Utah Department of Public Safety

George Warren GRAY

“On 10/13/1951 at 12:05 am, Thomas Crompton reported to Ogden PD that the Butcher George (Bud) Gray was “Shot by a man attempting to hold them up for the money sack” as they were closing the front door of Crompton’s Ogden Market, “Gray was shot through the chest with a 38 caliber revolver and died at Dee Hospital.”

In the 1951 police report officers were told Thomas Crompton, George Gray and Marjorie Gray had just locked the front door to Crompton Pay-n-take-it market in Ogden when a man approached them carrying a sack. The suspect demanded they go back inside the store. When told there was no money in the store, the suspect said he knew there was and made threats. As they went back inside they were directed to the back office where the suspect told them to open the safe. A struggle ensued and the guns discharged striking George Gray. During the bloody fight, Marjorie Gray struck the suspect with a syrup can and a catsup bottle causing the suspect to drop the gun. Crompton picked up the gun and told Mrs. Gray to call the police.

As the suspect ran toward the front window of the store, Crompton shot three times. The suspect threw a soda bottle through the front window and then climbed through the hole. The Suspect was dripping blood on the sidewalk as he ran from the store. An Ambulance took George Gray to the Dee Hospital for emergency operation. The doctor operated for five hours, but George Gray died approximately at 8:00 am.

Investigators pursued a suspect who had escaped from the Utah State Prison and who was later captured in Ohio during an armed robbery. News Articles later indicate he was excluded as the suspect in this homicide.

Contact Ogden City PD 801-395-8221

 

 

 

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