Bradford Bishop

William Bradford Bishop, Jr. is an American mass murderer and family annihilator who, in the evening of March 1, 1976, bludgeoned to death his wife, mother, and three sons before turning fugitive. His current status is unknown, though he was reportedly spotted in Europe during his absconding.

Background
Bishop was born in Pasadena, California, the son of Lobelia and William Bradford Sr. He met his future wife, Annette Weis, in high school, where he was quarterback of the football team. Succeeding academically, he earned a Bachelor of Science in history from Yale University, and a Master of Arts in international studies from Middlebury College. After graduating from Yale in 1959, marrying Annette, and fathering three sons with her, he joined the U.S. Army.

He spent fours years in counterintelligence, winning commendations for his work, including infiltrating the Yugoslav Army ski team while it was training in Italy. He also became fluent in Spanish, Italian, French, and Serbo-Croatian. After leaving the service, and earning a master's degree in Italian from Middlebury College, Bishop joined the State Department, working as a Foreign Service officer in Italy, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Botswana. He was posted in Verona, Milan and Florence (where he did post-graduate work at the University of Florence), from 1968 to 1972. Before moving to Africa, he earned a further master's degree in African studies from UCLA. While serving in Gaborone, Botswana, from 1972 to 1974, he also received pilot's training.

From 1974, he relocated to the State Department Headquarters in Washington D.C., working as an Assistant Chief in the Division of Special Activities and Commercial Treaties. At the time he lived in Bethesda, Maryland, with his family and his mother.

Murders, Absconding, and Possible Sightings
On March 1, 1976, Bishop left work unusually early, telling his secretary he felt sick. He was upset over losing out on a promotion. After having withdrawn four hundred dollars from his bank, he stopped at Montgomery Mall, while on his way home, to buy a heavy ball-peen hammer and a five-gallon gasoline can. Then he drove to a Texaco station, where he filled both the can and his Chevy Malibu station wagon. Finally, he bought a pitch fork and a shovel from a Potomac hardware store. Returning home between 7:30 and 8:00 p.m., he proceeded bludgeoning his wife to death with the hammer. When his mother, Lobelia, came home from walking the family dog, Leo, Bishop did the same thing to her, before turning to his sons. He later wrapped the bodies in blankets, loaded them on his car, brought Leo with him, and drove 275 miles (443 Km) to a swampland south of Columbia, North Carolina. There, on March 2, he dug a shallow grave where he piled the bodies, subsequently setting them ablaze with the gasoline.

Later that same day, he purchased tennis shoes at a sporting goods store in Jacksonville, North Carolina. According to witnesses, an unidentified woman described as dark-skinned and Caribbean-looking was holding Leo's leash while Bishop, who appeared to the owner of the store as polite and well-spoken, paid. The owner also said Bishop and the woman seemed like a couple. The Chevy station wagon was later found abandoned, on March 18, in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, on the North Carolina-Tennessee border. Witnesses reported the car to have been there from March 5 through 7. Once the car was linked to Bishop and the bodies identified, a huge manhunt was organized, involving the FBI, the National Park Service, and state police from both North Carolina and Tennessee. An attempt was made at tracking him with bloodhounds, bu to no avail. Based on his passion for hiking and camping, investigators assumed Bishop merged with hikers on the Appalachian Trail and got away. Others theorized he either killed himself or died from exposure, yet others believe he received help from somebody, possibly the woman he was seen with. Also, due to his reported enthusiasm for competitive sports, it was suggested he might have left the park through canoeing. On March 19, a grand jury indicted Bishop on five counts of first-degree murder and other charges. In the following weeks, he was purportedly spotted at various points along the southeastern coast, down as far as Daytona Beach, Florida.

