Did the NFL, Cowboys, and the Dallas Morning News among others get conned?

[ORUalum]

pretty interesting story...sounds like a lot of people may have egg all over their face on this one.

Is Bob Hayes’ ‘Sister’ Conning The Cowboys, The Hall Of Fame And The NFL?

New Inductee's Family And Friends Accuse 'Spokeswoman' Of Fraud

By Mike Fisher -- DB.com

(excerpts)

It was a way to be tangibly touched by the late Bob Hayes, and to tangibly touch him.

  Lucille Hester held the letter she said was from her brother. She showed it about to NFL officials and to the media, and at Saturday’s Pro Football Hall of Fame announcement of the former Cowboys legend’s coming induction, she dramatically read from it.

  But friends and family of Bob Hayes are coming forward to ask for help and to protest the increasingly high profile and the allegedly false claims of Hester, a person they insist is a “conwoman’’ who has “hoodwinked’’ the Dallas media, the Dallas Cowboys and the NFL – and a person they claim isn’t even Hayes’ sister.

  “We’ve been trying to tell anyone who will listen that Lucille Hester might have been Bob’s friend, but that she didn’t really become a close friend until Bob was on his death bed,’’ says Ted McIntosh, who says he was Hayes’ business manager and best friend since college and is the godfather to Hayes' only son. “She’s inventing stories. She’s a fraud. The family has tried to tell anyone who will listen.

  “But nobody will listen.’’

  On the day before Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa, Hester took the stage in her Cowboys-silver ballcap emblazoned on the front with “BOB HAYES’’ and seemed to give emotional voice to the appreciative wishes of the legendary Cowboys receiver, who she said had written the letter and given it to her in 1999 in hopeful anticipation of this day finally arriving. She’s received international praise for her grace and eloquence; the New York Times said it "made the eyes of many in the audience misty.'' The Associated Press called it "the most poignant moment.'' Gary Myers of the New York Daily News termed it "one of the most compelling and touching scenes the Hall of Fame has ever seen.''

...

Is there anything wrong if Lucille Hester caps off her championing of the good fight for her brother Bob Hayes with a bit of self-aggrandizing theatrics?

  Well, yes. Maybe. Especially inasmuch as to my layman eye, the signature on Lucille’s cherished letter in no way resembles the authentic signature of the real Bob Hayes.

  I am not a detective and I am not a handwriting analyst. But. ... the signatures do not match. Not even close.

    “That figures,’’ says McIntosh when I inform him of the appearance of a signature discrepancy. “This whole thing started with her claim that she should be in charge of Bob’s will, that she had signed documentation from Bob. There was something wrong about those signatures, too. They said he wanted her to be in charge of all his worldly possessions.’’

...

How is it that on one page, the Dallas Morning News is celebrating Lucille’s energy and charity work and painting her as a dutiful sister … "strong and effervescent.'' ... and yet on another page is listing Bob’s obituary “survived-by’s’’ and not including her?

    Taylor wrote this weekend about sharing with Lucille "a forkful of key lime pie'' during a two-hour meal one day after having the previous day enjoyed dinner together during which she "dined on the crab cake sandwich with lemonade, while I had salmon with wild rice.'' He writes that they "hit it off,'' and it shows: Over the span of two days in Tampa, Taylor wrote a rather astounding eight articles (six blog items and two lead columns) about Lucille Hester.

    According to one of Taylor’s effusive stories on Hester, “Each August she takes a couple of busloads of inner-city kids from Washington, D.C. to Canton, where she cheers for the newest class of inductees. She takes the kids to expose them to aspects of life they might not otherwise see, but her primary goal is to remind but her primary goal is to remind everyone of Bob's greatness.’’

  Lucille Hester has, according to Taylor, led a rather fantastic life -- "Forest Gump''-like, really. In one blog item alone, Taylor notes that Lucille was:

  * Present for Hayes' famous Olympic performance in Toyko;

  * There for the very first Super Bowl;

  * In attendance at the Cowboys-Packers "Ice Bowl'' in Green Bay. ... and that the iconic pictures of Bob awkwardly running pass patterns with his hands tucked into his pockets were the result of her advice to do so.

  "I just wanted my brother to keep his hands warm,'' Hester told Taylor. "Now, the world will know it was my fault.''

    The tales seem. ... fantastic.

    McIntosh says he has contacted Taylor numerous times, begging the journalist to investigate further so he can discover that Hester’s story is suspect.

  “(Taylor) just says, ‘Sure, man, sure,’’’ McIntosh says. “And then he hangs up.’’

...

Bob Hayes’ family and friends don’t have all the answers. But they are frustrated that everybody – the mainstream media, the Dallas Cowboys, the NFL – seems too enamored with Lucille and Bob’s story and with Lucille and Bob’s letter to have paused to ask a few more questions.

  The Hayeses plan to involve law-enforcement officials. But first. …

  “We’ve got to do something before Aug. 8,’’ says Bob’s ex-wife, Janice Hayes-Mohl. “I think Bob Jr. should probably be on that stage, if he wants to be, if he’s up to it, to accept his father’s (Hall of Fame) jacket. As it’s going, I bet Lucille thinks she’s going to wear that jacket around.’’

  It’s funny that Janice would say that. Because as a matter of fact, Lucille Hester has indeed told her media friends that she is in charge of who will give the Bob Hayes acceptance speech on Aug. 8 at the Hall of Fame.

    And that Lucille Hester intends to give that honor to Lucille Hester.

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