Imperfect Murder # 1: Don't go Upside-Down!

Claude and George Oliver deliberately let the car insurance lapse on Claude's car, so no one would suspect insurance fraud. Claude and his nephew George were inseperable pals and that didn't change when Claude suddenly married Delia Ringer. Claude thougt of Delia as nothing but a huge dollar sign. He had convinced her to take an insurance policy for $5,000 with a double idemnity clause in case she died in an accident and with him as beneficiary.

One day, Claude drove his wife and his best pal to a bridge just outside the town of Davis, Oklahoma. George used a tire iron on the head of Delia and Claude bashed her face in with a rock. The blood spewed down the seat and car floor. Then Claude and George moved the car to the bridge rail and pressed the starter, sending the car over the side. It landed upside-down in the jagged gully below.

Claude and George told the police they'd been going too fast, downhill and on a curve, when the faulty steering gear gave way. George had been driving, with Claude on the outside of the front seat and Delia in the middle. The two men had leaped to safety, but Delia had been trapped.

Now, if you don't want to end up with your insurance money on death row, you have to plan your murder more carefully. These guy's were not pro and though Delia's face and skull were battered, there were no bruises on her arms. A person plunging off a bridge in a speeding car generally throws the hands up to shield the face too. And last but not least, blood had stained the car seat and the floor, but the car had landed upside-down, Delia was lying on her back on the car's ceiling... and there was virtually no blood where it should have been...

Claude and his nephew were executed on August 23, 1933.

There are more Imperfect Murders here !