Officer Elijah Pierce "Pete" Bradley
(July 7, 1884 -- June 15, 1920)

Shortly before noon on Tuesday, June 15, 1920, LAPD Officer Elijah Pierce "Pete" Bradley, 35, was approaching a railroad crossing at Ventura and Lankershim boulevards on his motorcycle.

The LAPD was one of the first police departments in the country with a motorcycle division when it launched its "speed squad" in 1909. Motorcycles were faster and more maneuverable than automobiles, and gave officers a more complete view of their surroundings. They were also more effective at chasing traffic violators.

For the motorcycle officers, though, the job was especially dangerous, beyond the typical dangers of police work. At the time, automobile drivers weren't used to seeing or sharing the road with the smaller and faster two-wheeled vehicles, roads were often bumpy and uneven, and the officers on the "speed squad" didn't wear helmets or any special protective clothing. Instead of a protective helmet, early motorcycle officers typically wore a tweed cap.

In 1918, less than 10 years after the launch of the LAPD's "speed squad," the Los Angeles Herald reported that the LAPD' motorcycle officers had "a 100 percent casualty list. The chance of being injured as a speed officer is greater than in any branch of the army or navy service. ... Three of the squad have been killed, another had a limb amputated, and two are permanently retired because of severe injuries. All of the others have been injured."

The three "speed squad" officers killed at the time of the article were Walter Kreps and Thomas Kronschnabel in 1916, and James Ellsworth in 1917. Elijah Bradley became the fourth.

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Elijah Pierce "Pete" Bradley was born July 7, 1884, in Belleville, Kansas, a small town on the northern edge of the state. He was the sixth of seven children -- six boys and a girl -- born to Hezekiah Collins Bradley and Sarah Cassander Berry Bradley.

Hezekiah Bradley was born July 16, 1847, in Sangamon County, Illinois, near Springfield, and moved at a young age with his parents to Mahaska County, Iowa. He was a Civil War veteran, enlisting at the age of 16, and serving with Iowa's 3rd Calvary, Company K. At the age of 17, he was wounded at the Battle of the Big Blue in Missouri in October 1864. After the war, he married Sarah Berry on July 7, 1870, in Iowa, and the couple moved to Kansas later that year.

Hezekiah Bradley worked as a farmer, and the growing family moved to Iowa for a few years before returning to Kansas. Elijah's siblings were Samuel Orville Bradley, born Nov. 18, 1871, in Kansas; George Elmer Bradley, born July 10, 1874, in Kansas; Henry Ellis Bradley, born Jan. 8, 1876, in Iowa; Lottie Pearl Bradley, born May 26, 1878, in Iowa; William Collins Bradley, born April 9, 1881, in Kansas; and Arthur Roscoe Bradley, born Sept. 14, 1886, in Kansas.

Sarah Bradley died on Sept. 8, 1891, at the age of 40, the day before her youngest son's fifth birthday. Hezekiah Bradley died on April 6, 1896, at the age of 50, with his death attributed to the injuries he suffered during the Civil War. Both are buried at Poplar Grove Cemetery in Scandia, Kansas.

While most of Elijah Bradley' siblings remained in the Midwest, he moved to Los Angeles in about 1910, and worked first as a streetcar motorman. By 1912, he had joined the LAPD.

In 1911, Florence McGlashan of Scandia, Kansas, less than 10 miles from Elijah Bradley' birthplace, moved to Los Angeles where she worked as a stenographer. Two years later, Nov. 16, 1913, Florence and Elijah were married. Their daughter, Florence Adeline Bradley, was born in Los Angeles on March 20, 1917.

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As Officer Bradley approached the railroad crossing at Ventura and Lankershim on his motorcycle, an inbound Pacific Electric Railway train, operated by motorman Robert M. Arnold, was also approaching the intersection.

Arnold saw Bradley approaching the crossing, but he didn't think the motorcycle officer would try to cross the tracks ahead of the train. Both the crossing alert bell and other warning signs were in working order at the intersection as the train approached. Witnesses also said they didn't expect that Bradley would attempt to beat the train across the intersection.

When Arnold saw that Bradley was not going to stop, he tried to stop the train, but he was unable to do so before the collision.

According to police investigators, Bradley was traveling at about 15 miles per hour at the time of the collision. Bradley was knocked from his motorcycle and dragged nearly 400 feet by the train. His skull was crushed, and one of his legs was severed above the knee. He was pronounced dead at the scene, leaving his 28-year-old widow and their 3-year-old daughter.

At the time of his death, Bradley, his wife and their daughter lived at 3927 Wisconsin St., about a block west of the current location of Exposition Park and the L.A. Memorial Coliseum. (Construction on the Coliseum started the following year, in 1921. The stadium was completed in 1923.)

Officer Bradley was buried at Inglewood Memorial Park. His widow, Florence Bradley, never remarried. She died in 1957, at the age of 65, and joined her husband at Inglewood.

Officer Bradley's memorial sign is located at the northeast corner of Lankershim and Cahuenga boulevards, just south of the Hollywood (101) Freeway.

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