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Sedgwick County, Kansas

Did Jack Hazelwood Die Accidentally?

Jackie Hazelwood, a Wichita coin dealer who disappeared 11 years ago, is dead, parties to a federal lawsuit agreed Tuesday. But the combatants--Hazelwood's family and a life insurance company--couldn't agree on whether the death was an accident.

The insurer--Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States--did agree to pay Union Naitonal Bank of Wichita $135,434 on a policy on the life of Hazelwood, according to bank attorney Richard Loyd. But Equitable is fighting a suit by Joyce Hazelwood, the missing man's wife, to recover about $844,000 on two seperate life insurance policies.

The settlement with UNB was for the value of a policy Hazelwood put up as collateral on loans, plus interest and premiums paid by the bank to keep the policy valid after his disappearance, Loyd said.

Joyce Hazelwood attended the trail's opening Tuesday, accompanied by three of her four children, Jack, 17, Mary, 20, and Wayne, 21. The family members, who say they haven't heard from Jackie Hazelwood since he disappeared Nov. 1, 1969, watched intently as their attorneys, William Wood and William Fry, opened arguments aimed at collecting on the life insurance policies. The trial will continue today.

At stake is $200,000 from the same policy under which the bank collected; a $100,000 policy with a clause that doubles the value in the event of accidental death. The family also seeks payment under another policy with face value of $94,482, plus interest of $326,186 and attorney's fees of $338,203. The amount paid to Union National would be subtracted from that.

Fry and Wood argue that Hazelwood's presumed death was an accident and the company thus owes double the value of the $100,000 policy.

The insurance company contends that no one knows for sure how Hazelwod died and so the company shouldn't be liable for the double amount.

Hazelwood was declared dead in 1977 after hearings in probate court.

In testimony Tuesday, Karl Friedel, a friend of the family who was the family lawyer in 1969, said Hazelwood was devoted to his family. Wood and Fry argue that that indicates Hazelwood didn't abandon his family.

"(His) financial conditions were not the best they have ever been," said Friedel. "But it would have been premature to disappear at that time."

Hazelwood was 32 when he disappeared.
(Wichita Eagle-Beacon 10 Dec 1980)

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Witness Tells of Night When Coin Dealer Vanished

A former parking lot attendant near Jackie Hazelwood's coin shop testified in federal court Wednesday that in the early morning hours of Nov. 2, 1969, he watched a stranger step into shadows in the shop garage.

The witness, Rick Coons, 840 N. Harding, said details of the incident, which occurred when he was a 17-year-old West High School student, were made vivid to him under hypnosis by Wichita psychologist Don Schrag.

In other testimony Wednesday, evidence was presented that Hazelwood, whose 1969 disappearance with more than $100,000 in gold coins was surrounded by mystery, and three corporations in which he was involved were about $400,000 in debt when he disappeared.

The lawsuit, against Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, seeks $844,000 on two separate life insurance policies for the Hazelwood family and their attorneys. Attorneys for the Hazelwoods are trying to show that the coin dealer died Nov. 1, 1969.

A state district probate court ruled in February 1977 that Hazelwood died about Nov. 2, 1969. The ruling was made so that Hazelwood's estate could be settled.

Coons told U.S. District Court Judge Patrick Kelly that when he got off work shortly after midnight, he drove down the alley behind the coin shop, 149 N. Broadway. He testified that he saw a man dressed in a leather coat, blue jeans and cowboy boots, standing next to the car in the coin shop garage.

The man stepped into shadows by the car, Coons testified, and when Coons returned to the spot minutes later, the garage door was shut and the stranger gone.

Coons said he told his story to Wichita police at the time of the incident, but wasn't questioned later. Hazelwood, a prominent coin dealer in the Midwest before his disappearance, left his Wichita home Saturday morning, Nov. 1, 1969, and hasn't been heard from since, according to his wife, Joyce Hazelwood.

Coons testified Wednesday that the man he saw in the alley was not Hazelwood, whom he said he had seen once on a visit to the coin shop.

