(3 of 3)
So far, some 40-odd purported Hughes wills have surfaced, but none have borne the earmarks of Hughes' painstaking attention to detail. The most famous one is the "Mormon will," so called because it was found on an official's desk in the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. The will contains misspellings and references totally atypical of Hughes. It also leaves one-sixteenth of Hughes' money to a former Utah gas-station operator, Melvin Dummar, who claimed to have picked up Hughes in the desert and driven him back to Las Vegas—and Dummar has since admitted that his story was false. Even so, Hughes' old estranged lieutenant, Noah Dietrich, who is named in the will as executor, and Dietrich's Los Angeles attorney, Harold Rhoden, contend that the will is authentic. Next week a jury trial is scheduled to open in Las Vegas to decide on the validity of the Mormon will. If the will is declared to be a legal and binding document, Hughes' estate will be divided according to a complex formula among the medical institute, Rice University and the Universities of Texas, Nevada and California, and a number of organizations and individuals, including Dummar.
Led by Lummis, Hughes' heirs, who number 23 in all, are contesting the Mormon will. They want the estate to be divided according to a formula that would give nearly one-quarter to Lummis' mother and distribute the rest among the others. Davis, meanwhile, is starting his own case in which he will argue that although a written will has not been found, Hughes' real and declared intent was to leave his whole fortune to the medical institute. Even in Las Vegas, no one is willing to bet how long these trials will take or what the outcome will be. In the Mormon trial alone, supporters of the will are planning to call at least 45 witnesses. The Hughes will trials stand to be the best shows along the Strip this season.
* The losers are the Desert Inn, Frontier and Landmark hotels in Las Vegas. The Sands and Harold's Club, located in Reno, are nourishing. The Castaways, a Las Vegas hotel-casino, and the Silver Slipper casino are barely breaking even.