Eugene Bradford

Eugene Bradford first appeared in Salem in 1982 as a patient of Dr. Marlena Evans. When he kidnapped Marlena at knifepoint, Don Craig and Roman Brady found the walls of Eugene's apartment covered with newspaper clippings about a serial killer that was terrorizing the city. After the pair rescued Marlena, Eugene confessed to the murders and was hospitalized in the psychiatric ward at University Hospital. When the murders continued even though he was in custody, it became clear that Eugene couldn't possibly be the Strangler.

Upon completion of his treatment, Eugene began dating a woman named Gwen. The relationship was short-lived. Lonely, Eugene threw a bottle with a note inside into the river. A sweet young woman named Trista found it, and it wasn't long after the two met that they began dating and then fell in love.

After his uncle died in Haiti, Eugene believed that he had inherited the so-called "Bradford Curse" when people around him began to die. Although he feared for her safety, Eugene nonetheless proposed to Trista in the horse stables on the Dimera estate. Convinced that the Bradford Curse was still at work in his life, Eugene travelled to Haiti to investigate. It was in Haiti that he and Trista were married. Tragically, Trista was to become the next victim of the killer once the couple returned to Salem. Eugene was grief-stricken. His one-time girlfriend Gwen was attacked next, but she survived. Then Eugene's eccentric aunt Letitia was killed. Suspicion fell on Eugene, but his innocence became apparent when the killings continued even after he had been arrested.

It was Stefano Dimera had masterminded the killings and arranged for Roman to be framed for the murders. To prove his innocence, Roman went into hiding, concealing himself in Eugene's basement. When Eugene began seeing Trista's ghost, Roman discovered that the visions were in fact computer-generated projections. Eugene's house had been wired throughout, and a talisman that he called his "baka" somehow figured into the scheme, which had all been orchestrated by Stefano.

A concert featuring Al Jarreau and Liz Chandler was held in Salem. Stefano arranged for his nephew Andre to plant a bomb in the theater. Fortunately the theater was evacuated before the bomb went off and no one was injured. The bomb was disabled using Eugene's baka; it was learned that the baka actually belonged to the Dimeras, who were distant relatives to Eugene.

Eugene, a brilliant but eccentric scientist/inventor, learned that several international figures were vying for possession of three prisms. The significance of the prisms eluded Eugene and his friend Bo Brady. One prism was in the USSR, another had been swallowed by an alligator, and the third had fallen into the possession of one Calliope Jones, wardrobe mistress for the dance company in which Melissa Horton performed.

Eugene and Calliope, along with Bo, Hope, Andre, Liz, Tony, Carlo, Daphne and Anna, headed to Haiti for a photo shoot for Anna's fashion company. The small plane that was carrying the group crashed when Andre's attempt to hijack it caused the pilot to have a fatal heart attack. Andre managed to radio Stefano with their coordinates before the plane went down on a deserted island. Events leading to the death of Roman Brady unfolded on that island. Eventually, the group returned to Salem and Stefano obtained all three of the coveted prisms.

Eugene and Calliope had fallen in love and become engaged by 1985. They shared a love of strawberry sodas and beef jerky. Their plans for the future were sidetracked when Eugene, in order to collect a substantial inheritance, was required to marry a woman his mother Vanessa would approve of. Vanessa herself was a woman of culture, and would never accept the unconventional Calliope. To help her friend, Liz coached Calliope on how to portray a sophisticated socialite. Those efforts were in vain however. Vanessa had illegally squandered most of the inheritance. To keep her from going to jail, Eugene wed wealthy society woman Madeline Rutherford. While married to her, he penned an advice column for the lovelorn under the pseudonym of Bettina Lovecraft.

At a charity function where he appeared as Bettina Lovecraft, Eugene put an end to the charade, revealing his true identity and his love for Calliope. Madeline left him and the owner of the magazine that published his advice column sued him for fraud. What little remained of the inheritance went toward the lawsuit. This mattered little to Eugene, because he was reunited with his precious Calliope. In an ironic twist of fate, Eugene won the lottery. He went on a spending spree, but donated most of the winnings to a child abuse center.

Eugene and Calliope were married on New Year's Eve of 1985, in a starlight ceremony, with Marlena serving as Eugene's "best man". The bride wore a one-of-a-kind gown adorned with a multitude of tiny lights, and the groom wore a fur coat and hat.

The new Mr. and Mrs. Bradford honeymooned in Finland after an initial trip to Hollywood, where they appeared on The Newlywed Game. Not long after their honeymoon was over, the one-time head of Salem's Lonely Hearts Club left Salem along with a time machine he was working on, destination unknown.

Eugene returned in 1989 and hid in Kimberly Donovan's basement. Eugene had traveled into the future and built an android version of Calliope, which he brought back to the present. Eugene and Calliope were finally reunited, but men from the future came seeking Eugene's Calliope android and inadvertently took the real Calliope captive by mistake. Eugene managed to free Calliope and the two settled back down. Eugene hasn't been seen since then.

Eugene returned to Salem briefly in 1990 without Calliope, leaving after only a few months in a time machine he had invented and built himself.

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