Melvin Dummar, forger of Howard Hughes' will, dies of cancer in Pahrump at age 74

[Dan Druff]

Melvin Dummar, the most famous will forger in history, has died at age 74.

Dummar claimed that, in 1967, when he was 23, he found a disheveled and lost man lying on the side of US-95, a little bit south of Goldfield, NV (which is about 150 miles north of Las Vegas). The man supposedly told him to take him to the Sands Hotel (now the Venetian) in Vegas, which Dummar did. Near the end of the 2-hour drive, the man revealed himself to be famed eccentric tycoon Howard Hughes.

When Hughes died in April 1976, a handwritten will was found in the Mormon headquarters in Salt Lake City, purportedly written by Hughes in 1968. It left 1/16 of the estate ($156,000,000) to the Mormon Church, 1/16 to Dummar (also $156,000,000), and the remainder distributed to various others.

It became known as "The Mormon Will".

However, it was later shown in court to have been a forgery.

The will was full of misspellings, despite the fact that Hughes was known to write well. The money for the ex-wives didn't make sense, as their alimony agreements specifically stated that they would receive no inheritance from Hughes. His large, flying boat "The Spruce Goose" was referred to in the will, despite the fact that Hughes hated that name for it, and found it to be derisive. Hughes was also not Mormon, so leaving such a large sum of money to that church also made no sense.

Here is the text of the will:

Last Will and Testament
I, Howard R. Hughes, being of sound mind and disposing mind and memory, not acting under duress, fraud or the undue influence of any person whomever, and being a resident of Las Vegas, Nevada, declare that this is to be my last will and revolt [sic] all other wills previously made by me -
After my death, my estate is to be devided [sic] as follows -
First: one-forth [sic] of all my assets to go to Hughes Medical Institute of Miami -
Second: one-eight [sic] of assets to be devided [sic] among the University of Texas - Rice Institute of Technology of Houston - the University of Nevada - and the University of California.
Third: one-sixteenth to Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - David O. McKay - Pre.
Forth [sic]: one-sixteenth to establish a home for Orphan Children [sic] -
Fifth: one-sixteenth of assets to go to Boy Scouts of America.
Sixth: one-sixteenth to be devided [sic] among Jean Peters of Los Angeles and Ella Rice of Houston -
Seventh: one-sixteenth of assets to William R. Lommis [sic] of Houston, Texas -
Eighth: one-sixteenth to go to Melvin DuMar [sic] of Gabbs, Nevada -
Ninth: one-sixteenth to be devided [sic] among my personal aids [sic] at the time of my death -
Tenth: one-sixteenth to be used as school scholarship fund for entire country - the spruce goose is to be given to the City of Long Beach, Calif.
The remainder of my estate is to be devided [sic] among the key men of the company's [sic] I own at the time of my death.
I appoint Noah Dietrich as the executer [sic] of this will -
Signed the 19 [sic] day of March 1968
Howard R. Hughes

The spelling mistakes are noted by [sic].

It was determined that Dummar forged the entire will.

At first Dummar denied knowing anything about the will, but when authorities found his fingerprint on the envelope, he then changed his story and claimed that a messenger of Hughes had left the envelope with him in 1968, and asked him to deliver it to the Mormon Church in Salt Lake.

While Hughes' signature looked fairly authentic, it was found that Dummar's wife worked for a magazine which had access to a lot of Hughes' memos, and they could have easily copied his signature.

The will was ruled a forgery by a Nevada jury in 1978. Dummar received nothing.


In 2005, a retired FBI agent released a book regarding the will, stating that there was evidence that Dummar had actually found Hughes on US-95 in 1967. Among other things, he claimed that employees had remembered a disheveled Hughes arriving at the Sands in December 1967 claiming he had been rescued by a young man who found him face down in the desert. Also, apparently Hughes had interests in mines located in that area, and frequented a brothel fairly close to where Dummar said he found Hughes face down.

I think it might actually be possible that Dummar picked up Hughes in 1967 and rescued him. But perhaps feeling he deserved some kind of reward for it, given Hughes' immense wealth, he and his wife got the idea to forge that will after Hughes' death, and hoped that leaving 94% to others, and just 6% for himself (with his own name intentionally misspelled), would throw people off his trail.

Dummar's last attempt to fight this out was dismissed in 2007, after he tried to file a lawsuit in 2005.

He died in Pahrump, Nevada, which is about one hour northwest of Las Vegas, in the direction of Death Valley. Pahrump is best known for its lax gun laws and legalized prostitution.

[JohnCommode]

"Melvin and Howard" with Paul le Mat as Melvin was a passable dramatization of this whole mess with a lot of artistic license, but hardly a great movie. Jason Robards was Howard.