William Bradford Bishop
Born: 08-01-1936
Family Annihilator
American Mass Murderer
Crime Spree: March 1, 1976
William Bradford Bishop, Jr. was born in 1936 in Pasadena, California. He graduated from Yale in 1959 and went on to serve 4 years in Army counterintelligence. He is an extremely intelligent man who is said to speak five languages fluently.
He later joined the U.S. State Department and served in the U.S. Foreign Service. He spent time in Verona, Milan, and Florence while in Italy and also in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia while in Africa as well as in Gaborone, Botswana.
His last posting was at State Department Headquarters in Washington as an Assistant Chief in the Division of Special Activities and Commercial Treaties.
At just 39 years old, William had it all. He had a beautiful wife, who was 37 at the time and three little boys ages five, ten and fourteen. His mother lived with the family to help with the boys and he was anxiously awaiting word on a promotion he was sure was coming in the immediate future.
William Bradford Bishop
Unfortunately, William Bradford Bishop was told that he would not be getting the promotion he was sure he had and even more certain he deserved. After receiving the news, William left the office and went to the Montgomery Mall. While there he purchased a ball-peen hammer and a gas can. He drove to the gas station and filled the car, and the gas can, with gas.
Williams then drove home, and using the ball-peen hammer, methodically murdered every member of his family by bashing them in the head until dead. He started with his wife then moved to the fourteen year old. He then murdered his younger sons and completed the task by murdering his own mother by bashing her scull in with a hammer. Then he took a shower.
Williams then carried the dead bodies of his children, his wife and his mother to the garage and loaded their lifeless corpses into the family station wagon. He drove for six hours until he came to a heavily wooded are in North Carolina. Once he had determined a perfect location, that would serve his purpose, William pulled the car to a stop. He found a secluded spot and set about digging a shallow hole in the earth about four by four feet. When the chore was complete, William piled his family, atop each other in the make shift grave, and doused their bodies with the gasoline from the gas can he had bought earlier that day. He then set the bodies on fire and politely drove away.
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The Bradford Bishop Murders
At just 39 years old, United States Foreign Service Officer, William Bradford Bishop, had it all. A loving wife, three young boys and an adoring mother who resided with the family to help out with the children. But it was ‘the’ promotion that he really wanted. One he thought he deserved and was sure he would get. But then he didn’t.
When he was denied the promotion, he made some fast life changes. Starting with murdering, and burning, his entire family and vanishing from the face of the earth.
Nearly 50 years later he is still at large. He is now on the FBI’s ten most wanted list, He left a largely ignored trail through Africa, Italy, Sweden, and Croatia. With his prior background in the world of espionage, false documents, and visas, he baffled the World’s police.
Author David Casavis pieces together the evidence of a Foreign Service Officer mesmerized by success, and who sacrificed his family on the altar of his career. (Amazon)
The Bodies in The Woods
The next day, a fire tower employee spotted smoke rising from the forest and dispatched a ranger to check it out. What the ranger found was the five burnt and smoldering bodies and a shovel that had a sales tag on it.
Seven days later, the Bishop family was reported as missing. The police were dispatched and, upon entering the house, the authorities were met with a nightmare of blood splattered every where from floor to ceiling and in nearly every room. Officers would state that they had never encountered a more disturbing sight.
Dental records would determine the bodies in the woods were the entire Bishop family. Save but for William Bradford Bishop, who like- wise was missing and has, without reservation, been deemed responsible for all five murders.
On March 18, police found the Bishop station wagon in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. There were dog biscuits, bloody blankets and a spare tire well covered in blood.
William Bishop, who seemed to have just vanished into thin air, has never been caught.
source: wikipedia | murderpedia | charlotteobserver.com
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