Doctor Charged in Murder for Profit Case

A Glendale physician was arrested on suspicion of murder Friday, concluding an eight-month investigation into the death of a man whose body allegedly was used to collect $1 million in life insurance.

Glendale police arrested Richard P. Boggs, 55, in the parking lot outside his office on North Central Avenue shortly after noon as Los Angeles County prosecutors were filing murder, conspiracy and insurance fraud charges against him.

Also charged in the scheme were two Ohio businessmen, Melvin Eugene Hanson, 47, and John Barrett Hawkins, 29, owners of a retail clothing firm in Columbus.

The murder charges against the three men include two special allegations of murder for financial gain and aiding and abetting a murder for financial gain, meaning that all three could be sentenced to death if convicted.

The case, which investigators said came close to being a perfect crime, revolves around the death of Ellis Henry Greene, 32, of North Hollywood.

Heart Disease Blamed

Investigators said Greene died in Boggs’ office early on the morning of April 16, 1988, of inflammation of the heart. Boggs, however, identified the body as that of Hanson. Hanson’s partner, Hawkins, then claimed the body from the Los Angeles coroner’s office and had it cremated. He later collected $1 million from Farmers New World Life Insurance of Washington on a policy carried by Hanson.

Boggs had reported the cause of death as heart failure, and the coroner’s office accepted that conclusion.

The Glendale Police Department began an investigation in June after an inquiry from the insurance company led them to discover that Hanson’s fingerprints, obtained through the Ohio Department of Motor Vehicles, did not match those of the dead man.

The body was later identified as that of Greene, who had lived with an aunt in North Hollywood.

Boggs told investigators at the time that Greene had been his patient for several years, but he said he knew the man as Hanson.

In a search of the doctor’s office last November, Glendale police found a stun gun, a weapon commonly used by police to disable suspects with an electric charge. Deputy Dist. Atty. Al MacKenzie of the district attorney’s major fraud unit said the use of a stun gun as a murder weapon is still under investigation, and Boggs was charged Friday with assault with a stun gun.

Investigators for several agencies embarked on what a spokesman described Friday as “a painstaking labor of love” to reconstruct every move from the last time Greene was seen alive the night before his death to the present.

Combined Effort

Investigators for the FBI, the fraud bureau of the California Department of Insurance, the Glendale police and the Los Angeles county coroner’s office worked on the case with officials from Columbus, MacKenzie said.

A break in the case occurred Monday when Hanson, who already had been charged in Columbus with insurance fraud, was arrested by customs officials at the Dallas-Ft. Worth airport. He was carrying a fraudulent passport as he attempted to return to this country from Mexico, authorities said. He was returned to Ohio and is being held in Franklin County Jail. Hawkins is still the object of a nationwide manhunt.

Boggs, who was under 24-hour surveillance by Glendale police several days before his arrest, is being held without bail in the Glendale Jail. He is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Los Angeles Municipal Court.

MacKenzie said Los Angeles and Columbus officials are discussing whether Hanson will be extradited to California.