May 23 1946
Oakland Tribune, Oakland, California, Thursday, May 23, 1946
S.F. CROWD SEES MAN'S SUICIDE ON STREET CORNER
A Los Angeles man fatally shot himself before the eyes of onlookers at Fifth and Market Streets in downtown San Francisco at 6:45 a.m. today.
Identified by police as Alfred Pray, 45, of 2298 Moss Avenue, a deputy city recorder.
Pray was taken to Mission Emergency Hospital in an unconscious condition and died soon after arrival there.
Police said they found $1800 in Pray's wallet and a note on his person requesting an autopsy in the event of death. The note indicated, police said, that Pray expected to die of a cerebral hemorrhage and may have indicated ill health. There were no other notes indicating motives for the suicide.
Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, Hollywood, California, Thursday, May 23, 1946
Pray, Deputy Recorder End Life in S.F.
A man identified by police from papers in his pockets as Alfred Pray, a deputy recorder of Los Angeles, shot and killed himself in San Francisco today, press dispatches disclosed.
Police officer Frank O'Connor said the man shot himself in the right forehead with a small caliber revolver and died shortly after being taken to San Francisco Hospital.
O'Connor said the man had $1800 in cash on his person and a suitcase filled with clothing.
Papers gave his residence as 2298 Moss Ave., Los Angeles and a note indicated that if anything happened to him he desired an autopsy.
The shooting occurred in front of Hales Department Store at a busy intersection about 6:45 am. The unconscious man was taken to Mission Emergency Hospital and then transferred to San Francisco Hospital where he died.
Pray, 51, was a clerk for 23 years in the County Recorder's office here and had applied for a disability pension because of an ear ailment.
Miss Mame Beatty, of the County Recorder's office, today received a letter from Pray on a three months' leave of absence saying he wished to file for the pension.
“In all the time that he worked in the office here he seldom spoke to anyone,” Miss Beatty recalled. “He was a brilliant statistician.”
His ear ailment was due to a bicycle fall several years ago.
Pray graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
A relative, Mrs. Frances Pray lives in Roscoe.
