James Kidd (1879–1949) was an American prospector who disappeared in 1949, only to have his will discovered eighteen years later by the Estate Tax Commissioner of Arizona.
His request that his estate be gifted to "a research or some scientific proof of a soul of the human body which leaves at death"[1] sparked a number of court cases and set a precedent for the seriousness of psychical organisations.
[2] Once Kidd was declared legally deceased the Estate Tax Commissioners office seized his possessions to audit them.
I have no heirs and have not married in my life and after all my funeral expenses have been paid and $100 given to some preacher of the gospel to say fare well at my grave sell all my property which is all in cash and stocks with E F Hutton Co Phoenix some in safety deposit box, and have this balance money go into research or some scientific proof of a soul of the human body which leaves at death I think in time there can be a photograph of soul leaving the human at deathThe will was declared legal by the state of Arizona in the same year.
[3] However, when the case went to trial at the Superior Court of Arizona, judge Robert L. Myers received 18 petitions, which eventually grew to 133 from various spiritual organisations declaring that they were best fit to fulfill Kidd's wishes.