Insurance fraud murder of Frankie Pullian

1980 was the year when the plans of ring leader E. Lee White culminated in the homicide of Franklin Pullian. The murder-for-profit scam was easily uncovered. It'd be another seven years until Michael Douglas' Wall Street character Gordon Gekko would utter his famous quotation:

"Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit."

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

In White's and his cohorts' case, greed was their plan's downfall. The annual premium for all the policies on Frankie Pullian totaled $3500. For a man who earned less than $10k annually, this alone would've been more than suspicious. It seems in the 1980s, before the prevalence of networked computers and digital record keeping, each individual policy was not suspicious. But when a total of NINE policies are considered, the signals of insurance fraud are clear.

Little evidence but smart investigators

The awareness of the scene's investigators was essential in resolving the case. Without their initial suspicion about the inconsistencies with an accidental hit-and-run, it's likely the first medical examiner's cause of death would've gone unquestioned. But the blood in the tire tracks behind the vehicle and the misplaced articles of Frankie's clothing were red flags. The passive blood drops on the passenger door threshold and the medium velocity impact spatter on the dashboard and windshield were clear indicators of scene staging. Serology identified the blood's type as O. This was a clue in 1980, but far from the specificity we have with DNA today. Similar to Robert Knight's murder of Dawn Bruce where serology identified blood type A from a semen sample, type O blood includes nearly 40% of the U.S. population too.

A watch face found at the scene was also considered part of the collection of evidence. If this was truly an item worn by either the victim or the perpetrators, where were the watch's straps? It's possible one of the men simply carried the watch without straps, and it's possible someone was merely awaiting replacement straps. I considered that the watch face might have not been connected to the scene at all. Was the watch working when discovered?

E. Lee White and his two henchmen

It's clear the E. Lee White felt his scene staging and his preparation of Pullian's body for autopsy would mislead any potential investigators. But White made two huge mistakes: he trusted two hoodlums to stage the accident scene, and he was exceptionally greedy.

It's likely Lawrence Scott and William Brown lured Pullian out to the remote location in the early morning hours of April 8, 1980. These hoodlums took advantage of Frankie Pullian's trusting nature. Frankie had not remained enlisted in the military due to apparent cognitive impairment. Instead of thugs like Scott and Brown (and White) taking advantage of Frankie, these men should have been looking out for him. The immorality it takes to victimize a man like Frankie Pullian is unfathomable.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

But thankfully, these clowns weren't criminally sophisticated, despite Brown's prior run-in with law enforcement for fraud a few years prior. It's certainly plausible that being struck by a motor vehicle can knock a person out of their shoes, but Scott and Brown must've also thought it could knock someone's jacket off. They drove over Frankie's bleeding body, and then repositioned the car on top of his body. They did not fabricate any damage on the car itself, specifically on the frontend which would've been the likeliest point of impact. And probably dumbest of all, they assaulted Frankie inside the car itself, depositing his blood on multiple surfaces. They had the sense to remove their fingerprints from inside the car, but they didn't stop to think of the story the victim's blood would tell police.

As the ring leader and likely the smartest of the bunch, E. Lee White should've coached his stooges on how to make the murder look like an accident. Convincing police and the insurance investigators was key to their hairbrained plan's success. But even a more convincing "accident" scene might not have worked – the sheer greed in obtaining a total of nine life insurance policies is stunning. I suppose the ploy here was to keep any specific insurance company/agent from knowing about any of the other policies.

But it didn't seem this information was difficult to unearth. And the police's mantra in all cases of potential murder-for-profit is "follow the money". White probably believed that distributing the policies' beneficiaries among multiple people would look less suspicious. But it's logically unreasonable for anyone to secure so many policies at such an outlandish combined premium. In addition to the beneficiaries, police probably discovered White himself was paying the premiums of these policies and not Frankie Pullian. When this money trail was uncovered, E. Lee White admitted to purchasing the policies (and sending his goons to stand in for Frankie at the physical examinations), but he denied involvement in the murder. Whether or not he was directly involved, the scene-staging and circumstantial evidence make him guilty as the others.

I'm simply stunned at the audacity of these idiots' plan. The last life insurance policy on Frankie was begun just five days before his murder. This fact alone would've been cause for an investigation. And wouldn't Erna "Boone" plus Scott and Brown need to prove they were Pullian's sister and cousins respectively? Imagine if White would've used discretion – he might have pulled off his scheme. Calculating for inflation, the $980k White hoped to net in 1980 would've been over $3 million in 2020, and even more today.

Other items in Frankie Pullian's case

If testimony during the trial revealed an imposter at Frankie Pullian's physical examination was actively referencing handwritten notes in order to answer questions, why was this not a red flag during the exam? The doctor was negligent in not reporting this anomaly, especially to the insurance company.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

If White and his accomplices took the time to draft notes to use when faking Pullian's physical examinations, why didn't they also practice forging his signature? In the samples shown around the episode's 14:35 mark, it's clear that no effort was made to make their versions of Frankie's signature look legitimate.

With what seems in hindsight as clear evidence of a staged accident scene, why did it take police over three years of legal wrangling to finally obtain an order to exhume Frankie Pullian's body? Despite the original autopsy indicating Pullian's cause of death to be accidental, the blood inside the car alone should've been enough to convince a judge a dire mistake had originally been made.

Dr. Natarajan's second autopsy clearly indicated the blunt force trauma focused on a small area of Frankie's skull. I'm no forensic pathologist, but this had the hallmarks of a blow from a hammer. But this made we wonder, could it be possible for such an injury to occur from being hit by a car? Unlikely, sure, but possible? A protrusion on the frontend of the car, the victim's head is just such a position – these don't seem unreasonable. Of course, with no frontend damage on the front of the stolen Maverick, this is moot.

How many active players in this deadly game?

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

It's clear that E. Lee White was the orchestrator behind this heinous crime. It's also clear that Lawrence Scott and William Brown were criminally involved – they likely committed the actual murder. But how did Erna Boone White play into the scheme? I read that Erna was tried separately from White so she wouldn't have to testify against her husband. It seems none of the other conspirators rolled over on her, so Erna was ultimately only convicted of fraud and theft by deception. I'm not sure why the judge was lenient during her sentencing – Boone received only probation. I feel she was at least aware of the plot and did nothing to stop it.

Where is E. Lee White now in 2024?

E. Lee White found guilty of murdering Frankie Pullian in January 1985. He was denied parole for a third time in 2013. The board felt that White continued to adhere "to a version of events that downplayed his culpable actions." When the parole board accounted that White had not shown rehabilitative progress in the 28 years he'd served, they imposed a 96-month "future eligibility term" (FET). E. Lee White lost an appeal to this eight-year term. Including White's pattern of earned credits, he was eligible for parole again in early 2018.

When Elbert Lee White died on May 22, 2019, he was living in Washington DC. He had apparently finally earned parole after serving 33 years.