For: Howard Hughes (murderer)

Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American aviator, industrialist, film producer/director, philanthropist, and one of the wealthiest people in the world. He gained fame in the late 1920s as a maverick film producer, making big budget and often controversial films like Hell's Angels, Scarface, and The Outlaw. As an aviator, Hughes set multiple world air-speed records (for which he won many awards, including the Congressional Gold Medal), built the Hughes H-1 Racer and H-4 "Hercules" aircraft, and acquired and expanded Trans World Airlines. Hughes' legacy is still visible through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and he remains one of the most influential aviators in American history.

Early years

The Hughes birthplace is disputed in various sources as either Humble, Texas or Houston, Texas. Hughes claimed his birthday was Christmas Eve, although some biographers debate his exact birth date. According to NNDB, it was most likely "the more mundane date of September 24"; NNDB in turn refers to his baptismal records, but does not provide them for verification. His parents were Allene Stone Gano (a descendant of Catherine of Valois, Dowager Queen of England, by second husband Owen Tudor) and Howard R. Hughes, Sr., who patented the two-cone roller bit, which allowed rotary drilling for oil in previously inaccessible places. Howard R. Hughes, Sr. made the shrewd and lucrative decision to commercialize the invention, founding the Hughes Tool Company in 1909.

Showing great aptitude in engineering at an early age, Hughes erected Houston's first wireless broadcast system when he was eleven-years-old."Howard Hughes." MSN Encarta online. Retrieved: January 5, 2008. At 12, Hughes was photographed in the local newspaper as being the first boy in Houston to have a "motorized" bicycle, which he had built himself from parts taken from his father's steam engine."Howard Hughes." century-of-flight.net. Retrieved: January 5, 2008. He was an indifferent student with a liking for mathematics and flying, taking flying lessons at 14 and later auditing math and engineering courses at Caltech.

Allene Hughes died in March 1922 from complications of an ectopic pregnancy. In January 1924, Howard Hughes Sr. died of a heart attack. Their deaths apparently inspired Hughes to include the creation of a medical research laboratory in his will that was found in 1925. Because Howard Sr.'s will had not been updated since Allene's death, Hughes inherited 75% of the family fortune. On his 19th birthday, Hughes was declared an emancipated minor, enabling him to take full control of his legacy.