A Galaxy Not So Far Away

There are freak accidents and then there are freak acts of temporal stupidity which change lives forever and alter their course towards an irrevocable dead end. That was the case in the early morning hours of December 4, 1982 when Thomas Hart and his wife were returning to their Westland home from an evening spent with friends. While driving along a poorly lit road a projectile slammed into the hood of their car and through the windshield striking Mr. Hart in the head before exiting through the back window. He was taken to Wayne County General Hospital with traumatic injuries to his brain and was kept alive via life support systems. Within 24 hours he showed no brain activity and his organs were harvested and donated at the request of his family.

Police recovered a mud-laden 14 pound Galaxy model bowling ball from the side of the road near the accident scene. They tracked its make and manufacturer to a Kmart limited distributor and the Michigan based chain store aided police in their investigation towards tracking down the owner. Since there were no bridges or overpasses in the area, officials believed that somebody had thrown it from a nearby wooded area or another vehicle. It took several newspaper accounts of the story before 5 young men came forward with details concerning the case.

They were returning from a bowling outing when 18 year old Charles Joseph Borg, Jr. of Wayne decided that he didn't want the "crummy ball" any more and decided to chuck it out the window. It is assumed that the men were intoxicated at the time and they claimed to have no knowledge of the fate of the ball until hearing about it through media reports. Shaken by the incident they turned themselves in for questioning where the details of the story were revealed.

Borg was later charged with manslaughter and plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter. On June 30, 1983, Wayne County Circuit Judge Richard Kaufman sentenced Borg to 2 six month terms 4 years apart (go figure that one out!) at the Detroit House of Corrections that would be sandwiched around 2 years of extensive probation and community service. Kaufman explained that even though the sentenced seemed harsh that many  would deem it too lenient in light of the loss of life. Borg was also ordered not to drink during this 5 year period or face violation of his sentence.

Yule's Gold

Cash back rewards have been around in various forms dating back to at least the 1800s. In the 1890s stores began issuing trading stamps to customers who paid with cash instead of purchasing on credit tabs. The practice further caught on in the 1910s and 20s with the emergence of chain gas stations and grocery stores and expanded to all customers who shopped at the establishments.

The peak of the frenzy was between the 1930s where it was almost a prerequisite to have a stamp program to draw in customers. By the mid-1960s the craze has slowed and many corporations dropped the promotion in favor of research and marketing to heighten their store's appeal. Which actually might have been more a boon for the customer than the company line as it was estimated that the cost of the programs generally raised the participating store's prices by 4%.

The value of each stamp in the 1970s was approximately 10 cents or $120 total to fill up a booklet of 1200. Depending on the company and their redemption center, the filled booklets could be traded for anything from common small household appliances to life insurance policies and in some instances of finagling, just about anything. One such instance  involved an Erie, Pennsylvania school which collected over 5 million Green Stamps and purchased a pair of gorillas for a local zoo with the stamps.

In 1961 in the Detroit suburb of Northville, the Hawthorne-Northville Chapter of the Michigan Association for Emotionally Disturbed Children placed a bus on the patients' Christmas list as an humorous afterthought. As Charles E. Dell Jr., the chairman of the chapter's bus committee, recalled it, "They put a bus on the list almost as a joke." The joke became a reality when through volunteering efforts, word-of-mouth campaigns and eventually newspaper articles the chapter accumulated some 2,301,600 Gold Bell stamps from as far away as California.

Volunteers licked and stamped some 1,918 booklets and though they were still 247 books short of the prerequisite amount, with stamp donations still flooding their chapter headquarters, a deal was struck with the distribution company to deliver a bus by Christmas morning. The bus was to be utilized for field trips around the Detroit area.


FURTHER READING

1955

TRADING STAMPS: A Hidden Charge in the Grocery Bill, Time Magazine, November 28, 1955


1961

Children At Hospital Get New Bus; The Owosso Argus-Press, December 21, 1961

Trading Stamps Used To Buy Bus For Hospital; The St. Joseph News-Press, December 27, 1961


2004

The Trading Stamp Story by Jeff R. Lonto

Thomas Bradford's Spirit Test

The Ogden Standard-Examiner, February 21, 1921

Hauntings have been a part of the human landscape as far back as the written word carries its history. Most instances are cold and informal happenings as if two passing figures were situated on separate planes and unexpectedly intersected without cause or warning, momentarily touching one another.

