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

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http://www.dallasbasketball.com/fullColumn.php?id=1291

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

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.''

The letter serves as the symbol of a campaign Bob’s sister Lucille has waged since his 2002 death – a campaign for attention.

The question the Hayes family says it struggles to answer: Is she seeking attention for Bob Hayes? Or for herself? And is she seeking more than just attention?

“I was married to Bob for 11 years,’’ Janice Hayes-Mohl of Dallas told me this weekend. “I’ve met Lucille. Bob never introduced her as his ‘sister.’ He always said he was his ‘play-sister,’ like it was something from childhood. It is certain news to me and to Bob’s real (siblings) that Lucille (was) suddenly their new sister.''

click link for the rest of the article

Also, check out how Staubach is spelled in the letter.

[Redskins:Victory_or_Death]

There are some things I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy...this is one of those.

RIP Bob Hayes.

I'm sorry your legend is being tarnished so....

[DeMarco Murray 29]

Can't this man just rest in peace and have something good for once?

But there are several articles out when he passed mentioning her as his "Sister"

[kuraitengai]

now maybe getting older and being on his deathbed would affect his writing. but would it really cause someone to not even make the major letters in a similar manner? the B in his first name. the H and y in his last arent even remotely similar.

[HighOnHendrix]

There will always be someone in a given situation who is trying to take advantage of that situation for their own gain. That is just a fact of life. It remains to be seen if this woman is trying to get over, but it's not looking good for her.

[royallypwned]

idk the truth behind all this, but it's an understatement to say this is pretty suspicious. RIP Bullet Bob.

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The font is supposedly identified (by the creator) as one that had not been introduced until years after Hayes had died.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/020509dnspocowhayes.9a30e7.html

Letter purportedly from former Dallas Cowboy Hayes under more scrutiny

12:11 AM CST on Thursday, February 5, 2009

By BRAD TOWNSEND / The Dallas Morning News

Lucille Hester, the 69-year-old former school teacher who provided the "goosebump moment" of Bob Hayes' Pro Football Hall of Fame election last weekend, tried Wednesday to answer thorny questions about type fonts.

Hayes' family members have questioned the validity of the letter she read to a national TV audience, noting in particular a "Bob Hayes" signature they say is obviously forged.

Lucille Hester showed the now-controversial letter to the media after the Hall of Fame announcement last weekend.

View larger Photography Photo store

But on Wednesday, the focus turned to the letter's typeface. At The Dallas Morning News' request, one of the world's most noted typeface designers examined a photo of the purported Hayes letter, which was dated Oct. 29, 1999.

Dutch designer Luc(as) de Groot said the letter's typeface is "definitely Calibri," which he designed for Microsoft in 2003. It was not available to the public until the debut of Microsoft Office 2007.

Hayes, the former Cowboys receiver and Olympic sprint champion, died on Sept. 18, 2002. Hester has said Hayes, whom she identifies as her half-brother, signed and gave her the letter in 1999 while visiting her in Washington, D.C.

"I don't know who typed it, or about some font," Hester said Wednesday. While trying to recall the day Hayes gave her the letter, Hester said her brother gave her documents on two occasions – when she visited him in Jacksonville, Fla., and when he flew to meet her in Philadelphia.

Met in Philadelphia

She said she believes it was the latter occasion when he gave her the letter she read at the Hall of Fame news conference.

"He was sick, and he kept telling me he was going to die, that he might not make it to 2000," she recalled. She said he gave her an autographed football, then signed the letter and handed it to her. She said she doesn't know who typed the letter and when.

She said that when she returned to Washington, she put the letter in a drawer, where it stayed for several years. She said she believes the original is in a Bob Hayes Foundation file in an attorney's office, and that the one she read in Tampa, Fla., on Saturday was a photocopy.

"If I'm not too clear [on the details] right now; I'm really very, very sorry," she said. "I just hate that this moment is spoiled for [Hayes] with things about me."

Even if the letter had been saved on a disc in 1999 and printed recently, de Groot said that doesn't account for the presence of both the Calibri font and signature.

On Tuesday, The News e-mailed a photo of the letter to de Groot's Berlin-based company, LucasFonts. In a phone interview Wednesday, de Groot said that since the letter was slightly angled in the photo, he took extra steps to verify its font.

"I simply retyped a few sentences [of the letter] in the current version of Microsoft Word, which has the Calibri as the default form," he said. "That's the best test. Then you will also see that the lines end the same, in places and proportions of the line length.

"Something like that would only be possible with the exact same typeface."

The News sent the same photo to forensic typography expert Thomas Phinney, who agreed that the typeface is Calibri.

"I conclude that the document shown in the photo could not have been printed when Hayes was still alive to sign it," he said.

"Well, if I heard that, I would be convinced," said Hayes' former business manager Ted McIntosh, who on behalf of Hayes family members e-mailed media outlets last Sunday, asserting that the letter was fake and that Hester was not Bob's biological sister. "You talked to the expert, so what else is there to say?"

In contrast to recent days, Hayes family members seemed to make a concerted effort to lay aside the controversy and focus on this weekend's festivities in Honolulu, where the six-member 2009 Hall class will be recognized at Sunday's Pro Bowl game...

Click link for full article

[royallypwned]

The font is supposedly identified (by the creator) as one that had not been introduced until years after Hayes had died.

ugh... :doh:

[Taylor 36]

What is wrong with the world? :doh:

[Fishslayer]

Bob Hayes shouldn't even be in the hall of fame. His bust in the hall takes it one step closer to the Hall of Mediocre. Only reason he is in is because he is a cowboy.