The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-11
Ingenious Means Adopted to
 Blk Insurance Companies
CASE IS A GIvE-AwAY
tion Planned to Give Appearances of Accident--CleverIy
 Devised Drawings
From the New York Times.


 that the dead man has left his family well provided for, being heavily insured , in several companies. When misfortune, either present or prospective, has rem dered the cares of life too heavy, suicide is sometimes the first remedy thought of. The desire to escape personal responsi- bility in some financial disaster and at the same time to make good provision for those dependent upon one for their support is often a potent motive for self destruction. The most convenient means Of attaining these two ends Is to take out an insurance policy before pressing the trigger or turning on the gas or jumping off the bridge.
 The truth of this is so widely recog- nized that insurance companies generally refuse to pay any claims on policies taken out by suicides less than one year. and sometimes three years, before death When a man in desperate straits is com pelled to wait one or two years before yielding to the temptations, when fur 1 thermore he is compelled to hustle in or der to secure the money for paying his premiums, the chances are that he will let some of his policies lapse and get on l his feet again somehow.
 A great many people try to defeat the dreaded clause and exhaust their ingenu- Iity in finding soon after becoming in sured, some form of self-destruction which will pass for a genuine accident. 1 Be 1t said for those who might be tempt ed to cheat the insurance companies, that the trick generally fails. Still many are the expedients resorted to by suicides to accomplish their double purpose In fact, one of the earmarks which indicate fraud is the overwrought pains which the prin- lcipal actor in the tragedy takes to pre- pare and make easily expainabe what might otherwise appear mysterious in his act.
 Many are the cases on record where man has caused his own death by over drinking. Such cases are hard to con- l test, and the only arguments in favor of the companies are information as to the suicides endorsements or his we'll known sobriety in the past.
 1 Excessive Care
 1 Captain Colvocoresses, U. s. A, was found in a dying condition in an unfre- l quented street in the city of Bridgeport at late hour of the night. A bullet had gone through his stomach and one of his lungs, come out at the back and then pierced a wooden fence nearby. His sword cane, whose sheath was splintered, had been bent and dented in the struggle with his assassins. Some 50 feet away 1 from the body the police picked up an an- tiquated percussion lock horse pistol, very rusty and patched up with glue and twine.
 The captain was of his own admission on his way to New York to deposit in a safe drawer some $125.0O0 worth of stocks and bonds, list of which he had left on his writing table. He carried these secu- rites in a black travelling bag, with which he had never parted one minute in the various hotels where he stopped after leaving home. In a crowded dining room he had even insisted on reserving chair next to the one which he occupied, on which to place the bag, so as never to let it out of his sight. The bag, slit open on the side with a very dull blade, was | found a mile away on the wharf. A clear case of murder.
 His widow was to receive, from some 20 different companies, death benefits amounting to s195,50o. Still, when the cir cumstances of his death were known, mo- body could satisfactorily explain his pro- tracted stay in several Bridgeport hotels, as he had no business to transact in that town. What was he doing late at night on the deserted street where he had been killed?
 Then 1t was found that for several years he had been bounded by creditors. The list of stocks and bonds which the assas- sin had taken out of the black bag was checked with the transfer books of the various companies. He had never owned any of those securities, which were found in the hands of parties above suspicion. A dull dented knife was found in his pocket and identified by his family. Just the kind of blade that would produce a ragged cut such as appeared on the side of the black bag. Particles of powder found in the bag were declared identical with few unburnt grains adhering to his skin and underclothing. Finally, 1t seemed strange that a highwayman with murderous designs should go about armed with a single barrel horse pistol, and take such true aim with it. Fibre from his sword canes bamboo sheath were found between two heavy stones, and a dent corresponding to the bend in his sword blade was observed in a fence near by.
 The companies which had insured him for large amounts contested successfully the suit brought by his widow, as all ev- idence pointed to suicide, with intent to defraud the insurance companies.
 Some suicides commit unpardonable
 blunders. which immediately disprove the , accident or murder theory they endeav- , ored to make the world accept One man opened his clothes, stabbed himself three times in the abdomen, then buttoned up , his clothing and jumped from a bridge into a creek. where he was stunned and , drowned.
 | Some suicides tear up their coats col i lars and ties and reduce their shirts to } tatters in order to give the impression of , fearful struggles, but forget that the con : sequences of such a struggle would have
 been scratches and bruises all over their faces and necks.
 A farmer of Johnson county, Missouri } tried to give the impression that he had
 been shot while riding his horse, and that l his body had been dragged through the bushes. Unfortunately. the course of the bullet was such that logically 1t should have first come through his horses body Neither his shoulders or his hands pre-.
 scented the bruises which fall From the 5 saddle would have inflicted; trousers anc boots failed to exhibit the tear subse- ! quent to a dragging of the dead body through the bushes; finally, the first thine that the farmer would have done in the course of the struggle, or when unhorsed or while being pulled away from the road, would have been to lose his wide
 straw hat. When found dead in the [ thicket he had his hat on.
 Another class of individuals. gifted in z ! less marked degree with the spirit o
 self-sacrffce, are willing enough to lei their families reap the benefits accruinf 2 absolutely obliged to die. Some shrewt
 ones attempt to cash the face amount O : their own policies through confederates r who ''saw them die"
 t One of the most picturesque cases O. 2 faka deofl was that of (saorue Shenharf