In other testimony Wednesday, Ron Gott, company attorney, presented evidence that at the time of the disappearance, Hazelwood and three cooperations, HZD Enterprises Inc., HZD Investment Corp. and Olympic Press Inc., had debts of about $400,000 on Oct. 31, 1969. Other evidence disclosed unpaid bank loans and failure to pay federal withholding tax in some quarters.

Under questioning by Gott, Karl Friedel, attorney for the Hazelwoods at the time of the disappearance, said he had been told by experts that from 7:30 p.m. Nov. 1 until the same time the next day, the shops's complicated alarm systems wasn't activated.

When Friedel and Joyce Hazelwood entered the shop in search of Hazelwood late Nov. 2, they noticed that valuable coins were missing and found a tobacco pipe, a coat they thought was Hazelwood's and a man's shoe.

Under questioning by the judge, Friedel said Wednesday that Hazelwood was assembling coins to sell at the time of the disappearance. Hazelwood called the airport to check on the arrival of shipments, Friedel testified.

In earlier testimony, attorneys tried to untangle Hazelwood's extensive business dealings, which included a loan company in which coins were used as collateral.

The trial is expected to last until Friday. The insurance company is arguing that it isn't known for sure how or when Hazelwood died, so it shouldn't have to pay double the amount of a $100,000 life insurance policy on Hazelwood with an accidental death clause.
(Wichita Eagle-Beacon ~ 11 Dec 1980)

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Witness Recalls Men In Hazelwood Shop

Two men, one husky with curly hair and the other wearing blue jeans and cowboy boots, were in Hazelwood's coin shop after closing time the day the coin dealer disappeared, a Wichita woman testified in federal court Thursday.

Jean Bills said she entered the shop, 149 N. Broadway, at about 2:45 p.m., Nov. 1, 1969, and saw the men watching customers.

When she passed the store about 4 p.m., the men, behind a counter, were alone in the shop with Hazelwood, Bills told U.S. District Judge Patrick Kelly.

The testimony came in the third day of the trail in which Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States is being asked to pay $844,000 to the Hazelwood family and their attornies for two life insurance policies in Hazelwood's name. Attorneys for the Hazelwoods are tring to show that Hazelwood's death was accidental so the company would be forced to observe a double-indemnity clause in one policy.

William Wood, attorney for the Hazelwoods, said normal closing time for the shop was 3:30 p.m. on Saturdays. Nov. 1, 1969 was a Saturday.

During Wednesday's proceedings, Rick Coons of Wichita testified that he spotted a stranger wearing a leather coat, blue jeans and cowboy boots in the alley behind the coin shop during the early morning hours of Sunday, Nov. 2, 1969. Coons, at the time, was an attendant at a nearby parking lot.

Harlie Puckett, a retired Wichita Police Department detective who helped investigate the Hazelwood disappearance, testified that when he entered the shop Nov. 2, visible items included a rope 8 to 10 feet long, a torn white shirt, and a chair in the center of the room.

There was blood on the floor by the chair, Puckett testified, but he said that although a sample was taken, he didn't know whether the blood was Hazelwood's.

Glenn Holmes, senior vice president of Southwest National Bank in Wichita and a banker for Hazelwood also testified Thursday. He said two men had come into the bank on Nov. 3, 1969, and expressed concern about Hazelwood's disappearance. Holmes identified one as Jonas Shapiro, a New York coin dealer, according to Hazelwood's attorney. He identified the other man as Quentin McDougall.

Asked about McDougall's identity, Holmes said: "As far as I'm concerned, he was a hit man for (Shapiro)."

Shapiro, Holmes said, dealt in coins with Hazelwood, a prominent Midwestern coin dealer until his unexplained disappearance.

So far in the trial, only attorneys for the Hazelwoods have called witnesses.

Ronald Gott, attorney for Equitable Life, said he has tried to prove through cross-examination of witnesses that Hazelwood had serious financial problems. Gott said he would call witnesses today, which is expected to be the last day of the trial.
(Wichita Eagle-Beacon ~ 11 Dec 1980)