Bradford Bishop
Encyclopedia
William Bradford "Brad" Bishop, Jr. (born August 1, 1936) was a United States Foreign Service
officer who has been a fugitive from justice
since allegedly murder
ing five members of his family in 1976.
. He received a BS
in history from Yale
, and an MA
in international studies from Middlebury College
.
After his graduation from Yale in 1959, he served four years in Army counterintelligence. Bishop is reported to speak five languages fluently: English
, French
, Serbo-Croat, Italian
and Spanish
.
Bishop joined the U.S. State Department and served in the U.S. Foreign Service in many postings overseas. This included postings in the Italian
cities of Verona
, Milan
, and Florence
(where he did post-graduate work at the University of Florence
). He also served as a foreign service officer in Africa
, including posts in Addis Ababa
, Ethiopia
, and in Gaborone
, Botswana
. His last posting, which began in 1974, was at State Department Headquarters in Washington
as an Assistant Chief in the Division of Special Activities and Commercial Treaties.
By early 1976, he and his wife Annette (age 37) had three sons, ages 5, 10 and 14. He was 39 years old, anticipating a promotion, and was using a prescription drug called Serax
, which can be addictive. On the afternoon of March 1, he learned he would not receive the promotion he had sought.
(the neighborhood where he worked at the U.S. State Department headquarters) to the bank where he withdrew several hundred dollars. From there, he drove to POCH hardware next to Safeway at the time at River Road & Falls Road, where police believe he purchased a ball-peen hammer
, a shovel, and a gas can, which he filled at a gas station
. He returned to his home in Bethesda, Maryland
at around 7:30 to 8:00, after the children were put to bed. The police investigation shows that his wife was probably killed first. His mother, who was returning home from walking the family's Golden Retriever
, was killed next. Finally, his three sons were killed while they slept in their beds in the upstairs bedroom. They were all killed with a blunt instrument, and none had an opportunity to defend themselves.
With the bodies loaded into the family station wagon, Bishop drove 275 miles (about 6 hours' drive) to a densely-wooded area off North Carolina highway 94, about five miles (8 km) south of Columbia, North Carolina
. There, he dug a shallow hole where he piled the bodies, doused them with gasoline, and set them ablaze. The next day, March 2, a North Carolina state forest ranger was dispatched by a spotter in a fire tower to an area where smoke was rising from the trees. The ranger discovered the burned bodies and a shovel with a label from a store at Montgomery Mall.
It was later confirmed that Bishop visited a sporting goods store in Jacksonville, North Carolina
that same day and used his credit card to purchase tennis shoes. According to witnesses, he had the family dog with him on a leash, and was possibly, but not certainly, accompanied by a woman described as "dark skinned".
According to police reports, a week later, on March 10, a neighbor of the Bishop's in the Carderock Springs neighborhood in Bethesda, Maryland
grew concerned about the family's absence claiming she hadn't seen them for about three weeks. The neighbor contacted local police who dispatched a detective to the nearby neighborhood. After meeting the neighbor, who had a key to their home, the detective decided to enter inside to see if anything was wrong. As he approached the front door, he found droplets of blood on the front porch and entered the house to discover spattered blood on the floor and walls. The children's room was covered from ceiling to floor, and wall to wall with blood, as well. The detective stated that in his 12 years as a police officer, it was the worst crime scene he had ever observed. Shortly afterward, dental records were used to confirm that the bodies found in North Carolina were of Bishop's wife, Annette, his mother, and three sons.
On March 18, the Bishop family car was found abandoned at a campground in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
, about 400 miles (643.7 km) from the Columbia-area pyre. The car contained dog biscuits and a bloody blanket; the spare-tire well in the trunk was full of blood.
On March 19 a grand jury
indicted
Bishop on five counts of first-degree murder and other charges. Evidence included his disappearance, the sighting afterward in the vicinity of the bodies, and bloody stains inside the family home that matched both his fingerprint
s and the blood of his family members.
According to Bishop's co-worker, Roy Harrell, his family (primarily wife and mother) would constantly tell him that he was inadequate, washed-up, and wasn't going anywhere in his career. The co-worker also went on to add that the manner in which the murders were committed seemed to be done in a way for Mr. Bishop to "put someone in their place", as he apparently liked to say himself.
