Madness Monday: A Cold Blooded Murder

About two years ago, I was researching a first cousin of my maternal grandmother Julie (Vanasse) Belair named Emma Vanasse. Emma and her husband Michael Bradley, a farmer, had four children. Michael, son of Irish immigrant Joseph Bradley and his wife Margaret Berrigan, was born on 2 December 1891 in Sheenboro, Pontiac County, Quebec.¹

After finding Michael’s death registration and his burial record, I was curious to know why he died relatively young (he was only 43 years old). In my effort to find more about the circumstances of his death, I searched the online archived edition of the Ottawa Citizen. This newspaper often carries stories about people in nearby communities like Pembroke, Ontario (where a lot of Vanasse lived) and Chapeau, Quebec (where the Vanasse family settled in the 1850s).

I soon found the cause of Michael’s death, but also discovered a “cold blooded murder”.²

On a summer’s morning in July 1933, Michael killed his parents, his brother Thomas, his sister Johanna, and an uncle with his Winchester rifle at their farm in Demers Centre, on Ile des Allumettes in Pontiac County, Quebec.³

Within two years, he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. The Defense argued that Michael was provoked and that he was insane. The Crown argued that Michael’s actions were premeditated and that he was sane.⁴

The newspaper accounts suggested the motive for the family murder was due to possible ill-treatment Michael received from his father, who, after having an argument with his son, told Michael he would not inherit the family farm in spite of having worked on it and financially supported it.⁵

Justice was swift. The jury took 35 minutes to return a unanimous verdict of guilty of murder. Five minutes later, the judge pronounced the sentence.⁶

Michael was hanged on 5 April 1935 in the prison yard of the Common Goal in nearby Campbell’s Bay.⁷ He was buried in St. Alphonsus parish church cemetery in Chapeau. ⁸

Ottawa’s Evening Citizen reported his death that same day. The article stated that he "walked to the scaffold unassisted. The trap was sprung at [5:57 a.m.] and he was pronounced dead by Dr. Jerome Kelly at [6:04 a.m.]".⁹

Michael Bradley is the only criminal I’ve found while researching my family’s history and genealogy. I hope he’s the only one.

Sources:

1. St-Paul l’Ermite (Sheenboro, Quebec), parish register, 1873-1893, p. 161 verso, entry no. B. 27, Michael John Bradley baptism, 8 December 1891; St-Paul l’Ermite parish; digital images, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 12 July 2010).

2. “Michael Bradley Found Guilty, Sentenced to Hang April 5”, The Evening (Ottawa) Citizen, 11 January 1935, p. 4, col. 6, digital images, Google News (http://news.google.com/newspapers : accessed 12 July 2010), News Archive Search.

3. “Maniac Slays 4 of Own Family Near Pembroke”, The Ottawa Evening Citizen, 21 July 1933, p. 1, cols. 1-2, digital images, Google News (http://news.google.com/newspapers : accessed 12 July 2010), News Archive Search.

4. “Michael Bradley Found Guilty, Sentenced to Hang April 5”, The Evening (Ottawa) Citizen, 11 January 1935, p. 4, cols. 3-4, digital images, Google News (http://news.google.com/newspapers : accessed 12 July 2010), News Archive Search.

5. "Michael Bradley Is Executed Today”, The Evening (Ottawa) Citizen, 5 April 1935, p. 4, col. 6, digital images, Google News (http://news.google.com/newspapers : accessed 12 July 2010), News Archive Search.

6. "Michael Bradley Is Executed Today”, The Evening (Ottawa) Citizen, 5 April 1935, p. 4, col. 1, digital images, Google News (http://news.google.com/newspapers : accessed 12 July 2010), News Archive Search.

7. “Persons Sentenced to Death in Canada, 1867-1976”, database, Criminal Records: Capital Case Files (RG 13 B 1), Library and Archives Canada (http://data2.archives.ca/pdf/pdf001/p000001052.pdf : accessed 3 June 2011), entry for file number 0172 Michael Bradley.

8. St-Alphonse (Chapeau, Quebec), parish register, 1935, p. 10 recto, entry no. S. 2, Michael Bradley burial, 5 April 1935; St-Alphonse parish; digital images, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 12 July 2010).

9. "Michael Bradley Is Executed Today”, The Evening (Ottawa) Citizen, 5 April 1935, p. 4, col. 1, digital images, Google News (http://news.google.com/newspapers : accessed 12 July 2010), News Archive Search.

Copyright © 2013, Yvonne Demoskoff.