No one can know exactly what Finn M. W. Caspersen, a prominent philanthropist and the heir to the Beneficial Corporation fortune, was thinking when he decided to take his life on Labor Day.  But he apparently harbored a secret: He was suspected of dodging many millions in federal taxes.

The Robin Hood Foundation’s spring fund-raising event has long set the pace for charity benefits, raising tens of millions of dollars from publicity-averse hedge fund moguls who engaged in raucous bidding wars. That was then, this is now.