[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 60 (Friday, May 9, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4259-S4260]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       SHERIFF RUSSELL A. BRADLEY

  Mr. DeWINE. Madam President, I rise this morning to note the passing 
of a friend and former colleague. Russell A. Bradley died yesterday 
morning. It was to me rather ironic that as I heard the news, I was 
preparing to go to a Judiciary Committee hearing to talk about the 
crime problem in this country because Sheriff Bradley, Russell Bradley, 
was my home county sheriff for 30 years. Russell Bradley was a 
dedicated public servant, a great politician, and was my friend. 
Russell Bradley served as Greene County Sheriff from 1957 to 1987. For 
30 years, Russ Bradley was the sheriff. Elected eight times, he built 
the Greene County sheriff's office into the professional organization 
that it is today and that today we, frankly, take for granted. It was 
not so when he became sheriff in January 1957.
  I first met Russ Bradley when I was a young boy growing up in the 
village of Yellow Springs. Russ Bradley at that time was the chief of 
police. Russ Bradley was a person whom you would go to if you had a 
problem in the community. I remember talking with him, being with him, 
fishing with him when I was a very, very young boy. In 1956, when I was 
9, Russ Bradley was elected county sheriff. He ran in the Republican 
primary and beat the incumbent, a shock to everyone across the county. 
Frankly, it was a shock to most of us who were his friends because we 
did not think he could win. That was the first of eight victories he 
won running for the office of sheriff in Greene County.
  He remained sheriff long enough so that a 9-year-old boy who knew him 
when he was first elected had an opportunity to grow up, go away to 
college, go to law school, come back home and become assistant county 
prosecutor and then have the opportunity to work on a professional 
basis with Sheriff Bradley. I had a chance for a little over 2 years to 
serve as assistant county prosecutor, then to serve as the elected 
county prosecutor for 4 more years. I had the opportunity then to see 
this man whom I had known as a young boy, to see him up close and 
personal and work with him literally on a daily basis as we dealt with 
crime problems in our county.
  Russ Bradley really taught a whole generation, really two generations 
of Greene County and Ohio public servants and politicians how to win 
elections. He was the person we watched, we copied, we emulated, we 
stole ideas from. He was literally the master and we were the students. 
He taught us how to campaign door to door and the significance of that, 
the tenacity to continue to do that night after night. He taught us how 
to work the county fair. He even taught us things such as how to go out 
and put your signs along the

[[Page S4260]]

road to make sure the signs were positioned in exactly the right 
position so that the headlights of the car would strike that sign just 
as you came around the corner. He had it all, he did it all, and he 
taught us very well.
  The most important thing that he taught politicians and people in 
public office in our area was how to be a public servant. He taught us 
the essential lesson of politics, that public service is good politics 
and good politics is public service, and that the way to ensure being 
elected, the way to ensure being successful is always remember where 
you came from and always remember who you serve.
  Russ Bradley was a person who was dedicated to service. He delivered 
service every single day. I remember talking to him when I was county 
prosecutor. He would say: Mike, you are worried about this and you are 
worried about that. The only thing you really have to worry about is 
giving people service. Give them what they are paying you to do. When 
anybody comes in here with a problem, you try to help them solve that 
problem. And even if you cannot solve it, if you try to help them solve 
the problem, that is what you should be doing.
  That is a lesson I certainly have never forgotten.
  Russ Bradley was a great investigator. I have been involved and seen 
an awful lot of people in law enforcement over my now quarter-of-a-
century career. I have never seen anyone as good as Russ Bradley at 
heading up an investigation. The tougher the case, the better he was.

  I remember many days going into his office as he assembled his team 
at 8 o'clock in the morning, his detectives and his road men. You have 
to keep in mind this was not a huge department. Our county is only 
130,000, 135,000. But we would have, unfortunately, our share of 
murders, our share of very difficult cases. I remember him bringing 
people together every day, and he orchestrated how his men and women 
were to go out that day and continue to follow every lead they could 
come up with.
  Russ Bradley knew what all people in law enforcement know. This is 
not a glamorous job. It is a tough job. It is hard work. It is grunt 
work, really, and following leads and being lucky if 1 out of 100 turns 
into anything. And if you are lucky, that 1 out of 100 turns into 
something else and you can keep trying to unravel the crime and try to 
put the puzzle together to solve the crime.
  He was an expert at what, for want of a better word, I would call the 
drive-by shooting, the roadside murder where, when the police get 
there, the sheriff gets there, the only thing they can find is the 
body. There is just no other evidence at all. I have seen him take 
cases like that and reconstruct those cases and slowly build them week 
after week after week and ultimately lead to a conviction of the person 
who committed the murder.
  Russ Bradley was the best I have known at getting a confession, and 
he managed to operate in the pre-Miranda days and in the post-Miranda 
days, which is quite an accomplishment. As Russ said, if anyone could 
get a confession, I could. If I couldn't get them, nobody could. He 
would laugh with people. He would cry with them. He would pray with 
them, whatever it took, but he would get that person's confidence and 
he would ultimately get that person to tell him what the facts were. He 
was a master at that.
  Sheriff Bradley was also a great judge of people. When I would go 
into a case, the first thing, of course, you do in a case, as a 
prosecutor, you begin the process of selecting the jury. That is a 
judgment call of who you want to serve on that jury. I always wanted 
Russ Bradley right by my side to eyeball that jury and tell me who he 
thought would be a good juror, who he thought might not be such a good 
juror. He was able to do this, not only because he knew about everybody 
in the county or knew their sister or brother or cousin or somebody, 
but also because he was a consummate judge of human nature. He knew 
people very well and could size a person up, his or her character, what 
kind of people they were--he could do that probably better than just 
about anybody that I know or ever met.

  This is a time to recall Sheriff Bradley, though it is not a time to 
be sad. I do not think anyone who knew Russ Bradley could think of Russ 
Bradley without smiling. He was someone who was a great practical 
jokester, someone who loved to laugh, someone who loved to hunt, 
someone who loved to fish, someone who loved to have a good time.
  He was a tremendous coon hunter. I remember many mornings coming in 
and, as we were about to start a trial at 9 o'clock, in Judge Aultman's 
court or Judge Weber's court, the sheriff would come rolling in. I 
would meet him at the courtroom. I would look over and say, ``Russ, you 
been out coon hunting?''
  He would say, ``Oh, no, just a little bit last night.''
  Then it would come out from one of his deputies he had been up to 4 
a.m., gone home, taken a shower, a little catnap, and was able to come 
into court raring to go. He was able to do that night after night.
  Russ Bradley was once interviewed about his prowess as a coon hunter. 
He said: ``A coon hunter has got to be tough. There's a lot of them who 
can walk faster than I can, but not many who can walk longer than I 
can.''
  Russ Bradley, a great coon hunter, a great fisherman, someone who 
liked to have a good time as well as someone who was a great politician 
and a great public servant. I pause at this point to remember my 
friend, Russ Bradley. There will never be another like him. He is 
someone who taught me a great deal over the years. He is someone whom 
we should honor. It was an honor for me to actually serve with him on a 
daily basis for 4 years when I was county prosecutor, but it was also, 
frankly, a lot of fun to serve with him as well. For the rest of my 
life I will have great memories of him, what kind of person he was and 
the fun that we had with him, all the time he continued to do an 
excellent job as our county sheriff.

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