It

Mike writes that the fire at the Black Spot ended the violent cycle of 1929 to 1930. He believes that a monstrous sacrifice—such as the Ironworks explosion—is always needed to end each cycle. “Which brings me to the Bradley Gang” (649), who had been executed in Derry. Mike got the story from Norbert Keene, who had run the Center Street Drug Store.

Al Bradley and his brother George were bank robbers. There were six other men in their gang. A man named Lal Machen had told the Sheriff he expected them to hit the Derry bank one afternoon. They had come into Lal’s store and placed an order for a massive amount of ammunition the day before, saying they’d come back the next day to pick it up. Machen recognized them. He told over 50 men, who armed themselves and were waiting inside stores near the intersection by the bank when the Bradley gang’s cars arrived and idled in the intersection. The men who were waiting, including the Sheriff, immediately began firing and didn’t stop until the gang was dead.

Mike asks how such a massacre could be covered up, to which Keene explains: “Wasn’t no cover up. It was just that no one talked about it much” (660).