Melvin E. Dummar

After Howard Hughes died, an intensive search began for his Last Will and Testament. Speculation became rampant that Hughes may have written a holographic will, which was recognized in the states in which he had holdings. Two weeks after his death, an envelope containing 3 handwritten pages dated March 19, 1968 and signed "Howard R. Hughes" was discovered on the desk of an official at the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. Along with The Church, Rice University, the University of California, the University of Texas, the University of Nevada, and the Boy Scouts of America, the "Mormon Will" granted gas station owner Melvin Dummar a 1/16th share of Hughes's $2 billion fortune. Dummar recounted to reporters that in December 1967, he found a man wandering along U.S. Highway 95. The man asked for a ride to Las Vegas. When Dummar dropped him off at the Sands Hotel, the man told him that he was Howard Hughes, but Dummar didn't believe him. Rife