SIMULATING DEATH.

Feilding Star, Volume IX, Issue 89, 28 February 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

SIMULATING DEATH.

One of the moat extraordinary stories told here is that of a fraud on an insurance company by two men named Uling and Fink and a woman named Louise Germs alias Greimet. Louise made a full confession on being arrested. Her story was that when the insurance policy was taken out by Uling, she, notwithstanding the fact that she was examined by the physicians of the insurance company, believed she was passing for another woman, who was to simulate death, and thus enable Uling to draw the amount of the policy. In December of the previous year (1873) Bhe was very intimate with Uling, and became sick. Her. illness was a serious one, and Uling called in Dr. Kranowitch, who prescribed for her. The following March she had entirely recovered, and Uling offered her 2,500d015. if she would simulate death and enable him to obtain the amount of the policy from .the insurance company. He told her exactly what to do, and then called in Dr. Kurtz, who found her apparently in strong convulsions and foaming at the mouth. Dr. Kurtz pronounced her case a desperate one, and left. As soon as the door closed, on him she jumped out of bed and burst into a hearty langh. She had- placed a piece of soap in her mouth to produce the froth, and had acted so well as to deceive Dr. Kurtz, who was a reputable practitioner. On 29th March, Uling made preparations for the funeral, giving Fink, the order for the coffin, which was taken to No. 1 60 Eldridge-street 'and placed on trestles by an assistant, who then went away, leaving Fink to place the supposed corpse in its last resting-place. Louise, who was lying on a bed with a sheet over hsr, then jumped up and frightened Fink considerably. Uliiig took him on one side and told him he had' a pecuniary interest in Louise's death ; that he had mistaken syncope for dissolution, and that hia affairs, were so embarrased. he was oblige^to make it appear that she had died. He offered Fink 250d015. to assist him, and after some haggling he agreed. Mrs. Marie de Bagnicki then brought in nineteen bricks, and when they had been arranged in the coffin' Fink went back to his shop, procured two strong slats, and fastened them with screws, so that the bricks could not be displaced. Then the coffin was sealed up with white lead. Louise Germs changed her name to "Marie Ley," and took service with a family in Orchard - street, where she remained two days. The "funeral" took place on the Ist of April, at the Union Cemetery. This was all she knew. She was completely in the dark as to who attended the funeral of tho nineteen bricks.