High-flying probate clerk made himself heir to millions

(05-18) 04:00 PDT San Antonio -- He liked fast cars and attractive women, and if those passions did not make Mel Spillman unique among men, the cars, at least, seemed beyond the limits of his salary. Yet he would arrive at his $33,000-a-year job as a court clerk driving a Mercedes-Benz or a Ferrari.

Spillman traveled the country for racing events and even started his own racing team. Around the Bexar County courthouse, where he was known as a wizard at probating wills, he told co-workers that he had inherited money from relatives.

What he didn't say was that the relatives weren't his.

"He lived almost two lives," said Cliff Herberg, an assistant district attorney.

Spillman, 55, has pleaded guilty to a stunning and meticulous fraud in which prosecutors say that by forging documents, in some cases falsifying wills, he stole nearly $5 million over 15 years from the estates of at least 122 people. He lived lavishly, owning five Ferraris.

Spillman, who faces up to 10 years in state prison, is to be sentenced on June 4. His case has astonished the crowd at the courthouse, where he was a popular figure who played softball with judges and was known for his willingness to help lawyers do probate work free of charge. The office of District Attorney Susan D. Reed has seized his $400,000 home and put the Ferraris up for sale.

"Never in my wildest dreams, knowing Mel, would I think this is something he could be capable of," said Janice Hobbs, a probate administrative assistant who has known Spillman for almost 30 years.

Spillman, who grew up in San Antonio, arrived at the courthouse in the early 1970s and worked in different clerical jobs until his retirement in 1999.

Prosecutors say that he was appointed to work with the medical examiner's office in the 1980s as a probate consultant, to handle funeral arrangements for people without heirs or families and liquidate their estates.

By 1986, Spillman had stopped turning over all the proceeds to the state and instead began keeping most of the money for himself.

He sold off homes and pocketed the money or, prosecutors say, transferred title to himself and brought in renters.

Occasionally, it turned out that in fact there were heirs, but, prosecutors say, Spillman either forged documents that gave him power over the estate or otherwise deceived them.

His lawyer, Alan Brown, who says Spillman is ashamed, portrays him as a man caught in a trap of his own making.

"Once he started it, he felt it got out of control," Brown said.

But if Spillman suffered any guilt or anxiety, it apparently did not cramp his lifestyle. His infatuation with Ferraris seemingly bordered on obsession; the floors of his garage, prosecutors say, were checkered in black and white, and the walls were red and yellow, the Ferrari colors. He raced the cars at events around the country and also owned a Formula One-style race car that was carried on an 18-wheel truck. Prosecutors say the truck was equipped with a customized sleeping compartment that had a satellite dish.

Spillman retired in 1999 but told the medical examiner's office that he would continue to handle the estates of the heirless deceased, working as a private consultant. There ensued a series of suspicious occurrences, among them a probate judges' discovery last summer that Spillman's name was listed on papers in a case that could not be tracked throughout the probate system. He was arrested last July in a sting operation as he left a bank after collecting $900 from an estate.

His own meticulous nature as a clerk bolstered the case against him. Investigators say they found a small office in his home with precise records of every estate, including notations about forged wills and other falsified documents.

He also kept a diary that included reminders like "Make new will!" or "Transfer money." On one page of the diary, prosecutors say, he listed two prices for coffins and circled the cheaper of the two.

Investigators found file boxes or suitcases where the deceased had kept personal papers, financial records and even legitimate wills that Spillman ignored. They also found pieces of paper on which the same signature was repeated again and again, apparently Spillman's efforts at practicing forgery. Then there were the mementos of forgotten lives: marriage licenses, military discharge records, love letters.

Spillman, who is free on bond until his sentencing, declined an interview request through his lawyer. His sister has also pleaded guilty to charges that she helped him bilk at least one estate, and prosecutors say they are still investigating whether others worked as accomplices.

For Spillman's friends at the courthouse, there is a lingering sense of disbelief.

"He was a happy-go-lucky kind of fellow," said David Brem, an administrative assistant in one probate court. "Nothing ever seemed to bother him."

"I guess," Brem added, "he got into a lifestyle that he had to finance in some manner."

As it turns out, Spillman apparently did inherit money from his own father. He and his sister split $150,000, according to his lawyer. His share would have been enough to buy just about any luxury car, with one notable exception. It wasn't nearly enough for a Ferrari.