Bradford, Ralph B., 1905-1971
Biography
Ralph Bradford was an internationally recognized handwriting expert and a former Santa Barbara commercial photographer and police officer.
In 1930 Bradford ran a commercial portrait studio at 1208 State St. and in 1936 joined the local police department and headed the crime lab in the old headquarters in the basement of City Hall.
He left Santa Barbara in 1944 to continue work on a check classification system writing ident1flcat1on developed here for use in forgery cases, which he eventually perfected.
An internationally recognized expert in fingerprinting as well as handwriting identification, Bradford's testimony played a key role in 1970 in the Hughes Tool Company power stuggle in Nevada.
In 1971 when he died, the Bradford System was in use in 21 states and by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.