"Pseudocide" - Faking Your Own Death for Insurance

Some people will go to outrageous extremes to scam insurance companies, even faking their own death. These types of scams have been dubbed "pseudocide." In England, faked suicides have been dubbed "doing a Reggie Perrin", based on "The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin." The popular seventies television sitcom was about a middle class man who had faked his own suicide to escape his humdrum life. He later re-emerges to start all over with a new identity. Because of specific real life cases of "doing a Reggie Perrin", it's obvious that the Brits know how to do it best.

John Stonehouse

In 1974, former British Minister of Labour John Stonehouse was on vacation in Florida. When the Miami police found his clothes on the beach, an investigation was launched. Since Stonehouse was deeply in debt, it was assumed that he had committed suicide. In truth, the former government minister had acquired a fake passport and a new identity. He made his way to Melbourne, Australia under the name "Clive Mildoon."

When the police and FBI finally caught up with Stonehouse in 1975, he was extradited back to England where he served three years of a seven year sentence. He died in 1988 at age 62.

Lord Lucan

When the police first apprehended John Stonehouse in Australia, they first thought that they had captured Lord Lucan, an Irish Earl who had also mysteriously disappeared in 1974. In the Earl's case, he did a Reggie Perrin after his children's nanny was found murdered at his estranged wife's house. Unlike Stonehouse, Lord Lucan has never been caught. While some suspect that the Lord committed pseudocide, his family is convinced that he's dead.

American pseudocide cases

In 2006, Allan Kirk Wolford, a Colorado Springs funeral director, forged his own death certificate to avoid paying back his child support debts. The "certificate" said that his body was cremated. Unfortunately for Wolford, government employees closely scrutinized the death certificate and determined it to be fraudulent. He was soon captured.

Probably the most outrageous American case of pseudocide involved a Hong Kong national named Steven Chin Leung. After the September 11 attacks, he faked his own death in such a way that he had succeeded in deceiving the media into including him with the over 650 Cantor Fitzgerald brokerage firm employees who had perished in the World Trade Center. When his deception was uncovered, Leung claimed that he was trying to obtain a death certificate to avoid prosecution for a prior offense in Hawaii.

SOURCES:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_insurance_claims

"The man who faked his own death", Cahal Milmo, Independent, URL: (http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article335466.ece)

"Couple face 'fake drowning' trial", Chris Summers, BBC, URL: (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3734274.stmhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3734274.stm)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/639098.stm

"Faking death to evade debt", Ansley Willett, Colorado Springs Gazette, URL: (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4191/is_20060413/ai_n16171117)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2513451.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Bingham%2C_7th_Earl_of_Lucan