The show jumping horse killings scandal refers to cases of insurance fraud in the United States in which expensive

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

s, many of them

show jumper Show jumping is a part of a group of English riding equestrian events that also includes dressage, eventing, hunters, and equitation. Jumping classes are commonly seen at horse shows throughout the world, including the Olympics. Sometimes shows ...

s, were insured against death, accident, or disease, and then killed to collect the insurance money. It is not known how many horses were killed in this manner between the mid-1970s and the mid-1990s, when a

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

(FBI) investigation brought the horse killings to light, but the number is thought to be well over 50, and may have been as high as 100. In addition, in 1977, the heiress

Helen Brach Helen Voorhees Brach (born November 10, 1911 – disappeared February 17, 1977) was an American multimillionaire widow whose wealth had come from marrying into the E. J. Brach & Sons Candy Company fortune; she endowed the Helen V. Brach Foundati ...

disappeared and was presumed by law enforcement agents to have been murdered by the perpetrators of these crimes, because she threatened to report their criminal activity to authorities; caselaw.lp.findlaw.com
/ref> continuing investigations into Brach's death began to uncover the insurance fraud in the 1990s. The scandal has been called "one of the biggest, most gruesome stories in sports" as well as "the biggest scandal in the history of equestrian sports." Thirty-six people were indicted and tried for insurance fraud, mail and wire fraud,

obstruction of justice Obstruction of justice, in United States jurisdictions, is an act that involves unduly influencing, impeding, or otherwise interfering with the justice system, especially the legal and procedural tasks of prosecutors, investigators, or other gov ...

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...

, racketeering, and

animal cruelty Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse, animal neglect or animal cruelty, is the infliction by omission (neglect) or by commission by humans of suffering or harm upon non-human animals. More narrowly, it can be the causing of harm or su ...

in connection with the horse murders; all but one were convicted. Of the 23 people indicted in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in July 1994, 20 pleaded guilty. The disappearance and murder of Helen Brach was never fully solved, although one man, Richard Bailey, is serving

life in prison Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

for soliciting her murder. Over the 20-year period during which the horse murders took place, several different motivations led horse owners and trainers, often affluent and well-respected people, to become involved in what ultimately became a widespread conspiracy. In some cases, the owner of a promising, or even prize-winning, horse was temporarily strapped for cash and decided to insure and then kill the animal; this was the situation in the 1982 murder of the show jumper Henry the Hawk. Sometimes people bought over-valued horses. Rather than take a loss on a poor investment, these owners chose to finance their next horse purchase by defrauding the insurance company that had insured the unwanted horse. Another aspect to the scandal went beyond insurance fraud and involved racketeering. This scheme, a form of

confidence game ''Confidence Game'' is a 2016 American thriller film written and directed by Deborah Twiss. The film stars Sean Young, Deborah Twiss, James McCaffrey, and Steve Stanulis with Stefano Da Fre and Robert Clohessy in supporting roles. Sylvie (Y ...

, consisted of bilking wealthy widows of their money by encouraging them to invest in horses. The animals were usually over-valued or under-performing, and the conspirators killed the animals in order to prevent the owners from uncovering how much they had overspent. In some cases, before the women invested, these non-performing animals were first "bid up" in value by the co-conspirators, in an attempt to make them seem more desirable to the purchasers. In other cases, a

shill A shill, also called a plant or a stooge, is a person who publicly helps or gives credibility to a person or organization without disclosing that they have a close relationship with said person or organization. Shills can carry out their operatio ...

buyer would offer to co-purchase the horse from a conspiring owner or trainer, with each buyer putting up half the stated purchase price. The check from the shill buyer would be destroyed and the two con artists would deposit and split the money paid by the wealthy woman buyer. If she began to suspect that the horse she had purchased was relatively valueless, it would be killed for the insurance money, which would soothe her financially, and if the conspirators still had her confidence, she would then be encouraged to invest in another co-owned horse, repeating the cycle. The men who worked this form of confidence game often acted as

gigolo A gigolo () is a male escort or social companion who is supported by a person in a continuing relationship, often living in her residence or having to be present at her beck and call. The term ''gigolo'' usually implies a man who adopts a lifes ...

s to the widows they bilked. It was one of these schemes which the wealthy widow

uncovered that — when she announced her intention to report the fraud that had been perpetrated on her — led to her disappearance and murder.

