DEIRO: THE COUNT, HUGHES PILOT
I was very skeptical when a guy I’d never heard of called in June and told me he was the person responsible for spearheading development of Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Uh-huh.
And that he is an Italian count.
Hmmm, really.
And that he flew Howard Hughes to a brothel that led to the controversy over Hughes’ will.
Sure.
But after nearly an hour on the phone and a meeting at his northwest Las Vegas home, Robert Deiro proved his ties to LVMS and how he earned his ranking as a count.
He’s pretty darned convincing about helping to put a smile on Hughes' face, too.
Deiro is 100 percent Las Vegas, except for the phony part. If anyone deserves a biography, it’s him. And he’s a pack rat that makes research easy.
And he’s a good guy and good family man. That didn’t hurt his credibility.
He told how his father — Guido Deiro — was a popular musician in the early 20th century after immigrating from Italy. His father was a big-time vaudeville star and the man who popularized the accordion in America.
Don’t laugh. That was a big deal then. His father, who died at age 64 in 1950, was married to Mae West for two years before she became a starlet.
His father's status led to him earning the title of "count" in his Italian homeland. That makes his son Count Guido Roberto Deiro.
After managing North Las Vegas Airport in the late 1960s when it was owned by Ralph Engelstad, Deior continued in that position when it was sold to Hughes Tool Co.
He said he helped Hughes look for land to build a supersonic airport in Southern Nevada back in the day when the Concorde seemed to be the future of air travel.
Deiro says he flew Hughes to the Cottontail Ranch brothel in 1967 the day before Melvin Dummar claimed he picked up a disheveled Hughes not far from the Cottontail and ended up in the billionaire's disputed will.
Deiro said Hughes' mission that night was to rendezvous with a red-headed hooker who had a diamond in one tooth.
It was hard to corroborate that claim but Deiro didn’t lie about anything else, so I’ve become a believer in that story, too.
For more on Deiro:
https://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Nov-28-Mon-2005/news/4486596.html
