The book says eight years before his "death," Hughes substituted a Las Vegas derelict for himself and escaped his identity yet continued to operate his business affairs until his stand-in died and his family overturned his famous will in court. It says Hughes spent his exile in the Panama Canal Zone, the Florida Panhandle, Arizona and Alabama in the privacy he craved. He assumed the identity of aircraft maintenance supervisor Verner "Nik" Nicely, the name of a real person who conveniently disappeared while working with or for the CIA in Panama... Hughes died in 2001, at age 96, according to the book. Hughes had lost access to his fortune but won the heart of a woman, married her and stayed married 31 years until his death, according to the book. The wife, Eva McLelland, who died last year, told her story to Mark Musick, who has been documenting this off-road saga for almost a decade. Wellman wrote the book for him.Article also sez the author is "not a nut".
True or false, it’s a nice story. But wouldn’t you think that Howard would plan ahead enough to “pay” a little money over the months for a “research project” to “Nic Nicely” until he had a Nicely nest egg in the canal zone that his family couldn’t screw him out of?
Just sayin.’