Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1897-05-13
A LIFE INSURANCE TRAGEDY.

sioner Of Kansas in attempting to ex-
pei from the state three of the oldest
and best known life insurance COM
panies of the United States, for the
reason that they are contesting the
payment of claims in the Hillmon case,
renders of particular interest at this
time brief review of that and some
other celebrated cases of insurance
frauds occurring in this part of the
country.
Life insurance companies contend
that they rarely contest any claim;
they do not contest one-tenth of one
per cent of the claims presented
against them They give the claimant
the benefit OF the doubt when there is
doubt. 1t is asserted that the prompt
payment of claims is the universal
rule, is the course of honor, and it
also increases the popularity, the
business, the strength of a company.
All of the well-known American life
companies have clear records, noble
names, because their history has been
honorable and beneficent. In the Hill
mon case the three companies that
issued the policies are mutual com
panies; they are the trustees of their
policy holders; the money that they
hold is the money of the policy-holder,
OF widows and orphans, and is
sacred fund. When a thief attempts TO
rob this fund, it is the duty of its
guardians to protect 1T and to use
every effort to arrest and punish the
criminal. They cannot cOndOne crime.
All of our readers remember the
Fraker case Dr. Fraker, of Excelsior
Springs. Mo-, took out a large amount
of life insurance, and then, in the pres
ence of his fellow-conspirators as wit
nesses, went through the process OF be-
ing drowned in the Missouri river. 1t
was a very coarse job, but it complete
" deceived SO able and honorable a
jurist as John F. Philips, the United
States Judge in Kansas City, Mo-, who
tried the case. His rulings and instruc-
tions were so plainly on the Fraker
side that the jury Immediately brought
| in a verdict against the corporations.
| The insurance companies paid the in
surance to Fraker's executor. Soon
after Fraker was found in Northern
| Wisconsin.
The now famous Hillmon case, it is
alleged by the insurance companies, is
equally fraudulent The evidence
shows that Hillmon was a poor man, a
teamster and cattle herder. He
worked for Levi Baldwin, a farmer
and cattle raiser living near Lawrence.
| Hillmon married Miss Sallie Quinn, a
servant girl in Lawrence, and a cousin
of the Baldwins. The fact that Hill
mon within a short time took out life
insurance policies aggregating $780, 900
was of itself almost conclusive evidence
of fraud.
| In December, 1878, and Immediately
| after the iuS Hi11nnr2
and one John II. Brown left Lawrence
for Wichita, they said, ito To-
cate cattle ranch in the southwest"
They stayed some time in Wichita
when Hillmon returned to Lawrence
and applied for $4,000 more insur-
ance, but succeeded in getting only
SIS. 900, making SIS, 900 in all Hil1mon
returned to Wichita by rail, February
2S, 1879. Frederick a. Walters, of Fort
| Madison, Iowa, took the same train
at Emporia, and Hillmon made his
acquaintance on the journey to
| Wichita.
| Walters was a cigarmalzer, looking
for location. Within a day or two
Walters wrote to Miss Alvira Hasten
at Fort Madison, to whom he was en-
gagged to be married, letter in which
he said:
Il will stay here until the fore part
of next week and then will leave here
TO see part of the country that never
| expected to see when / left home, as
am going with man named Hillmon,
| who intends to start a sheep ranch, and
he has promised me more wages than
could make at anything else, I con-
cluded to take it-at least until 1 can
strike something BETTER
| He wrote other letters to his family,
making the same statement. But no
more letters did he write. Never more
did his mother or sweetheart see him
alive.
| Hillmon and Brown and Walters
started out on a wagon towards Barber
county. The next news from the party
was the report that Brown had acct
| dentally shot and killed Hillmon while
they were in camp on the nth of March;
| that he had taken Hillmon's body to
Medicine Lodge where coroner's in
quest was held and the body buried for
decomposition.
| The Baldwins went down there to
get the body; they did not get it, but
| fenced in the ground where it was
buried. Col. Samuel Walker and two
insurance agents soon after arrived
from Lawrence and insisted upon dig
ging up the body and taking it to
Lawrence These three men knew and
said it was not the body of Hillmon.
When the body was exhumed, Alva
Baldwin, then a boy IS years old,
and brother of Levi Baldwin, who
stood by the side of the grave, ex-
claimed when the face was uncovered,
Hell. that amt John Hiilmoa." A
coroner's inquest was held at Lawrence
and the verdict of the jury was that the
body was not Hillmon's. A warrant
was issued for the arrest of John H