Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1890-10-08
ARRESTING A DEAD HAN.
Life ! insurance is < Hard Game to Beat and Live Yet Some
 elbows Do It.

|
 Under Sheriff Murray McInerna,
 isst evening brought ia from Jerom,
 and lodged in iail enc of tho most noted
 and casning "orcoks" ever captured ir
 Arizona. The interesting individual, name Is James N. Wilson. alias Mat thevss alias Holley. alias Madison. and
 for yeaIs past hs has been acquiring isme and foriuae for himself and put.
 tang mortal terror into tue directors ol
 some oi the leading life insurance com
 psnies nl the country by apparently dying and coming to life again, vith ss much usse as if he were possessed oi
 the nine lives ot cat. His mode of
 opefsting was io insare his life in favor
 oi his vie. for sums ranging from Sl0,-
 0O0 to Sl5,ooS. For the tirst year or 90.
 he would pay the required premiums,
 then some convenient accident v uld
 intervene during which this man oi
 many alisses would turn ap dead or
 missing, always though, in such way
 ss ,o win the insurance. As fast ss one
 policy was settled another was obtain
 ed, sad this work vas continued until
 it is estimated that the vsrious insur-
 snco companies which he patronised
 were losers 10 from fifty to sev en,y
 thoussnd dollars--the money obtained
 being divided among Wilson's confede- sates who acted ss witnesses to his death and other circumstances. h 1888, Wilson and his party located in Dons Ans couRty, E. N and through . local attorney there secured policy On the formers life for SS,00o in the
 New York Mutual Life Insurance eom- psny, and also an accidental policy for tio.oeo in the Equitable Assurrnoe company. The finances of the gang
 sere 60 low that they could not wait for the usual length Of time to elspse, and Sc few months after the policies were issued they org gsnised s fishing ex- cnrsion on the Rio Grande, during which the boat they were in was report. cd to have bVen upset and Wilson drowned. After much search a body vas taken from the river which was buried with great ceremony by the be- rssved widow and mourning confed- crates, and the necessary application made to the insurance for the payment of the poli- eies Some Of tho features attending the death of Wilson, together with the size of the polio es, carried by a man in such apparently poor circumssa nces, led the companies interested to make an investigation, which was earned on with such zeal that the supposed widow and the res; of the gang took fright and decamped. all save enc who, on 1n being arrested, "squealed" and gave ths entire conspiracy away. From that .ime to this, Wilson has been sought Or by the best and most sstute detect yes without success until MoInernsy, while ob c recent visit to Jerome no- iced kis peculiar physiognomy, and eturning to Prescott looked over the iles ot the detective papers, where he l 0und Wilson's photographs, alter which l t was k mere matter of a little surveil- I 'ncs and putting this and that together l 0 sstisiy himself that he had the right l nan.
 Wilson is very tsciturn but admits | lis identity. but claims that while 'n the fishing excursion in question, he boat vas really upset, and that he Iriited down stream ider it for mile ! r 80. After he 20, from under it and | cached the shore 1t was late in tl day, .ud on his way back to camp after | lark, discovered psrties searching for ais body. Having had s quarrel with lis wife, and having no other ties to bind him to Dona Ana, he concluded | ,e would take advantage of the situa- ion and leave. Re does not. however, sy how or when his wife afterwards be- .ams spprized of the true state of facts md joined him at Jerome. He is now wearing in the top of his head, it is said, souvenir of one of his successful couPs n ths shape of A large silver plate in
 he top of his head, which covers s zeund he sustained by an explosion which completely wrecked cottage he vas living in in Arkansas. For sorne esson the explosion went of 30 pro- that Wilson had not time to .et to place of safety, and the result vss a iscersted skull. His supposed ,ody, dressed in one of his best known sits of clothes, was found, however,
 mong the debris, and the policies on Iis life duly paid. From that time on housh, he has eschewei explosions in lis schemes, and re,orted to the less iaky features of drowning.