Since 1976 Bishop has been allegedly sighted numerous times in Belgium
, England
, Finland
, the Netherlands, Germany
, Greece
, Italy
, Spain
, Sweden
and Switzerland
. The three sightings noted by the United States Marshals Service
are as follows:
and Time Magazine at milestone anniversaries. It has been followed intermittently on an ad hoc
basis by the Washington Post, the Washington Star
, and the Washington Times as well as local Washington D.C. television stations. The case has also been featured on television shows such as Unsolved Mysteries
, ABC
's Vanished
and America's Most Wanted
. Bishop was profiled on America's Most Wanted
Website 33 years to the day his family's bodies were discovered with a new age enhanced bust of him with facial hair.
In 1978 the bluegrass group Coup de Grass recorded "The Ballad of Bradford Bishop," written by Steve Lasko and Steve Deady. It was featured in the album "Rhythm and Bluegrass."
Ballet dancer Jacques D'Amboise revealed in his 2011 autobiography I Was a Dancer that he became a close friend of Brad Bishop's parents, who were ballet fans, while he was still a teenager and that when he was seventeen and Brad was fourteen, he lived with the family for a while. He described Brad as very intelligent, reticent and intense. Years later, D'Amboise and his wife Carrie were meant to spend the night of the murders sleeping over at Brad Bishop's home, but he was injured in a performance a few days earlier and they had to cancel. D'Amboise stated that he has wondered ever since if their presence that night would have prevented the murders or resulted in their being killed, as well.
United States Foreign Service
The United States Foreign Service is a component of the United States federal government under the aegis of the United States Department of State. It consists of approximately 11,500 professionals carrying out the foreign policy of the United States and aiding U.S...
officer who has been a fugitive from justice
Fugitive
A fugitive is a person who is fleeing from custody, whether it be from private slavery, a government arrest, government or non-government questioning, vigilante violence, or outraged private individuals...
since allegedly murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
ing five members of his family in 1976.
Known biography
William Bradford Bishop, Jr. was born in Pasadena, CaliforniaPasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
. He received a BS
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
in history from Yale
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, and an MA
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
in international studies from Middlebury College
Middlebury College
Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college located in Middlebury, Vermont, USA. Founded in 1800, it is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United States. Drawing 2,400 undergraduates from all 50 United States and over 70 countries, Middlebury offers 44 majors in the arts,...
.
After his graduation from Yale in 1959, he served four years in Army counterintelligence. Bishop is reported to speak five languages fluently: English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Serbo-Croat, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
and Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
.
Bishop joined the U.S. State Department and served in the U.S. Foreign Service in many postings overseas. This included postings in the Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
cities of Verona
Verona
Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...
, Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, and Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
(where he did post-graduate work at the University of Florence
University of Florence
The University of Florence is a higher study institute in Florence, central Italy. One of the largest and oldest universities in the country, it consists of 12 faculties...
). He also served as a foreign service officer in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, including posts in Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia...
, Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
, and in Gaborone
Gaborone
' is the capital and largest city of Botswana with a population of 191,776 based on a 2006 survey, about 10% of the total population of Botswana....
, Botswana
Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...
. His last posting, which began in 1974, was at State Department Headquarters in Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
as an Assistant Chief in the Division of Special Activities and Commercial Treaties.
By early 1976, he and his wife Annette (age 37) had three sons, ages 5, 10 and 14. He was 39 years old, anticipating a promotion, and was using a prescription drug called Serax
Oxazepam
Oxazepam , is a drug which is a short to intermediate acting 3-hydroxy benzodiazepine derivative...
, which can be addictive. On the afternoon of March 1, he learned he would not receive the promotion he had sought.
The murders
After learning of this career disappointment, Bishop told his secretary he didn’t feel well and left work early. Shortly thereafter, police believe that he first drove from Foggy BottomFoggy Bottom
Foggy Bottom is one of the oldest late 18th and 19th-century neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. The area is thought to have received the name because its riverside location made it susceptible to concentrations of fog and industrial smoke, an atmospheric trait that did not prevent the neighborhood...
(the neighborhood where he worked at the U.S. State Department headquarters) to the bank where he withdrew several hundred dollars. From there, he drove to POCH hardware next to Safeway at the time at River Road & Falls Road, where police believe he purchased a ball-peen hammer
Ball-peen hammer
A ball-peen hammer, also known as a machinist's hammer, is a type of peening hammer used in metalworking. It is distinguished from a point-peen hammer or chisel-peen hammer by having a hemispherical head...
