The Mysterious Death of the Bishop Family

In March of 1976, a neighbor called for a welfare check on the Bishops because she hadn’t seen them in a while. When authorities entered the house, it was clear a horrific event had taken place, but there was nobody there. That would kick off the hunt for a man with a mysterious background.

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On March 8th, 1976, the police in Bethesda, Maryland were called by a concerned person claiming they hadn’t seen their neighbor in some time. The police sent an officer out to do a welfare check and once they arrived on the scene they saw what appeared to be

Blood on the driveway, leading to the front door, which gave them cause to enter the house. Once inside they found not only blood, but brain matter on the walls and floor in multiple rooms of the house. Nobody was in the house at the time, but it was very clear that something

Horrific had happened to The Bishop family. This is Monsters. William Bradford Bishop the Second was living the American dream, at least on the surface. Brad, as he preferred to be called, played football in high school and fell in love with a cheerleader named Annette Weis. Though many high school sweetheart relationships don’t

Work out, they stayed together when Brad graduated a year ahead of her. He moved from his hometown of Pasadena, California all the way across the country to attend Yale University, and the two never stopped planning their future together.

Though he’d worked hard to get in, Brad started to struggle a bit in college. His grades were inconsistent and he was more of a C student. A C student at an Ivy League school of course, but an underachiever compared to his peers. In addition to struggling academically,

Brad had a tough time paying for school, as he came from a family that was not nearly as well off as many of his classmates. His father was a Geologist who worked for himself, taking various consulting jobs in the oil market of southern California, so the family’s

Income was inconsistent. His mother, Lobelia Amaryllis St Germain Bishop was a housewife so the family was entirely dependent upon his father’s business. Going into his senior year, Yale raised its tuition considerably and Brad had to take a year off to work and save up. While his classmates all graduated, he dug ditches,

Then went back in for his final year when most of his friends had already left. Brad’s roommate his senior year recalled him speaking openly about struggling with depression, then the next day saying his depression had cleared up. Brad experienced wild mood swings often.

Brad had been born in 1936 so he’d been too young to serve in World War II. But growing up in volatile times had inspired him to serve in the military. Shortly after he graduated he married Annette, then enlisted the next day. It’s also possible his patriotism was

Inspired by his poor grades, as the army would be a steady paycheck, and as a college graduate, he would come in as an officer. As a Yale graduate, Brad was made an intelligence officer right away with the Army Security

Agency in 1959. He was already proficient in Spanish, French, and a bit of Italian, and in the army he started learning Serbo-Croatian as well. Even though he’d struggled academically he was still very smart and picked up other languages quickly. Brad and Annette welcomed

Their first son as Brad prepared to ship off, and they named him William Bradley Bishop III. They later gave him the nickname Pino as he would grow up mostly in Italy. The Bishops were sent to Verona, Italy. For Brad’s first assignment, he was given the

Task of listening in on broadcasts and intercepting military transmissions coming from Yugoslavia. It was a cushy job, but Brad was technically something of a spy. What exactly Brad might have done during that time is all very secretive and vague, but that posting would mark the

Start of a mysterious, adventurous, and ultimately bloody and tragic life. Since Brad was an accomplished skier he would later claim the military wanted him to cozy up with the Yugoslavian ski team as part of his assignment. The team would occasionally

Cross the border and come to Italy. Brad was meant to try and befriend the players and attempt to recruit some of them to spy for America. Yugoslavia was allied with the Soviets in the Cold War, but as a new and volatile country, there were factions and groups within the nation who opposed that.

People who knew Brad at the time would later say he succeeded to some degree in this spy mission. While others who knew him only later in life said that Brad himself would claim he’d failed on his mission. There is compelling evidence both ways. In some letters detailing those early years,

Brad was praised for working “missions of a particularly difficult and sensitive nature.” Those letters also hinted he had been given a great deal of responsibility, to the point it seemed like excessive and overly specific praise for simply listening to radio broadcasts.

Brad would later also claim that during that time he worked as a liaison for the CIA base in Germany which would lend credence to the theories he may have done more boots-on-the-ground spy work. There is documentation of him occasionally working in Germany and being praised by his

Superiors for his work there, but what work he did exactly is vague. Whatever he did in Verona and Germany, he worked on that assignment for two years and was awarded a certificate of achievement. But his record wasn’t perfect. Brad’s coworkers described him as intense and competitive, but carefree in the wrong ways. Apparently

While in Verona Brad had had less than stellar security practices, and slacked off on properly locking up documents and making sure paperwork always went through the proper channels. He also was quick to anger and didn’t care who knew it.