Houdini attempted to make intelligent contact between the dead and the living by sending a message to his beloved when he crossed over into the shadow world. For ten years his wife Bess held séances on Halloween hoping to hear him whisper the agreed upon phrase "Rosabelle believe" to prove that there was life after death. Despite being unsuccessful he inspired others to claim the quest as their own, with failing returns.

Perhaps Houdini himself was inspired by another gentleman, Professor Thomas Lynn Bradford, a Detroit psychic and lecturer, who not only attempted to make contact from the other side but committed suicide to hasten the act and prove that life after death was possible. And according to his assistant he did just that.

Mr. Bradford, said to have been an electrical engineer and a one time athlete and actor as well, devoted much of his last years studying and writing about the occult, particularly the after-life. He theorized in his last written words that "all phenomena are outside the domain of the supernatural." and sought to prove this theory through "scientific facts." Having conjured up the postulate he intended to prove it through experimentation with his own life as the guinea pig. First though he'd need an assistant to receive his message from beyond.

In early 1921 the professor posted an ad in a local newspaper, under the pseudonym Professor Flynn, searching for "someone interested in spiritualistic science" to which a woman named Ruth Starkweather Doran replied. Mrs. Doran, about 40 years old, was from a prominent Detroit family with deep roots in the area. She had only recently returned to the area from Duluth and was doing historical research in the city. A writer and lecturer herself, Doran's curiosity was piqued by the odd advertisement and answered it on a whim. A member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, she was neither a believer in psychic phenomenon or a spiritualist but agreed to meet with Bradford to further investigate a subject she had never breached beforehand. After several meetings--Doran herself claimed that there was no pact and that there was in fact only one brief meeting--in which Bradford presumably explained his theory and plan of action, they chose a date for the final meeting, February 5, 1921.

Shortly before Doran arrived that evening for their last conference, Bradford finished typing his final thoughts for the manuscript to an unfinished book which lay beside the machine, leaving the sheath interred in the carriage, and readied himself for the death experiment. First though, he calmly assured Doran that he would contact her and gave her instructions on how to carry out the reunion. When Doran departed he sealed off the rented room, blew out the pilot to the heater, turned on the gas jets, situated himself in bed for one last repose and eventually succumbed to the fumes.

In the days after Bradford's death, Doran and a congregation of Spiritualist leaders gathered around the parlor in her home awaiting the message. While skepticism abounded even among the sect, Doran also distanced herself from any self-aggrandizement saying that her part was more so as a human being than a Spiritualist or a psychic. While a fortnight of vigils would take place the first few evenings were rather quiet and no contact had come. Though Doran reported that she felt a strange sensation during this time, as if Bradford's spirit was hovering just waiting to call from the beyond.

If Bradford was indeed destined to call there would be competition for his attention. While Ruth Doran and her team hunkered down waiting for a missive, another spiritualist in the same city named Lulu Mack, of 300 Brady Street, claimed to have already had contact with the dead professor.

The Pittsburgh Press, February 10, 1921

On February 9th, a mere 3 days after the passing of Bradford, Mack felt that she was being urged by a passed spirit to make contact. That evening she gathered her medium for a seance. During the event she claimed to hear the faint voice of Bradford. Not calling out to her but to himself, "Thomas Bradford. Thomas Bradford."

Unaware of Bradford's story, Mack questioned her reverend medium. Who responded that Bradford had yet to pass entirely and was still aware of Earthly things, though unlikely knew of his own demise. The low murmur of his voice could be attributed to the fact that he was not yet strong enough to communicate properly from his astral body as much of his energy had been expended on death itself. She believed that as his spirit grew stronger and was purified the probability of contact would increase. Perhaps in a few years or so.

The New York Times, February 18, 1921

On February 12th, a week after his suicide and the scheduled date for Bradford's return, Doran, upon notifying certain media and spiritualist sects, gathered a small group of friends in her home at 9 o'clock that evening for the event. Other spiritualist groups across the city also joined in, forming "concentration parties" to help strengthen the expected signal.

That evening she felt a presence in her dimly lit parlor. She stood staring into a dark corner for several minutes, placed her hands upon her temples and ordered the lights to be turned out. After a few moments of silence she professed to hearing his voice. It started out quite faint and grew even more distant but discernible nonetheless. "Write this!" she directed and one of the witnesses present transcribed the message that she dictated in a low voice. After a half hour she exclaimed that "The voice grows weaker." The clock then struck 10 o'clock and the lights were turned back on.

Appearing flush she looked over the notes, signed them to authenticate that she had dictated them accurately and began to recite the jotted passages:

"I am the professor who speaks to you from the Beyond. I have broken through the veil. The help of the living has greatly assisted me. 

