In 1972,
Clifford Irving was imprisoned and ordered to pay back $765,000
to his publishers when it was determined that his "authorized"
biography of reclusive billionaire
Howard Hughes was a fake. The
previous year, Irving had claimed he possessed tapes, letters, and
manuscripts from Hughes. Hughes, who had not been heard from publicly
in over a decade, held a telephone conference to denounce Irving.
Irving, his wife Edith, and collaborator
Richard Suskind were all
convicted for their part in the hoax, and Irving spent 14 months in
federal prison. After his release from prison, Irving settled in Mexico
and continued to write both fiction and non-fiction.