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His secret life was surrounded by speculation, much of it wildly spurious. The only eyewitness account came in 1971, when Howard Eckersley, one of Hughes' principal nurse-aides, was compelled to testify in a Nevada suit. According to Eckersley, Hughes had locked himself into a self-made prison. Whether atop the Desert Inn in Las Vegas (where he lived from 1966 to 1970) or the Inn on the Park in London (1972-73) or the Princess in Acapulco (since February), Hughes' pattern of existence was much the same. He was completely sheltered from outsiders by five nurse-aides, four of whom are Mormons. Hughes had picked them because their abstinential religion rendered them, in his eyes, less susceptible to the weaknesses of human nature that he knew so well. The penthouses were isolated from the rest of the hotel by locked elevator and surveillance devices, sometimes including TV monitors. Security guards patrolled the halls to ward off intruders.
Usually Hughes lived in one room, its windows sealed by black curtains and masking tape. Only when watching television was he aware of the time; long ago he had imperiously chosen to ignore the ordinary routine of days and nights. He spent most of his time sitting in a straight-backed hard chair, most often clad only in pajamas. He was constantly attended by two male aides who acted as secretaries and nurses. When he lived at the Desert Inn, he was separated from the aides by a glass partition to ward off germs. If he wanted to give instructions, he would summon an aide to a door to pick up notes, or he would hold up the notes to a glass. Sample: "Please watch me closely and do not let me go to sleep at all."
Hughes would work and read for days on end. Then he would fall into an almost comatose state in which he would sleep for several days. His eating habits were equally bizarre. He existed largely on unvaried diets consisting mainly of such sweets as fudge and cakes. At one time he developed an obsession for cakes that were perfectly square. "We had a ruler in the kitchen to measure them with," recalls the former chef at the Bayshore Inn in Vancouver, where Hughes stayed in 1972. At other times he would fast for days. Usually he drank bottled Poland water from Maine.
His abnormal life-style led to a deterioration of his health, which already had been weakened by earlier accidents and overwork. After the first 18 months of seclusion in the Desert Inn, Hughes had wasted to less than 100 Ibs. He developed chronic anemia in 1968; one of the Western world's two or three richest men suffered from malnutrition.
What drove him into hiding? In one of his rare meetings with outsiders, at Managua, Nicaragua, in 1971, he offered an explanation to former U.S. Ambassador to Nicaragua Shelton Turner and Strongman Anastasio Somoza. "I was working on inventions, but calls and visitors kept interrupting me," he said. "I told my aides to cut down on appointments and calls. It was very gradual, but finally I realized I was not seen seeing anyone." Laughing, Hughes added, "I probably carried it too far."
Some of Hughes' phobias, however, had roots in real causes.