Famous cases

Drucks' Henry the Hawk

In 1981, 17-year-old Lisa Druck of Ocala, Florida (now known as

Rielle Hunter Rielle Hunter (born Lisa Jo Druck; March 20, 1964, also known as Lisa Hunter, Lisa Jo Hunter, and Rielle Jaya James Druck)veterinary pathologist to find signs of foul play and the death would be chalked up to

colic Colic or cholic () is a form of pain that starts and stops abruptly. It occurs due to muscular contractions of a hollow tube (small and large intestine, gall bladder, ureter, etc.) in an attempt to relieve an obstruction by forcing content out. ...

. According to

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

, Lisa was "a prize-winning

equestrian The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse". Horseback riding (or Riding in British English) Examples of this are: * Equestrian sports *Equestrian order, one of the upper classes i ...

when her father was implicated in an insidious plot to electrocute horses for insurance money." In the early 1990s, following James Druck's death, convicted horse-killer and

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

informant Tommy Burns told authorities and reporters that James Druck had first attempted to sell his daughter's horse for $150,000, but the highest offer he received was only $125,000. He then hired Burns and personally taught him how to electrocute horses, even going so far as to buy Burns' first set of electrocution tools. The first horse that Druck hired Burns to kill was Henry the Hawk, whose life insurance policy was worth $150,000. James Druck thus started Tommy Burns on a 10-year-long career as a "horse murderer". James Druck collected on a $150,000 insurance policy for arranging the killing of his daughter's horse in 1982, but he was under investigation by the FBI when he died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

in Tampa,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

in 1990.

Helen Brach

The wealthy socialite

was a human victim. Brach was a millionaire candy company heiress and animal lover who vanished in 1977 at the age of 65. While her body was never found, she was declared dead in 1984. Investigators suspected that she was murdered because she threatened to reveal what she knew about the over-valuing of horses, which would have led authorities to the string of horse killings perpetrated by Richard Bailey, a man who was later indicted for a role in her murder. The events surrounding Brach's murder were summarized by the

United States Court of Appeals United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two f ...

for the Seventh Circuit in adjudicating an appeal made by Richard Bailey: In 1984, seven years after she disappeared, Helen Brach was declared legally dead. In 1997, the connections between her death and the conspiracy involving socially prominent horse owners and their hired horse killers became the subject of a

true crime True crime is a nonfiction literary, podcast, and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people associated with and affected by criminal events. The crimes most commonly include murder; about 40 pe ...

book, ''Hot Blood: The Money, the Brach Heiress, the Horse Murders,'' written by Ken Englade.

Horse killers

Tommy Burns

Tommy "The Sandman" Burns (a.k.a. Timmy Robert Ray) earned his nickname because he "put horses to sleep" for the conspirators. He traveled the show circuit, visiting stables with his athletic bag full of electrocution equipment and, for fees ranging from $5,000 to $40,000 — generally for 10 percent of the insurance price on the horse — he would kill horses for their owners, who would then pay him off from the money obtained by defrauding the insurers. Burns justified his destruction of the animals on the grounds that electrocution — the technique that he had learned in 1982 from James Druck — was quick and painless. Burns was arrested in 1991, and confessed to all his crimes in a

plea deal A plea bargain (also plea agreement or plea deal) is an agreement in criminal law proceedings, whereby the prosecutor provides a concession to the defendant in exchange for a plea of guilt or ''nolo contendere.'' This may mean that the defendant ...

. In 1992, the investigative reporters William Nack and Lester Munson, writing for ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...

'', interviewed Burns, who told them a great deal about how the conspiracy operated:

Harlow Arlie

In 1991, Burns was hired to kill a showjumper named Streetwise. This horse was owned by Donna Brown, the ex-wife of former U.S. Olympic rider Buddy Brown, who had once been a trainer at Paul Valliere's farm in Rhode Island. Because the animal had already suffered from

and thus could not be insured against that disease, electrocution was ruled out as a method of murder. Donna Brown insisted that Burns break the animal's leg and make it look like an accident so that the horse would have to be put down by a vet. Burns decided to sub-contract the deed to a man named Harlow Arlie, who was willing to cripple the horse with a crowbar. By this time, the