He left his assignment in 1963 to begin the path to becoming a foreign service officer. His family stayed in Florence so Brad could further study history and the Italian language and he eventually earned his master’s. However, during that time something rather strange

Happened. In the spring of 1964, just a year after he’d left his assignment spying on Yugoslavia he made the bizarre decision to go on vacation there. His vacation lasted 16 days and whether or not he took his family with him is unclear.

A colleague stationed nearby reported his concerns right away. Because Brad had been spying on Yugoslavia, the possibility of the government detaining him and trying to keep him to trade for other spies was very real, and he was reprimanded and written up for his vacation.

Despite that, he managed to secure a posting as a Foreign Service Officer. Brad became a diplomat in 1965. He welcomed his second son, Brent as he prepared for his new career. His first posting was going to be in Ethiopia and as they prepared for the move Brad bought

A diary and wrote the opening to Walt Whitmnan’s Song of the Open Road on the first page. It’s a rather long poem, but the beginning has both a sense of wanderlust and personal responsibility. Brad seemed excited to begin his adventure.

This diary was very nearly lost to history. To skip ahead a bit, it was formally found on March 19th of 2000 when a North Carolina woman named Lorene Klepacki bought an old diary at a flea market. It had been auctioned off at an estate sale decades prior. It covered

Brad’s life from October of 1965 to October of 1971. Brad’s family found a lot that they liked about Ethiopia. There was a large diplomatic community and Ethiopia was a stable country at the time so they felt safe. Brad was stationed

In the capital and their family enjoyed hosting lavish parties and events for politicians from all over the globe. The castle-like architecture of Ethiopia was reminiscent of Europe, and Brad was especially fond of the food. However, his diary from those first few years spoke of a troubled mind.

One entry in 1967 read, “Toxic, degenerative psychotic with confabulation. Chronic, low-level maniac… Involutional megalomania.” Whatever that entry meant is unclear as it was somewhat removed from the context around it. But whatever was troubling him, he did seem to recognize

That something was wrong and that he wanted to get better. One entry written that same year read “I am getting better. I am on the threshold. I recognize now that to twist my accursed confines, I must develop a continuing and constant sense of surging for confidence,

Awe, and becoming and love – This is my greatest challenge.” After two years in Ethiopia, the Bishops went back to Italy, this time to a posting in Milan. They took up some of their old hobbies, skiing, and tennis, and seemed happy. But those around

Them noticed they seemed to live above their means, but only in certain ways. Annette had fancy jewelry and furs, and they would go on lavish vacations, but their home was sparsely furnished except for an eccentric art collection. Strangely enough, Brad would often blame Annette when the family was struggling financially.

Despite Annette coming from a wealthier family than him, colleagues often noticed him making remarks about how she was “from the wrong side of the tracks” or making jabs that she didn’t understand the finer things in life and how to manage money. But whatever

Trouble was happening in their marriage and personal lives it seemed to be largely Brad’s fault. He had at least one affair that Annette knew about by then and was not shy about flirting with other women on business trips. He was also slacking off at work. Co-workers remember

Brad often skipping work in the afternoons to go play tennis. Brad wrote sparingly in his diary during that time. He mentioned his sons a few times but never mentioned Annette. He wrote a bit about dealing with severe insomnia. He would eventually

Go to a doctor who prescribed him Serax. That helped a great deal with his insomnia but he was openly frustrated that he felt the medication made him sluggish. His diary entries became shorter as the handwriting became more wild. Near the end, he wrote in his diary,

“I cannot reconcile the total, absolute indifference of God to me.” He eventually stopped writing in his diary for a long time. The Bishops left Italy in 1970 and went back home to California. The state department was putting Brad through school to get another master’s degree, this time in African studies

At UCLA. The State Department needed more diplomats in Africa and his posting in Ethiopia had been successful enough that they had faith in him. In October of 1971, shortly after the birth of his third son Geoffrey, Brad wrote one

Last entry in his diary where he said “Your family grows more beautiful, and you still stand on the threshold. Outwardly, your accomplishments are great” He then proceeded to list some promotions and medals he’d received, but continued on with “Still, you stand on the

Threshold. You have soared to the heights & plummeted, each time, to the depths.” Eventually, Brad earned his degree and started applying for postings. Despite the need for more diplomats in Africa, Brad was having trouble getting another assignment. The more

Stable parts of Africa where his family could have modern amenities were all going to his colleagues, so eventually he volunteered for what is known as a hardship post. That’s a posting where only the basic survival amenities are available, so signing up for the post

