The letter H was destroyed in the 1940s. According to one account, the sign's caretaker Albert Kothe, driving while intoxicated, was nearing the top of Mount Lee when he lost control of his vehicle and drove off the cliff directly behind the H. While Kothe was not injured, his car and the letter H were both destroyed. The Hollywood Sign Trust disputes this story, and instead says that the H was felled by heavy winds in early 1944.[15]