had Burns under surveillance, and although the agents were too far away, on 2 February 1991, to prevent the fatal injury to Streetwise, they were able to capture Burns and Arlie after a short chase. The two men confessed to the crime, and Burns, in retaliation for being left without legal aid by his powerful former employers, turned FBI informant and revealed the names of dozens of people who had hired him. As a result of his confession, 36 people were arrested for

and insurance fraud, of whom 35 were convicted. After testifying before the federal grand jury in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

investigating insurance fraud in the horse show industry, Harlow Arlie served eight months in jail for breaking Streetwise's leg. Burns, who revealed the names of many other conspirators, was sentenced to a year in jail for his crimes, including breaking Streetwise's leg; he served six months. He still resides in Florida, where he has legally changed his name to Tim Ray; he currently sells auto parts for a living.

Richard Bailey

Not only electrocution and leg-breaking were employed as methods to kill insured horses. When arson looked profitable, an entire stable could be burned to the ground, to collect on the building insurance as well as the horse insurance. Richard Bailey, who feuded with his brother, and Frank Jayne and his family, were said to have left "a trail of violence" in the horse-club world of the upper Midwest states of

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

and

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

over the course of decades. Richard Bailey pleaded guilty to racketeering, mail and wire fraud, and money laundering charges in 1995 and was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the murder of Helen Brach.

Conspirators

Paul Valiere

Horse trainer A horse trainer is a person who tends to horses and teaches them different disciplines. Some of the responsibilities trainers have are caring for the animals' physical needs, as well as teaching them submissive behaviors and/or coaching them for e ...

s also hired Burns in the conspiracy, including Paul Valliere, the owner of Acres Wild Farm in

North Smithfield, Rhode Island North Smithfield is a town in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States, settled as a farming community in 1666 and incorporated into its present form in 1871. North Smithfield includes the historic villages of Forestdale, Primrose, Waterfo ...

. In 1994, Valliere admitted that he hired Burns to electrocute his show horse, Roseau Platiere, so that he could collect $75,000 in insurance money. Once he was apprehended, Valiere turned state's evidence. He wore a wire for a year, gathering information for the federal authorities who were investigating the conspiracy. Due to his cooperation with law enforcement, Paul Valiere was sentenced in 1996 to four years of

probation Probation in criminal law is a period of supervision over an offender, ordered by the court often in lieu of incarceration. In some jurisdictions, the term ''probation'' applies only to community sentences (alternatives to incarceration), such ...

and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine; he also was indefinitely suspended from participating in horse shows sanctioned by the American Horse Show Association (AHSA). In 2006, Valliere attempted to gain reinstatement to the United States Equestrian Federation (formerly AHSA) causing outrage among those who recalled his crimes, and sparking an online campaign to have him permanently barred from participation in equestrian events.sportsillustrated.cnn.com
/ref>

Barney Ward

One of Valliere's close friends, the

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...

-born trainer Barney Ward, who owned Castle Hill farm in

Brewster, New York Brewster is a village and the principal settlement within the town of Southeast in Putnam County, New York. Its population was 2,390 at the time of the 2010 census. The village, which is the most densely populated portion of the county, was nam ...

, also arranged horse-killings for wealthy owners. The teenaged Tommy Burns had been working as a groom in 1978 when Ward hired him to work on his farm; Ward eventually arranged for Burns to commit 15 different horse killings. Ward was charged in 1994 with arranging the killings of four horses. Although he claimed to be innocent of the charges, he pleaded guilty in 1996 to conspiring to kill four horses for their insurance payouts between 1987 and 1990: Charisma, Condino, Rub the Lamp and Roseau Platiere. In court papers he "admitted that he told the horse killer to keep quiet about the people who hired the killer to slaughter the horses, and, if he kept quiet about ard'sfriends and business associates, ardwould pay him money. ndthat ardlater spoke with the horse killer and ..said that he would kill the horse killer if he did anything to hurt ard"''American Horse Shows Assn. v. Ward'', 718 N.Y.S.2d 593, 186 Misc.2d 571 (2000)
/ref> Ward was sentenced to 33 months in prison, followed by three years of probation, and ordered to make restitution of $200,000 to one of the defrauded insurance companies. Upon his release, Ward sued the AHSA, which had barred him from attending its sanctioned shows. He claimed that it was his right, as a private citizen and no longer a member of the AHSA, to watch his son compete in equestrian events. In 2000, the Supreme Court of New York found that argument meritless, ruling that Ward's membership in AHSA at the time of his criminal conduct, plus his promise to be bound by the organization's rules, authorized the AHSA to discipline him, regardless of his current membership status.

