Richard Boggs

Richard Pryde Boggs (May 15, 1933 – March 6, 2003) was a Californian neurologist who was sentenced to life in prison in 1990 for his part in a scheme that involved murdering a man in 1988 and giving the victim another man's identity in order to collect on a million (equivalent to $million in ) life insurance policy.

Murder and insurance scam Boggs lured a drunk 32-year-old Ellis Henry Greene into his office in Glendale, California and disabled him with a stun gun, then suffocated him with the help of co-conspirator Melvin Eugene "Gene" Hanson on April 16, 1988.

Boggs called paramedics after the killing, and when they arrived, falsely identified Greene as Hanson after having forged medical records and included Hanson's birth certificate and credit cards on Greene's body. The officers called to the scene were initially suspicious of Boggs' story, believing it was unlikely a doctor would meet a patient in his office at 5:00 a.m. and realizing the temperature of the body when found did not correspond to the time of death given by Boggs, who as a neurosurgeon would not be expected to be treating a heart patient. They refused to let Boggs sign the death certificate and called in the coroner; after the coroner's report ruled the death was due to myocarditis, John Hawkins, Hanson's business partner in a clothing store chain in Ohio (named Just Sweats), was called in to identify the body, which he did. Unknown to the authorities, Hawkins was working with Boggs and Hanson.

The case was officially closed, and the body was quickly cremated at the behest of Hawkins, who collected the $1 million life insurance policy he had taken out on Hanson, cleaned out his bank accounts, and disappeared. Hanson also went into hiding, adopting an identity as Wolfgang Von Snowden.

Death of Richard Boggs Richard Boggs died of a heart attack at the age of 69 on March 6, 2003 while serving his sentence at Corcoran State Prison. At the time of his death, Boggs had been HIV positive for over ten years, and had also been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer.