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Frontier mystery, modern answer? |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Saturday, 11 February 2006 |
February 10, 2006
Exhumation sought in Lawrence, Kan.: Frontier mystery, modern answer?
BY LAURA BAUER
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - In a grave in a Lawrence cemetery lies what some hope is the answer to a mystery that dates to the days of the Wild West.
The grave is in Oak Hill cemetery, lot 555. The man inside the wooden coffin was buried in 1879.
His death and the circumstances surrounding it prompted six trials and two U.S. Supreme Court decisions, one that created a legal ruling still used in courtrooms throughout the nation. Attorneys know it as Mutual Life Insurance Co. v. Hillmon of 1892.
The mystery?
Was John Hillmon, 31, accidentally shot and killed, or did he and some buddies fake his death to pull off a scam so his "widow" would pocket $25,000 in insurance money? When the insurance companies became suspicious and would not pay up, Hillmon's widow sued.
Two professors at the University of Colorado in Boulder want to solve the mystery by digging up the 126-year-old Lawrence grave and using forensic science to answer the question once and for all.
Is it Hillmon in that grave, or is it Frederick Adolph Walters, a 24-year-old Iowa man who was in search of his own fortune when he got caught up in a scam?
Hillmon's widow and others positively identified the body as that of Hillmon, but after an exhumation in 1879 the insurance company as well as a coroner said it was someone else.
Colorado professor of law Marianne Wesson, who has used the Hillmon case in the classroom, thinks Hillmon is buried in the grave.
"I think everyone who teaches this case thinks it's a really charming piece of Americana," Wesson said. "I always had this lingering feeling that there was something being overlooked. That there was something to solve the mystery that hadn't been tried yet."
She remembers telling colleague Dennis Van Gerven, an anthropology professor, about the mystery and watching "his eyes light up." Having worked in the anthropology field for years and successfully exhuming mummies in Sudan, Van Gerven knew digging up the grave might provide the answer.
Kansas City attorneys representing Wesson and Van Gerven filed a petition last week in Douglas County District Court, requesting permission to exhume the body. If the request is granted, it is not known when the exhumation would take place, said Kansas City attorney Mark Thornhill.
The exhumation comes with many uncertainties.
After 126 years in the ground, will there be anything left to study?
If there are enough remains, will it be possible to make a positive identification?
"The bone can be ... the size of the mouse on your computer, if it's the right piece of bone," Van Gerven said.
The nose and pelvic bones are what he needs - the men had different nose structures, and the pelvic area can determine the age of a person at the time of death.
"Nobody knows for sure right now who is buried there. This is an important time in history," Van Gerven said. "And if it's Walters in that grave - and my heartbeat just went up as I said that - then I proved that the sweet widow lady and Hillmon pulled it off."
After teaching the case for years, Wesson began digging deeper into the stories three years ago. She did research at the National Archives in Kansas City and read newspaper articles from the time.
Before that research she was inclined to think what the Supreme Court justices had, that Hillmon was not the person killed, but Walters.
Wesson recites from memory a letter, termed the "Dearest Alvina" letter, supposedly written by Walters to his fiancee, Alvina Kasten, that showed Walters met up with a man named Hillmon in Wichita and planned to work for him. Walters said the man "promised more wages than I could make at anything else."
She talks of newspaper articles reporting that after the body was first exhumed in 1879, the insurance companies paid the coroner, the jurors involved in the inquest and even the assistant prosecuting attorney.
"The more I read about this case, I found that the insurance companies and lawyers and agents fabricated a lot of evidence and suborned perjury," said Wesson, who is working on a book about the Hillmon case. "My only intention in the beginning was to satisfy my own curiosity."
The two professors got in touch with Lawrence city officials last year about the request to exhume the body.
Lawrence City Manager Mike Wildgen said after hearing Wesson's request and listening to the story behind it, he found it "interesting and intriguing" because of his interest in archaeology.
But as a city manager of the city where the grave is located, he also knew nothing could be done without following certain procedures and protocols.
"We guard public value in our cemetery. It wasn't just getting permission to go in and start digging," Wildgen said.
"We're concerned about the interest of residents there. But we also think it's in the public interest to know who is buried in an unmarked site, and that's what this is."
If the court allows the exhumation to go forward, Van Gerven said, he'll have the remains only for about two days. Then they'll be back in the ground, with a short ceremony and - for the first time - a permanent marker saying whose grave it is.
"We're going to know for sure who's in the ground, and he's going to get a gravestone," the anthropologist said.
"Whoever is in the ground is going to get thanks (during the ceremony). Simply because it does our heart good."
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A FLURRY OF TRIALS, RULINGS SURROUNDS HILLMON CASE
The story started with John Hillmon, a Lawrence cattle dealer and ranch hand heading west in search of his own land. He wanted to make a good living for himself and his new bride.
The rest of the story, which included the claim that Hillmon had died and his widow was trying to collect insurance money, prompted six trials and two rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court. The insurance company thought Hillmon and others were scamming them, passing another man's body off as Hillmon to get the money.
The first two trials ended with hung juries, according to information provided by the University of Colorado in Boulder.
In the third trial, the judge kept from jurors a letter written by Frederick Adolph Waters, who the insurance companies said was the man buried in the grave, saying the evidence was hearsay.
The jury ruled in favor of Hillmon's widow.
On appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court created an exception to the hearsay rule, making the letter admissible.
The fourth and fifth trials also ended in hung juries.
In the sixth trial, a new witness came forward saying he had employed Walters two months after the reported death.
The jurors ruled in favor of the widow, but that was again overturned by the Supreme Court on other grounds.
Each of the three insurance companies eventually settled with Hillmon, who remarried.
Knowing who is buried in the grave at Lawrence's Oak Hill cemetery may not change American law, but some say solving the mystery would be valuable.
"This is a case people have talked about for 100 years, and no one has known who was really buried in that grave," said David Achtenberg, a law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. "The next time someone teaches the (Hillmon) case, they can say, `You know what? They exhumed the body and found it was him.'"
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/nation/13839099.htm |
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Taphophilia?
taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)
ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"
DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries
Quote Repository
“In my youth the growls. In mine age the owls. After death the ghouls.” Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Shirtless and Sculpted
The Men of Mortuaries 2008 Calendar is now available! All sale proceeds benefit KAMMCARES, a breast cancer foundation.
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