On this day, March 12, 1898 William Wray died of gunshot wounds he received on March 9, from his former roommate and intimate friend, Thompson Doucan. Doucan was a barber at the O.K. Barber Shop at the foot of Paradise Alley. While at the “O.W. Johnson Saloon” on the Pacific Coast dock, Doucan shot Wray and then turned the gun on himself and committed suicide.
The Skagway news described Mr. Wray as a 36-year old merchant and boat builder who was inoffensive and well liked. The paper said that Doucan however, possessed a “morose disposition and was considered materially ‘off’ by those who knew him intimately”.
Sounds like a lot of intimacy going around.