Showed he was a hard and adventurous worker. Brad’s father had passed away by that point so his mother decided to move with them as well. So they were a family of six preparing to go to the newly formed nation of Botswana at a posting that had really only been set

Up to sustain one person. Brad was placed in charge of diplomacy in nearby Lesotho and Swaziland as well. The countries were relatively small and the US government didn’t see a need to give them their own postings. While in Botswana Brad and Annette were both seeing therapists and

Both struggling. There was not much to do, and that posting was more dangerous than their previous ones. They went on a lot of safaris and big game tours to get away from the monotony. But still, Annette was bored and anxious and dealing with frequent panic attacks. Brad

Tried to be somewhat productive and took flying lessons during that time. However, he also got a herniated disk and had to fly out of the country to get it treated. That left him with a prominent surgery scar on his back.

The Bishops were rotated back to Washington after two years in 1974. There was an affluent suburb in the woods near Brad’s office called Carderock Springs, and the Bishops moved in. However, they were only able to afford the house because Brad’s mother paid the down

Payment. The boys enjoyed living back in the States and the older two took up tennis and swimming. Brad wanted to try applying for more overseas postings, but Annette wanted to stay in the States for a while. Brad and Annette were hitting the point where they wanted different things in life. She

Was studying to get an art degree and wanted to find a life beyond just being a diplomat’s wife. Brad was hell-bent on making admiral before the age of 50 and saw his career as his whole life. Those close to Brad and Annette noticed tension between the two of them. Annette

Once told Brad’s secretary on a visit that “after 35 a man is no more good.” Remarks like this were seldom recorded but likely not rare coming from both sides of the marriage. Once, when applying for a credit card Brad had had to list Annette’s job. Instead of

Writing “stay at home mom” he wrote “chief slave.” In March of 1976, the yearly promotion list was going to come out for Brad’s department, and Brad desperately needed to be on it. Foreign Service Officers operate in a strict and structured

Way modeled largely after the US Navy. Rather than trying to maintain the same positions, they need to constantly be promoted. If they don’t get a promotion every five years, ideally more often, they are let go. Brad was just months away from hitting five years

Without a promotion, so the March promotion list was actually his last chance at staying employed. Of course, he could have applied for a hardship posting, or even just a less desirable promotion, and possibly gotten a second chance that way, but Annette wasn’t

Having it. They had three young kids, and she was finally making something of herself. Two weeks before the list came out Brad was given the news in advance that he was not going to be promoted. It was essentially a two-week to a three-month notice that his

Career was coming to an end. After he got the news Brad ran into a colleague, Peter Murphy, and complained about the system. Peter tried to reassure Brad that the promotions weren’t always fair and that he was a hard worker, but Brad was inconsolable. The two

Had been chatting at a bus stop, and eventually, Peter asked Brad what he was doing in the part of town they were in, and Brad said he was going to see his therapist because “my job is horrible. My kids and my mother are driving me crazy.” He was still on Serax

At the time and his therapist was a mysterious man named Frank Caprio who would later refuse to cooperate with authorities and claimed that he and Brad were good friends even outside of a doctor-patient relationship. Everything in Brad’s life was in chaos, but a lot of it was due to his own choices.

His marriage was on the rocks, but over the course of their marriage, Brad had had at least two affairs and was even cheating on Annette in the spring of 1976. Whether he wanted to leave her or simply wanted to have mistresses is unclear.

Things weren’t great with the rest of his family either. Brad often expressed feeling embarrassed about his mother and her support, but at the same time didn’t seem to be able to keep the family afloat financially himself. That winter Lobelia had been helping out but

Things were tight. She’d even started trying to sell her favorite fur coat. In addition to that, the family was being audited by the IRS. The day the promotion list came out, March 1st, was a Monday. There were supposed to

Be a few other people in the Bishop household that fateful day. A Spanish exchange student named Gabriella who’d been living with them left just days before. Jacques D’Amboise, a famous dancer and family friend was supposed to spend the night with the family, along

With his wife, but the two canceled because Jacques hurt his knee. So March 1st began and ended with the Bishop family having the house to themselves. It was a nice day, so Brad rode his motorcycle to work. He’d booked an appointment that

Morning to replace a crown on his tooth, so he had a bit of a breather from the office but it wasn’t enough. He knew the news was coming, but now all of his co-workers knew he was basically being fired too. He told everyone he was feeling sick and was going

To go home early. His secretary offered to call Annette for him but he said he’d be okay taking his bike home. On the way back he stopped by an ATM and drained the $400 the family had in their savings account.

