319. From Diplomat to FBI’s Most Wanted: William Bradford Bishop

How hard is it to disappear after killing someone? But what if the victims were your own family? The idea of vanishing after such a crime seems unfathomable—yet some manage it, at least for a while. Few cases illustrate this more chillingly than those of John List and Robert Fisher, two men accused of murdering their families and slipping into the shadows.

So it has happened before and will undoubtedly happen again, which takes us to today’s case. 

It was a quiet Monday morning in Washington, D.C., on March 1, 1976, when William Bradford Bishop Jr.—a rising foreign service officer at the State Department—received the news that would, according to investigators, set a horrific plan in motion.

He’d been passed over for a promotion.

By mid-afternoon, Bishop told his secretary he was feeling unwell. Colleagues noted that he seemed agitated. One of them, Roy Harrell Jr., would later become the last confirmed person to see him. Bishop left the Foggy Bottom building and disappeared.

What followed was a meticulously planned crime.

Join Jen and Cam of Our True Crime Podcast as we discuss ‘From Diplomat to FBI’s Most Wanted: William Bradford Bishop.’

Listener discretion by @octoberpodVHS

Music is by our EP @theinkypawprint

Sources:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/01/AR2006030102328_4.html

https://people.com/william-bradford-bishop-people-magazine-investigates-murder-family-fbi-wanted-8763135

http://www.nbcwashington.com/investigations/series/brad-bishop/The-Hunt-for-William-Bradford-Bishop-254259061.html

http://www.nbcwashington.com/video/#!/news/local/William-Braford-Bishop-Added-to-FBI-s-Ten-Most-Wanted-List/254741211

https://web.archive.org/web/20130407061938/http://www.amw.com/pdf/brad-bishop-letter-from-bankston.pdf

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-us-diplomat-murder-suspect-added-to-fbis-most-wanted/

http://www.nbcwashington.com/investigations/series/brad-bishop/Inside-the-Evidence-Room-in-the-Hunt-for-William-Bradford-Bishop-254602021.html

https://archive.org/details/anatomyofmotivef00doug

http://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=AWNB&docref=news/14FA438034ACC1A8

https://www.nbcwashington.com/investigations/brad-bishop/fbi-confirms-nc-woman-is-accused-killer-william-bradford-bishops-daughter/2807832/

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/74885288/bishop-wanted/

https://www.thewashingtondailynews.com/2014/04/11/the-bradford-bishop-mystery/

https://web.archive.org/web/20140416143734/http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/april/william-bradford-bishop-added-to-fbi-top-ten-list/william-bradford-bishop-added-to-fbi-top-ten-list/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/01/AR2006030102328_4.html

https://people.com/william-bradford-bishop-people-magazine-investigates-murder-family-fbi-wanted-8763135

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