Fire for Hire

[Mr. Bond]

About 1911, a Chicago man named David Korshak and his wife Fannie began making headlines, when they were indicted for repeatedly executing an "arson for hire" scam, with the help of a fire insurance adjuster by the name of Joseph Fish.

Building owners would arrange for their facility to magically catch fire, and when the payout came, Korshak and Fish would take their cut.

Officials eventually caught on and even though he had to fled to London, Korshak and everyone involved were arrested...including Fish.

In exchange for their full cooperation and testimony, David Korshak and Fannie were given immunity from prosecution, so it was Fish that the courts went after.



David Korshak

Fannie Korshak - images courtesy richsamuels.com

Joseph Fish

Fish was a wealthy man, so with the help of his attorneys, in Dec. 1914 he was found not guilty.

Joseph Fish was married to Edna Bensinger, the daughter and heir (along with her brother Benjamin) to the Brunswick fortune. (from Moses Bensinger, former company president and 51% owner)


Now, having read the above information - would it surprise you to learn that Brunswick had a huge fire in Feb of 1913 ?

 

[rickdf]

Fire

It's sickening to think all those records could have been lost as a result of a deliberate act.
For arguments sake, if someone intentionally started the fire what would the motive be for having your records incinerated? I'm thinking one could be to prove a sort of an alibi, the other could be to cover up any inaccuracies in the books. I’m not implying either of these took place, just considering motive.



Rick