The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-12-01


and fifteen thousand dollars, in vari
lous companies, of which she secured
about one-fourth. Soon after the poll
cies We're issued her sister died. Mrs
Evans father was also found to have
benefited by that lady's death by ST.
400.
In 1S48, in Berlin, Ger, surgeon was
bribed to certify to the death of an in.
sured person who was perfectly well
consequently still alive. A coffin was
procured and filed with stones and
rotten straw, which was solemnly in
tered with all religious ceremony
The plot was soon discovered, and all
those concerned in it punished. The
same trick was attempted in western
state a few years since, with like re-
suit.
Charles Reade, the famous novelist,
has worked into one of his stories the
following facts: Four men in London
at dusk one evening hired a boat just
below the Blackfriars bridge, and pro-
ceeded on a pleasure excursion up the
Thames. While quietly rowing not far
from shore, the boat suddenly capsized,
and the four were struggling in the
water and the darkness. In response
to their cries for help, succor arrived,
! but only three We're rescued; the fourth
must have drowned. Late that night
the same party, in a small boat, with
muffled oars, quietly stole down the
river and deposited a dead body, pro-
cured from some hospital or cemetery,
on the river bank. A reward was Of
| I,-+ Of 10
body of their friend, and tine corpse
was discovered. They paid the prom
ised reward and collected the life in
surance on the body of their dead
friend Later they tried the same
scheme again, when it failed and
brought to light their first successful
effort.
In 1850 Bernard Harlzing of Madge
burg poisoned his wife with arsenic to
gain small life insurance he had per-
suaded her to carry, much against her
will. Her death at the time was as
cribed to Asiatic cholera, and caused
no suspicion. The insurance was paid
after a slight delay. Twenty months
later he poisoned his mothers sister so
as to inherit his share of her small saw
ings. This death caused suspicion,
which resulted in the elimination of
his wife's body, and the discovery of
the poison that caused her death. He
was hanged.
One of the earliest recorded cases in
America of suicide of an insured per-
son was that of William Calender of
York, Pa Calender rode on horseback
to Harrisburg, where, on March rs,
1851, he obtained a policy of insurance
on his life in the sum of five thousand
dollars. He started home the same af-
ternoon, was taken sick on the way
and obliged to dismount from his horse
at dollhouse on the turnpike, where
he died during the night. The policy
was conditioned to be void if the as
sured died by his own hand" This
they discovered to be the case, he hav-
ing self-administered arsenic.
In 1885, A. Svenson Of Carlscrona in
sured the life of an old soldier named
Hoffstedt in various companies. Hoff-
stedt was a confirmed drunkard, and
Svenson, after the insurance was
placed, kept him we'll supplied with
money so as to hasten his end through
excessive drinking, which eventually
although arsenic was found
in the dead body. The charge of pois-
oning. however, was not sustained.
Count Pommerais, in his attempt to
defraud insurance companies of five
hundred and fifty thousand francs, lost
his head on the guillotine. In 1853
Count de la Pommerais induced a
Nine. PAW to insure her life for five
hundred and fifty thousand francs in
six French and two English companies.
He advanced the premiums and had
the policies transferred to himself. He
was well known as a physician, and
had attended her husband before his
death. Investigation afterward showed
that he had poisoned her with digitalis
In July, 1866, the supposed body of
Mrs. Mary Davis was discovered in an
advanced stage of decomposition in a
field adjoining Richmond, Ind. The
coroner's jury decided it was that of
the wife of John B. Davis a shoema-
ker. Insurance carried in one compa-
ny was paid the guardian of the de-
ceased woman's children, but another
refused to accept the evidence
and suit was started to collect. This |
ended in the discovery of the living |
Mrs. Davis, and plot on the part of |
husband and wife to defraud the COM
panies by substituting the body of a |
procured from a cemetery and |
dressed in Mrs. Davis clothes.
In 1865 a man calling himself J. HI.
Sargent insured himself for three
months against accidents for the sum
IF three thousand dollars. The man
went from Rockford, ILL.,, to Beloit,
Wis, to effect the insurance, and made
{ payable to Mrs Achsah E. Sargent,
, widow living near Pecatonica, Ill,
whom he at once married after the~ is
;uance of the policy in Beloit. Sargent
soon after this was reported drowned |
n the Pecatonica river while skating
With friends, who, afterward, it was I
ound, We're fellow-conspirators to de-
raud Search was made in the river +
or the dead Sargent. His body not
)eing found, the living Sargent was
sought. The case resulted in the dis
,overy that Sargent was fictitious
lame used by one Allen, who was in
licted by the grand jury
An analogous case was that of Vital /
Oouat q Bordeaux wine merchant,
Who insured his life for one hundred
thousand francs in Paris. To escape
for. fraudulent 1,oy11yr11I,toJy