The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1905-08-02
SOME SAY DARGAN
Is Dead, But There is Still Some
Mystery.

Mystery.
John Charles Mcneil of the Char
/ lotte, \. c., Observer staff sends a
special from Darlington to his paper
in regard to the rumors which have
been in circulation relative to r. K.
Dargan and his suicide which says in
part:
'I don't know what went with the
money" confessed the attci y for
Robert Keith Dargan, the man whom
a coroner's jury pronounced suicide
on July 11th. 1--WE have not been
able to discover much but debts. 1t
does not seem that he had s1OO when
he died.
This whole section of South Caro-
lima is under intense excitement and
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 a man who was
connected with the Independent Cot
ton Oil company and who is now in
France, carried the money away with
him. The company was capitalized
at 100000 and was suppoed to
be worth more.
Strange Stories Af1Oat.
This history, together with the re-
port that Dargan went to Paris two
years ago and had made a waxen
image of himself, and another that
his brother, Pegram, hao been, for
several years, studying hypnotism and
occult arts in the North; the fact
that the coroner. did not go in with
his jury to view the corpse and the
rumor that he said after the burial
that he could not swear that Dargan
was dead; that w. F. Dargan ordered
out of the mension two men who
had come with the jury to see the
body; that the grave was bricked and
cemented; that there was a great ef-
fort to avoid publicity on the night of
the tragedy, and other rumors and
reports too numerous to recount, con-
stitute the basis for the widespread
suspicion that it is a put-up job. So
frantic has gossip grown that a tele-
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
night of the 10th, when he got to the
Office where the deed was done, he
found the front door and the parti-
ton door locked. In the back room
were Pegram Dargan, DR.. Edwards
and the dead man. The dead mans
jaws were tied with a towel to pre-
tSllC Ills lIlOQI1A IL O1li Ac1l1' OPOAi. AAN
was sitting in an easy chair with his
feet upon a book case. DR.. Ed
wards said that he was dead when
first examined by him. Both W. F.
and Pegram Dargan asked the coro
ner if he recognized the corpse, and
he replied that he did, and that it
was Robert Keith Dargan. They told
him they did not want a crowd to col
lect or any publicity, and he agreed
that they might remove the corpse to
the mansion. When they were TAX
the door the coroner offered to assist
them, but Pegram objected. The
coroner thrust an arm under the body
anyhow while they were lifting it into
the carriage. It had not yet, he says,
grown cold. This was the last time
the coroner saw the dead man. eff
had the authority" said he, II would
have the grave opened. It's the
shortest way to stop all this talk
The Barber Interviewed.
J.K. Doyle, a barber and a,member
of the coroner's jury, which, in this
State, is composed Of IL men, said
that the man is dead. He said that
at 1890 o'clock that night he was
sent for to shave the corpse. He has
shaved many dead man, and this
man was r. K. Dargan and no waxen
figure nor hypnotized man. he had
known Dargan personally for five
years. He could smell the acid and
saw marks Of it about the mouth.
Next morning when he went into the
chamber with his fellow-jurors the
body was lying just as he had left it.
Its been reported" he said, that
the coroner got $1,000, the doctor
$4,000 and $4,000 to say these
things, but that is an absolute lie.'