William Bradford Bishop

Case record

William Bradford Bishop was a fugitive from justice after 1976.

Background

William Bradford Bishop was described as an assistant chief of the special trade activities office of the State Department's economic and business section. He had educational background including a Bachelor of Science in History from Yale University and a Master of Arts in International Studies Africa from the University of California; he also attended Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, and the University of Florence in Florence, Italy.

He spoke English, Spanish, French, Serbo-Croation, and Italian.

His last employer was the United States Department of State as an Assistant Chief, Division of Special Activities and Commercial Treaties.

Places stationed or lived included the United States: California; South Pasadena, Monterey, and Truckee; Maryland: Baltimore and Bethesda; Vermont: Middlebury; Connecticut: New Haven; Washington DC. In Europe, he lived in Italy: Verona, Florence and Milan. In Africa, he lived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Gaborone and Botswana.

Sports and interests included tennis, swimming, camping, fishing, skiing, motorcycle riding and flying.

Timeline

• March 1, 1976 — Savings were withdrawn.
• March 2, 1976 — Smoke was detected by the Scotia Fire Tower; Ronald Brickhouse, Forest Ranger, investigated a site one mile west of the tower and found a pile of dirt and two smoldering bodies lying in a freshly dug hole. A “Verified” sighting of William Bradford Bishop occurred in Jacksonville, North Carolina.
• March 5, 1976 — Five days into the case, the bodies had not even been identified.
• March 6, 1976 — Detective Joe Sargent discovered a murder scene in a Carderock, Maryland home; the bodies were identified as Lobellia Bishop (age 68), Annette Weis Bishop (age 37), William Bradford Bishop III (age 14), Brenton G. Bishop (age 10), and Geoffrey Bishop (age 5).
• March 12, 1976 — A murder warrant was issued for William Bradford Bishop’s arrest.
• March 18, 1976 — A 1974 Chevrolet Malibu station wagon was discovered on March 18 abandoned at a campsite in the Great Smoky Mountains near Gatlinburg, TN.
• July 1978 — William Bradford Bishop was seen in Stockholm, Sweden.
• January 1979 — William Bradford Bishop was seen in Sorrento, Italy.
• September 1994 — William Bradford Bishop was seen by a neighbor who knew Bishop and family in Bethesda, MD.

The offence

At the crime scene, law officers discovered bodies of two adult females and three juvenile males, along with a gas can, a shovel, and an old pitchfork.

The bodies were sent to Chapel Hill, NC for identification. Sheriff Royce Rhodes called in the SBI for assistance with the case. The SBI set up a mobile command post in front of the Tyrrell County Courthouse in Columbia to assist the fifteen agents sent to investigate.

The bodies were reported as having been murdered while the victims were asleep in their home. The deaths were reported as due to massive head injuries inflicted with a blunt instrument.

The identified victims were:

• Lobellia Bishop (age 68)
• Annette Weis Bishop (age 37)
• William Bradford Bishop III (age 14)
• Brenton G. Bishop (age 10)
• Geoffrey Bishop (age 5)

William Bradford Bishop, age 39, was missing along with the family’s dog and a maroon 1974 Chevrolet Malibu station wagon. He was identified as Lobellia’s son, Annette’s husband, and father to the three boys.

Investigation

On March 2, 1976, smoke was detected by the Scotia Fire Tower and Ronald Brickhouse, Forest Ranger, investigated and found a pile of dirt and two smoldering bodies lying in a freshly dug hole.

When law officers arrived to investigate, they discovered the bodies of two adult females and three juvenile males, a gas can, a shovel, and an old pitchfork.

The SBI set up a mobile command post in front of the Tyrrell County Courthouse in Columbia to assist the fifteen agents that were sent to investigate the case.

Five days into the case, the bodies had not even been identified.

On March 6, 1976, Detective Joe Sargent discovered a terrible murder scene in a Carderock, Maryland home. The bodies were identified as Lobellia Bishop (age 68), Annette Weis Bishop (age 37), William Bradford Bishop III (age 14), Brenton G.

William Bradford Bishop became the prime suspect in the murder of his family.

Arrest

A murder warrant was issued for William Bradford Bishop’s arrest on March 12, 1976. He was not apprehended to stand trial for the murder of his mother, wife, and three sons.

Evidence and links to the suspect

Evidence linking William Bradford Bishop to the crime was:

• withdrawal of savings on March 1st
• bloody fingerprints inside the home
• his signature on a credit card receipt from a purchase of tennis shoes in Jacksonville, NC on the day the bodies were discovered

A man matching his description was spotted in Jacksonville and Wilmington, NC buying gas and dining hours after the burning bodies were discovered.

His 1974 Chevy was discovered on March 18th abandoned at a campsite in the Great Smoky Mountains near Gatlinburg, TN.

The car contained a bloody blanket, ax, shotgun, bed clothing, dog biscuits, and two capsules of a depressant drug called Serax.

The spare tire well was filled with blood from where the five bodies were hauled from Maryland to Tyrrell County, NC.

Aftermath

A nationwide manhunt for Bradford Bishop who had a two week head start on authorities had been stalled since the point when his 1974 Chevy was discovered.

William Bradford Bishop had never been apprehended to stand trial for the murder of his mother, wife, and three sons.

It was theorized that Bishop killed himself in the rugged mountains where his car was found or used his world-travel background and fluency in several languages to flee the country and lose himself abroad.

Over the past 22 years there had been many unconfirmed sightings of Bradford Bishop in such places as the Netherlands, Sweden, and Italy.

A “Verified” sighting occurred in Jacksonville, North Carolina on March 2, 1976.

He was seen in Stockholm, Sweden in July 1978, seen by an acquaintance of the Bishop family.

He was seen in Sorrento, Italy in January 1979 and was seen by a co-worker at the State Department.

In September 1994, he was seen by a neighbor who knew Bishop and family in Bethesda, MD.

Extradition information indicated that the MONTGOMERY COUNTY STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE authorized extradition of Bishop anywhere he was arrested.

It also stated that anyone with information regarding William Bradford Bishop or his whereabouts should call the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office at 240-777-7022, their local Interpol Office, or their local police department.

Other details

The case was described as an unsolved mystery that involved smoke detected at the Scotia Fire Tower and a murder scene discovered in a Carderock, Maryland home.

It was written about in publications including True Story, Inside Detective, Reader's Digest, The Washington Post, The Washington Star, The News and Observer, and Time Magazine.

It was featured on television shows including Unsolved Mysteries and America's Most Wanted.

A screenplay titled “Bradford Bishop, Where Are You?” and a song titled “The Ballad Of Brad Bishop” were written about the crime.

A quote attributed to Lucia Perkins of The Washington Post appeared: “William Bradford Bishop Jr. Bob Gneiser owns and lives in the Bethesda, Md., house where William Bradford Bishop Jr. allegedly killed his mother, wife and three sons three decades ago.”

Jimmy Fleming’s “- The Tyrrel County "Enquirer" March 1998” was included as part of the anniversary material.