When he got home it would have been just his mother there if anyone. Annette had Geoff enrolled in a kindergarten program that she volunteered at and the other boys were off at school. Shortly after he got home he left again in the family station wagon. A neighbor

Who happened to be looking outside thought that was a bit odd as normally Annette drove the station wagon and Brad had a Volkswagen when he wasn’t riding his motorcycle. He went to Sears first and bought a maul hammer, which was a bit heavier but also more compact

Than a framing hammer. Then he swung by a gas station on the way home to fill up a gas can. The next stop was a hardware store in a nearby strip mall where he picked up a shovel and a pickaxe. He got home around 9:00pm.

The family had all eaten dinner and Pino was taking up the family phone line talking to his girlfriend. Brad got on the extension and harshly told him to wrap it up and go to bed. It seemed that between 9:00 and 10:00 o’clock, the family was preparing to go

To sleep. At around 9:30, a neighbor spotted Lobelia walking the family dog, Leo, around the block in her beloved fur coat. Annette set up on a futon downstairs with her books to study and the boys all went to bed.

The next day a neighbor went to visit the family but found they’d vanished. They’d often go on last-minute ski trips, but to do so on a Tuesday would be strange. She went into the house through a side door, saw a pot of oatmeal on the stove, and called out,

But didn’t hear anyone home so she left. That same morning the Bishop Family station wagon would be spotted 300 miles south in the town of Columbia, North Carolina. The car was spotted at 9:30 and again at 10:00 by two different witnesses who lived on the outskirts of town.

Then in the early afternoon, a nearby firewatcher spotted smoke in the area and radioed forest ranger Ron Brickhouse to investigate. Because the fire was still small he was able to contain it, and after he put out the blaze he went to see what had started it. He later said

He thought he’d stumbled upon someone burning hog parts, but when he realized he’d stumbled upon a mass human grave he called the police. Police didn’t know it yet, but they’d found what was left of the Bishop family.

The bodies were buried from youngest to oldest. Lobelia was laid on top of Annette, with her sons buried in descending order below her, and Geoffry at the bottom of the pile. Brad’s body was not amongst the carnage. A gas can and shovel had simply been left at the scene, and investigators could even

Make out car tracks and a dog’s paw prints in the sand so they had a lot to go on to kickstart the investigation. The town of Columbia was overrun with investigators and police started canvassing the nearby logging roads.

The coroner would clean up the faces of the bodies as best he could after the autopsy and everyone but Pino was photographed to send their likeness to other departments to try and identify them. Pino was not photographed as his injuries were gruesome enough that his face was not in any way recognizable.

The main clue police had to go on was a tag still left on the shovel from a hardware store up in Maryland. They drove up to the store and left a flyer there with the faces of the victims. A week after the murders, on March 8th, the Bishops’ neighbors called the police. Authorities

Instantly noticed blood on the driveway leading up to the front door. The neighborhood was spread out with a lot of the natural forest left intact, so no one nearby could really see the house from the road, which is why alarms weren’t raised sooner. Their next-door

Neighbor was an occasional babysitter for Geoff so she lent the police her spare keys to do a wellness check. The house was covered in blood, bone fragments, and brain matter. The kitchen by the side door was mostly untouched, which is why the neighbor who checked on them a week earlier

Didn’t realize what was wrong. When local police started processing the scene they quickly pieced together what had happened when they saw the flyer in the hardware store for the bodies found down in North Carolina. We have evidence. There’s blood in the three bedrooms upstairs and blood in the master

Bedroom downstairs. We also have evidence that the homicide of these five people took place at this residence as we have blood that leads from the home out to where the parking lot is. This is where we stand right now.

We have investigators going to North Carolina. They’re in route now to coordinate the efforts of our department with the North Carolina law enforcement people. What about Mr Bishop? Mr. Bishop, at this time, we don’t know where Mr. Bishop is. He’s missing. So is a 1974 Chevrolet that belongs to the family.

Teletype has been sent from Montgomery County, all points, in reference to the station wagon, to try and locate the station wagon. Is he a suspect? We have no suspects in the crime at this time. Investigators in North Carolina had found a fingerprint on the gas can and a quick search

Matched it to Brad. Because locals had seen his car, he was suspect number one. Of course, police did briefly consider the possibility that Brad had been kidnapped, and was also the victim of foul play, but as the days and weeks wore on the evidence painted a very

Clear picture of a man on the run. When the coroner’s report in North Carolina was put together with the slaughterhouse in Maryland, investigators were able to piece together what they thought was the most likely scenario. They determined that Annette was likely killed first. A considerable amount

Of her blood was on the futon, surrounded by her books. Her skull had been caved in from numerous blows to the front and right side of her head. The murder weapon appeared to be the hammer Brad had purchased that same day.