Since 1976, several more alleged sightings of Bishop have popped up from around the world, supported by the authorities' theory that Bishop might have traveled on his diplomatic passport. Countries where he was supposedly seen include: Italy, Belgium, England, Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, Greece, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. The three most credible sightings noted by the U.S. Marshal Service were:
 * That of a Swedish woman who claimed to have known Bishop while on a business trip in Ethiopia. She was absolutely certain of having seen him twice, during the span of a week, in a public park in Stockholm, in July 1978. She said she didn't contact the police because, at the time, she had forgotten he was wanted for murder in the United States. Despite her claims, however, Swedish police couldn't find any evidence of Bishop's presence in the city.
 * That of a former colleague of Bishop at the State Department, who claimed to have seen him at a public restroom in Sorrento, Italy, in January 1979. When approached and asked if he was Bishop, the man panicked suddenly, saying "oh, no" in a distinctively American accent, before running away.
 * That of a former neighbor of Bishop and his family, who claimed to have seen him on a train platform in Basel, Switzerland, on September 19, 1994.

Aftermath
In 2010, his case appeared on America's Most Wanted, in which authorities theorized Bishop was living either in Europe (possibly Italy, or Switzerland) or California. It was also suggested he may have worked as a teacher or turned to criminal activities. The show found out Bishop, before vanishing, had been corresponding with a federal prisoner named Albert Kenneth Bankston, though it is still unknown why. Bankston died before investigators discovered his connection to Bishop, thus becoming a dead end.

On April 10, 2014, Bishop was placed by the FBI on the list of its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. Also, in the same year, the Bureau requested forensic artist Karen Taylor to create an age progression sculpture to suggest Bishop's projected appearance at about age 77 (this method is largely employed with fugitives, and was also successfully employed in a case involving another family annihilator who then disappeared: John List). A John Doe who bore a striking similarity to Bishop, and was the victim of a 1981 road accident in Alabama, was exhumed. It was later determined, through DNA, not to be him.

On June 27, 2018, he was removed from the list, being still actively pursued by the FBI, Interpol, and U.S. Marshals.

Modus Operandi
Bishop bludgeoned to death his wife, mother, and three sons with a heavy ball-peen hammer, then wrapped the bodies in blankets, loaded them on his station wagon, drove to a swampland south of Columbia, North Carolina, piled them inside a shallow grave, and set them ablaze with gasoline. He later abandoned his car in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Profile
To date, Bradford Bishop's motive for killing his entire family have not yet been clarified. FBI profiler John Douglas claimed the manner in which he killed his family is unusual for an offender of this type. While most family annihilators (e.g. John List) would kill their relatives in a "clean" manner (such as with a surprise gunshot to the back of the head), Bishop chose a more up close, personal, and brutal way (beating them to death with a hammer), suggesting a deep and volatile anger. The disposal of the bodies itself shows more concern with destroying evidence than with the dignity and eternal rest of his family. Moreover, he seems to have planned the crime, fleeing from the scene right after the murders and bringing the evidence with him (while List remained in the house till the morning after). The degree of organization and premeditation Bishop displayed is reflected also in the fact that he had maps of the southern states in his car. All this suggests there must have been some emotional buildup to the massacre.

As for what could have accounted for his rage and desperation, there are several theories:


 * Disappointment at having been passed over for promotion for the first time in his golden career.


 * Depression, for which he was being treated by a psychiatrist, and, also to relieve his insomnia, was taking Serax at the time of the murders.


 * Marital tensions. Bishop was interested in another foreign posting, but his wife was reluctant. She had also begun to study art at the University of Maryland, while Brad wanted her to remain a housewife.


 * Tensions with his mother


 * An extramarital affair, though there were no evidence supporting this.

None of this seemed so exacerbated to configure a very likely or logical motive, and they still can't explain the manner in which he committed the killings. It could also have been that Bishop was so consumed with his own image of himself that he just couldn't admit marital difficulties or other issues, as it would have shown he was less than perfect. Thus, he could have popped up when he realized his life wasn't going quite the way he planned.
 * Financial problems, the degree of which has varied over time, depending on the sources.

Known Victims

 * March 1, 1976: Bethesda, Maryland :
 * Annette Kathryn Bishop (née Weis), 37
 * Lobelia Amaryllis Bishop, 68
 * William Bradford Bishop III, 14
 * Brenton Germain Bishop, 10
 * Geoffrey Corder Bishop, 5