, a shovel, and a gas can, which he filled at a gas station
Filling station
A filling station, also known as a fueling station, garage, gasbar , gas station , petrol bunk , petrol pump , petrol garage, petrol kiosk , petrol station "'servo"' in Australia or service station, is a facility which sells fuel and lubricants...
. He returned to his home in Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda is a census designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House , which in turn took its name from Jerusalem's Pool of Bethesda...
at around 7:30 to 8:00, after the children were put to bed. The police investigation shows that his wife was probably killed first. His mother, who was returning home from walking the family's Golden Retriever
Golden Retriever
The Golden Retriever is a medium-sized breed of dog. They were historically developed as gundogs to retrieve shot waterfowl such as ducks and upland game birds during hunting and shooting parties. As such, they were bred to have a soft mouth to retrieve game undamaged and have an instinctive love...
, was killed next. Finally, his three sons were killed while they slept in their beds in the upstairs bedroom. They were all killed with a blunt instrument, and none had an opportunity to defend themselves.
With the bodies loaded into the family station wagon, Bishop drove 275 miles (about 6 hours' drive) to a densely-wooded area off North Carolina highway 94, about five miles (8 km) south of Columbia, North Carolina
Columbia, North Carolina
Columbia is a town in Tyrrell County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 819 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Tyrrell County.-Geography:...
. There, he dug a shallow hole where he piled the bodies, doused them with gasoline, and set them ablaze. The next day, March 2, a North Carolina state forest ranger was dispatched by a spotter in a fire tower to an area where smoke was rising from the trees. The ranger discovered the burned bodies and a shovel with a label from a store at Montgomery Mall.
It was later confirmed that Bishop visited a sporting goods store in Jacksonville, North Carolina
Jacksonville, North Carolina
Jacksonville, North Carolina, is a city in Onslow County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the population stood at 70,145, which makes Jacksonville the 14th largest city in North Carolina...
that same day and used his credit card to purchase tennis shoes. According to witnesses, he had the family dog with him on a leash, and was possibly, but not certainly, accompanied by a woman described as "dark skinned".
According to police reports, a week later, on March 10, a neighbor of the Bishop's in the Carderock Springs neighborhood in Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda is a census designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House , which in turn took its name from Jerusalem's Pool of Bethesda...
grew concerned about the family's absence claiming she hadn't seen them for about three weeks. The neighbor contacted local police who dispatched a detective to the nearby neighborhood. After meeting the neighbor, who had a key to their home, the detective decided to enter inside to see if anything was wrong. As he approached the front door, he found droplets of blood on the front porch and entered the house to discover spattered blood on the floor and walls. The children's room was covered from ceiling to floor, and wall to wall with blood, as well. The detective stated that in his 12 years as a police officer, it was the worst crime scene he had ever observed. Shortly afterward, dental records were used to confirm that the bodies found in North Carolina were of Bishop's wife, Annette, his mother, and three sons.
On March 18, the Bishop family car was found abandoned at a campground in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a United States National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site that straddles the ridgeline of the Great Smoky Mountains, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are a division of the larger Appalachian Mountain chain. The border between Tennessee and North...
, about 400 miles (643.7 km) from the Columbia-area pyre. The car contained dog biscuits and a bloody blanket; the spare-tire well in the trunk was full of blood.
On March 19 a grand jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
indicted
Indictment
An indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...
Bishop on five counts of first-degree murder and other charges. Evidence included his disappearance, the sighting afterward in the vicinity of the bodies, and bloody stains inside the family home that matched both his fingerprint
Fingerprint
A fingerprint in its narrow sense is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. In a wider use of the term, fingerprints are the traces of an impression from the friction ridges of any part of a human hand. A print from the foot can also leave an impression of friction ridges...
s and the blood of his family members.
According to Bishop's co-worker, Roy Harrell, his family (primarily wife and mother) would constantly tell him that he was inadequate, washed-up, and wasn't going anywhere in his career. The co-worker also went on to add that the manner in which the murders were committed seemed to be done in a way for Mr. Bishop to "put someone in their place", as he apparently liked to say himself.
