Jailer Eli Bray was shot and killed with his own service weapon during an escape attempt from the Carthage Jail.

On December 14, 1930, Officer Bray was working as a relief jailer to allow another jailer to have a day off. A 19-year-old man, Albert McCann, and his 20-year-old wife, Irene McCann, came to the jail to see a prisoner. The man attacked Jailer Bray from behind, gained control of his service revolver, and shot him four times. The couple intended to break prisoner Raymond Jackson out of jail but fled without doing so.

The suspects were arrested after fleeing to Chelsea, Oklahoma and found to be in possession of Officer Bray's weapon. Albert McCann, was convicted of Jailer Bray's murder and sentenced to death on April 25, 1931. His sentence was later changed to 50 years after he received a new trial. In December of 1954 he escaped from the Missouri Penitentiary. On November 14, 1958, he was captured in Los Angeles, California. Irene McCann was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to 10 years in prison on May 21, 1931. A few months after the trial, Irene McCann faked appendicitis and escaped from the hospital only to be apprehended within 24 hours. The next day she claimed responsibility for the murder during an interview with a reporter. In 1932 she filed through the bars of her cell at the Women's Work Farm and escaped along with another prisoner but was again recaptured. Newspapers depicted Albert and Irene McCann as Depression era gangsters, committing robberies as they criss-crossed Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri.

Jailer Bray also served as a Carthage police officer and Marion Township constable. He was survived by his wife, Lula; two daughters, Mary and Catherine; son, Ralph; five brothers and two sisters. Interred: Park Cemetery, Carthage, Missouri.