Howard Hughes (1905-1976) was certainly one of the most colourful characters who ever lived, dubbed The World’s Ultimate Enigma by Time. He was an industrialist, entrepreneur, world record setter and pioneer in aviation, similar to Steve Fossett, and one of the world’s most powerful men.
Hughest in 1938, aged 33
He was one of the wealthiest persons who ever lived, being worth more than USD40 billion (in 2006 dollars) at one time. In fact, in 1966, he was *the* world’s richest person.
He was also once nicknamed The World’s Greatest Womanizer, well known for his flamboyance. He dated various beautiful Hollywood actresses, including Ginger Rogers, Katherine Hepburn, and Olivia de Havilland. He was married and divorced twice, to Ella Rice and Jean Peters, a famous actress.
Hughes in 1955, aged 50
Once, he moved to, and stayed at a Las Vegas casino / hotel. When the owner complained about his behaviour, Hughes simply bought not just the hotel, but 4 other casinos in the area.
But then things became bizarre. Hughes slowly became an eccentric, a hypochondriac, obsessed with avoiding germs. He became addicted to codeine and Valium, and displayed extreme compulsive-obsessive behaviour.
In the last 20 years of his life, Hughes was never seen or photographed in public.
Nobody could reach him, not even the President! Only his security guards and doctors were allowed to see him.
Vivid details of the last days of his life as described in crimelibrary.com:
- Injecting codeine into his arms, he would break the needles. These would later show up on on the autopsy X-rays.
- On his feet, he wore tissue boxes.
- He was naked all the time
- He never cut his hair, beard or nails.
- He ate candy bars but never brushed his teeth, resulting in his teeth all rotting and falling off.
- He urinated on the floor and never bathed, but he might sit on the toilet for 20 hours in one stretch.
- He watched movies obsessively.
- he drafted complex notes to his employees on the proper way to handle his belongings, for example:
(i) Before handing a spoon to Hughes:
- wrap its handle in tissue paper and seal it with cellophane tape.
- wrap a second piece of tissue over the first protective wrapping.
On receiving the spoon, Hughes would use it with the handle still covered.
(ii) In order to remove his hearing-aid cord from the bathroom cabinet:
- use 6 to 8 tissues to turn the knob on the bathroom door
- use 6 to 8 new tissues to open the bathroom cabinet and remove an unused bar of soap
- clean your hands with the soap
- use at least 15 tissues to open the door to the cabinet containing the hearing aid
- remove the sealed envelope containing the hearing aid with two hands using another 15 tissues in both hands
Time Magazine’s (1976) depiction of Hughes in his last days
He died mysteriously on 5th April 1976 on the way to a hospital. Cause of death was apparently heart failure.
Nobody could recognise him, his 6’4″ frame weighed only 41kg, so they had to take his fingerprints, where the FBI confirmed that the corpse was indeed that of Hughes .
Want to read more? I recommend James Phelan’s book “Howard Hughes: The Hidden Years”.
Then, 20 years after his death, his empire ended, when his heirs announced in February 1996 that they had agreed to sell the last remnants of the Hughes holdings, vast tracts of land and buildings in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The rest of his assets, including aircraft, satellite construction, casinos and oil equipment, were already sold earlier.
Source
National Aviation Hall of Fame
Crime Library
Wikipedia
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