Lobelia had locked herself in the bathroom, but the doorframe was cracked and broken into. She was not beaten to death, rather she was struck once in the head, but it only left a bruise, and then she died either of being smothered or of heart failure.

Pino had been beaten to death in his bed and didn’t appear to have defensive wounds so he had likely slept through the other killings and was taken by surprise. He was only 14 but was approaching six feet tall and his father may have judged him to be the one most

Capable of putting up a fight. Perhaps that is why his injuries were so much more gruesome than the rest of the family. But really, the entire family except Brad’s mother was beaten so severely that most of the blows were after they were likely already dead.

Brent and Geoff shared a room with bunk beds. Brent was 10 at the time of his death and slept in the top bunk. The coroner’s report included the phrase “pulpification of brain” in his autopsy report, and there were hammer marks on the ceiling from the attack. Geoff

Was only 5, and beaten just as viciously as the rest of the family. Brad’s bloody pajamas were found discarded on a closet shelf, so it appeared as though he’d gotten ready for bed that night as if everything was normal, then killed his family in his pajamas.

After that, investigators determined that Brad cleaned himself up and packed a suitcase with clothes and a shaving kit. He then loaded all of the bodies into the Station Wagon. He covered them with blankets and put Leo in the front seat. Why he spared the dog is

Anyone’s guess, but some have theorized he kept Leo in the front seat so anyone looking into his car would be distracted by the dog and not look too closely at the poorly covered bodies in the back. By 9:00am the next morning, he’d arrived in Columbia, just shy of 12 hours after the

Murders likely happened. The town is near the outer banks and surrounded by sandy forests and old logging land. Brad drove along the logging roads a few miles south of town, and police have pointed out that the logging roads are very easy to get lost on, so he’d likely

Driven them before. Also, Columbia is across an inlet from Harvey Point, a training facility used by the CIA, FBI, and ATF, which some people have speculated may be relevant. Brad eventually drove to a secluded spot in the woods and tried to dig a grave. He’d

Brought a saw to cut through any roots, so he’d been prepared to hide the bodies in a forest somewhere, but he hadn’t planned for how close he was to the ocean. The soil was mostly sand and just filled back in as he dug. He’d also brought in a pickaxe,

Which didn’t seem to get used. At some point in the early afternoon, he had dug a shallow but wide pit and started dragging the bodies over from the car on a quilt. He then splashed the pile of bodies with gasoline, lit it on fire, and fled the scene. The murder weapon

Was never found so it’s possible he disposed of it at some point during his trip down. The fire Brad lit was not very efficient and didn’t really destroy any evidence. All it did was attract attention. The bodies were burned less than a mile or 1 and a half kilometers

From a fence that marked land owned by the CIA training facility, so if he hadn’t burned the bodies it’s likely no one would have ever found them as people are not supposed to venture that close to anything owned by the training facility.

The most damning evidence that Brad was responsible for the murders was a sighting that occurred shortly after he burned the bodies. Brad drove to Jacksonville, North Carolina and bought a new pair of shoes at a store near a military base. The store owner remembered Brad because

He had a female companion that he said looked and sounded Caribbean, and the two had brought in Leo. Brad appeared well put together and was even wearing a suit, so he’d had a chance to get cleaned up since burning the bodies. The identity of the woman he was with remains a mystery.

In addition to that sighting, Brad called an old friend in California twice during that first week, but his friend was not home both times, so whatever he wanted to say is yet another mystery. Brad’s car was eventually discovered on March 18th near the Elkmont campground in

The Great Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee. In the car, police found various bloodstained sheets and blankets, dog biscuits, a shotgun, a box of shells, and Brad’s shaving kit. He had left behind various trail maps of the park, his suitcase of clothes, and

His medication. Dogs were able to track his scent for about 300 yards on a nearby hiking trail before it vanished. Search and Rescue officers and police combed the forest. Backpackers were warned away from the Appalachian trail and campers were told to be vigilant. Someone reported they’d

Seen a man who looked like Brad in a visitors center near Elkmont and the dogs hit on Brad’s scent again but the trail went cold in the parking lot. Dwight McCarter, a ranger who knows the smokies extensively, helped with the search. Someone

Told him about a fresh grave they’d noticed off of a hiking trail and when he went to investigate he found a small grave covered with rocks with a cross made of sticks. The stones and sticks were held together with a military paracord. McCarter didn’t dig

Up the grave but he wondered if it had been Leo’s. Another account says someone reported a lost golden retriever roaming a hiking trail nearby so Leo may have been set loose. The search of the Smoky Mountains ended on March 26th. McCarter still thinks Bishop died

