On April 5, 1976, the richest man in the world died of medical neglect on board a jet bound for Houston. At the time of his death, Howard Hughes had not been seen in public for nearly twenty years. With a massive fortune that enabled his worsening mental disorders, Hughes, once famous the world over, receded from the public eye, and for the last decades of his life, ruled a vast and often unsuccessful business empire confined entirely to his bed. In time the expansive and opaque system that Hughes engineered to ensure his own isolation grew out of his own control, and as he sat in his penthouse, seeing only seven people in fifteen years, an army of self serving executives made decisions on his affairs entirely without his knowledge. While Hughes seemed to lose money on every transaction, he made a lot of his employees and their friends very wealthy. This story is a tragedy- the tale of a man who was both created and destroyed thanks to his proximity to great wealth, culminating in his own death in conditions so deplorable his corpse had to be identified via fingerprint by the FBI. In his 70 years, Howard Hughes can certainly be said to have left a colorful mark on American history. This is that story.
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Sources and Further Reading
Books
Howard Hughes: His Life and Madness: Link
Howard, the Amazing Mr. Hughes: Link
Hughes: The Private Diaries, Memos and Letters: Link
Howard Hughes: Power, Paranoia, and Palace Intrigue, Revised and Expanded: Link
Websites
Howard Hughes Lives: Link
A Peek Into the Mind of Howard Hughes: Link
This Day in Aviation History, April 17, 1944: Link
Howard Hughes Memo Disclosed In Controversy Over Gift to Nixon: Link
The Secret Memos of Howard Hughes: Link
Thomas Quits Post As Chief of T.W.A.; Charles S. Thomas Resigns Post As Trans-World Airlines Chief: Link
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