John Wheeler, the defense contractor who served in three Republican presidential administrations and was found dead in a landfill on New Year's Eve, was acting crazy before his death — and may have tried to burn his neighbor's house down.

Newark, Delaware police have ruled his death a homicide, but still have no idea of what really happened. He was on an Amtrak train last Tuesday. On Wednesday he showed up at a New Castle pharmacy, and things went from there:

"He said, ‘Can you give me a ride to Wilmington?' and that was a flag," a pharmacist told the News Journal. "He looked like he was a little upset."

Less than an hour after leaving the drug store, Wheeler was at the New Castle County Courthouse parking garage in Wilmington, searching for his car "erratically," employees at the garage said.

One worker said that Wheeler was carrying his right shoe in his left hand and claimed someone had stolen his briefcase. His car was later found a few blocks away at another parking garage where authorities say Wheeler was a monthly customer.

On Thursday, he was seen in Wilmington two blocks from the office of a lawyer who'd been representing him in a property dispute with a neighbor. Speaking of that neighbor...

Incendiary devices were found at the home of the neighbor with whom Wheeler had been entangled in a property dispute at the time of his death and a law enforcement source said investigators believe Wheeler may have set them, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

On Friday, he was found dead in a landfill. You figure it out!

[Image via AP/Newark, Del. police department]