The deceased was Mine Manager of some of the leases being exploited by some English investors. He went some miles into the bush, carved his initials on a tree, took dynamite, and scattered his person to the wind, reminiscent of "The Savage Captain", Robert Archibald Grahame, at Burtville in 1905. Apparently the deceased had often said he would have a similar fate. In the early days of Coolgardie, McCracken was a notable figure among the many notable men who engineered the big boom and kept it going. He was the manager of the old Lady Loch Mine and was said to have stood behind £60,000 at one time. Interestingly, his name appeared in documents under the Bankruptcy Act for that mine in 1897. He then went to London and where he lost much of this money and became stranded. Later, he went to South Africa and returned to WA in about 1907. Returning to Laverton a few weeks before his death, McCracken was under instructions to take charge of the Carib mine at Burtvilie, which belonged to a London company. He had been drinking to excess for the previous few days. From what could be gleaned, he was missing from his camp on Friday morning and indications prompted the belief that something serious had happened. A search was instituted and in the evening his dead body was discovered about eight miles away, in the breakaways towards Mt. Weld. His head was partly blown off and the horrid deed had evidently been effected by dynamite. It was surmised that McCracken was in financial difficulties.