Aubrey McClendon, an Oklahoma wildcatter who helped pioneer the shale energy boom, died in a fiery car crash Wednesday, a day after he was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiring to rig the price of oil and gas leases.

Mr. McClendon propelled the rebirth of U.S. energy production as the co-founder of Chesapeake Energy Corp., leading a rush to lease land around the country to extract natural gas and oil trapped in shale rock formations through a technique made famous by its nickname, fracking.

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