In the Smokies, and he’s not the only one. Had Brad killed himself in the dense forest, or simply gotten lost, it’s likely his body would never be found. As is to be expected of an international mystery, there have been dozens if not hundreds of

Sightings and tips called on over the years. But only a few that have been deemed credible. In July of 1978 a Swedish woman who’d worked at the embassy with Brad in Ethiopia thought she saw him twice during the same week wandering a park in Stockholm. Apparently, he had a

Beard, and she felt like he was trying to follow her without being noticed. One of the other most famous sightings was also reported by one of Brad’s co-workers and was even re-enacted on Unsolved Mysteries. That man claimed he’d seen Brad in a bathroom, and

Confronted him, but Brad escaped. That was later discredited when police discovered the man who reported it was caught making up false information to get media attention. Ray Kight, the Sheriff of Montgomery County, Maryland decided to revive the case in the

90’s. In 1992 on a whim, he decided to look up Brad’s social security number on a credit bureau database to see if there were any new hits. He found that there was a man in Sacramento, California who had been using Brad’s social security number. But the man had passed away

Before the search, and pictures of him didn’t have any kind of resemblance to Brad. That lead inspired Sheriff Kight to dig deeper though. He assigned Deputy Robert Keefer and Detective John Cady to go through the old files and see what they could turn up. In

Some of Brad’s old mail, they found a letter that was sent to him from the federal penitentiary in Marion, Illinois, which instantly caught their attention. The letter was from Albert Kenneth Bankston, a bank robber, and kidnapper who’d already managed to escape custody once. The letter was marked #6 and referenced previous letters

Sent between Albert and Brad. The letter mentioned several spots near a lake in Columbia, very close to where the bodies were eventually burned. In the letter, Albert pointed Brad to a man named David Paul Allen and another man identified only as Sonny. Albert said

Both men might be able to help Brad with his problems and that they knew the area in North Carolina well. He also referenced that Brad had made some kind of inquiry in a previous letter and that the answer was that there was a woman in a North Carolina prison who

Might be able to help him. However, the letter was dated March 15th, after the murders had already happened and made the news. So it’s possible Albert was just trying to pretend the two had a rapport so he could try to use the inside knowledge to get some kind of plea deal.

Investigators had looked into the letter in 1976 and dismissed it because Albert wrote letters to pretty much anyone whose address he could find that was even tangentially involved in the legal system or government. He sent out hundreds of letters and had pretended

To have insider knowledge about cases before where his claims were eventually disproven. Albert Bankston had died in 1983 but Sheriff Kight wanted to try and talk to this Sonny person and David Paul Allen. Police eventually were able to track down the two men. The man

Known as Sonny was already in jail and admitted to having some kind of knowledge about murder plots arranged by the Aryan Brotherhood and the Dixie mafia. However, Sonny said he didn’t have anything to do with the alleged plot to kill the Bishops, but that if he had known

Something or been involved, it was against his code to kill children. David Paul Allen initially claimed that he was not directly involved, but that he did hear that someone had been paid $25,000 and some jewelry to help Brad kill his family.

Apparently, Brad wanted to arrange for the murders to happen when he was on a business trip in Geneva between January 27th and February 6th. David would eventually confess to having some kind of direct knowledge of the plot and gave

A bit more information. Apparently Brad was hoping to have the murders go down while he was out of town to completely deflect suspicion that he was involved. After his family was killed he was hoping to get a sympathy promotion to get his career back on track. He and Annette

Were planning Geoff’s birthday party already, as it was on the 12th, so his little boy being killed just days before his birthday was meant to be extra tragic. Brad said that he would tell his family that while he was away he’d scheduled some men

To come and do work on the gutters. That way the family would let the men inside. Allegedly, two men were hired for the job and decided instead to scam Brad. They took his money and jewelry and then vanished. The whole thing had supposedly been put together by a woman

In jail in North Carolina. Police could never find the woman who was said to have arranged the whole thing. While he was on his ski trip, whether or not he had actually been planning to murder his family already, Brad certainly did not seem worried about them. He was openly courting

And going on dates with another woman, and multiple people said that he and this woman were known to be promiscuous on business trips. The hitman plot was never conclusively proven or disproven either way, and in any case, the validity of it didn’t really bring investigators any closer to finding Brad.

