Clifford Irving(1930-2017)

His fictional biography of Howard Hughes was indirectly the cause of the famous Watergate scandal. While writing the book, he received information about Hughes giving a loan to Richard Nixon's brother Donald to help him obtain contracts with The Pentagon. Nixon had been plagued by scandalous rumors about this incident, and the book threatened to show proof of impropriety. Even though the book was never published, and was publicly dismissed as a fraud, Nixon remained paranoid about the information becoming public, and feared that the Democrats were receiving information from Hughes. One of the motivations behind the Watergate break-in was to find out if the Democratic National Committee had any connections to Hughes.

A criminal trial is like a Russian novel: it starts with exasperating slowness as the characters are introduced to a jury, then there are complications in the form of minor witnesses, the protagonist finally appears and contradictions arise to produce drama, and finally as both jury and spectators grow weary and confused the pace quickens, reaching its climax in passionate final argument.