History Main / InsuranceMotivatedMurder

[[AC:As a DeathTrope, all spoilers will be unmarked. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.]]

* The show ''Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar'' focuses heavily on these, as the titular character is a detective who works for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims. Life Insurance is his bread and butter, though claims involving expensive items like boats and racehorses are also sometimes investigated.

'''As a''' '''DeathTrope''', '''all spoilers will be unmarked.''' '''Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned'''.

!!Examples

* ''WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck'': In the short "The Flying Jalopy", Donald Duck decides to test an used plane, but before testing it, Ben Buzzard coerces the duck into signing a life insurance policy that will grant Ben a sum of ten thousand dollars in case of the duck's demise. The rest of the short consists of Buzz trying to trick Donald into getting an accident, then directly attempting to sabotage the plane in a fit of anger and ultimately ending with the buzzard trapped at the remains of the airplane and an angry Donald Donald using him as his own personal plane, much to the buzzard's dismay.

* The Flying Jalopy

* ''WesternAnimation/Donald Duck'': In the short "The Flying Jalopy", Donald Duck decides to test an used plane, but before testing it, Ben Buzzard coerces the duck into signing a life insurance policy that will grant Ben a sum of ten thousand dollars in case of the duck's demise. The rest of the short consists of Buzz trying to trick Donald into getting an accident, then directly attempting to sabotage the plane in a fit of anger and ultimately ending with the buzzard trapped at the remains of the airplane and an angry Donald Donald using him as his own personal plane, much to the buzzard's dismay.

* On November 1, 1955, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Air_Lines_Flight_629 United Air Lines Flight 629]] was destroyed in midair over Colorado, killing everyone on board. After an investigation, it was concluded that the explosion was due to a bomb in the luggage of Daisie Graham, whose son [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Gilbert_Graham Jack Gilbert Graham]] had planted the bomb partly as revenge on his mother (their relationship was deteriorating), and partly to cash in on a life insurance policy he'd taken out on her.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* ''Film/TheLastSeduction'': Feigned by Bridget. She claims that this is what ThePlan involves: murdering abusive husbands for the insurance and then getting paid by splitting the money with their mistreated wives. It isn't true, though - it's all a setup.

* ''WesternAnimation/WoodyWoodpecker'': In one short, Buzz Buzzard coerces Woody into signing a life insurance policy that will grant Buzz a sum of ten thousand dollars in case of Woody's accidental death. The rest of the short consists of Buzz trying to kill Woody, to no avail.

* In the film ''Film/ShortTime'', Detective Burt Simpson tries to do this to himself when he is [[MistakenForDying mistakenly diagnosed with a terminal disease]] (the man actually suffering the disease, a bus driver, secretly changed his urine sample with Burt's because he was doing marijuana and was in the doctor's office on a drug test) and he discovers that his life insurance will only pay up the full amount if he is killed in the line of duty (and he wishes to send his daughter to Harvard, and he only has two days left [[{{Retirony}} until retirement]]). The movie follows his attempts at getting killed during his last case, which bounces back into painting him as a heroic CowboyCop [[SpringtimeForHitler because he keeps surviving the demented stunts he pulls]], with the crooks he's pursuing ([[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanAcademy who can't shoot straight to save their lives]]) being terrified of his sheer relentlessness.

* ''Film/FallingDown'': Inverted by D-FENS at the climax, who decides to pull a SuicideByCop, allowing his daughter to collect on his life insurance policy.

* [[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Lex Luthor's]] wealth, in some versions of ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' canon, came from him convincing his parents to take out an expensive insurance policy and then sabotaging their car in order to murder them.

* ''Series/{{Taggart}}'': In "Death Benefits", the murder of a police officer's wife leads DCI Taggart, Sergeant Jardine, and DC Reid into uncovering a large series of other murders, [[MadeToLookLikeAnAccidnt all disguised as accidents]]. However, they can uncover no motive as none of the victims had anything in common or knew each other -- until Taggart discovers that all the victims took to auctioning off their life insurance policies due to needing the cash, and realises that the killer is murdering them so they can collect the money the policy entitles them to.

