I must admit I’m a sucker for detective stories, whether in a novel or on television.  If watching one of the CSI, Law and Order, or other assorted whodunit-type shows on TV with my wife, I inevitably upset her by guessing (and blurting out) who the murderer is within the first 10 minutes of the show.

The biggest dead giveaway (pun intended) is when the detectives mention a large life insurance policy on the life of the victim. The detectives usually follow this lead to find the surviving spouse (the perp) had paid off a “hit man” to off the vic (I know, I have been watching too much TV).

I’m not sure if life imitates art or if art imitates life, but if you Google life insurance + murder, you will find several news stories about spouses who arranged murders for hire of their significant others for the purpose of cashing in on life insurance policies.  While most hire someone else  to do the ghastly deed, several I read about committed the murders themselves.  Arsenic seems to have been the method of choice in the cases I read about, but there was also an assortment of the usual implements of death – guns, knives and (gulp), a baseball bat.

As in the aforementioned TV shows, the beneficiary of the vic is always looked at as a suspect, especially if the policy was issued or increased recently.  In every news article I read, a life insurance policy led to the perp.   As my reality sometimes blends in with the TV shows I watch, I can imagine Horatio Caine, removing his sunglasses slowly as he addresses the perp being escorted away in handcuffs, saying (slowly and in a chopped cadence), “It seems to me that the only thing you will be a beneficiary of is a life sentence in prison.”  Then Steve McGarrett (who’s coming back soon in a new version of Hawaii 5-0) says to his assistant, “Book him, Dano…Murder One!”