Citizen Hughes - Michael Drosnin [224]
Finally, index slips attached to several of the stolen documents were traced back to an IBM typewriter at Romaine used in the indexing under way at the time of the burglary. Typing on the file slips was compared to a known sample from the same typewriter and found to be identical. The known sample was verified by the Los Angeles Police Department.
Handwriting and Typewriting Tests: The two leading authorities on Hughes’s handwriting—Hilton, past president of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and Harris, past president of the Society of Questioned Document Examiners—both examined memos chosen at random from the material in my possession, and found them authentic.
Hilton examined both originals and photographs of the longhand Hughes memos, comparing them to exemplars of Hughes’s handwriting from three sources—a three-page Hughes memo filed in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, a collection of Hughes memos filed in Federal District Court in San Francisco by the SEC (which Hughes himself identified as his own in a sworn statement), and another group of Hughes memos filed in Federal District Court in Los Angeles by Robert Maheu. All the exemplars were determined to be authentic in judicial proceedings.
“From an examination of each of the documents,” Hilton concluded, “and a comparison of them with the known handwriting of Howard Hughes, I am of the definite opinion that all of the documents in question were written by Hughes.”
Harris also examined both originals and photographs of the memos—more than a hundred pages of Hughes’s handwriting—comparing them to exemplars from two sources: the Maheu lawsuit, and several hundred Hughes memos filed in the “Mormon Will” case in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas. All the exemplars were determined authentic in judicial proceedings.
“I am of the firm opinion that all of the documents I examined were written by Howard Hughes,” declared Harris.
One of the originals examined by both Harris and Hilton was a four-page handwritten memo identical to a photocopy filed in the Maheu case. Both found the xerox to be a copy of the original in my possession.
“I performed a series of tests including a line-by-line comparison of the two documents,” reported Hilton. “I am convinced that the four-page original letter was the source of the photocopy at hand, and not the converse.”
In addition, Hilton examined originals of typewritten documents sent to Hughes—memos dictated by telephone to his Mormons and typed on a machine in his sealed penthouse suite—comparing them to similar memos surrendered under subpoena by the Hughes organization and filed by the SEC in federal court.
Hilton found that both the court exemplars and the documents in my possession were typed on an IBM Selectric, and that identifying characteristics in the typewriting established “a very strong likelihood that each set originated at the same source.” Hilton also found that the manufacture dates of the typing paper—as determined by a code in the watermarks—was in all cases consistent with the dates of the memos.
Finally, Hilton identified the index slips attached to several Hughes memos as coming from a typewriter at Romaine. “A number of these slips were typewritten on the same typewriter as the one used to prepare the known sample,” he concluded in his report, after comparing the originals in my possession to an exemplar verified by the LAPD and filed in court.
In addition, the documents I obtained included verifiable letterhead correspondence, invoices, memos on Summa Corp. stationary, handwritten letters from both insiders and outsiders dealing with Hughes, hotel bills, travel records, and a notarized affidavit from one of Hughes’s personal physicians.
Fact-Checking: Through more than seven years spent writing and