While this trope was TruthInTelevision for many years, it's since become a lot harder to pull off: with the advent of background checking, detailed autopsies and easy-to-access digital records, no more are the days where someone could waltz into the claims office, weep about the claimant's [[BlatantLies totally natural or accidental death]] and leave a few thousand dollars richer. This hasn't stopped the trope from still featuring as a mainstay of CrimeFiction and DetectiveLiterature, and as a result it's vastly more common nowadays to hear of people attempting this trope and [[DidntThinkThisThrough failing miserably]] rather than actually pulling this off.

--> '''Mike:''' Saw this in a movie once. Guy signed his wife's insurance policy. Then he bumped her off.\\

*** "You've Got Male": Nick and Catherine investigate when a hunter wearing a reflective vest is found shot while sitting under a tree by a stream. Turn out, the man had shot ''himself'' in the gut, threw the gun in the water, and sat down to die, hoping his death would be ruled an accident so his wife could collect his life insurance to pay off their debts.

* ''Series/{{Endeavour}}'': Throughout season seven, Morse grows increasingly suspicious at the seemingly improbable number of accidental deaths that are befalling Oxford and the nearby cities. He eventually uncovers they were all part of a large scale murder conspiracy, where the killer bought each victim's life insurance policy, then, upon the policy reaching the maximum pay out, would murder them in a way disguised as an accident to collect the cash.

* ''Series/{{Taggart}}'': In "Death Benefits", the murder of a police officer's wife leads DCI Taggart, Sergeant Jardine and DC Reid into uncovering a large series of other murders, [[MadeToLookLikeAnAccidnt all disguised as accidents]]. However, they can uncover no motive as none of the victims had anything in common or knew each other -- until Taggart discovers that all the victims took to auctioning off their life insurance policies due to needing the cash, and realises that the killer is murdering them so they can collect the money the policy entitles them to.

The Taylor Swift song "No Body No Crime" invokes and exploits this trope. After Taylor and Este's friends realize that Este's husband likely killed her after she confronted him about cheating, it's heavily implied that they killed ''him'' in retaliation. Seeing as how his unnamed mistress had taken out a life insurance policy shortly before he was killed, Taylor and her accomplices let the police think that the mistress is the most likely suspect in the murder.
--> ''Good thing my daddy made me get a boating license when I was fifteen/And I've cleaned enough houses to know how to cover up a scene./Good thing Este's sister's gonna swear she was with me./Good thing his mistress took out a big life insurance policy...''

* ''VideoGame/LaNoire'': The case "A Marriage Made In Heaven" has Cole Phelps and his partner Stefan Bekowsky investigate the death of a man named Lester Patterson in a apparent hit and run. As it turns out, the murder was committed by his wife Lorna and her business partner Leroy Sabo in an attempt to claim his life insurance and use it to open a new bar.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': In [[Recap/FamilyGuyS6E4And5StewieKillsLoisAndLoisKillsStewie "Stewie Kills Lois"]] Peter's friends start to suspect that he killed Lois after he tells them about the life insurance policy he took out on her right after they had a fight in which he told her that he wished she was dead. Fortunately, Lois turns up at Peter's trial to set the record straight.

