AN INSURANCE CONSPIRACY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVII, Issue 7, 9 January 1886, Page 3

AN INSURANCE CONSPIRACY.

Alleged Murder to Provide a Corpse. The "romance of crime" now being investigated in Canterbury in ooanection with a supposed insurance fraud, though remarkable,, is by no moans without precedent. There is a suspicion that mutilation of a corpse has been xesorted to in order to provide proof of death of the person insured, but in a case which has caused some excitement in the United States it is alleged that murder was actually committed in order to fortify a claim for insurance money. The facts as gleaned from recent American journals areas follow :— An action has been brought by the alleged widow of John W. Hillmcn ugainst the New York Mutual and Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Companies for 825,000 and interest from 1879, claimed to be due to her on insurance policies taken out by her husband in that year. Mrs Billmon claims that her husband was accidentally killed by one of his ohume, John E. Brown, at Medicine Lodge in the spring of 1879.

The insurance companies have contested the claim all along, and assert that Hillmon, with Brown and one Lev! Baldwin,

entered into conspiracy to defraud them, and crowned that conspiracy with the murder of an innocent man. The insurance people claim that Hillmon is alive and in Mexico. They have', however, made no recent effort to discover his whereabouts, inasmuch as they consider their case proved in law and equity when they showed on the previous trials, and are still able to show by others than those interested, that the body brought on to Lawrence from Medicine Lodge and claimed to be Hillmon by Mrs Hillmon was not Hillmon at all, but the body of Frederick A. Walter, who, the companies claim, was murdered to complete the conspiracy to swindle them.

The first and second trials of this famous cause virtually hinged on the identity of the body, and the result of the third trial will also rest entirely on that phase of the case. The jury disugreed on the two trials, standing on the first seven for the plaintiff and five for the insurance companies, and on the second they were evenly divided. Whatever the result of the trial at hand, the cause will go down in the annals of insurance cases as ole of the most intricate on record, and the testimony will be closely scanned and analysed by every insurance company in the United States.

John Wesley Hillmon, or "Wes" Hillmon, came from Indiana with his parents in 1855, and settled at Valley Falls, Jefferson county, Kan. He lived on his father's farm till the war, and served in either the First or Second Nebraska Cavalry. After the war he returned to "Valley Falls and worked on the home farm for a year more, when he went westward, and from 1866 to 1870 he was in and around Abilene, Kan. Thence he returned to Eastern Kansas, and dealt in fat cattle, selling principally to butchers in Leavenworth. He disappeared from Leavenworth, and was absent in unknown parts for three years or more, but returned to herd cattle for two Bummers for a Mr Keeler at Oskaloosa, Kan. Thence he went on the buffalo range, and in 1876 was with Marshal Sewell till the latter was killed by Indians in the fall of the same year. Hillmon followed the ranges in Colorado, Southwestern Kansas and Texas, and from 1876 to the winter of 1878 and 1879 was with one John H.- Brown, of Wyandotte, dealing in stock and hogs. He was also connected in businees ventures with Levi Baldwin, of Eastern Kansas, now of Socorro county, Mew Mexico.

In the fall of 1878 Hillmon married Miss Sallie Quinn, of Tonganoxie, Kan. Hillmon was last heard of near Medicine Lodge, Kan., April 16, 1879, going north toward the Santa Fe road. Since then ho is supposed to have been dealing in cattle in Colorado, New Mexico and Texas, He is thought to be identical with one 11. C. Jones, or "Tex," of New Mexico, who rustled Albuquerque in 1883. Others identify him as one Coleman, who was for a time employed on the Santa Fe Railroad, and afterward as a cattleman.

Hillmon at the time weighed 170 pounds, was five feet nine inches in his boots, fair, full forehead, tapering face, stubby hair, fair, plump hands, and good teatures. While his hair was not curly it was not straight; his teeth were not perfect; on the left side of his upper jaw, where the second or third tooth should have been, there was a space. The first quarter's premium on the policies was paid, and shortly afterward the agent of the companies, learning that Hillmon intended visiting infectious districts, sent for him and insisted upon his being vaccinated. Hillmon demurred at first, but the agent was inflexible, and he finally consented. Then Hillmon and Brown left town, and their whereabouts was unknown.

Early in the spring of 1879 Brown returned to Lawrence, and said he had accidentally shot Hillmon at Medicine Lodge. He described the shooting as taking place after breakfast. Hillraon was sitting by the camp fire, and Brown, in taking a gun from the waggon, accidentally pulled the trigger and shot Hillmon behind the ear, killing him instantly. The suspicions of the insurance agent were aroused, and be, with Col. Sam Walker and Zillinghast, of the New York Life Insurance Company, went to Medicine Lodge March 31st.

Tho insurance agents were in company with Levi and Al Baldwin, relatives of Hillmou, and this is the testimony of Theodure ■Wiseman, the agent who issued the policies to Hillmon : " We took the body up ; the grave was dry, the weather cold and had been cool for two weeks. The body was in a fair state of preservation, and was not that of John W. Hillmon ; it was nob the bcdy of any one I ever saw ; it was taller than Hillmon, the hair darker and wavy, and the moustashe thinner; the nose was larger and of the Roman typo; hands longer and thinner ; the teeth were perfect: there was no space in the teeth of the body like that in Hillmon's teeth." Al Baldwin said : "That doesn't lcok like John Hillmon, does it ?"

The body was removed to Lawrence and there photographed.

Mrs Hillmon insisted that the body in the coffin was her husband's, and demanded the payment of the insurance policies. This was in April. Meanwhile a coroner's inquest had revealed many suspicious circumstances, and John H. Brown was in danger of indictment for murder, when he swore to the following statement before Francis M. McDonald, notary public :

State of Missouri, county of Platte, 8.8. : John H. Brown, of lawful age, being duly sworn according: to law, deposes and Bays : My name is John H. Brown, my age thirty years. I am acquainted with John W. Hillmon, also Mrs S. E. Hillmon, and Levi Baldwin, of Douglas county, Kan. Have known John W. Hillmon for about 5 years, and have been with him a good deal for the last 2 years. I was with him last March at Wichita, and on the trip from there to and around Medicine Lodge, in Barbour county, Kan., (where it is claimed that I killed him on the 17th of March, 1879). Along about the 10th of December, 1878, John W. Hillmon, Levi Baldwin, and myself talked aboub and entered into a conspiracy to defraud the New York Life Insurance Company and the Mutual Life lusurance Company out of some money, to be obtained by means of effecting a policy or policies on the life of said John W. Hillmon. Baldwin was to furnish the money to pay the premiums and to keep up the policies in case they had to be renewed. Our original arrangement was to get Hillmon's life insured for $15,000, but it was afterwards changed to $25,000, , Hillmon and myself were to go off southwest from Wichita, Kan., ostensibly to locate a stock ranch, but in fact to in some way find a subject to pass off as the body of John IV. Hillmon, for the purpose of obtaining the insurance money aforesaid. We had no definite plan of getting the subject, but in some manner get one. The final termination of the matter was the last idea thought of. Our first trip out. from Wichita was in the last days of December, while the snow was on! We expected to find a subject that would appear to be Hillmon frozen to death, and that could not be identified only by the clothes and papers found upon it, and so I could pass it off as Hillmon. We went from Wichita to Medicine Lodge, then direct to Sun City; from there to Kinsley ; from there to Great Bend on the Santa F<s road ; then to Lamed and to Wichita via Hutchinson. Hillmon and myself were entirely alone on this trip. Iliff of Medicine Lodge saw Hillmon on this trip. We put up at his stable. I then stayed at Wichita until the 4th of March.

Hillmon meantime went np to Lawrence to see his wife and to get some more money. He returned about the Ist of March, and on the sth we left on our second trip. We went due west to Cpwskin Creek, then west to Harper City, then to Medicine Lodge, on by Sun City, and beyond Borne miles ; then we turned northeast down Mediciueliivor to a camp on Elm Creek, about eighteen miles north of Medicine Lodge (where Hillmon is claimed to have been killed). We got there about sundown, and stayed in camp until the next evening.

We overtook a stranger on this trip the first day out from Wichita, about two or two and a half miles from town, whom Hillraon invited to get in and ride, and he (Hillmori) proposed to hire him to-work for him on the ranch as proposed to be located. This man was with us during all this trip. Hillmon proposed to me that this man would do for a subject to paea tot him, I told him, and contended with him that the man would not do to pass off for him, giving him various reasons why the man would not answer his description, and complained and objected because his proposition was to take the man's life, and 1 protested and said that was going beyond what we had agreed, and, was something I had never before thought of, and was beyond my grit entirely. But Hillmon seemed to get more deeply detei mined and more and more desperate In the matter. Pains were taken not to have more than two of us seen together in a waggon. Sometimes one and then the other would be kept baok out of sight. On hie trip up to * Lawrenoe, Hil'mon was vaccinated. His arm was quite bad. Hillmon kept at the man until he let him vaccinate him, which he did, taking his pocket-knife and using virus from his own arm for the purpose. He also traded clothes with him, Hillmon first giving him a change of under.

clothing, then trade suits, the one he was killed in. The suit he was buried in was a suit Hillmon traded with Baldwin for.

