DETAINED MAN

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29178, 12 April 1960, Page 17

DETAINED MAN

“Pratt An Enigma’ 9

JOHANNESBURG, April 11. The Johannesburg morning newspaper “The Rand Daily Mail” described the man who ahot Dr. Verwoerd, David Pratt, an “an enigma.” For a week he would throw himself into the social life of Johannesburg, then shut himself away for months in his mansion 30 miles from the city. His attitude to business was equally strange: he would sometimes refuse even to discuss helping finance a venture and at other times would increase tenfold the amount required. t There were times when he felt depression coming over him and he would then drive to his daughter, who would keep him under treatment for several days. Friends said that from time to time he had treatment at various mental institutions.

The newspaper quoted Father Orsmond, director of “Boy’s Town,” a home for difficult boys near where Mr Pratt lived and which he often visited, as saying; “I gained the impression that he was very emotionally upset and seemed to be seeking tor something to restore his self-eonfld-ence. At no time was politics discussed between us.” In London, the “Daily Mail” said that during the General Election last October, Pratt bad assisted the unsuccessfu’ Liberal candidate for the Cities of London and Westminster, Mr Derek Monsey. Liberal Party officials described him as “quiet, soft-spoken and kind,” and said he rarely talked about South African politics.

On one occasion, however, he said: “A lot of us don’t like what is going on in South Africa, but what is the alternative? It is our country and we just can’t run out on it It is our home. “But some of us want to see things put straight out there. Apartheid can’t last” The American Associated Press said that Mr Pratt’s second wife was living at The Hague in Holland with her six-year-old daughter and five-year-old son. Her name was Patty Heyningen and she was described as ‘‘very blonde and extremely attractive.” She had refused to see reporters.