"I simply went to sleep. I woke up and at first did not realize that I had passed on. I find no great change apparent. I expected things to be much different. They are not. Human forms are retained in outline but not in the physical. 

"I have not traveled far. I am still much in the darkness. I see many people. They appear natural. 

"There is a lightness of responsibility here unlike in life. One feels full of rapture and happiness. Persons of like natures associate. I am associated with other investigators. I do not repent my act. 

"My present plane is but the first series. I am still investigating the future planes regarding which we in this plane are as ignorant as are earthly beings of the life just beyond human life."

Once done reciting the message she fainted but soon came to and was asked, "Are you certain beyond doubt that you heard from Bradford?

To which she responded, "I am convinced. I never heard a spirit voice before. That was the professor, without doubt."

Whether or not it was is a matter of conjecture. A betting man might be inclined to disagree with that sentiment. In a town that produced the likes of Shirley Tapp and Rose Veres he might do so against his better judgement.

Later that year Mrs. Doran wrote in an exclusive article that she had regular contact with Bradford thereafter, even in apparition form. Among the wisdom imparted by Bradford was the sentiment that life would one day be eternal on both the spiritual and physical plain:

"Through spiritualism the world will be reclaimed: sin will be vanquished, suffering will end. The physical in man will cease to be, and physical death--and that is the only death--will be no more. Men will live on earth forever, even as they live forever in the spirit world."

FURTHER READING

Detroit Student Of Spirit Communication Ends Life, Perhaps In Effort To Test Theory; The New York Times, February 7, 1921

Missed Ghost Pact, Is Sorry; The Detroit Free Press, February 8, 1921

Widow Of Spiritualist Suicide To Claim Body; The Detroit Free Press, February 11, 1921

Kills Self To Send Spirit Message; "I've Got it!" Declares the Woman; The Southeast Missourian, February 22, 1921

Waiting For A Message From The Dead; The Turners Falls Reporter, March 16, 1921

Detroit Woman's Amazing Story Graphically Told In Special Article For Journal; Syracuse Daily Journal, April 4, 1921

The Sick Cadas

Detroit Free Press, July 15, 1947

If there was a science pertaining to words then "weird" and "Detroit" would be nearly synonymous with any mention of those hulking edifices which were collectively known as Eloise. Though miles separate our not so fair and violent city from the relatively safe confines of what used to be a mental asylum and hospital, short of a geo-political dissertation about how the suburbs and Detroit are completely different subsections of the same animal, the two go hand in hand. Another commingling phenomenon shared between the two is sudden episodic violence. On July 13, 1947 a brother and sister team provided the scenario for just that: the violent end of a life. Late that evening Henry Leo Cada plunged a jackknife into his sister's throat, severing her jugular vein causing her to bleed to death.

The Cada family of River Rouge had a history of mental illness. Both Gilbert Cada, the family matriarch, and his wife had died insane and the sickness was passed on to both son Henry, 28 and daughter Ida, 21. Ida had been in and out of mental institutions the previous months and Henry had a few stints himself after suffering shell shock during World War II, with his latest release coming just 3 months earlier from Percy Jones Hospital in Battle Creek.

Dr. Thomas K. Gruber, superintendent at Eloise, had recommended against Henry's release from Percy Jones due to his interactions with Ida during his visits to her at the Wayne County location. Both had a history of violence and Henry's surly demeanor during the visitations was enough to frighten the staff and warrant his banishment from the facility. Gruber was so troubled by Cada's behavior that he had contacted police to watch out for Henry and went so far as to intervene in getting Cada's taxi license repealed for fear that he would hurt somebody while on duty.

On July 11th Ida was given a weekend pass and released to the care of her aunt Emma DeBons from Roseville. Later in the day after finishing his shift at Murray Body Corporation in Ecorse, Henry went to the Aunt's residence to fetch his sister. The two were close companions but also had their share of difficulty in each others company. Besides the tense hospital visits they had rows concerning money, food and maltreatment with the police being called to the home that Ida shared with two brothers Gilbert and Harvey, and her sister Marie at 83 East Cicotte in River Rouge (Henry reportedly lived down the street at 28 East Cicotte.). The house was a frequent destination for the city's police to break up drunken arguments and fights and they considered the family "funny" in a not-so-flattering way.

