The White Pine News

Woman Left Ely For Pioche On July 6th, Accompanied By Man Who Killed Her.

"Tell Mr. Burton, the blacksmith, that his son killed a woman in Salt Lake Saturday and then killed himself."

The above telephone message was sent to the Star Pointer last evening by a friend of the aged blacksmith. The old man, heartbroken, was brought to town by a friend and as if in a trance repeated again and again the terrible message. He had reared the boy well, had educated him and then after 28 years the results of his labors and his undying affection for his only son had come to nought.

"He killed a woman and then himself. He killed a woman and—" And then the old man buried his face in his hands and wept as only a father could weep who had suddenly been apprised of his offspring's tragic finish.

The Salt Lake papers contain a full account of the shooting. It seems William H. Bray and Georgia Burton, a woman of the half world, who ran a house in the local tenderloin district, left here on July 6th last for Pioche. From Pioche they drifted to Salt Lake and last Saturday Bray shot her three times and then sent a bullet into his brain. He fell to the sidewalk, death being instantaneous.

The woman, however, did not die until after she had been taken to the hospital. The two had quarreled, and Bray while in a fit of anger, drew the gun and shot her down. The murder and suicide took place on Commercial street in Salt Lake and was witnessed by many.

The woman came from a good family, her true name being Georgia Burke. Letters were found upon her dead body addressed to her sister, her mother and her chum at the high school in a little town in Indiana.

Bray wrote a letter to his wife the night before the tragedy. It was published in the Salt Lake Herald and reads as follows:

"Mrs. Wm. Bray, Boulder, Colo.

"My Dear Jose: You will find enclosed the only money I have on earth. Forgive me for this awful deed I have done, as I am crazy and don't know what I am doing. Good-bye my sweetheart, and give my little Sal all the advantages you can. I should have been insured, but I wasn't. I am sorry for this. Good-bye. I will die. Yours,

"P. S.—Don't publish this in the newspapers. Don't for the old-time sake."