Milton Joseph Bradley, 72, was found murdered near a golf course shed in Savannah in the spring of 1994. Remembered as a World War II Navy veteran and a familiar, gentle presence in the community, Bradley had suffered a severe head injury when his ship sank in the Pacific and had later undergone a partial lobotomy. His death was unusually brutal: investigators reported he had been beaten and strangled, with broken neck bones, and leaves and dirt protruding from his mouth.

Detectives came to believe Bradley was one of a series of killings committed by transient predator Gary Ray Bowles, later identified with a multi-state I-95 murder spree. Bowles was arrested on November 22, 1994, in Florida and reportedly confessed to six killings that included Bradley’s, though reporting focuses on the Florida prosecutions rather than a separate Georgia trial for Bradley. Bradley’s killing remains remembered in Savannah as a violent and personal loss to a small community.

If anyone knew Milton Bradley or has information about his last days in Savannah, please share what you know.