His luck ran out on November 15, 1965, when FBI agents arrested him in Schiller Park, northwest of Chicago. He was charged with trying to cheat would-be investors in a Las Vegas hotel and casino. Hauff claimed he owned land on which the $14 million project would be built. He allegedly took $60,000 from investors, including a former assistant maitre d’ who was told he would manage the hotel in exchange for his investment of $19,000.

Chicago newspapers described Hauff as having longtime ties to organized crime. He was handsome, suave, well dressed, and often in the company of starlets like Zsa Zsa Gabor.

He was born Hosang Torvan. After being orphaned, an American soldier found him wandering in the hills of Iran. The soldier adopted the boy, then six years old, and brought him to Arlington Heights, a northwest suburb of Chicago. Now known as Richard Hauff, he had a knack for golf and worked as a caddie at Mount Prospect Country Club, a suburban club frequented by local mobsters. Still in his 20s, Hauff was promoted from caddie to owner of the club. Hauff was sentenced to nine years in federal prison on three swindling charges, plus income tax evasion. He was killed by a jealous husband in the kitchen of an Indiana restaurant he opened after getting out of prison. (Left) Hauff in 1960.