When
McGraw-Hill announced the book's publication in December 1971, spokesmen for Rosemont Enterprises, Inc., a Hughes firm, loudly denounced the book. Rosemont had been established by Hughes to prevent anyone from ever using his name.
McGraw-Hill confronted Irving, who brazenly shrugged off the Rosemont statements, saying that Hughes was so secretive that he had undoubtedly failed to inform his own people that he had authorized the Irving biography. Then Irving told
McGraw-Hill that Hughes, despite the fact that he was a billionaire, wanted more money. He persuaded
McGraw-Hill to write a check for $275,000 in the name of H.R. Hughes, and another for $25,000 made out to himself.
Even though many began to publicly state that the Irving book was a fake,
McGraw-Hill was convinced of its genuineness and advanced another $325,000 to Irving, mostly in checks made out to H.R. Hughes. These checks were deposited in a Swiss numbered bank account with Credit Suisse by Irving's collusive wife, Edith, under the name Helga Rosencrantz Hughes. More denials from Hughes' executives were made, but Irving continued to insist that Hughes was paranoid and would not tell anyone of his private arrangements with him. Irving was convinced that not even the most outrageous claims could prompt Hughes into making a public appearance to quash the swindle. In this he completely miscalculated.
Hughes did come forth, in January 1972, holding a phone interview with several newsmen who had known him well over the years and convinced them that he had never met Irving or had dealings with him. Still, Irving stuck to his story, insisting that he would soon reveal his inside contact to Howard Hughes. Meanwhile, his wife busied herself with flying to Switzerland and withdrawing all the money from the H.R. Hughes bank account. In March 1972, a reporter from Time magazine, thinking Irving was getting his information from John Meier, a Hughes executive, called Irving and left a message on his answering machine. "We know all about Meier," the reporter stated, testing the waters. Irving thought the reporter meant Stanley Meyer, the man from whom he had stolen his research, and admitted his swindle.
Both Irving and his wife Edith were brought to trial and convicted of fraud. Edith Irving was tried in Switzerland and received a two-year sentence, of which she served fourteen months. Irving received a two-and-a-half-year sentence and was released after seventeen months. When he emerged he wrote a book about the Hughes swindle for which he received a much smaller advance than the one he had conned from
McGraw-Hill. His marriage had gone to pieces and his credibility as an author was utterly destroyed. Irving, who at first was thought clever by more venal readers, has since been aptly labeled a thief and a liar.