The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-12-01
FAMOUS INSURANCE FRAUDS
THE HISTORY OF SOME NOTED
CASES.
Record of SwindIes, Murders, Sui
cides and Simulated Death.

ctdes and Simulated Death.
For nearly two hundred years mer
and women have been devising schemes
for defrauding insurance companies
The chronology of insurance sWindles
begins with 1880, when a woman in
cataleptic sleep satisfied an insurance
company of her death, as she pretend
ed. The kind, light-hearted Janus
Weathercock' of Charles Lambs men,
Dry, dabbled in these schemes in the
early POS of the present century. Fol
lowing these has come q long process
sion of imitators. Some of these have
Numbered and failed. Others have car
ried out ingenious schemes to sue
cess that could be questioned only af-
ter the money had been paid over In
the following article the Chicago Tfi-
bune gives the famous cases of this pc
Rod in the order in which they were
planned:
Curiously enough, the most striking
Illustration, and, so far as known, the
only successful case of simulated death,
is that of this first fraud in the history
of life insurance, planned in $780, The
two conspirators were man and Wo-
man. Through several years they OBJ
tanned large sums in various cities by
the woman's falling into a cataleptic
sleep. Doctors would give certificates
of death, mock funerals would be held,
and incidentally the insurance would be
collected.
In 1880 the first known case of imper-
sonation, by which the conspirators Sc
cured ten thousand dollars, was re-
corded. There were two sisters, one
healthy the other an incurabe invalid.
The healthy one made application for
the insurance and was accepted under
the invalded sisters name. When the
latter died a few months after the 9TH
er secured payment of the insurance
taken out under the name of her dead
sister.
Janus Weathercock, we'll known con-
tributor to many London periodicals on
the subjects of art and artists, de-
scribed by Charles Lamb as kind,
light-hearted Janus Weathercock,"
stands out as one of the most remarka-
BILE characters in the history of life in
surance swindlers. He was man of
culture and had vogue of his own
about 1920, when he contributed to the
London magazine contemporary with
Ella and Barry Cornwall, and when
Hazlit, with Allan Cunningham, added
to it's attractions. This man, whose
mind and writings We're intense with
the love of the beautiful, was one Of
the most sinister characters of his time
and, as it afterward proved, it was
death to stand in his path-it was
70 he f,onH-it wa 6paf1 IN
occupy the house with him. In 1922
some few years after he had burned
out his literary efforts and his love of
the voluptuous had replaced that of the
classically beautiful, he visited, with
his wife, his uncle. Soon after his visit
commenced his uncle died and James
Wainwright inherited his uncle's prop
erty. This was quickly squandered
and more must be had.
On March 2S, 1880, Mrs. wainwright,
with her step-sister, Helen Abercombie,
beautiful girl made their first APP
pearance in the insurance offices of
London, seeking life insurance. Final
ly, to the great disappointment of
"kind, light-hearted James Weather
COCK only eighteen thousand pounds
was placed at two and three years on
the life of his beautiful sister-in-law,
Helen Abercombie. But affairs became
desperate in the meantime, and the
man grew familiar with crime. Stock
had been invested in the bank of Eng
land. of which he and his wife were
only entitled to the interest. While
waiting for Helen's death he forged
the names of trustees to a power of at
Tins
obtained the capital This money
gone, he sold and mortgaged every
thing he possessed and finally ended
in apartments in Conduit street for
himself, his wife and his sister-in-law
Immediately after this Miss Abercom-
bic mtde a will under the suasion of
James Wainwright in favor of her sis |
ter, Madeline, appointing him sole exc
cutor
Wainwright's claim for the eighteen |
thousand pounds insurance was resis- |
ted and, being called on to prove an in |
surable interest he quickly left Eng |
land. In 1885 he started suit, the COM
panies resisted and the judge after |
hearing the implica tons of guilt, said |
a criminal and not civil court should |
have been the theater of the case. The
insurance companies later won and as
his forgeries on the bank of England |
had been discovered, Wainwright re-
manned in France. AT Boulogne VAIN
wright lived with an English officer,
whose life he insured for five thousand |
pounds. One premium only was paid,
when his host died. Wainwright then
left Boulogne, assumed a feigned |
name but was finally arrested by the
French police, when strychnine was
found on his person, for which he was
confined in Paris for six months. At
ter his release he returned to London,
to remain only forty-eight
hours, but he was recognized whilst
peering from his hotel window, arrest
ed and sentenced to transportation for
life.
The Countess of Athlone was in
sured for over one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars, distributed with sew
en- companies. Over one hundred
thousand dollars was placed after she
bad been taken with paralysis She
died about five years after the insur-
ance was effected and her relatives
with the companies on
the basis of fifty cents on the dollar. I,
Mrs. Jane Evans insured her SER
|