Donna Brown

Donna Brown, the ex-wife of Paul Valliere's former associate Buddy Brown, was convicted of hiring Tommy Burns and Harlow Arlie to break Streetwise's leg.

Others

*George Lindemann Junior (son of

George Lindemann George Lyle Lindemann (March 26, 1936 – June 21, 2018) was an American billionaire businessman known for being the chairman and chief executive officer of Southern Union, a fossil fuel infrastructure and pipeline company.Robert Trigaux"F ...

) *Marion Hulick

Aftermath

In 1993 Jane F. Clark, president of the 60,000-member United States Equestrian Federation (USEF), then known as the American Horse Shows Association (AHSA), which sanctioned 2,500 equestrian events, told ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' that her organization was giving federal authorities its complete cooperation and noted that she was "eager to see the investigation completed and any guilty parties brought to justice." By 1995, the AHSA (now USEF) had expelled a number of members who had been indicted for various crimes connected with the horse murders, including Marion Hulick, Barney Ward, and Paul Valliere.

Literary parallel

In 1988 — long before the arrest of Tommy Burns and the subsequent unraveling of the horse murders conspiracy of silence — "

Brat Pack The ''Brat Pack'' is a nickname given to a group of young actors who frequently appeared together in teen-oriented coming-of-age films in the 1980s. First mentioned in a 1985 ''New York'' magazine article, it is now usually defined as the cast ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...

Jay McInerney John Barrett "Jay" McInerney Jr. (; born January 13, 1955) is an American novelist, screenwriter, editor, and columnist. His novels include ''Bright Lights, Big City (novel), Bright Lights, Big City'', ''Ransom'', ''Story of My Life (novel), Sto ...

based a ''

roman à clef ''Roman à clef'' (, anglicised as ), French for ''novel with a key'', is a novel about real-life events that is overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people, and the "key" is the relationship be ...

'' novel, titled '' Story of My Life'', on the young adulthood of his former girlfriend Lisa Druck, James Druck's daughter. McInerney's novel implies that the cause of protagonist Alison Poole's "party girl" behavior is her father's abuse, including the murder of her prize jumping horse. McInerney has said that he chose to write about Druck and her friends because he was both "intrigued and appalled" by their behavior, and the lead character, Alison Poole, who was closely modeled after Druck, was described as "an ostensibly jaded,

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly used recreationally for its euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from the leaves of two Coca species native to South Ameri ...

-addled, sexually voracious 20-year old." '' Story of My Life'' opens with Alison Poole's description of her father and her seemingly casual comment that she gave up riding when her horse — called "Dangerous Dan" in the story — suddenly "dropped dead," details that closely parallel Lisa Druck's early life. In the novel, Allison Poole's horse is poisoned, not electrocuted, but at the end of the story, the orchestrator of the murder, just as in Druck's actual life, is revealed to have been the young woman's father: There was open speculation that ''Story of My Life'' was a ''

'' novel when it first appeared; to ''

New York Magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker' ...

s questions "Is it real? Did it happen?" McInerney replied, "I'm anticipating some of that kind of speculation, but I'm utterly confident of not having any lawsuits on my hands. The book is a fully imagined work of fiction. On the other hand, it's not to say that I didn't make use of … That's why I live in New York. Mine is not an autonomous imagination." McInerney's references to the horse murder conspiracy went unremarked by sports journalists or the general media at the time of the novel's publication, because the scandal itself had not yet come to light in the national press, but the novel received renewed interest in the wake of the Edwards-Hunter extramarital affair. In August 2008,

Vintage Books Vintage Books is a trade paperback publishing imprint of Penguin Random House originally established by Alfred A. Knopf in 1954. The company was purchased by Random House in April 1960, and a British division was set up in 1990. After Random ...

ordered an additional 2,500 copies of the book in the wake of the interest generated by the Hunter-Edwards scandal.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Horse Murders Equestrian sports Horse racing controversies Animal welfare in sports Confidence tricks Fraud in the United States Horse racing in the United States Operations against organized crime in the United States Organized crime events in the United States