Artful salesman or Dallas con man? The life and death of Spencer Edwards

Was Spencer Edwards a wheeling-and-dealing Dallas oilman or the perpetrator of a Ponzi scheme?

The Dallas Morning News has a long, detailed report on the life of the late Edwards, who killed himself the day after Thanksgiving last year.

His death has sparked a deluge of lawsuits and accusations about alleged shady dealings that the newspaper said have shocked family and friends and "raised questions about the real Spencer Edwards."

The article raises the question of whether Edwards was the friendly salesman or was he a crook who took advantage of dozens of people who invested in what he said were oil and gas deals in Wyoming and North Dakota.

Edwards, 50, grew up on property near Arlington and spent his early years as a hard-charging car salesman before turning to the oil-and-gas business.

He and his wife, Holly, lived an opulent lifestyle in such places as Preston Hollow and Highland, and a $500,000 home in Rockwall County, the Morning News said. At the time of his death, the couple was renting a $4,000-a-month penthouse in the Galleria area, the newspaper said.

The couple was involved in Dallas charitable events and seemingly aspired to be a part of the highest levels of Dallas society, the Morning News reported.

The Morning News said that friends and associates described Edwards as down in the last days of his life, appearing almost grey and despondent. He was planning his own death, the newspaper said, hand-wrote a new will, and went as far as confirming that his $5 million life insurance policy would pay if he took his own life.

Edwards leaped to his death from the penthouse the day after Thanksgiving 2013, the newspaper said. His death set off a flurry of accusations and lawsuits alleging that Edwards had duped dozens of people into investing into an alleged Ponzi scheme.

Lance Murray edits and writes for the DBJ's website and can be reached at 214-706-7106. Subscribe to our email newsletters.