Iowa Sailor’s Crew Mate to Get $100,000

An insurance company has agreed to pay former battleship Iowa sailor Kendall Truitt $100,000 in the death of a crew mate whom the Navy blames for the shipboard explosion that killed 47, Truitt’s attorney said today.

The policy, taken out a year ago by Clayton Hartwig with Truitt as the beneficiary, played a part in the initial Navy investigation of the April 19 disaster. Truitt was eventually cleared, but the Navy continues to say that it is likely that Hartwig set off the explosion on purpose to commit suicide.

Today, Amex Assurance Co. of San Rafael, Calif., reached an agreement with Truitt and the Hartwig family to pay the $100,000, said Truitt’s attorney, Ellis Rubin.

“We have settled the claim, and they are going to pay the full policy,” Rubin said. Some of the money--Rubin refused to say how much--will be given to the Hartwig family.

Rubin said the payment was one more piece of evidence showing Hartwig did not blow up the gun turret to kill himself, as the Navy believes. “If the insurance company thought he had committed suicide, they would not have paid,” he said.

Hartwig named Truitt as the beneficiary of a $50,000 policy, which had a clause doubling the benefit for accidental death.

Initial leaks from the Navy investigation suggested that Truitt and Hartwig had a homosexual relationship that had gone sour and said Truitt was a target of the probe because of the insurance claim.

Truitt, who is married, strongly denied any sexual relationship with Hartwig or any involvement in the fatal blast. The Navy’s official report cleared Truitt in the case.

Hartwig’s family had initially protested payment of Truitt’s claim. That prompted Truitt to sue Amex Assurance, a division of American Express, in U.S. District Court in Miami.