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The Man Who Wouldn’t Die – The Bizarre Depression Era Crime That Shaped How Our Insurance Works

Khalid Elhassan June 2, 2025 17 min

A young Michael Malloy, left, and his killers. I09

19. A Bizarre Insurance Scam

The conspirators secured multiple life insurance policies on Malloy, totaling $3,500 – a significant amount during the Great Depression. Murphy posed as Malloy’s brother to do the paperwork, and Malloy, in exchange for promises of free alcohol, signed the necessary documents without understanding their content. Marino then extended Malloy unlimited credit at the speakeasy.

In of itself, it was not the most bizarre of plans. However, the way it was carried out after Malloy failed to die of drink in a timely manner certainly was. The initial plan was straightforward: provide Malloy with unlimited alcohol, and his excessive drinking would kill him. However, despite consuming large quantities of liquor daily, Malloy showed no signs of deteriorating health.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.