Southampton-Nansemond County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Bradshaw, W. Linwood, 1934 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/vafiles.htm ************************************************ WALTER LINWOOD BRADSHAW W.L. BRADSHAW FOUND DEAD ON ROAD NEAR HOME LAST NIGHT; POLICE BELIEVE MAN MURDERED Body Found About 6:45 Last Night Between Bradshaw’s Home at R.I. Beale Farm and Crawford Scott’s Store of Franklin-Sedley Highway - Skull Fractured in Two Places. Hit-and-Run Theory Discredited. Unusual Circumstances of Case Point to Foul Play ABSENCE OF HAT NEAR SPOT IMPORTANT CLUE W. Linwood Bradshaw, well-known forty-nine year old farmer of the Franklin community, was found dead in a ditch by the roadside near his home on the Franklin-Sedley road last night at 6:45. Thomas Gaultress* of Berlin found the body about 600 yards from Crawford Scott’s store, which is about half a mile from the R.I. Beale farm which Bradshaw managed, and reported the matter to Sergeant E.O. Forbes and Sheriff T.B. Bell. The body on examination revealed two skull franctures, one over the right eye and the other on the left side of the head. Bradshaw had eaten supper at the usual time and left home at 6 o’clock to walk down to Scott’s store, which he frequently did in the evening. It was known that he was wearing his hat when he left home, although in two intensive searches by the police they were not able to find it, this being one of the most suspicious aspects of the case, as the absence of the hat was considered evidence that Bradshaw had been moved from the place where he was first struck. Reports from the store that the blow of a truck striking something or someone were discredited by the Sheriff, this story having gotten out chiefly on the authority of a small boy around the store. No marks indicating such an accident were found along the road. It was further reported that two trucks passed at the same time, either one of which might have struck Mr. Bradshaw. The peculiar location of the wounds, one in front and one toward the back of the head suggested strongly that the victim was struck deliberately, two different times. The only other bruise on the man’s body was a slight skin wound on one arm. Another investigation is being carried forward this (Friday) morning, in the hope of finding additional clues. Mr. Bradshaw, known to his friends as "Lin," had been managing the R.I. Beale farm about four miles from here for sixteen years, and his unfortunate death is genuinely regretted throughout Franklin and the community by all who knew him. He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Gertrude Peele Bradshaw; five children, Margaret, Walter, Robert, Lawrence and Elizabeth Bradshaw; four brothers, John, Lafayette, and Thomas Bradshaw of Nurneyville, Nansemond County, and Floyd Bradshaw of Suffolk, and three sisters, Mrs. G.W. Wade of Franklin, and Mrs. Charles Garner and Mrs. Wilbur Vaughan of Portsmouth. Funeral services will be conducted from the home at 2:30 Saturday afternoon, interment to be made in Poplar Spring Cemetery here. *should read Galtress Walter Linwood "Lin" BRADSHAW, farmer- manager of the R.I. BEALE farm, murdered 6 Dec 1934, Sedley Rd., age 49, interred in Poplar Spring Cemetery (Annex 2, Plot 48*), Franklin, 11 Nov 1934, "The Tidewater News" (Franklin, VA), Dec. 7, 1934, p. 1 *Southampton County Historical Society {SCHS} Cemetery Project, Poplar Spring list: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/cemeteries/psanx2.txt Additional information: The death certificate (28982) of his father, Nathaniel T. BRADSHAW, of Nurneysville, Nansemond Co., is posted at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/nansemond/vitals/deaths/b632n1dc.txt Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Mrs. Bruce Saunders (bs4403@verizon.net), and re-formatted by File Manager. file at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/obits/b632l4ob.txt