This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Death Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/JW.2ADE/8122 Message Board Post: Despondent Man Commits Suicide The body of 82 year old Rudolph Peprek was discovered Monday morning at the William L. Smith ranch, 11 miles west of Rosamond, on Willow Springs Road. Investigating officers declared his death a suicide. R. Peprek, born in Yugoslavia came to Kern County about 25 years ago. He had lived in the Willow Springs area for about ten years and was employed as a ranch hand on the Wm. L. Smith ranch. Peprek had been despondent since the death of his friend, Charlie Elich, February 10th. He was also apparently in poor health. Ralph Sanchez, fellow employee, reported he and Peprek had coffee at 7:00 a. m. Monday morning. Sanchez then went to work and when he returned to the storage shed at 8:00 p.m. he found Peprek who had died from a bullet wound in the head. A .32 caliber automatic kept in the bunkhouse with other guns, used to kill coyotes and other animals around the ranch was listed as the suicide weapon. A note was later found in the bunk house. It read "Don't blame nobody for I killed myself. I been suffer too much sickness for sometime so I end my life. Good bye. . Forgive me," Rudolph Peprek. Find me in the bunk house. The body was removed to the O'Donnell Funeral Home, Mojave. Inquest is pending. Posted by East Kern Genealogical Society Courtesy of Mojave Desert News California City, Kern, CA Published: 14 Mar 1957