The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-03-25
He HAD MANY ACCIDENTS
SWINDLER,S UNIQUE CAREER
WHICH BEGAN AT ST. PAUL
TEN YEARS AGO
PRETENDING TO GET HURT
He Is Known to Have Fraudulently
Collected Damages Twenty-Five
Times From Accident Insur-
ance Companies.


ulent use of the mails. has checked a
unique criminal career begun in st. Paul
ten years ago. Moffett, who is thirty-six
years old, and who was born at Ionia,
Mich, has been swindIing railroads,
street car companies and accident insur-
ance companies with unvarying success
until he has at last been rounded up and
sentenced to the penitentiary for year
and day and to pay a fine of 500.
His plan has been to claim to get hurt
on a train, and then compromise with
the railroad company OF to take out an
accident insurance policy, claim to get
hurt and then collect on the policy. He
is known to have swindled accident in
surance companies twenty-one times, be-
sides many railroads.
1t was while holding the office of man
ager of an accident insurance Office in
st. Paul, ten years ago. that he met a
man who had been swindling accident
insurance companies and street railway
companies by pretending to be hurt in &C
cidents. So impressed was Moffett with
the mans scheme that he quit the insur-
ance business and formed a partnership
with him. Their first victim was to be
the st. Paul & Duluth railway. Moffett
got cane with a screwdriver in the end.
While the train was running from Du-
luth to ST. Paul he loosened a screw in
the floor of the aisle of the car and fell
over it. He pretended to be seriously
injured and when the train reached st.
Paul his partner was at the depot to
meet him. They went~to room oppo-
site the state capitol and a lawyer was
employed to settle with the railroad.
Moffett asked for $1,000, but the road
compromised for 5000.
HIS LOOSE SCREW RACKET.
The plan to swindle the st. Paul & Du-
luth was to successful that Moffet and
his partner decided to try their han1
again. They went to Chicago, and Moi
fet bought ticket over the Rock Island
to Englewood. He raised screw in the
car floor and his partner fell over it and
injured his side while entering the car
The doctor who examined him said he
had some broken ribs, and George E.
McCoughan, claim agent for the Rock
Island, settled with him for 5000. Next
Moffett went to ST. Louis over the Chi
cago & Alton railway, and eight miles
from ST. Louis the train collided with a
freight train and, of course, Moffett was
among the injured and the road paid him
$525. He held a Pacific Mutual accident
policy and the company paid him $780,
Moffett and his partner got hurt great
many times in St. Louis and collected
from street railways, railroads and acct
dent companies.
One remarkable thing about this man
was that he could pretend to have a rib
broken and get doctors who would swear
that he actually did have fractured ribs.
His plan was to bruise his body with
hair brush. He would tie a handkerchief
around his wrist shutting off circulation,
and when his hand was swollen he would
bruiSe it and then pretend to be hurt and
call G@ctor. SO successful was he in
making the doctors believe that he had
been hurt that they would so report,
and Moffett would collect on his accident
policies.
In all these years Moffett has operated
in Chicago, st. Paul, Duluth, Milwau-
kee, ST. Louis, Omaha and Denver prin-
cipally. Everywhere he went he got
hurt and collected from railroads and
accident insurance companies. He would
change his name every time he went to
a new city. Once, in 1898, he came near
getting In trouble in Chicago. He pre-
tended to be hurt by falling over loose
screw in Lake Shore & Michigan Cen
trail railway train and put in claim
with the road. f. M. Smith, the claim
agent of the road, became suspicious Of
the claim. and on comparing notes with
the Rock Island claim agent, it was
found that Moffetts had secured money
from that road on a similar claim.
When Moffett showed up at the claim
saying I'll give you credit for being a
schemer but you have struck a road a
little too fast for your time card" Moi
felt went away without getting any
money, but he, said When. he left, I'll
get time card fast enough for the
Lake Shore & Southern.
1t is remarkable the many different
schemes this man had of getting hurt,
so he could collect money from railroads
and insurance companies. If he heard of
a runaway or a train wreck, he would
at once go to bed, summon a doctor and
pretend to have been injured in the
wreck or runaway. The strange part
about 1t all was the ease with which lie
deceived the doctors, claim agents and
insurance adjusters. He had a complete
list of all the railway claim agents and
insurance adjusters in the country and
he lost no time notifying them when he
chose to get hurt. He always made it
point to get the best doctors, as they
companies were always willing to accept
their statements, without Questioning
them.
REALLY HURT JUST ONCE.
When he started out on his career he
got a bottle of tattoo ink from a sailor
IN Chicago, and when that lasted. he
said he did not have to bruise himself
to deceive the doctors. He put the ink
on his body, Once he really did get
in Minneapolis he found a percussion
cap. He thought it would be good
idea to explode the cap and say that he
was Injured. He hit the cap. It blew
the Ratchet off the handle and broke
the bones in his left hand. He collected
about $500 from insurance companies for
that injury.
June 81. 1900, Mcffett said he had fallen
frcm bicycle in Denver anil collected
$115. He took out policy in the name
of John \. Smith. of ST. Joseph. Mich,
and he went to Lincoln. Neb.. got hurt
and collected $3.50 In January of this
year he was in Omaha, and, learning
of railroad collision in Council Bluffs.
To-, he went there. rented a room at S03
First avenue. bandaged up his wrist and
sent for a doctor. He said he was hurt
in the wreck, and that several ribs in
the right side were broken. He wrote to
the Rock Island railways claim agent
at Des Moines, To-, saving he had been
hurt in the wreck. The company paid
him $50
Moffett was finally arrested and con-
victed through his peculiar hand writ
ing. He decided to plead guilty rather
than stand trial and thus call attention
of the companies he has swindIed and
bring on further prosecutions