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Following Howard Hughes's death, a thorough search commenced for his Last Will and Testament. Rumors circulated that Hughes might have created a holographic will, recognized in the states where he held assets. Two weeks after his passing, an envelope containing three handwritten pages dated March 19, 1968, and signed "Howard R. Hughes" was found on the desk of an official at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints headquarters in Salt Lake City. Alongside 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" bequeathed gas station owner Melvin Dummar a 1/16th share of Hughes's $2 billion estate. Dummar told reporters that in December 1967, he encountered a man wandering along U.S. Highway 95 who asked for a ride to Las Vegas. After dropping him off at the Sands Hotel, the man claimed to be Howard Hughes, though Dummar was skeptical.
The "Mormon Will," full of misspellings, contained numerous inconsistencies: it referred to the H-4 — the massive military transport plane Hughes piloted in Long Beach Harbor on November 2, 1947 — as "The Spruce Goose," a nickname Hughes reportedly disliked; it named ex-wives Ella Rice and Jean Peters as beneficiaries despite divorce settlements preventing them from claiming his estate; it included Hughes's cousin, William Lummis, a beneficiary, even though Hughes reportedly had no contact with relatives; and it appointed Noah Dietrich, whom Hughes had dismissed in 1957, as executor. Additionally, the envelope bore a note requesting David O. McKay, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to submit the "Will" to the Clark County (Nevada) District Court after Hughes's death; McKay died in 1970. Despite these issues, The Church filed the "Will" for probate with the Clark County District Court on April 29, 1976.
After the FBI discovered Dummar's thumbprint on the envelope containing the "Will," Dummar, who initially denied prior knowledge of it, claimed that a "mysterious man" had left the envelope at his gas station after pressing him about Hughes. Although the encounter frightened him, Dummar opened the envelope, read the "Will," and then delivered it to The Church. The "mysterious man," identified by Dummar's attorney Roger Dutson as LeVane Forsythe, alleged in a deposition that he had served as Hughes's "secret courier" for years. On June 8, 1978, after just 11 hours of deliberation, a jury declared the "Will" a forgery.
In 2004, Guido Deiro, son of Guido Deiro, stated that he flew Hughes to the Cottontail Ranch brothel, located 150 miles north of Las Vegas, on December 29, 1967. He claimed to have napped while Hughes enjoyed himself. After waking, Deiro said the madam, Beverly Harrell, informed him that Hughes had left; Dummar reported finding Hughes seven miles south of the Ranch. Strangely, Deiro did not search for Hughes but returned to Las Vegas. Upon arrival, he said a subordinate of Hughes executive Frank Gay ordered him to surrender his flight log to eliminate any record of the trip.
Supported by Deiro's account and a book by Gary Magnesen, Dummar sued Lummis and Frank Gay's estate for fraud and conspiracy to conceal evidence proving the "Mormon Will" was authentic. On January 9, 2007, the United States District Court for the District of Utah dismissed the case.
Dummar's story inspired the 1980 film Melvin and Howard. He passed away on December 9, 2018, at a hospice in Pahrump, Nevada.
