The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-02-05
A FAMOUS INSURANCE CASE.
Analytical Review Of the Life and Death
of Walter Dwight, Of Binghamton.
Did He, Through the Agency of GeIsemium, So
Perfectly Simulate Death as to Deceive
Physicians and Friends?
Norwich IN. " snecial.

expected that one of the famous Dwight insur-
ance cases will be selected for trial and that the
result will end the long litigation The first suit
tried was that against the Germania Life Insur.
anee Company, and the verdict was against the
defendants. But the result in this case was not
decisive of all the other SUITS though several of
the twenty-six companies involved have since
paid up. The Equitable. which had granted a
policy Dwights life for $50. 900, settled before
the trial of the Germania suit Some OF the
principal companies, however, do not consider
that the real issues have been yet completely
tried and ii is reported that many suspicious cir
eumstancss surrounding the alleged death of
Dwight. which were not sufficiently verified to be
ased at the first trial. are now in better shape for
convincing presentation.
The total amount of insurance on Dwights
Oifs was 1856. 900. In the Germania suit the de-
Tense sought to prove that Dwight committed
suicide; strangled himself with a rope attached
80 the headpiece of the bed in which he died. It
is alleged this defense will be abandoned in the
next trial, and that there will be startling de
Teiopments, unique in the history OF insurance
frauds. To those who read the testimony in the
Germania suit it will seem absurd to say that
there is any real foundation for supposing him
alive, and yet this is the theory said to be now
entertained by one more OF the contesting
companies. This is the statement Of a person
interested:
ION the 31st of last March four of the life
insurance companies entered into written
agreement with certain parties-one Of them a
famous detective, who was formerly and for
several years associated with Allan Pinkerton-
whereby the companies stipulated to pay $50,
900 for the production within six months Of
Walter Dwight alive or upon the production of
evidence that the said Dwight was alive at least
one year subsequent to the 18th of November,
1873 such fact to be proved to the satisfaction Of
court and jury in some one of the cases now
pending AS this agreement has expired by
limitation and as the pending cases are reserved
generally and could have been put forward in
the calendar at any time and the supposed
fugitive produced if found, it is fair to presume
he was not found, but it is not fair to presume
that the insurance companies have relaxed their
efforts, or that they are not in possession of val
liable ciews.
walter Dwight died suddenly in cottage at
cached to the Spauiding House. in Bnghamton.
about IL o'clock on the night of Nov. Is, 1873.
The premiums for the second quarter of his life
Insurance came due four days later, or on the
18th. II is known that he had money with
which to pay them. Only one witness was pres
ent at the moment of his death. An autopsy
performed On the 18th was attended by phys-
CLANS representing the insurance companies be-
sides a number of Binghamton's physicians
His brain, lungs and heart were examined. His
funeral took place on tho 10th. His face was
exposed to view in church and was recognized
ny thousands of persons who had known him in
life. His body was placed not in receiving
vault but in a brickliued tomb
'More than a month after Dwights supposed
death he was seen and positively identified in the
streets of Chicago by gentleman and his wife
who knew him WE'LL
sDwight's body was exhumed and examined
after it had been buried five months. Physicians
representing the insurance companies, who Ax-
RJnined the body carefully, aver that certain
eunshot wounds. received by the Colonel at the
battle of Gettysburg, were not found upon this
body, corresponding with record of his wounds
IN the Surgeon generals Office at Washington.
Phey also declare that the teeth of the body
which were very even and perfect, did not
correspond with the noticeably irregular and
prominent teeth of the Colonel Other dis.
crepanees alleged to exist. One of the
officers of New York insurance company who
FOR twenty-five years had been engaged in I'M
earthing frauds against insurance corporations,
and who had been successful in many very COM
spiicated and celebrated cases, was convinced.
after close analysis of all the circumstances,
that Dwight had never died. 1t is freely admit
ted by those who take this view, that if Colonel
dwight is alive it is one of the most extraordin-
nary cases of cunning and imposture on record;
but it is likewise conceded that Colonel Dwight
aras very extraordinary man and possessed of
such resolution, invention and adroitness that if
ne once undertook to defraud insurance COM
panies he would not take any chances of failure.
Jas to the means he would employ to perfect his
deception, the history of life insurance frauds
shows that the most complex and irreconcilable
tfaets merge into the simplest explanation when
At is once established that the insured person
supposed to be dead is actually alive.
about the 9Th of November Dwight moved
from Windsor to Binghamton and hired apart
ments in small cottage in an open lot adjoining
the Spaulding House and connected with that
hotel by covered hal, or passage way. The
Colonel remained in bed most of the time, and
complained to those who called that he had been
suffering with cbills. His brotherin-law, Nc
Donald, lawyer, sat up with him one night.
and McDonald's former law partner, Charles A.
Hull, sat up with him the night of his supposed
on Dwight at the Spaulding cottage
on Wednesday. Nov. Ii, the Colonel
requested him to come round and sit up
with him Friday night, giving a particular
geason that he expected to have another chill,
And he knew Hull was cool and would not get
excited in an emergency Hull swears that he
was the only person present IN the room when
Dwight oied. He testified that he was sitting
within eight feet seven inches The had measured
the distance) of Dwight, who was in bed that
the gas was turned on, showing every thing plain
ly In the bed, when. without premonitory symp-
toms, and just after taking piece of cracker
end making jocular remark, the Colonel sud-
denly gasped and called: Charlie and before the
latter could 60 next door and call assistance and
return to his bedside he IVES dying, and in few
moments was dead.
"It is alleged that a bottle found beneath q
window of the cottage some time after the
funeral was examined by experts who distinctly
recogRized what was left Of its contents as gel
ssmium, a vegetable poison. 1t is but little
known to the general public. and only recently
psed by regular practitioners in some kinds Of
fever, though its peculiar virtues as fever an
tidote have been known among the planters and
negroes of the South for many years. 1t is ex-
traetad from the common jimson weed so abund-
ant in the South and Southwest Taken in
sufficient doses it produces temporary paralysis
of the motor nerves without loss of conscious
ness. The eyelids close without the power of
raising them. the jaw falls, the body turns cold
and clammy. and there is complete stimulation
of death. This condition may last for hours
'.Dr Burr, the physician in attendance upon
Dwight during his illness certified that elded
Of gastritis. Physicians representing the insur-
once companies, who assisted in the postmortem.
declared that he died Of strangulation, and