The Strange Medical Saga Of Howard Hughes

What started as a medical investigation on the death of Howard Hughes nearly 50 years ago, has now become a fascinating historical work. A whole new perspective on his life is delivered here, brought forward through the lens of his medical history. In 1976, HH died without a will. His toxicology report showed he died with large amounts of codeine in his system. Was HH, the richest man in the world, murdered, kept addicted to control his money and empire, or was his death caused by medical neglect? There were multiple lawsuits and investigations. Nefarious motives behind his drug use were suspected, given his reclusive lifestyle and mysterious death. Enter Dr. Forest Tennant, who received an unexpected phone call two years after HH died, from an agent of the Federal Government. He was asked to be a medical consultant on the Hughes case because of his vast experience at the time in treating addiction and pain. He was hired to investigate and analyze the few records that existed on Hughes and review the autopsy and toxicology reports. He was to give an opinion and testify as to whether his physicians had illegally supplied HH with narcotics. Was this the story of a deranged man addicted to drugs, or was he just a man who was in pain? Dr. Tennant takes us on a historical journey into the medical conditions uncovered in his investigation that plagued HH and inadvertently forged his life. He suffered from three disorders in which little was known and had no treatments for back then: obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and intractable pain syndrome (IPS). These disorders explain many of his unusual life habits. His medical saga is still of great interest to us today and much is to be learned from it. His medical treatments allowed him to live a very productive life despite severe injuries that caused constant pain. This work sheds a compassionate and humane view of a man who contributed a great deal to the world in the 20th century.

A former law enforcement agent details his adventures during his career working undercover in this memoir. “I just want to make sure I’ve got this right. You hanged all three of them? . . .” That’s how it began, a case where the cops are crooks and the crooks are cops, a kidnapping where the victim is the bad guy, and the good guys must cross some lines to get him back. Welcome to the upside down and backward world of the undercover agent, where nothing is as it seems, and people—including the undercover—may not be what they appear. Going Under: Kidnapping, Murder, and A Life Undercover by former undercover agent John Madinger takes you into that world, and closer to the truth of the undercover experience than any other law enforcement memoir has ever gone. “What is it like to work undercover?” You’re a sheepdog in wolf’s clothing, running with the pack, and Madinger ran with the wolves for almost two decades. Now he shares his story to give you a unique look at American crime and the “War on Drugs” from the perspective of both cops and criminals. You’ll go with the undercover cops to meetings with street-corner hustlers and rip-off artists and into the lives of America’s biggest rock stars, the world’s richest man, an Academy Award–winning actor, the marijuana traffickers conspiring to assassinate a federal judge, and the President of the United States. It’s an amazing ride, and there has never been another story like it.

Whether he was courting public attention in the roles of aviator, playboy and entrepreneur, or shunning it as a recluse, Howard Hughes commanded headlines throughout his career. Yet the image of his life, his power and his business empire that caught the public imagination was almost completely false. Hughes s fortune actually came from his father s tool company and, later, from the Hughes Aircraft Company, yet these flourished simply because Hughes was prevented from interfering in their workings. In fact, Hughes was a disastrous businessman - no company under his control ever built a successful aircraft, he nearly destroyed TWA and completely destroyed a major film studio, and even his gambling empire in Las Vegas was crippled by corruption. His personal life was even more disastrous - he feared, rightly, that he was mad and spent most of his fortune and the last 18 years of his life trying to prevent anyone finding out. He spent his time naked, eating little, addicted to drugs and tranquillisers, a physical wreck, and died surrounded by men who nurtured his madness for their own ends.

Just in time for the November release of Miramax's "The Aviator," starring Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Martin Scorsese, this fascinating biography tells the full story of one of the most daring, enigmatic, and reclusive power brokers America has ever known. Photos.

For the first time in one place, Roger M. Sobin has compiled a list of nominees and award winners of virtually every mystery award ever presented. He has also included many of the “best of” lists by more than fifty of the most important contributors to the genre.; Mr. Sobin spent more than two decades gathering the data and lists in this volume, much of that time he used to recheck the accuracy of the material he had collected. Several of the “best of” lists appear here for the first time in book form. Several others have been unavailable for a number of years.; Of special note, are Anthony Boucher’s “Best Picks for the Year.” Boucher, one of the major mystery reviewers of all time, reviewed for The San Francisco Chronicle, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and The New York Times. From these resources Mr. Sobin created “Boucher’s Best” and “Important Lists to Consider,” lists that provide insight into important writing in the field from 1942 through Boucher’s death in 1968.? This is a great resource for all mystery readers and collectors.; ; Winner of the 2008 Macavity Awards for Best Mystery Nonfiction.