A gas station worker named Melvin Dummar claimed Howard Hughes left him 1/16th of his $12 billion fortune after giving the reclusive billionaire a ride in 1967. This story, while popularized by the 1980 film "Melvin and Howard," is highly improbable according to Hughes scholars.

Howard Hughes was a successful businessman and aviator who became increasingly reclusive and eccentric. By 1966, he lived in isolation in the Desert Inn's penthouse in Las Vegas, suffering from OCD and codeine addiction.

According to Dummar, he found a beaten Hughes on the side of US Route 95 near the Cottontail Ranch brothel, drove him to Las Vegas, and left him at the Sands Hotel. Nine years later, Dummar claimed to receive a will naming him as a beneficiary.

The will was proven fake for several reasons:

• Hughes never left his Desert Inn room during this period
• The document contained multiple misspellings
• It used the term "Spruce Goose," which Hughes despised
• It named an estranged former employee as executor
• It oddly included the Mormon church as a beneficiary despite Hughes being non-religious

A 1978 Nevada jury ruled the will a forgery. Though a 2005 book by ex-FBI agent Gary Magnesen attempted to support Dummar's story, Hughes scholars remain unconvinced. Dummar died in 2018 in Pahrump, Nevada, maintaining his story's authenticity until the end.

According to Hughes expert Geoff Schumacher: "Dummar may have picked up somebody in the Nevada desert and given him a ride to Las Vegas in 1967, but it just wasn't Howard Hughes."

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