Wilmington

From England, in the year 1760, a young, personable gentleman named Llewellyn Markwick came to settle in a sea-port city along North Carolina's coast.

Claiming he had relatives among the titled families of the old country, he wore a most unique ring which he told his friends was a duplicate of his family crest. The ring was in the shape of a snake's body with a large diamond clasped between it's jaws.

A great lover of horses, young Markwick rode off one fall afternoon, never to return. His horse returned, riderless, but no clue was found to Markwick's disappearance for eight years.

In the summer of 1768, a great rainstorm brought a 24-hour deluge of water, flooding streets. The next day, one of Markwick's friends noticed a brightly shining object along side the street . Unable to pick it up, he discovered it was ring, still attached to a bony hand. The bony hand was attached to a skeleton, which on detailed examination turned out to be Markwick, murdered with a bullet embedded in his skull.

No reason for the slaying nor the identity of the murderer was ever discovered. Story-tellers recall that until this street was improved with a hardsurface pavement, an indentation where the skeleton was found always remained in spite of frequent efforts to fill it up to street level.

 

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