‘People Magazine Investigates’ Chronicles Case of William Bradford Bishop

William Bradford Bishop Jr. seemed to have the perfect life.

Born in Pasadena, Calif., he graduated from South Pasadena High School a year ahead of his cheerleader girlfriend Annette. The former high school football player received an American Studies degree from Yale University and graduate degrees in Italian from Middlebury College in Vermont and African Studies at UCLA.

He married Annette in 1959.

That same year, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and spent four years in U.S. military intelligence overseas. He became fluent in Italian, Spanish, Serbo-Croatian and French.  

After his military service was over, he got a job in the State Department in the foreign service in Italy, Ethiopia, and Botswana.

During this time, he had three sons, William, Brenton, and Geoffrey, who was born in 1971.

He eventually returned to the U.S. in 1974 and became an assistant chief in the Division of Special Activities and Commercial Treaties.

Bishop and his wife and three sons, along with his mother Lobella and a Golden Retriever named Leo, moved to the quaint D.C. suburb of Bethesda. In their spare time, the couple played tennis and went swimming at the local country club.

They enjoyed skiing in the winter and Bishop even bought himself a motorcycle. Annette, a stay-at-home mom, took art classes at the local college.  

However, their perfect life seemed to be unravelling — and the full extend that all was not as it seemed is chronicled on tonight’s episode of People Magazine Investigates. Titled “My Father Was a Mass Murderer,” the episode — which examines the case through the eyes of Bishop’s biological daughter, Kathy Gillcrist, airs Monday, Dec. 23 at 9/8c on ID. (An exclusive clip is shown below.)

Bishop and Annette were rumored to be struggling financially. Furthermore, Bishop, who was described as a “lone wolf” and under psychiatric care in the past and had used medication for depression, became despondent when he was passed up for a promotion for an overseas post.

According to authorities, on March 1, 1976, Bishop left early from work, claiming he wasn’t feeling well.

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On his way home, he stopped at a bank and withdrew $400 before purchasing a gasoline can and a sledgehammer.

Once home, he killed his family and then drove their bodies to Columbia, N.C., where he disposed of the bodies of his wife, his mother and three sons, ages 14, 10, and 4, in a hole he’d dug and then set them on fire.

A coroner later determined they died from blunt force trauma.

Bishop, an avid outdoorsman and licensed amateur pilot, was linked to the crimes via his fingerprints found on the gasoline can at the fire scene as well as in the blood at the family’s home.

His maroon-colored station wagon was later found in the parking lot of the Elkmont Campground in Great Smoky Mountains National Park near Gatlinburg, Tenn. Inside the vehicle, authorities discovered two blood-stained tarps, a blood-stained blanket, an axe, a shotgun and a suitcase containing men’s clothing, toiletries as well as cigarette butts in the ashtray.

Bishop has been on the run ever since.

Now, close to 50 years later, the FBI is still looking for him.

He is described by the FBI as a “longtime insomniac” who “may have kept a diary or journal.”

“He drank scotch and wine and enjoyed eating peanuts and spicy food” and was “intense and self-absorbed, prone to violent outbursts, and preferred a neat and orderly environment.”

People Magazine Investigates: My Father Was a Mass Murderer airs Monday, Dec. 23, at 9/8c on ID.