Cons and Pros

James Phalen, who described the negotiations leading up to the transaction in a 1982 book called Scandals, Scamps, and Scoundrels, called Irving a “great” con man. An average con man, Phalen wrote, would hone his story to letter-perfection, so he could tell it over and over again without deviating from any of its details. An above-average investigator, however, would look with suspicion upon a perfectly told story, recognizing that details often vary in the retelling of a complex story by an honest person, who has no reason to iron out minor discrepancies.

Phalen wrote that when Irving described his supposed meetings with Hughes, he often contradicted himself in minor detail and then acted concerned that the contradictions impeached his veracity—thereby giving the impression of being candid. Few con men, Phalen wrote, are so good at being devious.

He was not good enough. Irving’s story was proven to be false after Hughes himself came out of seclusion to expose it, launching Irving quickly toward jail and McGraw-Hill executives into acute embarrassment.

The company went through another round of embarrassment a few weeks after the hoax became known, when it moved into new headquarters in midtown Manhattan. The main floor of the building was a branch office of one of New York’s big banking companies. Many McGraw-Hill employees were surprised to discover that to get into their offices, they had to walk beneath a large entryway sign that read: The Irving Trust Company.

When he was finally released from jail—a situation Tom Petters might never face—Irving resumed his writing career, producing nine novels, the latest published in 2008. Unable to complete a fake autobiography, Irving instead wrote a book about his attempts to sell a fake autobiography, called The Hoax. In 2006, a movie version of The Hoax was released, with actor Richard Gere playing Irving. Irving’s The Autobiography of Howard Hughes was published in Britain in 1999 as a novel.