The Social Security Administration paid widow's benefits to a woman who murdered her husband.
Opal Elaine Tillman, a 71-year-old from Morris, Alabama, was indicted last week after fraudulently receiving over $150,000 in benefits for over seven years off the work record of her dead husband. Tillman was convicted of her husband's murder in 1987 and released on parole in 1996.
After being denied widow's benefits in prison, Tillman reapplied and the government approved her benefits in 2009.
"A federal grand jury last week indicted a Morris woman for fraudulently claiming nearly $168,000 in Social Security widow’s benefits on the death of a husband she killed," the inspector general for the agency announced this week.
"According to the indictment, Tillman was convicted in Alabama in June 1988 for killing her husband, Walter R. Tillman, on March 1, 1987," the inspector general said. "The month he died, Opal Tillman applied for Social Security Title II benefits on her husband’s work record."
The SSA denied Tillman's original application, noting that a person convicted of homicide is not entitled to benefits. However, the SSA approved Tillman's second request years later.
"In October 2009, she applied by telephone to the SSA for widow's benefits on the work record of Walter Roderick Tillman, according to the indictment," the inspector general said. "Opal Tillman provided her deceased husband’s Social Security number, dates of birth and death, and verification of their marriage for the application, the indictment charges."
"Opal Tillman began receiving benefits Nov. 9, 2009, on the work record of the man she killed, according to the indictment," the inspector general added. "The monthly benefits continued until Sept. 14, 2016."
Tillman was also charged last year for stealing $60,000 from an elderly woman who employed her as a housekeeper.
She faces up to 30 years in prison for five counts of wire fraud and one count of theft of government property.