You're free to believe what you want to believe, but so am I. Different perspectives generally lead to different beliefs.
Hatari, who claims to have known PHC said that PHC embellished his stories in order to make them better stories. In this thread he posted the following, "He made no secret that he embellished stories to jazz them up.". Look up the definition of "embellish", "to make (a statement or story) more interesting or entertaining by adding extra details, especially ones that are not true.". Even without any embellishments, he had the discipline, the vision, to make his dreams of living an excited life come true.
I don't think poorly of PHC, actually I don't think of him at all unless someone brings him up on this site. My perspective on PHC is that he was a guy with the knack for spinning a better than average tale and he found a way to turn that skill set into an additional income flow. A lot people have marketable skills that they never exercise. I remember JOC writing in H&B West that his Mother talked about writing a book, but, like most people, she never had the discipline to follow through with it.
