The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-07-28

Deah-SenSational RumOrS-Thcir
Denial bv the Friends of Darsan
and the Doctor and Coroner-Mys-
terics Regarding the Affairs Of the
Oil Company.
Darlington, S. c., July PIT don't
know what went with the money"
confessed the attorney for Robert
Keith Dargan, the man whom a cor
oner's jury pronounced a suicide on
July 18th. 1--WE have not been able to
discover much but debts. 1t does not
seem that he had 800 when he died.
This whole section of South Carolina
is under intense excitement over the
report that the supposed suicide is not
dead at all and that the alleged awful
tragedy of July 10th was a farce. They
say that q man who was connected
with the Independent Cotton Oil Com
pany and who is now in France, car
ried the money away with him. h
company was capitalized at 100000
and was supposed to be worth more. 1t
was Il tremendous concern. The inn
posing sign, hung above the first stair
landing to it's Offices, reads:
AN IMPOSING SIGN.
General offices the Darlington Oil
Company, Arson Oil and Ice Company,
Chesterfield County Oil Company, the
Marion Oil Mill Company, Farmers
Cotton Oil Company, Robert Keith
Dargan, General Manager"
Mr.. Dargan had been general man
ager for years. The bylaws, adopted
j. ythe directors, gave him virtually
unlimited power and nobody knew
much about the business except him.
self. At each successive meeting of
the directors, even at their late meeting
in June, they adopted resolutions at
firming and re-atfirming their complete
confidence in Dargan. The stockhold-
>ers thought the big combination M
mensely prosperous on accOunt OF the
handsome dividends they received
dividends, it is said, which invaded the
capital stock.
THE COLLAPSE.
Not until Il fortnight or so ago was
it discovered that the business was
bankrupt and that its personal proper
ty i'm the shape Of oil did not tally with
the books. The big tanks at Charles
ton were empty and the tanks else
where were well-nigh so. Dargan was
excused from it's presidency and gen.
eraI managerShip. The business col
laDsed, carving with it ruin to the
Darlington Trust Company, the }. u.
Mccall mercantile business II many
individuals. The receiver, Mr.. Bright
Williamson, says that its affairs are SO
complicated that it is impossible to give
out yet an accurate statement.
STRANGE STORIES AFLOAT.
This history, together with the re-
port that Dargan went to Paris two
years ago and had made Il waXen i'm
of himself, and another that his
brother Pegram had been, for several
years, studying hypnotism and occult
arts in the North, the fact that the
did not go in with his jury to
view the corpse and the rumor that ne
said, after the burial, that he could not
swear that Dargan was dead; that w.
L. Dargan ordered out of the mansion
two men who had come with the jury
To see the body: that the grave was
bricked and cemented; that there was
q great effort to avoid publicity On the
night of the tragedy, and other rumors
and reports too numerous to recount,
constitute the basis for the widespread
suspicion that it IS q put-up JOD. 80
frantic has gossip grown that a teie-
phOne message went abroad last night
that the grave had been opened and
found empty.
THE CORONER'S STORY.
The coroner tells me that on the
right of the 10th, when he got TO the
office where the deed was done, he
found the front door and the PARTITION
door locked. In the back room were
Pegram Dargan, DR.. Edwards and the
man. The dead mans jaws were
tied with a towel to prevent his mouth
from falling open. He was sitting i'll
easy chair with his feet upon a
book case. DR.. Edwards said that ne
dead when first examined by MN.
Both W. +. and Pegram Dargan asked
The coroner if he recognized the corpse,
and he replied that he did, and that 1t
was Robert Keith Dargan. They told
him that they did not want a crowd to
collect or any publicity, and he agreed
that they might remove the corpse to
the mansion. When they were taking
il I'D to bear it to the carriage at the
door. the coroner offered to assists them
but Pegram objected. The coroner
thrust an arm untsr the body any
how while they We're lifting it.into the
carriage. 1t had not yet, he says,
crown cold. This was h last time
the coroner saw the dead man.
'If l had the authority" said he, Il
would have have the grave opened. It's
the shortest way to stop all this talk
w. f. DARGAN SAYS ROBERT is
DEAD.
saw Mr.. w. +. Dargan, Il hand
some man, and the picture of Il patrl-
clan.
NO. SIR" he answered, Il have moth
ing to say. The man is dead. The doc
tor said so; the coroner said so; the
~coroner's jury and Others-eiShteen
men in all-inspected the body and
SyyOra he was dead."'