Page 26 - Delaware Lawyer - Summer 2023

FEATURE | THE STEIGLER TRIAL
equivalent to $175,000 in 2017 dollars.
Steigler’s motive was clear. Steigler set the fire to eliminate Hen- ry Swertfeger so he could not expose his fraud. Steigler’s wife, youngest daughter and mother-in-law would be collateral damage.
At the time of the fire, Steigler was facing several ethics complaints, including “twisting” — an accusation based upon testimony before the Del- aware Insurance Commissioner that Steigler made deceptive claims about potential clients’ policies to get them to terminate those policies with oth- er companies and to buy them from him. Steigler was suspended and then terminated from Lutheran Brother- hood Insurance Company. The Dela- ware Insurance Commissioner also found that Steigler diverted clients’ money to his own account.
Steigler was later terminated from American United Life Insurance Company after an audit found that he directed his clients to send their pay- ments to him rather than to the com- pany. He then converted the money to his personal use. Steigler then went to work for Renyx Field & Company. A civil suit was filed against Steigler by the Insurance Company of North America (INA), the bonding com- pany for Renyx, alleging that Steigler fraudulently converted $28,938.80 from Renyx.
Further investigation by Detective Thomson discovered that Steigler swindled other clients who had giv- en him money to invest. Detective Thomson and I investigated Steigler’s bank and business records and found that, in addition to the Swertfegers, he had sold stock to his clients in various corporations and given the clients false stock certificates. I met with those clients and reviewed the documentation that Steigler had given to them as evidence of their
Steigler was deeply in debt at the time of the murders, had no job, and his criminal conduct was on the brink of discovery. He needed to wipe out those debts, including a mortgage on the house, debt to the Swertfegers in the amount of $24,502, debt to his other clients, and debt to banks and businesses. As a result of the murders, Steigler stood to profit by $104,000, the equivalent of $740,676.34 in 2017 dollars.
24 DELAWARE LAWYER SUMMER 2023
“investment,” but the certificates — Xeroxed with the clients’ names typed in — were phony, created to deceive his clients into believing that he had invested their money.
Detective Thomson uncovered ad- ditional fraud by Steigler through the records of corporations that Steigler had opened. Detective Thomson dis- covered that many of the corpora- tions Steigler had incorporated listed fictitious officers, or officers who did not know the corporation existed or even who Steigler was. These phony corporations were used by Steigler to defraud clients who purchased stock in them.
Detective Thomson also discovered that Steigler had accounts at a number of banks and was engaged in a crimi- nal enterprise known as check-kiting.
Steigler was deeply in debt at the time of the murders, had no job, and his criminal conduct was on the brink of discovery. He needed to wipe out those debts, including a mortgage on
the house, debt to the Swertfegers in the amount of $24,502, debt to his other clients, and debt to banks and businesses. As a result of the murders, Steigler stood to profit by $104,000, the equivalent of $740,676.34 in 2017 dollars.
Following the money was the ob- vious starting point in finding a mo- tive for the murders. Arson is a com- mon method of murder-for-insurance plots, and in Steigler’s case, being a beneficiar y of his wife’s, daughter’s and in-laws’ insurance policies was a clear link to the crime. Steigler also had fire insurance of $63,000 on the house and personal effects, which is the equivalent of $420,204.85 in 2017.
Swertfeger demanded proof of where his money had gone and had already enlisted the help of his ac- countant. Steigler realized his cover was blown and October 19, 1968 was the last night the Swertfegers were going to be living with the Steiglers