<P> Once the body was buried in Medicine Lodge, Sallie requested payment of the life insurance proceeds from the three companies that had issued the policies . Suspicious, the insurance companies began to investigate the Hillmon claim . At this time, life insurance fraud was not uncommon--there had been several cases in which people had bought large amounts of insurance, killed someone, and disguised the corpse as the policy holder, who would be somewhere in hiding . (In fact, when the Hillmon case reached the Supreme Court, one of the Justices would refer to the case as one of "graveyard insurance," meaning fraud .) Believing they were being swindled, the companies dispatched their agents to Medicine Lodge immediately . </P> <P> The agents insisted that the body be disinterred and returned to Lawrence, after which it was delivered to an undertaking establishment and inspected by dozens of persons who had known John Hillmon in life . The Douglas County coroner convened another inquest . Although performed by the state - employed Douglas County coroner, the County Attorney, and in the presence of Douglas County jurors, this inquest (which the coroner much later admitted) was wholly funded by the insurance companies, who paid all the involved parties . The chief controversies at this inquest were the differences between the corpse's and Hillmon's height and teeth, in addition to the smallpox vaccination scar that the corpse carried on its shoulder . Sallie Quinn Hillmon and her cousin Levi Baldwin testified that the body belonged to John Hillmon, as did a few other acquaintances . Other witnesses testified emphatically that it was not and could not have been Hillmon . The corpse was five feet, eleven inches tall; some said it could not be Hillmon because Hillmon was at least two inches shorter, but others said he was exactly that height . Witnesses testified that Hillmon had one or more rotten teeth, while the corpse's teeth were excellent . But some witnesses testified that Hillmon too had fine teeth . Moreover, the corpse had a smallpox vaccination scar exactly where Hillmon had been vaccinated, but some of the insurance company doctors said that the scar on the corpse's arm was too fresh to be from the vaccination that Hillmon had received some weeks prior . Ultimately, this inquest, unlike the Medicine Lodge inquest, returned a finding that the death was of a "person unknown," and had been caused "feloniously by J.H. Brown ." </P> <P> Sallie Hillmon, John Hillmon's wife (their marriage license can be found here), was a waitress from Lawrence, Kansas . Sallie Hillmon claimed that in late 1879, her husband John had been killed by a firearm accident at a desolate Kansas campsite called Crooked Creek . It became clear to Sallie that the insurance companies were not going to pay, so she filed suit in 1880 . Her case went to trial in 1882; it would eventually be tried six times . The Hillmon litigation lasted for almost 25 years, and would be argued in front of the Supreme Court twice . The first two trials, in 1882 and 1885, both produced hung juries . The third trial produced a verdict for Sallie Hillmon, possibly because of the trial judge's exclusion of the insurance companies' most important piece of evidence: the "Dearest Alvina" letter . </P> <P> Even with the Dearest Alvina letter in evidence, the fourth trial of 1895 and the fifth trial of 1896 ended in hung juries . In the sixth trial matters became even more interesting with the testimony of a Leavenworth cigar factory owner, Arthur Simmons . Simmons testified that he had employed an F. Walters at his cigar making shop two months after Frederick Adolph Walters' alleged death at Crooked Creek . He produced employment records and identified a picture of Frederick A. Walters as the Walters who was formerly in his employ . This evidence was persuasive to the jury and they returned a unanimous verdict for Sallie Hillmon . The insurance companies managed in 1903 to persuade the Supreme Court again to overturn Sallie Hillmon's victory, on less memorable evidentiary grounds . But eventually all of the insurance companies settled with Sallie, for the full face amount of the policies plus accumulated interest . </P>

Mutual life ins co of new york v hillmon case brief