Above: The claim ; Below: The source
Below: Daily Herald (Provo, Utah), Sept. 14, 1989
Robert Leo Beck, June 5, 1934 (Centerfield, Utah) - February 12, 2013 (Yuma, Ariz.)
VP candidate for Unaffiliated (2000)
Running mate with nominee: Louie Gene Youngkeit (1936-2003)
Popular vote: 161 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
Louie G. Youngkeit of Provo, Utah was making his third run for the Presidency in 2000. Although he had previously made campaigns in 1988 and 1996, this was the first one where a running-mate was named.
Prior to his national runs, Youngkeit had been in the news in the mid-1970s for being active with the American Party, then later in the late 1970s for being one of the claimants to the fortune of the Howard Hughes estate. Youngkeit and his mother produced a photo of Hughes and Noah Dietrich they said was taken by their now deceased father/husband, but it seems the snapshot might have actually been lifted from Dietrich's 1972 book, Howard : the Amazing Mr. Hughes.
In 1988 Youngkeit made it to the ballot (without a Vice-President) in Utah where he finished with 372 votes, 0.06% of the state total. During that campaign he said he and his brother were tortured by the CIA in a theater in Anaheim, Calif. in 1948 and it was connected to the 1963 assassination of JFK. He also said many of the other Presidential candidates had been "bought" by the Contra rebels.
In 1996 he ran as write-in candidate, earning 19 votes. The Wall Street Journal carried this short blurb about his effort:
"I'm hoping that Perot will name me his vice president," Louie Youngkeit tells me outside the Long Beach Convention Center. Anything's possible, but Mr. Youngkeit's only qualification seems to be his obsession with Howard Hughes. He hands me a monograph he and his mother wrote in 1978, which claims that in 1949 Mr. Youngkeit's father looked after Hughes's car for a few days and allowed Hughes to drill an oil well on his property. In repayment for these kindnesses, the monograph says, Hughes promised to leave half his estate to the younger Mr. Youngkeit. When Hughes died in 1976, Mr. Youngkeit, to his dismay, was not named in the will. The monograph draws the obvious conclusion: Someone altered the will after Hughes's death. "This is the reason JFK was assassinated," Mr. Youngkeit adds, inexplicably.
When Youngkeit announced he was running in 2000, the Our Campaigns website commented:
Youngkeit -- a rather eccentric candidate -- claims he is "the Heir Apparent of the [late billionaire] Howard R. Hughes' Estate." You see, Hughes was secretly murdered in 1970 -- and his body was frozen for several years until his death was announced in 1976 -- and JFK was assassinated in 1963 because of Hughes's money -- and it was also the reason for the Watergate break-in -- and President Bush and Hillary Clinton are part of the scheming -- all that and lots more can be found in Youngkeit's conspiracy theory (see his website for more details). As a write-in candidate in the 1996 Presidential race, Youngkeit earned only 19 votes. Having secured ballot status in his homestate of Utah, he is guaranteed to score a better performance in 2000. Youngkeit's Vice Presidential runningmate is Robert L. Beck.
In a 2000 interview, Youngkeit told a reporter, "I want to be the first LDS President of the United States ... I am standing on the principles I have learned as a member of the LDS Church ... The church teaches us to 'choose the right,' that's the most important thing to remember – presidential campaign or not."
His brother-in-law Robert Leo Beck of Yuma, Ariz. was his VP choice. "He is an impressive person," Youngkeit said. I could not ascertain any campaign activity undertaken by Beck.
On the ballot only in Utah, the Youngkeit/Beck ticket placed 9th out of 9 with 0.02% of the state vote. In the event of their victory, Beck would have assumed the Presidency upon the death of Youngkeit, May 12, 2003.
Election history: none
Other occupations: US Marines
Buried: ?
Notes:
Brush with Fame. Rival Hughes claimant Melvin Dummar was a regular guest at the Clown Motel in
Tonopah, Nev. When I stayed there awhile back I was hoping to run into him but the manager said
my timing was off. Dummar has since died.
Brush with Fame 2: When Hughes was hiding in the Bayshore Hotel in Vancouver, BC in 1972, I
recall visiting that city and seeing the top floors with all the drapes pulled and men in business suits
patrolling the balconies.
