Faced with his own mortality once again, Bedford began investigating a radical and unproven concept: human cryonics. He eventually connected with Robert Nelson, the President of the Cryonics Society of California—described in some reports as a TV repairman. Nelson assured Bedford that his organization could offer him the chance to extend his life through cryogenic preservation.
And so, James Hiram Bedford embarked on one final adventure—one that would cement his name in history as the first human to be cryogenically frozen, awaiting the day science might awaken him once more.
Bedford’s Cryogenic Adventure Begins
James Bedford was drawing his final breaths when doctors arrived at 2060 Eleanore Drive in Glendale, California.
At 73, Bedford was battling terminal cancer. He had been moved from the hospital to a neighbor’s home for hospice care. Around noon on January 12, 1967, alerted by nurses that Bedford’s time was near, Dr. B. Renault Able arrived at his bedside. In a faint voice, Bedford murmured, “I’m feeling better,” and then, at 1:15 p.m., he quietly passed away.
Well, sort of.