Huntsville gazette., 1893-05-13
A GREAT CONSPIRACY.

Il
| me HIllmon Insurance SwindIe In Kansas
once More-Alleged Finding of HiIImon
AHve-He is Said to Have Made a Full
confession-Several Persons Implicated
IN Murder and the Commission of
Perjury.
NEW YORK, May 10.-The Times saws
that John W. Hillmon, the chief con-
| splrator in the famous s.Hillmon in
| surance swindle in Kansas" has been
found The attorney for the Mutual
Lie insurance Co., which, with the New
FORK Lie lnsusurance Co., and the Con-
nectlcut Mutual Life Insurance Co. car
rled the $40, 600 life insurance on HILL
mon when he disappeared in 1878. in an
interview said: 1--WE have at last found
Hnlmon alive and well and know ex-
actly where we can lay hands on him.
Alter search extending over fifteen
years he has been finally traced to the
Pacific coast and he has made clean
breast of the whole affair."
The history of the case involves the
murder of an innocent man to provide
2 corpse, wholesale perjury and host
OF other crimes. Hillmon was 34 wears
OF age when he disappeared from
Medicine Lodge, Kas., 1878. He had
Always been poor man, ard
when it was found that he had
left insurance policies aggregating
$4,000 the suspicious 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 reputable witnesses, but
when it was afterward exhumed
on the company's order Hillmons )
neighbors declared it was not
bis, and his wife, in giving a descrip-
tion 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 sec
ond time the jury disagreed and the
third time a verdict was returned in
favor of the plaintiff.
i New evidence was discovered that de-
cided the companies to argue for new
trial.
4 On March II, 1879. man was shot
and killed in a desolate lumber camp
on Crooked creek, by John H. Brown,
partner of Hillmons S. who claimed the
shooting was accidental. He notified a
farmer near by, who went with him
to view the body. The dead mans
head lay near the fire, and his head had
been burned, destroying his features
4 partly. Brown said the man was Hill
mon and the body was buried Brown
afterward confessed that he had entered
i into a conspiracy in December, 1878,
with Hillmon and Levi Baldwin to de-
fraud the life-insurance companies
j by insuring Hillmon's life. Bald
win was to furnish the money
and Hillmon and Brown were to
manage the disappearance of the
former. They started for Wichita
and on the way picked up strange
Brown alleged, was shot by TIillmon.
who dressed the corpse in his own
clothing and put his diary in his poc!l
eft. I1illmon put on Berkely clothing,
and saying that there was corpse
ready made" to impersonate him, he
left the camp. He told Brown that he
would assume the name of Marshall
and lay low until they got the money
on the policies.
After Brown had made this confess
sion it was discovered that he had lied.
The dead man was not Joe Berkely, but
Frederick Adolph Walters, young
German cigarmaker of Fort Madison,
Ia, who had gone to Lawrence in
1873, and who disappeared about
the same time that Hillmon did. This
brought the matter down to plain
case of murder, in which John II.
Brown and Hillmon were the princi-
pals, with Levi Baldwin and Mrs. Hill
mon as accessories before the fact
In the meantime Mrs. IIillmon had
travelled much, and the companies con-
cluded that by following her they could
find her husband. This clew failed,
as she married again. However, the
detectives employed by the insurance
people kept steadily at work on the case,
and finally succeeded in running
down the principal in the swindlc. 1t
is understood that he consented readily
enough to make a clean breast of the
| affair in order to clear himself of the
charge that he had killed Wal
ters The crime, according to the de-
tectives, he lays at Browns door.
The latter has been kept under surveil-
lance, and it is probable that all the
conspirators will be brought up on
criminal charges if the insurance com
pany make good their claims regarding
the identity of Hillmon.
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