This man appeared to be a stranger to the country, a sort of easy-go-along fellow, not suspicious or very attentive to anything. His arm became very soro, and he got quite stupid and dull. He said his name was either Berkley or Burgess, or something sounding like that, We always called him Joe. He said he had been around Fort Scott awhile, and also had worked about Wellington and Arkansas city. I don'-s know where he was from, nor where hishoma or friends were. I did not see him at Wichita that I know of. I had but very little to say to the man, and less to do with him. He was taken in charge by Hillmon, and yielded willingly to his will. I dreaded what I thought was to be done, and kept out of having any more to do with him than was possible. I frequently remonstrated with Hillmon, and tried to deter him from carrying out his intention of killing the man. The next evening after we got to the camp last named, the man Joe was sitting by the fire. I was at the hind end of the waggon, either putting feed in the box for the horses or taking a sack of corn out, when I heard a gun go off. I walked around and saw the man was shot, and Hillmon was pulling him away around to keep him out of the fire. Hillmon changed a day-book from his own pocket to Joe's, and said to me everything was all right, and in shape, just as he wanted it, and that I need not be afraid but it would be all right. He told me to get on a pony and go down to a ranch about three quarters of a mile and get some one to come up. He took Joe's valico and started north. This was about sundown. We had no arrangements about communicating with each other. He first proposed to do so, but I told him I did not want to know where he was; that in case I should I might find out some other way. I have never heard a word from him since that time. At Lawrence Mrs Hillmon gave me to understand that ebe knew where fitllmon was, and that he was all right. The man over whom an inquest was held in camp, afterward Medicine Lodge, and at Lawrence, Kan., was the man Joe Burgess or Berkley killed by Hillmon, as related above, and John W. Hillmon I believe to be atill alive, at least he left our camp and went north, as stated abovef After killing Joe, Billmon said he would assume the name of William Marshall. Baldwin, his wife, and Mra Hillmon knew all about thia.

After this sworn statement of Brown's Mrs Hillmon was induced by the insurance companies to' sign a release for all claims mentioned in the policies, but no consideration was given, and legally the release was not valid. A firm of lawyers took this ground and- brought suit against, the companies for the full amount ■ claimed in the policies, but first Brown was induced to retract his statement, claiming that it wan got from him through undue influence and was untrue. In the first trial he re-affirmed his first statement of the accidental killing of Hillmon, and testified that the story he told about the murder of another man was false, and he was frightened into it by threats of prosecution. The insurance companies set up in court that the body was that of Frederick A. Walter, of Fort Modisun, lowa, who had been missing since March Ist, 1879, when he wrote from Wichita to his betrothed, Alvina Kasten, at Fort Madison, this letter:

Wichita, Kan., March 4,1879. Dkabest Alvina i Tour kind and ever welcome letter was received yesterday a'ternoon. an hour before I left Emporla, bo I did not have time to answer it at Emporia. I will stay here until the fore part of next week, and then will leave here to see part of the country that I never expected to see when I left home-as I am going with a man by the name of Hillmon, who intends to start a sheep-range, and as ho promised me more wages than I could make at anything else I octolttled to take it for awhile, at least until I stru.^ ..omethinß better.

So you can gee that I will not get home for a few months yet.. But Ido not want to get back tnero without a cant of money, for that is not what I left for. (You know,)

The mother, father, brother and eistar of Walter identified the body from the photographs taken of it at Lawrence. Mrs Hillmon claims that it is the body of her hugband. Brown said, when he returned and told about tho shooting, that it occurred after breakfast. The body was exhumed eleven days after burial, and no particles of food were found, which gives colour to bis sworn statement before the notary that the Bhooting took place before supper. Tho cause has dragged along over six years, and the result of the third trial, shortly to be held, is awaited with interest in insurance circles. The portrait of young Walter taken before he left Fort Madison, closely resembles the corpso dug up at Medicine Lodge. •'!.-!