The Hoax

In the early 70's, Clifford Irving wrote a bogus biography about Howard Hughes, famous tycoon and pre-war cinema and aviation icon, from which Martin Scorsese took inspiration for his movie The aviator. Afterwards, he sold the rights to the publisher McGraw-Hill and was given a 2½-year prison sentence in 1972 due to of his wrongdoing. Irving convinced his publisher that he'd developed a relationship with Howard Hughes, who by that time hadn't been seen in public for years. The writer, frustrated and disappointed, always lacking the great idea or the great chance to succeed, forged documents that appeared to prove he had the ear of the billionaire. Even when Hughes emerged momentarily from seclusion for a telephone news conference to say the book was bogus, McGraw-Hill continued to stand by Irving, who stuck to his story until he finally had no choice but to cop to his crime.