Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - He Faked His Own Death - The John Darwin story

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

This is the story of John Darwin, the English man who fakes his death for life insurance money.

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Oh! Marvel Studios The Fantastic Four First Steps, now streaming on Disney Plus, we did PG-13. What time is it, Ben? It's Clubber Time! So this guy is about to die. But don't worry, it's exactly what he wants. So the guy's name is Darwin, and he's a landlord.

And he and his wife, they own a bunch of rental properties in England. And they're trying to make some money. But unfortunately, things aren't going so well for them. Because Darwin and his wife, this woman, Anne, Darwin and Anne end up in a crippling amount of debt. Now, at this point, Darwin could admit that his landlord business has failed and he could file for bankruptcy. But that would be way too easy.

Instead, he puts his two brain cells together and he comes up with a brilliant idea. He's going to fake his own death so that he and his wife can cash out on the life insurance money. What could possibly go wrong? So Darwin goes and he pitches the idea to Anne. And Anne agrees. So they put their plan into motion. And one day, John hauls his red canoe to a nearby beach and he paddles it out into the ocean, making sure that anyone watching can see what he's doing.

Then he floats a few miles south, and he gets back onto shore, and he pushes his canoe and his paddle back into the water, making it look like he just fell out of his canoe one night, and he went missing or something. Meanwhile, and she waits for him back in their car so that she can pick him up and drive him back home. And from there, Darwin moves into the empty apartment right next door to theirs, which they also own.

Now, their whole plan is to have him high, out there while pretending to be missing while they wait for the insurance payments to kick in. Surely this is going to end well. But that same night, Darwin, he doesn't show up to work. And his boss calls Ann and she lies, she's like, I haven't seen him since he went canoeing. So they alert the police and pretty quickly, bam, the Coast Guard is all over it and they're out looking for him with a fleet of rescue boats and a plane. But the only sign of Darwin that they find is his paddle floating in the ocean. And weeks later, Darwin's canoe washes up onto shore, and it's all busted up and broken, and there's still no sign of him. So, everyone just assumes he's dead.

Which means his plan worked. Now, because police can't find a body or any sign of one, it takes the state a whole year to officially declare Darwin dead. So this whole time, he's stuck hiding out in that small apartment next door, while Anne has to continue pretending that that he's been missing this whole year. She even goes as far as to tell their adult sons that their father is missing and is probably dead. Like, oh no, your father went missing. Anyway, so eventually the state officially declares him dead.

And Anne, she goes and she cashes out that sweet, sweet life insurance. So the checks start rolling in. And now, Darwin and Anne can move on to the next phase of their plan. Flee the country to go live in Panama. So Darwin and Anne fly. fly all the way from England to Panama. And there they meet up with a real estate agent and they buy a place to live. And the real estate agent, he takes a photo with them like, hey, can I get a photo?

And he posts that photo on his website. And yeah, that photo is going to be important later. So Darwin and Ann, they live there in Panama for a while. And several months later, Darwin gets back on a plane and he flies back to England. Now, here's where the story gets kind of weird because you're dealing with scammers and it's really hard to take them at their word. But Darwin has been fake dead for over five years at this point. And it's around this time, for some reason, we don't exactly know why.

I guess Darwin just decides, I don't really want to be dead anymore. Maybe he thinks it's not worth the risk, maybe he misses visiting his sons, we don't know. But he suddenly decides he needs to end this con. So he flies back to England and Anne doesn't go with him for some reason. She stays in Panama. But he's in England and one day he just shows up at a police station like, Hey, I think I'm a missing person. And basically he tells police that he got amnesia and hasn't remembered who he is for the past five years.

And this story is so wild that a man got amnesia and went missing for five years. So journalists, they get interested in it. And it's all over the news. And reporters everywhere, they're like dying to try and interview Darwin. But meanwhile, there's a detective working on the case. This guy, Tony. And Tony, he really doesn't believe this story that a guy had amnesia for five years. So he starts asking the public if anyone at any point ever knew Darwin by a different name.

And pretty quickly, bam, Tony gets a crazy tip. A tabloid journalist had found the photo of Darwin and Anne that the real estate agent had taken and posted on his website back in Panama. And most importantly, the timestamp on that photo gives away that it was taken during the time period when Darwin claimed he had amnesia. And so, kapow, police arrest Darwin. Here's his mugshot. And when Anne travels back to the UK to reunite with her husband,

kapow, they arrest her too. Here's her mugshot. And they both confess to everything and Darwin is sentenced to six years, three months in prison, while and she gets six and a half years in prison. Why do people always fake their death for insurance money? It's wild.