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She had the insecurities that plague unbeautiful females.
Married to Ken Reinert, Susan was an English teacher at the Upper
Merion High School, a respected public suburban school. She
was intelligent and had graduated from college with honors.
She and Ken had two young children, Karen, the oldest, and
Michael, who was born a year later. The family resided in
Ardmore, a nice suburb on Philadelphia’s exclusive Main Line.
In the early years of their marriage, Ken served in the Air
Force. Susan had adjusted well to being a military wife and
enjoyed traveling as Ken was moved from a base in California to New
York to Puerto Rico. She taught college English for a while in
Puerto Rico, then stayed home after her babies were born.
Ken left the military in 1971. Susan decided to return to
work and was pleased when she was offered a position at Upper
Merion. She was a good teacher, well liked by most of the other
faculty and appreciated by her students. She had a special
interest in filmmaking and was the teacher to see if a student was
interested in audiovisual matters.
However, in 1974, Susan Reinert was beset by a vague sense of
uneasiness. She apparently felt that life was passing her by.
This was, after all, the era of the sexual revolution, and radios
were playing John Lennon’s “Whatever Gets You Through the Night.
“
A lot was happening in the world. But not, it seemed, to
Susan Reinert, whose life was divided between instructing pimply
faced teenagers and caring for her family. Where, she
wondered, was passion?
She believed she found it in a fellow Upper Merion teacher,
William “Bill” Bradfield. He was a ruggedly handsome,
muscular man with intense blue eyes who sported a full mustache and
beard. Bradfield was considered one of the most inspiring
teachers at the school. He approached his subjects with an
enthusiasm that the kids easily caught. He had started out as
an English teacher, like Reinert, then added classes in Latin and
Greek to his repertoire. He would eventually be elected president of
the Upper Merion Teachers Union.
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| William Bradfield |
A man who enjoyed expressing affection physically, he was given
to a lot of hugging. He was also popular with women and there
was quite a bit of gossip about his amours. However, a factor
in his popularity with women was that he did not give them the
impression that he was just interested in sex. As Sue Myers, a
fellow Upper Merion English teacher who lived with him put it, “I
never felt he was out for a sexual fix.” He seemed
interested in women as people, in their ideas, values, and beliefs.
He also tended to go after women who were not especially attractive.
As an acquaintance cynically put it, “Bill Bradfield could smell
insecurity and loneliness the way a pig smells truffles.”
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