Dr. John Bradford, 53, the owner of a successful optical lab in Melbourne, Florida, didn’t suspect an ambush when he walked into his home.
His wife Priscilla, 36, and two of her friends, Joyce Cummings, 18, and Janice Gould,34, both of whom worked in his lab, were waiting. The three women assaulted him with a frying pan, a stool, and a cast iron bottle capper. They bludgeoned him so hard they broke the frying pan. Finally, he lay on the floor dead in a pool of blood.
When Priscilla called the police that day, she said she killed him because he’d been abusive. She feared for her life, she said, sobbing. According to the women, he had come home earlier than expected and had been angry the women were there and lost his temper. When Priscilla screamed the two women rushed in to find him about to attack her. They had to beat him with whatever was handy to stop him.
Both Priscilla and Bradford had been married before and divorced. He had two daughters, Priscilla had one, Eden who was home taking a shower at the time. They had only been married three years, but it had already soured, at least for him. He had made her part owner of the lab when they married. Dr. Bradford had started divorce proceedings and taken his wife out of his will.
Though the police questioned the women’s stories, they had no evidence to contradict…
