The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1893-05-10
A FAMOUS CASE.
After Fifteen Years the Noted Hillmon
Insurance Swindle Is
Revived
e4A4 saaH4&gE n sttrfst sfasit s29s T4RrNAN8a a. 4 tE~f1
BY the Allegation OF Insurance Com.
panies That Hillmon Has Been
Found.
A Murder Committed to Secure the
Corpse Which Was Identified as
HillmOn's.

NEW YORK, May 10.-The Times says
that John w. Hillmon, the chief con-
spirator in the famous "Hillmon insur-
ance swindle in Kansas has been
found. The attorney for the Mutual
Life Insurance company, which with
the New York Life Insurance company
and the Connecticut Mutual company,
carried the $40, 600 Insurance. which
Hillmon had on his life when he disap-
peared in 1875, in an interview said:
I'VE have at last
Found Hillmon Alive
and wei and know exactly where we
can. lay OF hands on him. After .
search extending over IL years he has
been finally traced to the Pacific coast
and he has made a clean breast Of the
whole affair"
The story Of the case involves the
murder Of an innocent man to provide
q corpse, wholesale perjury and . host
of other crimes. Hillmon was "a years
of age when he disappeared from
Medicine Lodge, Kan. in 1873. he had
always been Q poor man, and when il
was found that he had left insurance
policies a~ggregating go. 600 the suspic-
ions Of the companies were aroused and
they contested the claim Of Hillmon's
alleged widow to the money. The
corpse, which was said to be Hillmon's
was identified by many supposedly re-
putable witnesses, but when it was
afterward exhumed, on the company's
order, Hillmon's neighbors declared it
was not his, and his wife, in giving .
description Of her husband, failed to
describe the corpse.
The company fought the claim
on these grounds. The case was tried
three times. The first and second time
the jury disagreed, and the third time
q verdict was re--dered in favor of the
plaiatiff.
New Evidence Discovered.
New evidence was now discovered
that decided the company to argue for
q new trial. <
On March II, 1879, q man was shot
and killed in a desolate lumber camp
on Crooked creek by John b. Brown, q
partner Of Hillmon's, who claimed the
shooting was accidental. He notified q
farmer near by, who went with him to
view the body. The dead mans head
lay a the fire, and his head had
been burned, destroying his features
partly. Brown said the man was Hill
MOI and the body was buried. Brown
afterward confessed that he had en-
tered into a conspiracy in December,
1878, with Hillmon and Levi Baldwin
to defraud the life insurance companies
by insuring Hillon's life. Baldwin was
10 furnish the money and Hillmon and
Brown to manage the disappear.
ance OF the former. They started for
Wichita and on the way picked up i
strange man named Joe Berkeley.
This man, Brown alleged, was shot
by Hillmon. who dressed the corpse in
his own clothes and put his diary In his
p1cket HiImon. put ON Berks3syss
clothing, and, ssying that there .swas D
corpse ready made" toimpersonate him,
left the camp. He told Brown that sHs
would assume the namue Or Marshalf
ana lay low until they got the money
the policies,
Confession Fake
After Brown had made this ccnfss-
sion II wan discovered that he had He'd.
The dsad man WIS not Joe Berkeley.
but Frederick Adolph Walters, q Young
German cigarmaksr Of Fort Madison.
"a. who had gone 10 Lawrence in 1878,
and who disappeared about the sams
time that Hillmon did. This brought
the. matter down to q plain case ~
murder in which Jehn II. Brown md
Hilli1ori were the principals, with Ied
BALDWIN and Mrs, Hillmon as accee-
sories before the fact. That was tho
condition Of the cas when the arau-
sneat for . new trial was made BY H.
companies.
In tho meantime Mrs. Hillmon had
Travelled much, and the companies coh-
clnded that by following her they could
find her husband This clue failed, q
She Married Again.
g Qot6ct1ye8 employed hY
the Insurance people Kept steadily .at
work on the case and finally succeeded
In running down the principal Id tie
swindle. II 10 understood that he con-
scented readily enough TO make Q clean
breasted. tho affair in order to clear
himself Of the chargs that hs had kili5d
walters. This crime acoording % tke
dStectives. he lays at Browns dor.
The latter has been kept under 81.
Vigilance, and II probable that ali fKs
conspirators win be brought M 81
criminal charges if the insurance CON-
pauiss make good their claims regard
ing the identity of the man who he's
been identified 10 HiIImou.
Invited the Duke.
CHICAGO. May M.-A COMMITTEES 81
citizens Of Columbus, o., headed 81
Hon. y. II. Cultivate, called III ths
Duke Of veragua and extended him a
invitation 10 visit their city, which was
named III honor Of his great ancestor.
The duke accepted co~nditisnally.
eN$1& ~