From: amo@cbnews.cb.att.com (arlene.m.osborne)
Subject: from clarinews: Owners killing horses for insurance money
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 21:53:40 GMT
Keywords: insurance fraud

Below is the horrible UPI story someone mentioned.  I think it
merits reading.  Something should be done about this!

From: clarinews@clarinet.com (UPI)
Owners killing horses for insurance money


	NEW YORK (UPI) -- Cash-starved horse owners have been hiring assassins
to murder expensive horses to collect insurance money, Sports
Illustrated reports.
	The article, titled ``Blood Money'' in the current issue and written
by William Nack and Lester Munson, chronicles how horse killing has
become commonplace in the world of show horses.
	Tommy Burns, a confessed horse killer, told federal agents he
destroyed some 20 horses on the show-horse circuit from Florida to
Vermont to Illinois over 10 years. His preferred method of execution was
electrocution, using a simple extension cord and a pair of alligator clips.
	Doctors at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center, one of
the nation's leading animal hospitals, told Sports Illustrated that even
the most experienced pathologist would be unlikely to detect signs of
death by electrocution. In most instances, the horses were assumed to
have died of colic.
	Sometimes a crow bar was used to smash a horse's hind leg, forcing
veterinarians to put the horse to death by lethal injection. The broken
leg was assumed to have been caused by the horse kicking against his
stall.
	Burns, who faces sentencing Dec. 14 as a co-conspirator in the death
of a show horse named Streetwise almost two years ago, has been
cooperating with the Justice Department in Chicago in hopes of a lighter
sentence.
	Sources told Sports Illustrated that by the time the Internal Revenue
Service and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms end their
investigation, as many as 40 owners, trainers, veterinarians and riders
will be indicted on various charges.
	According to the article, among those under investigation are Donna
Brown and her husband, Buddy Brown, a member of the 1976 U.S. Olympic
equestrian team, and George Lindemann Jr. of Greenwich, Conn., one of
the nation's most accomplished equestrians.
	The Browns are being investigated concerning the death of two of
their top show horses, Streetwise and Aramis, while Lindemann is being
investigated concerning the death of his champion hunter Charisma.
	Investigators also have picked up leads on other insurance-related
deaths not involving Burns and on suspicious stable fires and the
fraudulent sale of overvalued horses.
	The article states that in the 21 months since Burns' arrest
investigators have developed hard evidence that such crimes have not
been confined to the show-horse business and that Burns was not the only
hit man working expensive stables.
	Veteran insurance adjusters told the magazine the number of
suspicious claims by horse owners has increased dramatically in the
years since the 1986 Tax Reform Act eliminated performance horses as
depreciable assets. That reform coupled with recession cut the bottom
out of the horse business, leaving a cash-starved industry with farms
and stables struggling to stay afloat.


Newsgroups: rec.equestrian