The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1907-11-29
KulIam Case An Instance of
Crookedness of Man.
This Fellow Had Hoped to Be
Declared a Dead One.
SIeuths, However, Locate Him
In a Lumber Camp.

There Is q growing disposition on
the part of the benefciaries in life
insurance policies to attempt to take
advantage of the disappearance or
absence of the insured from home to
collect insurance on account of his
alleged death, and, while it is the rule
in nearly all of the states that seven
years continued absence from ones
place of residence, without knowledge
of his whereabouts or any tidings from
him, creates the presumption of death,
many of these benefciaries cannot even
content themselves to await the lapse
of this period of time in which the
supposed dead person might be dis,
covered alive, but attempt to prove.
by eireumstantial evidence the death
of the insured at the time of his dis
appearance.
Formerly, many Insurance frapis
were perpetrated by the substitution
of a dead body, and the filing IF proofs
stating that it was TIE cody Of the
insured, but the insurance companies
became so alert and punishment the
perpetrators of the fraud in so many
instances that this class of fraud is.
now less prevalent.
Schemes of Relatives.
One of the popular methods at pre-,
sent of proving the death of the in
sured without producing his dead body,
is to allege that he was drowned ac-
eidentally OF else that he was muir
dered and his body disposed of and
the tendency of juries to decide in fa-
vor of the benefciaries and against the
insurance companies has resulted in the
enforced payment of a number of
claims, in which the circumstantial
evidence of death was only very slight,
Notwithstanding that the surrounding cir
cumstances were such as to indicate
that the insured was alive and had
simply disappeared from his usual
place of abode for cause.
What has been said is well Illus
trated by the experience of several
fraternal beneficiary societies in what
is known as the Huffman case The
press dispatches from the Pacific coast
last week gave an account of the ar
irest of the Charles Huffman near
Portland, Oregon, who disappeared in
July, 1901. His beneficiary brought suit
in Benton county, Missouri, against
the Modern Woodmen for two thousand
dollars, the Knights of the Maccabees
for one thousand dollars, and the Pa
cifc Jurisdiction Woodmen of the
World for two thousand dollars; a
total of five thousand dollars.
History of The Case.
Charles Kullman a young man about
thirty year old, left his home in Mis-
souri, in the early part of 1901, and
went to Hoquiam, Washington, He
entered the employment of firm there
and was sent up the Hoquiam river,
with clothing samples, to visit the
various logging camps and obtain or
ders from the loggers. These trips
were made in row boat. Kullman
started up the river with the tide the
afternoon of a day early in July, 1901,
and in the evening of that day the
boat found half full of water and
Kullmans hat and one oar were float
ing nearby, but no trace could be found
of Huffman. search was made for
his body and the river was thoroughly
dragged and dynamited, and although
|all the bodies of persons who were
known to have been drowned in that
vicinity always had been recovered
Kullman's body was never found.
Attorneys for the mother, who was
his beneficiary at once, proceeded to
file claim against the societies inter-
ested and demanded payment of the
face of the respective certificates. The
societies refused payment believing
that Kullman was. not Dead, and
suits were commenced against each
of them in the circuit court of
Benton county at Warsaw Missouri
and the defense of all three of these
actions was turned over to Benjamin
d. Smith of Mankato, MIMI, who
is one of the general attorneys of
the Modern Woodmen.
Detectives Work on Case.
Detectives were employed and put
to work on the case with the result
that three or four witnesses were
found who knew Huffman, and who
were positive that they had seen him
in Portland, Oregon, shortly after
his alleged death. All of them agreed
that he had shaved off his mustache,
but were positive as to the. identifi-
cation and testified to that effect.
1t was also shown that Huffman had
made proposition some. time before
leaving Missouri to another man that
they 60 together to some point where
they would take out insurance in
each others favor, and one of them
would feign to be drowned and the
other collect the insurance on account
of his death, and in line with this