The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1879-01-11
A Case Celebrated In the Annals of Life
Insurance.

Insurance.
The publication of the record of q
number of life insurance cases wherein
huge swindles were attempted or sus-
pected, recalls the celebrated Holden
case, which occurred in Ann Arbor,
Mich, in the summer of 1857. A letter
from there thus recounts it:
Some time previous to the murder--if
murder it was-Holden came to Ann
Arbor stranger, and rented small
house on West Main street, his family
consisting of wife and several chill
dren. He mingled but little with the
town people, and not much was known
of him, but he was understood TO be
retired lumberman, and presumed to be
a man of means. He was in middle age,
trife below medium height, but square
built and man of vigorous constitution
and health. Between what was at that
time the heart of the town and Holden's
residence ran a small creek, which was
crossed by foot-bridge on the line of
the sidewalk, and beyond this for twenty
or thirty rods lay morass, which was
traversed by a continuation of the side
walk, for the construction of which a
plentiful supply of tanbark in the
vicinity furnished abundant material.
Between ten and eleven o'clock on a
night in August, the startling cry of
Murder" was heard proceeding from
the lonely spot. Persons on repairing
to the place found Holden lying on the
walk, shot, the bullet, which had evil
IDENTIFY been intended for his heart
having entered the cavity of the chest,
as shown by the post-mortem, and made
tortuous track, in obedience to the
Instructions which it met with. He
was alive and conscious, but died, after
great suffering, the next day or the day
following. He had been spending a
day or two in Detroit, had returned by
the night express, and was pursuing
his way home when the tragedy was
enacted.
He said that he was confronted on
the path by two men, one of them a
moderately tall and the other a shorter
man; that the taller man grappled and
struggled with him, exposing his left
side to his companion, and saying /:
why don't you shoot him. that
thereupon the shorter man fired, when
morass. Ny impression now is that
tracks were reported to have been found
corroborative of this story, but on this
my recollection is not clear. | believe
also that Holden claimed that his assas-
sins took from his breast-pocket his
pocket book, containing a large amount
of money, which he had received from
man in Detroit, bu lwhose name be
declined to give
Holden left policies on his life amount
ing, | think, to twenty-nine thousand
dollars. He left no money or property,
comparatively, ana but for advances
secured on the strength of the policies,
his family would have fonnd themselves
in immediate want. The insurance
companies alleged suicide, and refused
to pay. Suits were brought, but the
claims were finally compromised for
about one-third their face. After the
decay of the grass in the fall, pistol
was alleged to have been found, with
the muzzle implanted in the soft turf,
within easy throw of the scene OF the
tragedy. This was claimed by the COM
panies as strengthening the theory of
suicide, because, it was contended, if he
had been left by the retreating assas
sins, it would have been simply dropped
and would have lain ON its side, whereas,
being thrown, the barrel being the
heavier portion, gave it perpendic-
ular descent, driving the muzzle into
the soft turf.
The tragedy itself occasioned intense
excitement, and the contest over the
policies eDgendered partisan feeling
which ran high for many months.
Holden was Spiritualist, and spiritual
mediums essayed their art in an effort
to solve the mystery. Among Others the
late Captain E. B. Ward, of Detroit,
made visit to Ann Arbor in company
with medium who was then in his
confidence. Two young men in Ann
Arbor, who had borne bad character,
and whose relative stature CORE sponded
with Holden's description of his assas-
sins, were tried and convicted of the
murder, but being given a new trial,
they were not again tried for that
offense, their conviction, without doubt,
having been due to a sympathetic i'm
pulse to strengthen the widows case
against the insurance companies.
Those who believed Holden's story
believed also that he might have told
who his assassins were had he chosen to
do SO. Holden had been dealer or
speculator in, or locator of pine lands,
and the theory was that in this adven-
turesome pursuit he had incurred the
mortal enmity of some persons, from
whom he lived in continual fear of his
life, and that the conviction that his
day must soon come led him to exhaust
his small means in an insurance on his
life for the benefit of his family. Others
claimed to have evidence that Holden
was a gambler by profession, and to
hold the theory that his assassins were
companions of the profession whom he
had outwitted. Others still surmised
that the murderers had knowledge of his
having received the money, and followed
him from Detroit for the purpose of
robbery. Between these various the
cries and that of suicide, public opinion
was about equally divided, and the
Holden mystery is no nearer a solution
to-day than it was twenty years ago.