In 2012, Sheriff Ray Kight retired but he and the new Sheriff, Darren Popkin, would talk about the case occasionally. A new task force was eventually formed to keep the investigation alive. An informant with a Virginia motorcycle gang spoke with investigators in 2013 about an

Interesting theory that involved Brad having connections to a motorcycle gang. That source was someone living in the witness protection program who had always given reliable information to authorities. The informant claimed he knew a woman who worked at the State Department with Brad who

Was having an affair with him. Apparently, that same woman was involved with a motorcycle gang. After the murders, she helped Brad escape with the help of two other gang members and Brad stayed at her place for a while in Falls Church Virginia near DC. They hid him until

He had documents forged to leave the country, then they helped smuggle him out. That would have cost around $50,000 but was in the realm of services the gang provided. But where Brad got the money is a mystery, he only left with $400 in traceable money.

If that account is true, Brad may not have had money to barter with, but it’s quite possible he could have paid his way by making false passports. Brad had access to the materials used to make new passports and could have stolen enough to trade passports that were

As good as real in exchange for help escaping. He also still had his own Foreign Service Officer passport and could have fled the country before the bodies were identified. In April of 2014 Brad Bishop was added to the FBI’s most wanted list to get publicity

For the case. That brought in hundreds of new leads, the most promising of which was a possible connection to a John Doe who looked shockingly like Brad. In 1981 a homeless man had been hit by a car and killed on a rural highway in Alabama. He was buried as a John

Doe, but his face bore an impressive resemblance to Brad Bishop. The connection was made when a local cop near where the man was killed posted his autopsy photo in an attempt to revive the case and find out who the man was. The man even had his hair and sideburns styled

The same way Brad did. The body was exhumed, and everyone was hopeful they might finally have answers. But the DNA results came back negative. Twice there were tips called in about men who looked remarkably like Brad acting suspiciously,

One in Mexico and one in Texas. Both men were arrested and both turned out to be hiding from the law, but for other reasons. One was wanted for mail fraud, the other an arsonist, and neither one had a surgical scar on their back.

A promising lead came in from France when someone called in a tip on a man who looked like Brad coming out of a house owned by his uncle. It turned out to be Brad’s cousin who bore a strong resemblance to him. These leads were just a small handful of the ones investigators

Followed over the decades since Brad vanished. Though police have openly stated that they do believe Brad killed his family and it’s considered a closed case, there are some who doubt that narrative. Some of his friends growing up have come forward to say they don’t believe he could have ever done something

So violent. Some have even put forward the theory that Brad was a spy and his family was killed as revenge, and he was either kidnapped or killed at another location. To delve into that theory a bit; Brad’s work with listening to Yugoslavian radio broadcasts

Might technically constitute spy work, but that’s a far cry from doing actual undercover work and really being considered a spy in the traditional sense. But there were all of his mysterious commendations and letters of praise that seemed to hint at more, so it’s easy to see where that theory comes from.

By the turn of the century, the country of Yugoslavia no longer existed and had broken up into several other countries. During the time Yugoslavia was a country though, they had a secret police force known as the State Security Administration. That secret police

Force was active from the end of World War II up until 1991 when the country was about to officially separate. The secret police committed numerous high-profile assassinations during the Cold War, and their preferred method of killing was to bludgeon their victims with a hammer.

Modern-day Montenegro has the bulk of the classified documents regarding the State Security Administration but has not released them despite the other countries that were part of Yugoslavia largely declassifying their World War II and Cold War era documents. Montenegro is still

A very new nation, and the country’s leaders have recently said they do not want to risk any kind of destabilization and do not currently have plans to declassify their documents. So if there is any kind of connection there, who knows if or when more details will ever come out.

It’s certainly interesting that Brad’s family was killed in the way that the spies he was working against favored. But some people have also put forward the theory that Brad himself was a spy working for the Soviets. His vacation to Yugoslavia so soon after he

Was assigned to spy on them is certainly strange, as is the fact that details on what exactly he did there are sparse. Also, during his time in Botswana, he received some kind of reprimand for unauthorized contact with the Soviets, but the details on that are vague.

Why he would kill his family based on that narrative is unclear though. Sheriff Kight has his own theories. He’s openly speculated that Brad may have been involved to some degree in the CIA’s MKUltra experiments. To give a brief overview, MKUltra

Was a series of secret operations conducted by the CIA from 1953 to 1973. Much of the documentation on those experiments has been destroyed, but in broad strokes, the experiments involved testing drugs and doing various psychological experiments on American citizens. Some of

The test subjects were in the military or worked directly for the CIA and knew they were signing up for testing, others were prisoners or other vulnerable people who often had no idea they were being experimented on. Sheriff Kight leans towards Brad having been a part of experimental drug trials, possibly

Involving LSD. He thinks it’s even possible Brad was on drugs when he killed his family. That theory hinges on Brad having been a CIA operative at the time of the experiments though, and there are some hints that Brad would not have been an effective spy. Giving Brad a

