MORE LORE: We continue today with more of the local version of
the Discovery Channel’s show “Myth Busters,” compliments of The
Bradford Landmark Society.

In a previous column, the society dispelled myths about the
Bradford connections with “The Wizard of Oz,” Henry Ford, Solomon
Dresser and Babe Ruth.

“Myth 5: Al Capone often visited Bradford and was shot here.
This myth pops up now and then. There is no evidence that Capone
ever visited Bradford, although the city was definitely a part of
the ‘Prohibition’ gangster era.

At the Landmark, we believe that most people confuse Al Capone
with Al Ritchie, who was indeed gunned down in a gangster slaying
in 1931.

A woman once told (the Landmark) that she met Al Capone when she
was a girl in 1944, on River Street, and that he handed her a gold
dollar. Truth? Well, from 1934 to November 1939, Capone was in
Alcatraz, released in late 1939, and spent the last few years of
his life in seclusion in his home in Miami, dying in 1947.

Unlikely that he came to Bradford during those last few years.
In addition, Capone was a ‘Chicago style’ gangster; Bradford’s
access to illegal liquor was more through Buffalo connections.

“Myth 6: The Tuna Creek once flowed where Main Street is today,
but was diverted so that the town could be built there. We see this
myth every now and then, and geologically speaking, it’s possible,
but that would have happened hundreds of thousands of years before
there was even a Main Street or a Bradford. Minor changes in the
path of the creek may have taken place (for example, there was a
mill pond at the head of Main Street in the 1860s), but, no, it’s a
myth.

“Myth 7: City officials wanted to extend Main Street to Bushnell
Street, but Grace Emery wouldn’t permit it. Actually, true. When
Lewis Emery died in 1927, Grace Emery, his daughter, decided to
erect a hotel in his honor and tore down the old St. James Hotel at
the head of Main Street. In June of 1928, before the new Emery
Hotel could be built, she was asked by the mayor and City Council
if she would sell them the land instead, so that Main Street could
be lengthened. She refused. The Emery Hotel was built and opened
the next year, in 1929.”

To be continued.