Who is the creepy guy in this picture? His name is William Bradfield and he is even more creepy than you might think. More at the end of this post.
This is a page from my February 1978 school newspaper: The Upper Merion Emissary. During my sophomore year, I wrote several articles for the journalism class paper. It was very interesting to read through the stuff - especially an opinion piece I wrote on the death penalty. Funny to see how my views on that issue have changed.
The opinion piece above the photo is uncredited. I wrote it as a project of amateur investigative journalism. Some of those high school teachers were not happy about it, but my teacher liked it and I got a good grade in the class. Looking back, I really enjoyed Ms. Hutson's class and the other kids on the school paper.
As for the bearded fellow, in addition to planning bible lectures, Bill Bradfield also planned and committed murder. Three of them: the victims were a fellow English teacher named Sue Reinert and her two children. Ms. Reinert was found beaten and drugged to death in her car 16 months after this photo and her kids were never found. Bradfield, along with our school principal Dr. Jay Smith were convicted of the murders.
More information can be found about this famous Philadelphia area case by googling "main line murders" or checking out Joseph Wambaugh's book "Echoes in the Darkness." Wambaugh is a very good police and true-crime writer.
