Michael Drosnin "Citizen Hughes: In His Own Words--How Howard Hughes Tried to Buy America."
Portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in the Martin Scorsese movie "The Aviator," Howard Hughes is legendary as a playboy and pilot, but he is notorious for what he became: the ultimate mystery man. "Citizen Hughes" is exposé of Hughes s hidden life, and a stunning revelation of his megalomaniac empire in the emperor's own words.
At the height of his wealth, power, and invisibility, the world s richest and most secretive man kept what amounted to a diary. The billionaire commanded his empire by correspondence, scrawling thousands of handwritten memos to unseen henchmen. It was the only time Howard Hughes risked writing down his orders, plans, thoughts, fears, and desires. Hughes claimed the papers were so sensitive the very most confidential, almost sacred information as to my innermost activities that not even his most trusted aides or executives were allowed to keep the messages he sent them.
But in the early-morning hours of June 5, 1974, unknown burglars staged a daring break-in at Hughes's supposedly impregnable headquarters and escaped with all the confidential files. Despite a top-secret FBI investigation and a million-dollar CIA buyback bid, none of the stolen secret papers were ever found until investigative reporter Michael Drosnin cracked the case.
In "Citizen Hughes" Drosnin reveals the true story of the great Hughes heist and of the real Howard Hughes. Based on nearly ten thousand never-before-published documents, more than three thousand in Hughes s own handwriting, Citizen Hughes is far more than a biography, or even an unwilling autobiography. It is a startling record of the secret history of our times.
Presents a selection of more than ten thousand previously unpublished internal documents of the Hughes organization, including three thousand pages of the billionaire's own handwritten memos, which reveal his innermost activities, and how he tried to buy the government of the United States, but instead helped to bring it down.
Fascinating volume concerning the life and times of Howard Hughes, whose many confidential papers were stolen in 1974. Here is the entire story of the resultant investigation and how many political famous names were directly or indirectly involved. Depending upon your point of view, you can look upon Hughes as the ultimate rebel or a very confused man, with strange criminal tendencies.
Holt Rinehart & Winston, 1st Edition, 1st Printing. 1985
Hardcover.
New book. Book in excellent visual and technical condition. Very minor shelf wear from rubbing.