...This chapter discusses the train of events that took place in the years 1879–1882 as the parties in the John Wesley Hillmon case readied themselves for trial. It first considers the affidavit made by John Brown as well as the issue of hearsay evidence. In Lawrence, the agents of the insurance...

...This chapter focuses on the fifth trial of the John Wesley Hillmon case that lasted from 1896 to 1899. It first considers the exhumation of what were recorded as John's remains at the Oak Hill Cemetery for forensic analysis before turning to Judge John A. Williams, who took leadership of the fifth...

...This chapter focuses on the Supreme Court's hearing of the John Wesley Hillmon case in1892. Four years after the third trial in the Hillmon case, the Supreme Court rendered its decision on the insurance companies' appeal. During this interval, Kansas witnessed remarkable political events that both...

...This chapter focuses on the Supreme Court's retrial of the John Wesley Hillmon case—the fourth trial of the case overall—that lasted from 1893 to 1895, amid reports that Hillmon was alive. The Hillmon case gained even more widespread fame after it had been decided by the Supreme Court in 1892...

... companies' assignments of error and Connecticut Mutual's decision to file a Petition for Writ of Certiorari with the Supreme Court. It also comments on the Los Angeles Times's report claiming another sighting of the living John Wesley Hillmon and the Supreme Court decision favoring...

...One winter night in 1879, at a lonely Kansas campsite near Crooked Creek, a man was shot to death. The dead man's traveling companion identified him as John Wesley Hillmon, a cowboy from Lawrence who had been attempting to carve out a life on the blustery prairie. The case might have been soon...

...This chapter recounts the controversy surrounding the mysterious disappearance of John Wesley Hillmon in 1879 at a Kansas campsite near Crooked Creek, and the inquest that followed in the town of Lawrence after his wife, Sarah Quinn Hillmon, sued the insurance companies for refusing to pay out...

...This chapter focuses on the first trial, held in 1892, of the John Wesley Hillmon case as well as the witnesses and other key figures involved, including Sarah Quinn Hillmon, John Brown, and Alvina Kasten. It reflects on Sarah's claims and Brown's account of his accidental shooting of her husband...

...This chapter focuses on the two trials of the John Wesley Hillmon case. The case of Hillmon v. Mutual Life Insurance Company et al. was called for a second trial on June 6, 1885. The jury selected included four former members of the Kansas Legislature. Followers of the first trial...

...This chapter focuses on the sixth and final trial of the John Wesley Hillmon case that began and ended in 1899. The sixth and last trial of the case of Hillmon v. Mutual Life Insurance Company et al. was called to order on October 8, 1899, at Leavenworth, with William Cather Hook...