Around 5PM that evening Henry and Ida made their way towards the Detroit River where Henry rented a 12 foot boat from a livery named Cash Colasinski. Colasinski told police after the murder that Cada was alone and surmised that he had picked up the girl somewhere along the shore. He said that Cada, still in his work clothes with a swim trunk tucked into one pocket, appeared "normal" to him and the only worry Colasinski had was Cada staying out after dark without lights on the boat. Henry left a paycheck stub and drifted downstream.

Canadian authorities suspect that after picking up Ida somewhere along the shore the two traversed the river to Ontario where they hitchhiked to Wheatley, nearly 50 miles southeast of Detroit where they next surfaced at 6:30PM on Sunday evening. A clerk witnessed them buying chocolate and soda pops from a gas station in town. Others suggested that Ida was staying at the family's summer cottage some 17 miles from Wheatley and that Henry had joined her there and the two then fled. Whichever way the saga transpired, the brother and sister duo wound up in a barn loft near Chatham on property being rented by Joseph Vankerkhoven off of No. 3 Highway. Four hours later Ida Cada was dead at the hands of her brother.

Soon after Henry confessed to a nearby farmer, John Dawson, that he had killed his sister and asked him to phone a doctor. The doctor refused to come because he either didn't believe the fantastical story or as he stated, that the details were too scant to afford a late night visit. Cada apparently returned to the barn so that he'd be present when the doctor arrived and when he didn't show, Henry returned to the Dawson farm. Now quite suspicious of Cada's motive they phoned the police. When the Ontario Provincial Police arrived Cada led them to loft where Ida's body lay mortally wounded.

It was then that Cada told police that he had killed Ida because she had "asked him to" so that she wouldn't have to go back to the Wayne County General Hospital at Eloise. He stated that she would rather die than go back for more electric shock treatments and that he had promised to facilitate this morbid option. He would maintain the "mercy killing" stance during his subsequent "petit jury" hearing even going so far as to say that his father was murdered at Eloise and that he didn't want to see his sister, after eight sessions of shock therapy, to end up the same way. Whether he meant it literally or it was just his mental instability rearing it's ferocious face is up for eternal conjecture seeing as he was an insane man fighting for his life at that point. He was taken to a mental facility at Penetanguishene and held until the next session of the court commenced the following autumn.

The OPP however believed that this was anything but a mercy killing , preferring to label it a murder-suicide gone awry by Henry's cowardice. In official reports they stated that an unnatural love occurred between the two with suggestions that they hadn't run away together in a traditional sense of escape but had actually eloped to carry out their incestuous relations. Perhaps realizing that they couldn't legally sustain the affair they opted for suicide. The fact that Ida didn't resist or struggle with her brother during the stabbing seems to confirm such a scenario.

At his trial in September before the High Court of Ontario he spoke forcefully about his experiences with electric shock treatment, he had completed 26 sessions, and said that he'd rather be hanged or put to death by electric chair since "there you only die once." He went so far as to say that if he was given further shock therapy that he would kill again to force the courts into giving him the electric chair.

Dressed in a light gray, double-breasted suit he comported himself respectfully and answered that he knew exactly what he was doing when he killed Ida and that "it was the only way out." His testimony coupled with the testimony of several psychologists that he suffered a persecution complex stemming from his earlier stints in mental hospitals convinced the court that he was unfit to stand trial. Cada was convinced that he had been railroaded from his military service due to a beating he received by fellow soldiers because he refused to join the C.I.O. A theory which doctors rebuffed claiming that he had actually suffered the injuries from leaping out of a moving train while being transferred between mental hospitals. He was also certain that the Catholic Church was out to get him because a charity affiliated with the church had recommended shock therapy, though their influence likely had no bearing on his treatment.

Cada was remanded back to Penetanguishene. What his treatments were are not known but his criminal behavior continued. Within six months he would escape the mental institution along with notorious murderer Melville Wilkie, a repeated escape artist, who had burned his wife and infant daughter to death in an intentionally set house fire in Owen Sound for the insurance money. The two were taken into custody without incident nearly a week later when they were found huddling near a brush fire in Cedar Point, Ontario, 40 miles north of Penetanguishene. Wilkie would escape several more times while Cada, just three weeks after his recapture, managed to stab guard Robert Maurice just below the eye when he brought Henry a glass of water.

