Melvin Earl Dummar (August 28, 1944 – December 9, 2018) was a Utah man who gained attention when he claimed to have saved reclusive business tycoon Howard Hughes in the Nevada desert in 1967, and to have been awarded part of Hughes' vast estate. Dummar's claims resulted in a series of court battles that all ended in rulings against Dummar. A Las Vegas jury determined in 1978 that the will, leaving Dummar $ 156 million, was a forgery . Dummar's story was later adapted into Jonathan Demme 's film Melvin and Howard in 1980, in which he was portrayed by actor Paul Le Mat . A 2005 reinvestigation of the circumstances surrounding the so-called Dummar Will yielded new evidence not previously known, which was argued to bolster Dummar's claims.
22-659: While working at a service station in Willard, Utah , Dummar claimed to have discovered a disheveled and lost man lying on the side of a stretch of U.S. Route 95 about 150 miles (240 km) north of Las Vegas, Nevada , near Lida Junction. The man asked Dummar to take him to the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. Dummar claimed that only in the final minutes of their encounter did the man reveal his identity as Hughes. After Hughes' death in April 1976,
44-663: A brick yard, the first grist mill in Box Elder County, and a number of molasses mills. As of the census of 2010, there were 1,772 people, 600 households, and 485 families residing in the city. The population density was 310.9 people per square mile (120.5/km ). There were 633 housing units at an average density of 111.1 per square mile (43.1/km ). The racial makeup of the city was 95.4% White , 0.1% African American , 0.3% Native American , 0.8% Asian , 0.1% Pacific Islander , 1.2% from other races , and 2.1% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.9% of
66-543: A city in 1870. Gifted stonemason Shadrack Jones took advantage of local rock cliffs and the alluvial fan exposed as ancient Lake Bonneville receded. Between 1862 and 1883, he mined the local stone and built single-family homes. Over thirty still stand and many are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as contributing buildings in the Willard Historic District . Other early structures included
88-591: A fresh water lake which is now called Willard Bay . A company of nineteen located on North Willow Creek, 7 miles (11 km) south of the site where Brigham City would be established. Two years later, the infant community relocated two miles further south, and a fort wall was built due to the possibility of attacks by the Shohone and their allies. Willard's first settlers were mostly of Welsh, English, Scottish and Dutch descent. Most were farmers, but some were merchants, carpenters, blacksmiths and school teachers. Historically,
110-563: A handwritten will was discovered in the Salt Lake City, Utah headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . Though purportedly written by Hughes in 1968, the will had many strange discrepancies. It named Noah Dietrich as an executor, despite the fact that Dietrich had left Hughes' employ on bad terms in the late 1950s. The will left approximately $ 156 million to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ; although Hughes had employed many LDS workers, he had never been
132-470: A jury decided the purported will was invalid. Willard, Utah Willard ( Shoshoni : Sogo-timp-bow ya) is a city in Box Elder County , Utah , United States. The population was 1,978 at the 2020 census . Willard is located in southeastern Box Elder County and is bordered by the city of Perry to the north and the unincorporated community of South Willard to the south. The east edge of
154-488: A member of that church. The will also left money to his two ex-wives, Ella Rice and Jean Peters , even though both women had alimony settlements that barred claims on Hughes' estate. The will was rife with misspellings, including misspelling the name of Hughes' cousin. It called Hughes' famous flying boat, the Hughes H-4 Hercules , the "spruce goose" — a derisive nickname that Hughes had always despised. Most oddly,
176-534: A well-dressed man had left the will in a sealed envelope at Dummar's service station. An enclosed note, Dummar claimed, instructed him to deliver the will to the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which had also been left 1/16 of the estate. An investigation revealed that Dummar's wife Bonnie Dummar had worked for a magazine called Millionaire that was distributed to wealthy Americans, and that her job had allowed her access to Hughes' memos and Hughes' signature. However, Bonnie denied forging
198-577: The United States Census Bureau , the city has a total area of 7.2 square miles (18.6 km ), of which 5.7 square miles (14.7 km ) is land and 1.5 square miles (3.9 km ), or 21.16%, is water. In 1851, several companies of Mormon settlers were sent north from Salt Lake City to a northern bay of the Great Salt Lake called Bear River Bay. In 1957 the US Corps of Engineers built
220-569: The Sands Hotel early one morning in December 1967 and stating that he had been picked up by Dummar in the desert. Furthermore, Hughes had purchased interests in mines located near the area where Dummar said he found him, and had frequented a brothel near where Dummar said he'd first encountered Hughes, which he was allegedly flown out to by pilot Robert Deiro. Magnesen documented his findings in his 2005 book, The Investigation: A Former FBI Agent Uncovers
