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Some observers nonetheless suspect forgery. Handwriting analysis will undoubtedly be the focus of the case; Hughes' lawyers may ask for an Internal Revenue Service investigation, saying that he never received McGraw-Hill checks. The noted New York handwriting experts Osborn Associates have verified that the handwriting on those documents matches samples of Hughes' handwriting dating back to 1936. At that time, Hughes was booked in a Los Angeles police station, where his fingerprints and signature were recorded after his car struck and killed a pedestrian (the charges were dropped). The present handwriting is also said to match Hughes' signatures on a 1938 pilot's log and a Government security clearance issued during World War II. In addition, it matches the longhand in a letter, written in 1970, directing that Robert Maheu be fired as head of the Hughes properties in Nevada. Says Paul A. Osborn of Osborn Associates: "The evidence that all of the writing submitted was done by one individual is, in our opinion, irresistible, unanswerable and overwhelming."
In addition to their holographic evidence, McGraw-Hill and LIFE also base their case for authenticity on the internal character of their manuscript, which is offhand, conversational, outspoken, frequently salty. It deals intricately and at considerable length with airplane design and performance. There are glints of characteristic Hughes wit. He scoffed at Richard Nixon's Checkers speech, for example: "I always thought he must have had an onion hidden in his handkerchief." Such details would have been extremely difficult for Irving to fake. Indeed, the Hughes camp seemed ready to base its case less on the authenticity of the book than on whether or not it was authorized.
THEORY II: PARTIAL HOAX. Irving came up with authentic Hughes material, but did not obtain it in the way that he said he did. How else could he have got it?
THEORY II, VARIATION A. The man he met was not Howard Hughes but a talented impersonator in the service of Hughes' enemies, who had their own business reasons for inspiring an "autobiography." Hughes is known to keep extensive records of his conversations —all his personal aides are trained court reporters. Is it possible that the basic manuscript was among a truckload of documents that were removed from the Las Vegas office of Robert Maheu at the time Hughes fired him and slipped away to the Bahamas?
The theoretical motive: to use the "autobiography" to discredit Hughes with Nevada authorities, causing his gambling licenses to be withdrawn and thus ruining his $300 million Nevada empire. The Nevada gambling commission has for months been trying to induce Hughes to appear before it and answer questions about who controls his Las Vegas enterprises. If the "autobiography" suggested that he had traveled to various cities to give interviews to Irving, the commission might demand to know why Hughes has declined to come to Nevada. Already, Nevada Governor Mike O'Callaghan has said: "If he had time to travel throughout the Western Hemisphere, he certainly should be