Thomas Lynn Bradford | |
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![]() Ruth Starkweather Doran and Thomas Lynn Bradford | |
Born | 1872 or 1873 |
Died | February 5, 1921 (aged 48) |
Cause of death | Suicide by household gas |
Known for | Trying to prove the existence of an afterlife |
Thomas Lynn Bradford (1872 or 1873 – February 5, 1921) of Detroit, Michigan was a spiritualist who died by suicide in an attempt to ascertain the existence of an afterlife and communicate that information to a living accomplice, Ruth Doran. [1] On February 5, 1921, Bradford sealed his apartment in Detroit, blew out the pilot on his heater, and turned on the gas, which killed him. [2] [3]
Some weeks earlier, Bradford had sought a fellow spiritualist in a newspaper advertisement and Doran responded. The two agreed "that there was but one way to solve the mystery—two minds properly attuned, one of which must shed its earthly mantle". [4] The New York Times ran a follow-up under the headline "Dead Spiritualist Silent". [5]