High-level position like the one he had in Botswana would go against standard protocol. Plus he also had several write-ups for handling classified documents poorly. Sheriff Kight was hell-bent on proving a connection with the CIA when he was investigating the

Case and even filed a few FOIA requests over the years. The CIA eventually sent him a letter saying his request was denied and all other inquiries would be ignored. Some of Kight’s evidence was interesting though. Allegedly, one of Brad’s therapists

Said Brad was involved with the CIA. There was also a matchbook in Brad’s desk at the state department that had a phone number written in it from Langley, Virginia. Langley is a community on the outskirts of DC that houses the CIA headquarters, and people will often

Just say Langley as a code term for the CIA itself. Sheriff Kight also believed the FBI was involved. Apparently in the early days of searching the Smokys the FBI were working with the National Guard to block off certain areas from being

Searched. There’s also the fact that for a time the Albert Bankston letter vanished from the case file after the file had been checked out by someone claiming to work for the FBI but who no one could identify. The FBI also apparently blocked Kight from investigating

A lead he thought was promising in Spain. Much of that evidence though was provided solely by Kight and not substantiated much elsewhere. But Kight isn’t the only one to point out the possible FBI involvement. Jean Wadsworth had lived next to the Bishops at one point and recounted a sighting she’d had in Basel

Switzerland in 1994. She was waiting on the platform and looked into a train about to depart and saw Brad. She said he noticed her looking at him, and lifted the newspaper he was reading up over his face. Then when the train left the station he set the paper down

And appeared to be laughing. She reported this to the FBI who said they would contact authorities in Basel, but when later contacted, Basel police said the FBI never spoke with them. Perhaps the strangest, but also hardest-to-prove anecdote about potential government involvement

Came from a woman named Carolyn Banks. Carolyn was a successful fiction writer who wanted to make her debut in true crime by writing about Bradford Bishop, but her publisher would not greenlight a story without an ending. So she decided to just write a fictional book

Inspired by the case. In 1980, she published The Dark Room about a fictional William Holland, who killed his family in part because the CIA had used experimental drugs on him. Carolyn was open about the book being extremely inspired by the Bishop case during the book’s release.

Shortly after The Dark Room came out, a drifter showed up on her property. The man seemed nice enough and inquired about an outbuilding she had on her land. He asked if he could do some work around her land in exchange for housing in the outbuilding. He only stayed

For a week or so but was friendly to Carolyn and befriended her son. Then he said he needed to move on and asked her to drive him somewhere. He directed her to the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, got out, and bid her farewell.

Ray Kight has been the biggest proponent of all of these conspiracies. In 1998 he even went on the Today show to talk about it. He said, “I can only surmise that Bishop had some help from very high-up people in the CIA and they’re very possibly hiding him out.”

However, it’s important to keep in mind that while Kight presents some compelling evidence, his ideas also appear to be based somewhat on his disbelief that a man could slaughter his family in such a brutal way. He said to one newspaper that Brad had to

Be on drugs because, “How else could you go into your house and bludgeon your wife, children, and mother?” But family annihilators are not uncommon. In fact, over 50% of all mass murder cases are familicide. Brad’s own journals certainly revealed a deeply unstable man.

In the Montgomery County sheriff’s office, they still have Brad’s wanted poster up as well as a bookshelf full of binders about the case. Kight has been retired for over a decade now but says he still personally looks into any leads that come his way. If

Brad Bishop is still alive he would be approaching 90-years-old. He’s since been taken off the FBI’s most wanted list due to his age. But whether he’s alive or dead, the fact that there is still a task force on the case and that new information is still coming forward is promising.

In September of 2021, the news broke that a long-lost daughter of Bradford Bishop was found. Her name is Kathy Gilcrest and she would have been born during Bishop’s time at Yale. She always knew she was adopted and decided to take a test through 23 and Me to

Finally see if she could find anything about her birth family. Very little is known about the circumstances surrounding her birth and her birth mother has since passed away. But the fact that Brad had a daughter no one knew about is intriguing, and helped to reignite interest in the case.

Perhaps as years or even decades pass more information about whatever became of Brad Bishop after he slaughtered his family might come to light. Maybe as more Cold war era documents are declassified we’ll learn more about the mysterious part of his life. Or

Perhaps he started a new family somewhere and more of his long-lost children will be found when his kids or grandchildren take a DNA test. Or maybe he ended things in the smokies and a hiker will stumble upon his remains one day. If new leads are still coming

In, anything is possible, and hopefully one day we’ll have answers as to what happened to this monster.