* One of the most unusual instances of this is that of [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Malloy Michael Malloy]], a destitute ex-fireman living on the streets of New York during TheRoaringTwenties. One night, the owner of the speakeasy Malloy frequented conspired with four of his friends to take out a life insurance policy on Malloy and kill him. There was one slight problem: due to a variety of bizarre factors, [[MadeOfIron their attempts kept failing]]. At first they gave him an unlimited bar tab in the hopes that Malloy would drink himself to death, but he kept strong despite spending most of his waking hours getting hammered. Several attempts at poisoning Malloy's food and drink with things like antifreeze, turpentine and methanol also fell through due to the liquor in his system negating or severely dulling the effects of what he had just ingested. Not even hitting him with a car or [[KillItWithIce dumping him in the snow and pouring freezing water on his chest]] worked (though the former did land him in the hospital for three weeks). Eventually, the group were finally able to do Malloy in by suffocating him with coal gas while he was asleep, though they were quickly caught by police.
* On November 1, 1955, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Air_Lines_Flight_629 United Air Lines Flight 629]] was destroyed in midair over Colorado, killing everyone on board. After an investigation, it was concluded that the explosion was due to a bomb in the luggage of Daisie Graham, whose son, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Gilbert_Graham Jack Gilbert Graham]], had planted the bomb partly as revenge on his mother (their relationship was deteriorating), and partly to cash in on a life insurance policy he'd taken out on her.
* On Halloween of 1974, eight-year-old Timothy O'Bryan died after consuming poisoned Halloween candy. It was later found that poisoned candy had also been given to Timothy's younger sister and to another neighbourhood boy, but they hadn't eaten their candy. Initially, a RazorApples poisoning was suspected, but then the authorities found out that Timothy's father, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Clark_O%27Bryan Ronald Clark O'Bryan]], was deep in debt, and had taken out life insurance policies on both of his children. Ronald would subsequently be arrested and executed for the murder of his son.

* Lex Luthor's wealth, in some versions of ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' canon, came from him convincing his parents to take out an expensive insurance policy and then sabotaging their car in order to murder them.

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--> '''Mike:''' Saw this in a movie once. Guy signed his wife's insurance policy. Then he bumped her off.\

[[folder:Literature]]
* Implied to be the fate of the main character in Creator/ArkadyAverchenko's BlackComedy story ''The Wife''. At first, the eponymous wife makes sure the narrator drinks in moderation, doesn't overeat or smoke, and stays away from cold air. After he insures his life in her favor, she immediately begins encouraging him to drink lots of wine, eat heavy pies, smoke cigars, and go out lightly-dressed when it's snowing. In the last scene, he complains that his chest hurts, and she advises him to have a cigar as a remedy.
* Deconstructed in ''Literature/DarkPlaces.'' Insurance murders are Calvin Diehl's whole [=MO=]: he kills willing farmers who are deeply in debt and makes it look like accidents so that their insurance pays out (he's called "the Angel of Debt" for this reason). Patty hired him to kill her because she was drowning in debt and her son Ben had just been accused of child molestation. However, Patty's death is the only one of Calvin's crimes that ''looks'' like a murder (all the others are freak accidents) because he happened to meet Patty's horrible ex-husband, Runner, at a bar and decided to make him sweat because he'd be the prime suspect. Unfortunately, when he did it, they were interrupted by Patty's daughter Debby, and Calvin killed her too.
* In the Literature/SherlockHolmes story ''Literature/TheSignOfTheFour'', when discussing BeautyEqualsGoodness, Holmes tells Watson about a very beautiful woman he knew who was hanged for "poisoning three little children for their insurance-money".
* ''Literature/TheThirteenProblems'': In "The Bloodstained Pavement", the death turns out to be the work of a SerialKiller couple who routinely carried out this plan: under an assumed identity, the man would marry a young woman and take out a huge life insurance policy on her, then the two of them would murder her and arrange to MakeItLookLikeAnAccident, with the woman briefly assuming the victim's identity in order to stage a false time of death (for which her husband would have an alibi). They were eventually caught, though, as they always used exactly the same plan, which attracted the insurance companies' suspicions.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film - Live-Action]]

* ''Series/{{Taggart}}'': In "Death Benefits", the murder of a police officer's wife leads DCI Taggart, Sergeant Jardine and DC Reid into uncovering a large series of other murders, [[MadeToLookLikeAnAccidnt all disguised as accidents]]. However, they can uncover no motive as none of the victims had anything in common or knew each other - until Taggart discovers that all the victims took to auctioning off their life insurance policies due to needing the cash, and realises that the killer is murdering them so they can collect the money the policy entitles them to.

[[/folder]]