242-782: The Truth Behind Howard Hughes, Melvin Dummar, and the Most Contested Will in American History. However, some of Magnesen's claims were disputed by Hughes' former bodyguard Gordon Margulis, who asserted that "from 1966 to 1970 [...] [Hughes] never left his room at the Desert Inn ", and that "if Hughes had wanted hookers he did not have to fly to brothels to get them because Las Vegas was not exactly short of them." George Parnum, one of Dummar's former attorneys, stated that "if there
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#1733104665312264-629: The age of 96. Jenkins was in private practice in Salt Lake City from 1952 to 1965. He was an assistant state attorney general of Utah in 1952, and a deputy county attorney of Salt Lake County , Utah from 1954 to 1958. He was a member of the Utah State Senate from 1959 to 1965, serving as a Democrat. In 1965, Jenkins became a Referee in Bankruptcy for the District of Utah, and from 1973 to 1978 he
286-403: The average family size was 3.31. In the city, the population was spread out, with 28.9% under the age of 18, 8.1% from 18 to 24, 23.8% from 25 to 44, 27.2% from 45 to 64, and 12% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34.3 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 99.7 males. In 2000 the median income for a household in
308-533: The city is bordered by Cache National Forest in the Wasatch Range , and the west side extends into Willard Bay , a freshwater reservoir built out of the Great Salt Lake . Willard Bay State Park is located within the city limits along the shore of Willard Bay. Interstate highways 15 and 84 pass through the western side of the city, with access from Exit 357. U.S. Route 89 is the city's Main Street. According to
330-429: The city was $ 52,150, and the median income for a family was $ 57,841. Males had a median income of $ 40,625 versus $ 26,364 for females. The per capita income for the city was $ 17,592. About 5.1% of families and 7.2% of the population were below the poverty line , including 7.9% of those under age 18 and 4.7% of those age 65 or over. Bruce Sterling Jenkins Bruce Sterling Jenkins (May 27, 1927 – November 7, 2023)
352-484: The economy of Willard centered on agriculture, with fruit crops being the major product. Gravel excavation and worked stone have also been a significant source of income. Henry G. Sherwood surveyed North Willow Creek in 1851. The community was renamed Willard in honor of Willard Richards (1804-1854, a recently deceased Apostle of the LDS Church and counselor to Brigham Young , in 1859. Willard received its charter as
374-405: The population. There were 600 households, out of which 35.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 68.3% were married couples living together, 7.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 19.2% were non-families. 15.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.95 and
396-670: The primary beneficiary of the Hughes estate, and Frank Gay , the former chief operating officer of a number of Hughes entities, claiming that the two had conspired to defraud Dummar out of his rightful share of the Hughes estate by presenting perjured testimony and concealing evidence in the 1978 trial. Dummar's complaint demanded the $ 156 million he would have received from the estate, as well as punitive damages and interest. On January 9, 2007, U.S. District Judge Bruce Sterling Jenkins dismissed Dummar's lawsuit, stating that Dummar's claims had been “fully and fairly litigated” in Las Vegas in 1978 when
418-468: The will left one "Melvin DuMar" of Gabbs, Nevada one-sixteenth of Hughes' estate. The text of the handwritten document, known as the "Mormon Will": Dummar (whose inheritance would have been $ 156 million) originally claimed that he knew nothing about the will and told his story of picking up Hughes by the side of the road. Afterward, when authorities discovered Dummar's fingerprint on the envelope, he said that
440-456: The will. The document, which became known as the "Mormon Will", was ruled a forgery by a Nevada jury in June 1978. Dummar received no portion of Hughes' estate, but no criminal charges were filed against him or his wife. In early 2005, retired FBI agent Gary Magnesen claimed to have found new evidence supporting Dummar's story. Magnesen stated that Hughes' closest employees remembered him entering
462-484: Was a flight to a brothel at the time leading up to the trial, he couldn't find a record of it". Dummar was interviewed for one hour on live radio in 2005 about Magnesen's book by Steven Rinehart. In this interview, he related again what he claims happened in 1967 and affirmed an intention to seek to reopen the case. On June 12, 2006, Dummar filed suit in the United States district court for Utah against William Lummis,
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#1733104665312484-662: Was an American attorney, politician, and jurist who served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Utah from 1978 to 2023. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah on May 27, 1927, Jenkins was in the United States Navy from 1945 to 1946, and then received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Utah in 1949 and a Juris Doctor from the S.J. Quinney College of Law in 1952. Jenkins died on November 6, 2023, at
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