Copyright The Daily Ardmoreite - Ardmore, Oklahoma
Thursday, October 16, 1930

MYSTIC FINDS BODY OF MISSING FARMER

Body of Alton Edgar, Who Disappeared From His Home Near Madill on Night of Oct. 7, Is Found in Ravine South of Madill With Bullet Wound in Head.

MADILL, Oct. 16. - (Special) - Oriental mysticism today played a major role in the discovery of the body of W. Alton Edgar, 34, Marshall county farmer, missing from his home since the night of Oct. 7. His badly decomposed body was found in a ravine beside the highway near Oklahoma school, three miles southwest of Madill. He had been shot through the head and had been dead for at least a week. A coroner's jury was holding inquest over the body this afternoon. No clue as to the slayer has been found. Alton Edgar was seen walking along Lillie Boulevard at 9 o'clock Tuesday night. He vanished into the night and was seen no more. Two or three days passed and alarm for his safety aroused relatives to action. Monday the officers entered into the case. The Washita river was dragged and a net spread over the county. Edgar, apparently, had faded into thin air, as not a clue to his whereabouts was found.

Arranged Seance

Two days ago, John Richardson, Lee White, Mrs. White, John Edgar, brother of the missing man, F.R. Loftis and Mrs. Max Archard, a sister, turned to supernatural sources. They heard of a Hindu mystic in Ada who exercises weird power in the location of missing articles. A seance was arranged and the mystic told the party that their relative was dead, had been murdered and that his body would be found "south of Madill." A search was instituted by the relatives and apparently was without success. They were ready to brand the Hindu as a faker when to their astonishment, the mystic arrived unannounced early Thursday morning. He sought out the men who had been in the group that had consulted him. He offered to lead the search in person.

The mystic described a school house which he said was near the place where the body was lying. The relatives believed that the description fitted the Archerd school, which is approximately three miles southeast of Madill. They took the mystic there.

"This is not the place," he told them positively after examining the premises. "Perhaps it is the Oklahoma school," some one suggested. This school house is some distance from the Archerd school but is only three miles from Madill and southwest of town.

The searchers drove to the Oklahoma building. The Hindu readily declared that this was the school house he had visioned. He left the car and walked down a little ravine. The wind swerved a bit and searchers were sickened with the odor of decaying flesh. A few hundred feet along the road in the weeds and brush they found Edgar's body.

It was identified by clothing and other articles. The Hindu, his work completed, calmly departed. Apparently he returned to Ada. He was gone before his name could be ascertained or thanks extended him by the sorrowing relatives.

Copyright the Ardmoreite - Ardmore, Oklahoma
Friday, October 17, 1930

Two Madill Men in Jail Here

DEAD MAN'S WIFE IS BEING HELD IN JAIL AT MADILL

Men Committed to Carter County Jail in Ardmore Are Harlan G. Sullivan and Hardy Nichols BROTHERS-IN-LAW OF MRS. EDGAR Alton Edgar and Wife Had Been Estranged for Some Time, Court Records Show.

Mrs. Alton Edgar, wife of Alton Edgar, slain farmer whose body was found in a lonely ravine near Madill Thursday, with her two brothers in law, Harlan G. Sullivan and Hardy Nichols, are under arrest while Marshall county officers investigate certain clues which indicate they may have something to do with the killing of Edgar. Mrs. Edgar, who is the mother of three children, is in jail at Madill. The two men are in the Carter county jail.

Sheriff Ed Long transferred the men to the Carter county jail for two purposes, he said. The crowd on the courthouse lawn at Madill did not seem particularly orderly, it was said, and it also was deemed advisable to keep the three suspects as widely separated as possible.

Edgar disappeared from Madill on Oct. 7. A search of eight days failed to reveal his body. Ed Kelley, a negro mystic of Ada, was called in by relatives and, according to reports, readily directed the searchers to the ravine near Oklahoma school where Edgar's badly decomposed body was found - a bullet hole in the back of the head.

The dead man and his wife have been estranged from some time. Suit for divorce, counter suit and other litigation has marked their domestic differences. Feeling was said to have been bitter.

No charges had been filed against the suspects at noon Friday. Officers still were investigating the case and endeavoring to find connecting clues.