FURTHER READING

1947

Charge Man Slew Sister; The Ottawa Citizen, July 14, 1947

Murder Reveals Fantastic Story; The Windsor Daily Star, July 14, 1947

Sister Dies When Knife Slits Throat; The Windsor Daily Star, July 14, 1947

Trail Of Insanity; The Windsor Daily Star, July 14, 1947

Jury Rules Cada Unfit To Be Tried; The Windsor Daily Star, September 16, 1947

Motive Still Sought In Girl's Death; The Windsor Daily Star, July 16, 1947

Confesses Killing Sister; The Warsaw Daily Union, July 17, 1947

Untitled; The Grosse Pointe News, July 17, 1947

Cada Must Stand Trial; The Windsor Daily Star, July 28, 1947

Henry Cada Ordered To Stand Trial For Murder; The Windsor Daily Star, July 29, 1947


1948


Officers Hunting Escaped Maniacs; The Owosso Argus-Press, March 22, 1948

Two Insane Murderers Recaptured; The Calgary Herald, March 23, 1948

2 Confessed Slayers Retaken In Ontario; The Ludington Daily News, March 24, 1948

Cada Stabs Hospital Guard; The Windsor Daily Star, April 12, 1948


1952

Captured; The Sunday Sun, March 29, 1952

Somnambulism in the Suburbs

If trial and error are the main catalysts towards scientific purity then doctoral candidate, Gerald G. Griffin, a part-time psychology instructor at Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn and former psychologist for Oakland County schools, was well on his way to conducting the perfect experiment. During an evening session of his entry level sociology class on Friday November 12, 1965 he discussed both the merits and benefits of hypnotism to a non-believing audience. Having previously experimented with the practice in his classes, Griffin, an "amateur hypnotist", was obviously an eager practitioner despite his lack of credentials. But word had gotten out by a student to her clergyman who in turn notified the school's Dean, Ray Howe, and Griffin was reprimanded with Howe demanding that such experimentation had no relevance in a basic course. Having been warned not to repeat the incident in-class he agreed to meet some students for an off-campus session. First though, he made a pact with the class that the sessions must remain secret. While their agreement held firm the experiment soon went awry.

One of the eager to learn was 18 year old coed Cynthia Wellman of Inkster. She agreed to meet Griffin at a parking lot near the school campus for an impromptu session. While sitting inside a car Griffin put Wellman into the requested trance. It's not clear whether other students participated in the exercise or what exactly transpired during the session but when it came time to awaken Cynthia she remained spellbound. Griffin then spent several hours trying to revive her using the techniques which enabled the trance, all to no avail. Griffin then panicked, which may have led to his difficulty in returning her to consciousness, but certainly didn't help with his cause. After repeated attempts failed to rouse the girl, the married father of two children drove Wellman to his residence and attempted to let her sleep it off on the couch. When that method also failed to return results she was taken to the Wayne County General Hospital in Eloise.

Under the care of Dr. Bruce Danto she was given sodium amytal, or truth serum, a barbiturate used to relax patients or to induce drowsiness in those with insomnia. It was first used clinically to treat psychiatric patients in the late 1920s and later by law enforcement to coax suspects into confessing to a crime. The drug came under scrutiny when tests showed that patients under the influence of the drug were highly susceptible to fabrication and coercive suggestion by outside influences. When the drug began to arouse Wellman from her somnambulistic state, Griffin transferred his control over the girl to Danto, who after several hours (and 16 total hours from the start of the original hypnosis) managed to fully relieve her of the hypnotic state.

Griffin, who was later thoroughly questioned by Inkster police, was suspended from his post at the community college and later resigned the position. No charges were filed by authorities mainly due to the fact that there were no laws on the book at the time and because investigators were convinced that no improprieties took place outside of the actual act itself. Griffin was rattled by the episode but maintained a professional demeanor in asserting that he was "a scientist" and had only used the procedure in good faith and as a teaching tool despite the unfortunate results.

FURTHER READING

Instructor Suspended For Hypnotizing Coed; The Owosso Argus-Press, November 12, 1965

Hypnotism Experiment Backfires; The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 15, 1965

Hypnotist Is Suspended By A School; The Lawrence Journal-World, November 15, 1965

Teacher-Hypnotist Suspended; The Windsor Star, November 15, 1965

Classroom Hypnotist Still Under Suspension; The Victoria Advocate, November 16, 1965

In 16-Hour Trance; The Free Lance-Star, November 16, 1965

In Long Trance; The St. Joseph News-Press, November 16, 1965

Instructor Faces Suspension For Hypnotizing Coed; The Lewiston Morning Tribune, November 16, 1965

Experimenter In Hypnotics Suspended; The Titusville Herald, November 16, 1965

Hypnotist Instructor Resigned; The Owosso Argus-Press, November 17, 1965