Pratt was a wealthy businessman and farmer of British descent . He qualified as a chartered accountant at the University of Cambridge , England . He suffered from epilepsy from an early age and was a loner at school . Both of Pratt 's marriages failed . There is evidence that he suffered from his first serious bout of depression in 1946 after his divorce from Mary Hatrick . His second marriage , to Patty van Heijningen , was not successful either . In 1954 , shortly after the birth of their first child , Pratt claimed to have received a message which he should convey to South Africa . He was boarded and diagnosed as suffering from “ grandiose delusions of the political saviour type ” . Pratt was almost constantly in psychiatric treatment . His Dutch wife feared for her safety because he threatened her . In the beginning of 1958 she left him and returned to The Hague , taking their two children with her . He followed her with a gun in his pocket but was apprehended at Amsterdam Airport . His condition worsened and he became manic . His neurologist , Dr.Chesler , urged his sister to have a '' curator bonis '' ( legal guardian ) appointed for him because he could no longer manage his affairs properly . He desperately tried to win his wife back . When that failed , he attempted to kidnap his little daughter during a ski holiday . As he became more desperate about his marital problems , Pratt tried to commit suicide on three different occasions . It appears that Pratt ’s paranoid condition was reinforced by the escalation of the political conflict after the Sharpeville massacre
Sharpeville massacre
Sharpeville massacre
David Pratt (assassin)