DR. BRADFORD
Real Name: ?? Bradford
Identity/Class: Human technology user (post-World War II
era)
Occupation: Scientist
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: None
Enemies: Police (as Morrison)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: ?? Morrison (after he switched bodies)
Base of Operations: His lab in an unidentified American city
First Appearance: Journey Into Mystery I#41/1 (December, 1956)
Powers/Abilities: None. The aged Dr. Bradford developed a mind-transposer machine which he used to temporarily swap his mind into a younger body.
History: (Journey Into Mystery I#41) - Dr. Bradford successfully tested his mind-transposer machine by exchanging the minds of a cat and a dog. He thought of how a brilliant brain need never die -- when a man grows old, he could just move his mind into a young, healthy body. Bradford was very old but thought he could live forever just by stealing someone else's body. Waiting in an alley, Bradford found the perfect replacement walking down the street. At gunpoint, he forced the man to accompany him back to his lab and made him sit by the machine. The man kept insisting that he had an appointment to go to, but considering the circumstances, he agreed to humor Bradford and just do what he said. Bradford activated the machine and the body-swapping process began. Moments later, Bradford (in his new body) stood up and laughed at the new-found youth and strength that was his. As the other man got up and looked in the mirror, he saw the older face of Bradford looking back in his reflection and was shocked by what had happened. The two struggled, but the new Bradford showed the "old man" that he was now too weak to fight. When the "old man" threatened to tell the world about what had happened, Bradford told him no one would ever believe such a story.
Standing on the street outside his lab, Bradford watched as the beaten "old man" walked away. Then another man came up to Bradford and addressed him as "Morrison"; the man -- a plainclothes police detective -- was surprised to see Morrison out in the open, especially since there was a pickup order out for him. Taking Morrison/Bradford down to police headquarters, he interrogated him -- Morrison was supposed to have met with his parole officer earlier. Bradford almost told the detective that he really wasn't Morrison, but if he told him the true story, he would be considered mad -- better, he thought, to pretend to be Morrison, to serve a few years in prison. But when Bradford learned that Morrison was a fourth-time offender and his prison sentence would be for life, it was more than Bradford had bargained for! There was nothing else left to do, so Morrison/Bradford told the truth, the "old man" was found, and the mind-transposition process was reversed as Bradford reclaimed his old body. The detective told Bradford that he was lucky -- a few years in prison for malpractice was nothing compared to what might have been a lifetime behind bars!
Comments: Created by an unknown writer and Reed Crandall.
In the story, Bradford's and Morrison's clothes were also somehow exchanged in the body-swapping process -- this can probably be written off as artistic license used to remind the reader who was who.
Perhaps the plans for Dr. Bradford's mind-transposer machine were later copied by Dr. Karl Stragg.
In Astonishing#33 (June, 1954) "I Ain't Got No Body" is another identity transference experiment story.
--Gammatotem
And a big THANK YOU to Dennis Giansante for scanning this story for me!
Profile by John Kaminski
CLARIFICATIONS:
Dr. Bradford has no known connections to:
Morrison has no known connections to:
A former criminal who was going to an appointment with his parole officer, he happened to be walking by the alley where Dr. Bradford was looking for a replacement body for his own. Bradford switched his body with Morrison's and was prepared to live his life in Morrison's younger body until he found out about Morrison's criminal past.
--Journey Into Mystery I#41/1
Bradford's mind-transposer machine
A device which could swap the minds of two beings. After first testing it on a dog and cat, Bradford used it on a younger stranger so he could have a new body, but later swapped back into his own body when he learned of the stranger's legal troubles.
--Journey Into Mystery I#41/1
images: (without ads)
Journey Into Mystery I#41, p2, pan6 (main image)
Last updated: 12/25/17
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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