Fraud Investigators Catch Serial Arsonist After 33 Fire Claims

For years, one small disaster after another followed Verdon Taylor. He would buy a used car, own it for a while, and it would catch fire. He would move into a rental property and soon his belongings would go up in flames. He would purchase a mobile home, only to see it burn, with all of his possessions lost. Several of his acquaintances were similarly beset by combustion, based on the numerous insurance claims they filed for ruined vehicles, houses, apartments and trailers. Before a federal grand jury in Richmond indicted Taylor and five others in an arson-for-profit scheme, they collected nearly $1 million from 17 insurance companies. . . .