• Houston Police
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    Samuel White Arson - 2005

    There are often financial motivations for self-inflicted crimes. Insurance doesn’t pay out for suicide, as they say, so pinning property damage on someone else can get you a sizable payout. Case in point: the racially motivated burning of Samuel White’s house in Houston, Texas. After firefighters extinguished the blaze, they discovered racial slurs and swastikas drawn on the inside walls, leading them to believe it was a hate crime. Oddly, though, the slurs were spelled wrong and the swastikas were drawn backwards. Then neighbors started to step forth to testify that they’d seen White removing appliances from the house the day before the fire, and all the pieces fell into place. He was charged with arson and insurance fraud soon afterwards.