Aftermath
Bishop had approximately one week of advance time before the authorities even began looking for him and could have travelled on his U.S. diplomatic passport. Because of the methods of air travel and immigration in 1976 throughout much of the world, he could easily have avoided leaving a paper trail of any kind.Since 1976 Bishop has been allegedly sighted numerous times in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, the Netherlands, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
and Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. The three sightings noted by the United States Marshals Service
United States Marshals Service
The United States Marshals Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency within the United States Department of Justice . The office of U.S. Marshal is the oldest federal law enforcement office in the United States; it was created by the Judiciary Act of 1789...
are as follows:
- In July 1978, Bishop was seen by an acquaintance of the Bishop family in Stockholm, Sweden.
- In January 1979, Bishop was seen in a washroomWashroomA public toilet is a room or small building containing one or more toilets and possibly also urinals which is available for use by the general public, or in a broader meaning of "public", by customers of other...
in Sorrento, ItalySorrento, ItalySorrento is a small town in Campania, southern Italy, with some 16,500 inhabitants. It is a popular tourist destination which can be reached easily from Naples and Pompeii, as it lies at the south-eastern end of the Circumvesuviana rail line...
by Harrell. Bishop panicked, then ran when hailed by Harrell.
- On September 19, 1994 on a Basel, Switzerland train platform, a neighbor who knew Bishop and his family in Bethesda reported that she saw Bishop from a few feet away.
In the media
After the initial national headlines, the Bishop case has been the subject of articles in national publications like Reader's DigestReader's Digest
Reader's Digest is a general interest family magazine, published ten times annually. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, its headquarters is now in New York City. It was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace...
and Time Magazine at milestone anniversaries. It has been followed intermittently on an ad hoc
Ad hoc
Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning "for this". It generally signifies a solution designed for a specific problem or task, non-generalizable, and not intended to be able to be adapted to other purposes. Compare A priori....
basis by the Washington Post, the Washington Star
Washington Star
The Washington Star, previously known as the Washington Star-News and the Washington Evening Star, was a daily afternoon newspaper published in Washington, D.C. between 1852 and 1981. For most of that time, it was the city's newspaper of record, and the longtime home to columnist Mary McGrory and...
, and the Washington Times as well as local Washington D.C. television stations. The case has also been featured on television shows such as Unsolved Mysteries
Unsolved Mysteries
Unsolved Mysteries is an American television program, hosted by Robert Stack, from 1987 until 2002, and later by Dennis Farina, starting in 2008...
, ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's Vanished
Vanished
Vanished is an American serial drama television series produced by 20th Century Fox. The series premiered on August 21, 2006 on Fox and its last episode aired on November 10, 2006. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, the series begins with the sudden disappearance of the wife of a Georgia senator, which is...
and America's Most Wanted
America's Most Wanted
America's Most Wanted is an American television program produced by 20th Television, and was the longest-running program of any kind in the history of the Fox Television Network until it was announced on May 16, 2011 that the series was canceled after twenty-three years, with the final episode...
. Bishop was profiled on America's Most Wanted
America's Most Wanted
America's Most Wanted is an American television program produced by 20th Television, and was the longest-running program of any kind in the history of the Fox Television Network until it was announced on May 16, 2011 that the series was canceled after twenty-three years, with the final episode...
Website 33 years to the day his family's bodies were discovered with a new age enhanced bust of him with facial hair.
In 1978 the bluegrass group Coup de Grass recorded "The Ballad of Bradford Bishop," written by Steve Lasko and Steve Deady. It was featured in the album "Rhythm and Bluegrass."
Ballet dancer Jacques D'Amboise revealed in his 2011 autobiography I Was a Dancer that he became a close friend of Brad Bishop's parents, who were ballet fans, while he was still a teenager and that when he was seventeen and Brad was fourteen, he lived with the family for a while. He described Brad as very intelligent, reticent and intense. Years later, D'Amboise and his wife Carrie were meant to spend the night of the murders sleeping over at Brad Bishop's home, but he was injured in a performance a few days earlier and they had to cancel. D'Amboise stated that he has wondered ever since if their presence that night would have prevented the murders or resulted in their being killed, as well.
External links
- March 2006 Washington Post Article marking the 30 year anniversary of the Bishop murders (registration required)
- Readers Digest on-line article abstract on Bishop
- Montgomery County, Maryland Sheriff’s page on Bishop
- U.S. Department of Justice’s page on Bishop
- Bishop's profile on America's Most Wanted