Utahn still claims Hughes will

FALLON, Nev. (AP) — It was on a cold December night some 36 years ago when former Fallon resident Melvin Dummar says he stumbled upon a disheveled man lying on a deserted Nevada road.

That man, according to Dummar, was Howard Hughes — the eccentric billionaire industrialist-aviator-motion picture producer.

"Finding Mr. Hughes out there in the desert has changed my life forever. I was promised about $156 million in his will for saving his life. But I never got a penny of that money and have wound up scorned, sick and nearly broke," Dummar said recently.

The discovery of the purported will after Hughes' death in 1976 made international headlines. Dummar, 59, appeared countless times on television and even had a small role in a 1980 film titled "Melvin and Howard."

Years later, Dummar still insists he found Hughes "laying out there all dirty and messed up in the desert."

And he maintains he did not forge the so-called "Mormon Will," in which Hughes directed that Dummar be given one-sixteenth of his fortune, estimated to be worth up to $2 billion when he died.

The "Mormon Will" — given the name because it mysteriously appeared on the desk of an official of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City — was declared a fake by a Las Vegas jury in 1978.

Several courts also determined that numerous other wills supposedly written by Hughes were fakes. Dummar and the rest of those mentioned in the wills never received a cent.

The courts determined the eccentric Hughes never wrote a will, and his heirs were identified after lengthy legal battles.

Dummar said he believes the courts were "rigged against me. Many responsible people still believe me, and justice someday will prevail."

In an hourlong interview conducted at a Hawthorne motel, Dummar recalled that late December day in 1967 when he plucked Hughes to safety on a deserted stretch of Nevada 95 about 237 miles south of Fallon and 150 miles north of Las Vegas.

Leaving his job at the Basic Magnesium Corp. mine in Gabbs, Dummar was heading to Southern California to find his wife, who had "run off with another man."

It was 11 p.m., and Dummar said he had just passed the Cottontail Ranch brothel at Lida Junction when he pulled over to go to the bathroom.