A lady possessed of great personal attractions, and calling herself by the convenient name of Smith, applied to an office to insure the life of a woman residing at the west end of the town. When asked the reason, she replied, that she had advanced various sums to place this person in business as a milliner, and that to effect an insurance on her life was the only way of securing the money in case her protégée should die. The life was a good one, the references were satisfactory, and the policy was made out. In a few months a fine carriage, with coachman and footman in splendid livery, drove up to the door of the insurance office, and Mrs. Smith made her appearance to announce the death of the person insured. Whether the lady overacted her part, or whether the carriage excited suspicion, when it was meant to inspire confidence, is uncertain; but the officers of the society deemed it wise to inquire into the circumstances of the death. The house where the milliner had resided was mean; the immediate neighbourhood was poor; there was no indication of business to justify the assurance of her life for a large sum. The actuary who made these investigations went farther. He instituted an inquiry at the other existing offices. At the very first he went to, the same lady had effected an insurance on another person’s life. At the next, and the next, and the next, she was known; at each she had procured policies on various lives for large sums, and wherever this woman had effected an insurance, within three months the person insured had died. There was scarcely an office in town where she had not appeared, and scarcely an institution which had not paid her various sums of money on lives which had suddenly fallen. Her father, her mother, her sister, had been insured and had died, like all the rest, of cholera, and this too at a time when the cholera was not in active existence. Farther inquiries elicited the information that she was the mistress of a banker, whose carriage she employed to create an effect, and whose life it is very fortunate she did not insure.
After mature deliberation, it was resolved to dispute the payment; but as it was not thought advisable to give the real reasons, a technical plea was adopted. All the circumstances were, however, stated in the brief; and as Sir James Scarlett read them, when he saw how one life after another had fallen directly it was assured, that acute and able man at once exclaimed, “Good God! she must have murdered them all.” But whether he were correct or not in this, it was determined to adopt another reason, and the trial came on. Although Sir James had instructions not to exceed his brief, he could not resist the temptation, and he hinted pretty broadly that foul play must have been used under such extraordinary circumstances. The advocate on the other side enlisted the sympathies of the jury in his “beautiful, delicate, and susceptible client;” he wondered at the baseness of the thought which charged such a crime on such a creature, and invoked the vengeance of heaven on those who could entertain so unworthy an idea.
One surgeon had been referred to in all the cases, and one surgeon had testified to the death of all. The effect upon the court was appalling, as document after document was handed him; and as with each certificate the question was put, “Did you examine this life?” and the answer came “I did;” and “Did you certify to this death?” and still the same reply was given: it seemed as if this series of sudden and insidious deaths would never end. Both advocates did their duty in this difficult case according to the most approved rules of art; but that of the lady was triumphant, and gained the verdict. Still the office was determined not to pay, for the directors felt certain they were right. The more inquiries they made, the more extraordinary the circumstances which were elicited, and they resolved to show cause for a new trial. To do this effectually, they found it advisable to abandon all technical objections, to state broadly and boldly the moral grounds on which they acted, and to insert all the causes which made them thus declare war to the “knife.” Never was a more serious list of charges brought against one person; and no sooner did the lady find that so grave an investigation was in progress, than she left this kingdom for that of France, in the capital of which she commenced a boarding-school, and obtained the attendance of some respectable girls, but to what account she turned them, and of the scenes which were enacted, the less that is now said the better.
Many years had passed since the above facts occurred, when the secretary of an insurance office at the west end of the town, asked the actuary who had elicited the above facts, whether his office was disposed to take a fourth part of 10,000l. on the life of a gentleman just proposed by a lady in connection with some marriage settlements. An affirmative answer was given, an appointment was made, and on the following day the lady and her lover met the officials at the office. The former was a person of great personal attraction, elegantly dressed, and elaborately ornamented; the latter had nothing against him as a life, excepting perhaps that he appeared a most inordinate fool. But the face of the lady, though changed by the lapse of time, was strangely like that of her who years before had quitted England so abruptly; and the resemblance, at first deemed ideal, grew so positive that suspicion ripened almost into certainty. Nothing occurred, however, on the part of the actuary to indicate it, and when the cause of the insurance was demanded, a marriage settlement was mentioned by the lady, who, with a smile and a simper, pointed to the gentleman by her side as the happy man. To the health of the applicant there was no objection; and as he was by no means overburdened with brains, a private interview was sought with him, that he might, to use an expressive phrase, be well pumped. This was easily done. When he was asked whether he had any property of his own, he said No; and it soon appeared that he had acted as agent or traveller for some wholesale house in the City, and that his knowledge of the lady had arisen from the introduction of a military gentleman, who thought it would be a good match for him; and that on this they had proceeded to some Zadkiel of the day, who had predicted their union. All this gave no clue to an insurable interest, and when he was asked what reason there was to believe in her great possessions, he pointed to her gay dress, and expatiated on her rich jewellery. Such a fool was scarcely worth a thought, so the place where the lady lodged was applied to; but no information could be procured, excepting that she was supposed to be “very respectable,” as she had an abigail and footman. It is strange that, notwithstanding the difficulties of the case, the woman succeeded in obtaining the insurance. Before the policies were duly made out, she wedded the gentleman who wished to better his condition, and “all went merry as a marriage bell!” One fine morning, however, the woman where they and their servants lodged, came down in a hurry to the office to say that on the previous night they had all got tipsy together; that there had been a violent quarrel among them; and that the servant had been overheard to accuse her mistress of prompting her to marry a man to whom she was engaged, to induce him then to insure his life, and afterwards to go to France, where they could easily make away with him, and receive the insurance money. In the blindness of passion, occasioned by the quarrel, they went before a magistrate and made statements of each other so startling and so fearful, that the magistrate dismissed the case, believing them all unworthy of credit; and it may be presumed they did not tempt Providence in a police office again.
When this news reached the offices, they grew alarmed, and taking advantage of the false position in which she had placed herself, insisted on returning the money she had paid them, demanding at the same time the receipts she had taken. At first she indignantly refused; but the offices not being very delicate in the threats they held, this adventuress, as extraordinary a person as ever figured in romance, yielded the point, and released the companies from the liabilities they had incurred.
Her future life is quite uncertain, as she went abroad with her husband, who after some time returned with a constitution as shattered as if some subtle and poisonous drug had been instilled into his system. The lady went her way, was seen no more in England, or at least speculated no more in insurances on lives.
A. B. was the proprietor of an entailed estate, and much involved in his affairs. His life was insured for the benefit of his creditors for 14,000l. In 1819 he intimated by letters his intention of putting an end to his existence in order to free himself from his embarrassments, and soon after his clothes were found on the banks of a deep river, from which it was inferred that he had carried his intention into effect.
Circumstances, however, created a suspicion that he was still alive, and the creditors kept the insurances in force by continuing to pay the premium for some years; but his existence, though believed, could not be proved, and was not known for certain until his death actually occurred in America upwards of five years afterwards, previous to which the payments had all ceased.