The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1895-08-18

Jasper, N. G. The first is as follows:
"BEAUFoRr, n. c., May 4th, 1894.
"MBs. RoUNTREE;
Dear Madam: | write you few
lines to let you know that Ella is not
| dead yet. She has been very sick for
several months. The treatment of your
son up to your house will cause her
death. hope no one will treat your
daughter as your son has treated mine.
hope your son will get the children
ready by the last of May, soft she should
die they will be here. No more now.
IS. l. TURNER
No. ?. BEAUFORT, N. O., May, 1894.
mr.. Rountree: Please send Elias
trunk and clothes down here. She is
sick now and has been sick a long time,
aud don't know whether she will get
over with it. The doctor has been
tending her. She has been sick ever
since she has been here. If you had to
want to know how Ella was YOU should
/ have wrote to some Of the family in
stead Of | want you to bring
| the children.
/ C'Signed) IS. /. TURNER
Addressed TO Mr.. Rountree, Jasper,
N. O.
The application to the National Life
/ for the four thousand dollar policy was
made on May list and Ella died Septem-
Der 22d, 1894, her father stephen Tur
ner having signed proofs of death. In
/ this proof Of death there was a statement
/ that the health of deceased first began to
be affected September 3rd 1894. More
over, there was the additional statement
that deceased was insured in only one
other company, namely the National
/ Capital, for 81 900.
! Then came the Wigfall, the Casey and
/ the Perry Chadwick case.
Ia the case of Wigfall insurance money
to the amount of three thousand dollars
was paid three months after death of
| deceased
The whereabouts of DR.. Edward
| Thomas, who made the bogus medical
examination, was traced to the Waverly
House, No. BoWery. Doctor Thomas,
! once regarded as one of the leading. physi-
clans in Eastern North Carolina, but for
sometime a victim of dissipation, IS a
brother Of the late Judge Thomas of
Newbern.
Il is perhaps unnecessary to pursue
the cases further as the number seems to
grow the further the examination goes.
! But it is not an eXaggeratiOn to say that
the atmosphere Of the town of Beaufort
/ had become charged with the poison of
speculative insurance, so much so that
/ instead of seeming to realize the enor-
nifty of their offences, the defendants re-
| garded the whole proceeding as a some
what frivolous affair. The GOODNESS and
audacity of these people and their
friends in the town of Beaufort is some
! thing startling at this time Of the day.
| AS an example of this when the time
came not long ago for the appointment
of new chief of police the main issue
in the contest seemed to be speculative
| insurance or no speculative insurance.
The Incumbent, Mr.. NJ. A. Marshall, a
sturdy and courageous man, had put
| forward much effort towards exposing
this prowling gang of swindlers, and
had brought upon his head thereby their
combined efforts to turn him out of
Office. In this they succeeded. They
( even went so far as to hatch up a bogus
| statement of his accounts to show that
| he was a defaulter, which they offered
in evidence against him, but which the
! town treasurer fortunately detected and
| denounced as bogus. At one time when
Mr.. Marshall attempted to arrest that
arch swindler, Bill Fisher, he was me
| with knife and had to draw his pistol
to defend himself and to summon a posse
to arrest the rufian. He was shot at in
the streets by man in ambush while on
duty and suffered untold Inconvenience
in a score of ways.
| Although people, some Of them, knew
about the existence of these frauds, still
none seemed to have been bold enough,
except Marshall to speak about them il
broad daylight. As the law got nearer
and nearer to the offenders and this fact
came to be more generally known, public
sentiment, instead Of rallylng to the side
of the prosecution seemed inclined to re-
| sent such inroads as a reflection upon the
integrity and good name of their COM
munity, and not until after the parties
were bound over did there seem to be
any certain sign of healthy change, and
even then, on the part of many, the
| tendency was rather to criticise the all
! devouring insurance companies, as they
were called, than those who had prac-
ticed fraud against them.
1t is quite probable that there are many
more insured persons about here whose
names will never come to the surface,
and, on that account many old persons,
and prisons not old, came to Mr.. Hins
dale during the prosecution to find out
if there was any insurance on their lives.
a Mr.. Robinson, brother of the deputy
sheriff, and cripple on crutches, hailed
Mr.. A. P Massey, Junior counsel and
Mr.. Aiken Inspector for Mutual Reserve
Fund one day, saying, "Look here, are
you the insurance men, ard have you got
any insurance on my Hfe3' He was told
be had, then he replied, For Gods sake,
who is carrying il2' "Some Of the
gang" said MIR. Aiken. "Then for God's
sake, take it up" said Mr.. Robinson,
81 am afraid to take a drink around
here lest it should be doctorel."
A hundred yards further down the
street these gentlemen were hailed by a
Mr. Lewis, who seemed to be in feeble1
health and the same questions were
again nut to them. They assured him