
Making a Killing
Murder and Life Insurance in 1890s Ontario
Ian Radforth(Author)
University of Toronto Press
Will be published approx. on 20. October 2026
Book
Hardback
240 pages
978-1-0498-0898-7 (ISBN)
Description
In late nineteenth-century Canada, the life insurance industry expanded impressively, offering policy-holders a greater sense of security. However, insurance fraud quickly followed in the footsteps of this boom, with murder sometimes being a deadly outcome.
Making a Killing examines six legal cases in 1890s Ontario, where the Crown alleged that the accused had resorted to committing murder to obtain life insurance payouts. The scenarios varied widely, from a staged logging accident to conceal a murder, to a farmer's wife who allegedly sought to collect the insurance on her husband by putting arsenic in the rhubarb she fed him. Newspapers eagerly reported these and other sensational crimes. Whether farmers or city dwellers, prosperous or poor, all the alleged perpetrators latched onto the quick money promised by the murder of an insured person.
Legal historian Ian Radforth mines legal records and newspaper reports to reconstruct these alleged insurance murders and situate them in their Victorian contexts. Together, the fascinating cases reveal how insurance fraud emerged as a prominent public concern in Ontario and beyond.
Making a Killing examines six legal cases in 1890s Ontario, where the Crown alleged that the accused had resorted to committing murder to obtain life insurance payouts. The scenarios varied widely, from a staged logging accident to conceal a murder, to a farmer's wife who allegedly sought to collect the insurance on her husband by putting arsenic in the rhubarb she fed him. Newspapers eagerly reported these and other sensational crimes. Whether farmers or city dwellers, prosperous or poor, all the alleged perpetrators latched onto the quick money promised by the murder of an insured person.
Legal historian Ian Radforth mines legal records and newspaper reports to reconstruct these alleged insurance murders and situate them in their Victorian contexts. Together, the fascinating cases reveal how insurance fraud emerged as a prominent public concern in Ontario and beyond.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Toronto
Canada
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
18 illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
1 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-0498-0898-7 (9781049808987)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Ian Radforth is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Toronto.
Content
1. Introduction
2. Rough on Rats (and Husbands): The Maria Hartley Case
3. Murder at Middlemarch: The Hendershott-Welter Case
4. Death by Elevator Weight: The Hyams Twins on Trial
5. Serial Killer: H.H. Holmes and the Pitezel Murders
6. A Marriage Cut Short: The Tough-Hammond Case
7. Two Murders? Two Trials, Two Results: The Olive Sternaman Case
8. Conclusion
2. Rough on Rats (and Husbands): The Maria Hartley Case
3. Murder at Middlemarch: The Hendershott-Welter Case
4. Death by Elevator Weight: The Hyams Twins on Trial
5. Serial Killer: H.H. Holmes and the Pitezel Murders
6. A Marriage Cut Short: The Tough-Hammond Case
7. Two Murders? Two Trials, Two Results: The Olive Sternaman Case
8. Conclusion