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Great Crimes and Trials
Season 2 • Episode 2 • Howard Hughes Autobiography Hoax
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Great Crimes and Trials Season 2, Episode 2: Howard Hughes Autobiography Hoax
In December 1971 the world was amazed when it was announced that author Clifford Irving would be collaborating with millionaire recluse Howard Hughes on his official biography. It was even more astonishing when this was swiftly followed by an announcement from Hughes that the whole thing was a hoax. Irving insisted that this was a misunderstanding, but when Hughes finally broke cover to speak to journalists the ingenious fraud was revealed. Watch Great Crimes and Trials Season 2, Episode 2 Howard Hughes Autobiography Hoax in HD free online. Enjoy high-quality streaming of Great Crimes and Trials Season 2, Episode 2 and share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Episodes
26 episodesCharles Starkweather - The Badlands Killer
Born in Nebraska, Charlie Starkweather was a dissolute teenager and self-styled rebel. He dreamt of becoming rich and of earning a fortune through crime. In 1958 he realised his fantasies when he set off on the outlaw trail with his schoolgirl lover, 14-year-old Caril Fugate, like a latter day Bonnie and Clyde. In his wake he left 11 motiveless murders until he was finally cornered, captured, and executed in the electric chair.
30 min
Howard Hughes Autobiography Hoax
In December 1971 the world was amazed when it was announced that author Clifford Irving would be collaborating with millionaire recluse Howard Hughes on his official biography. It was even more astonishing when this was swiftly followed by an announcement from Hughes that the whole thing was a hoax. Irving insisted that this was a misunderstanding, but when Hughes finally broke cover to speak to journalists the ingenious fraud was revealed.
30 min
The Scarsdale Shooting
On 10th March 1980, Jean Harris, headmistress of an exclusive East Coast girls school, drove to the house of her lover, Dr Herman Tarnower, author of the best selling ‘Scarsdale Diet’, and shot him dead. She had been aware that he wanted to end their relationship, and claimed that his shooting had been an accident while she was trying to persuade him to kill her. The jury was unconvinced and she was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.
30 min
The S.L.A. Kidnap of Patty Hearst
On 4th February 1974 Patricia Hearst the 19-year-old heiress to one of America’s largest media fortunes was kidnapped by an obscure terrorist group, the Symbionese Liberation Army. Within three months she had apparently joined them when she was filmed wielding a gun during a bank raid. Recaptured and tried, Patty was sentenced to seven years imprisonment, but released in January 1979 as an act of Executive Clemency by President Jimmy Carter.
30 min
Richard Speck - The Nurse Killer
In July 1966 alcoholic ex-marine Richard Speck woke up in Chicago after a night on the town and heard a radio report which sickened him. Eight nurses had been raped and slaughtered in their home. When the police arrived to arrest him, Speck claimed that he had no knowledge of the crime, and he stuck to this story throughout his trial and imprisonment to a sentence of 400 to 1,000 years.
30 min
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30 min
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30 min
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30 min
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30 min
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30 min
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30 min
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30 min
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30 min
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30 min
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30 min
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30 min
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30 min
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30 min
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30 min
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