William Bradford Bishop Jr. adorned FBI wanted posters for decades and was wanted worldwide. 46 years have passed since those fateful days in March 1976. William Bradford Bishop Jr. must now have reached the age of 86.

It's a gripping story, the kind of story fables are made of! Bradford Bishop loved scotch and wine, and he preferred peanuts and spicy food, according to his file with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington.

Over the years, the reputation of the fugitive Bradford Bishop became a legend, much like D.B. Cooper or the Isdal woman. There's even a song about him- "The Ballad of Bradford Bishop" composed by the group Coup de Grass from Charlottesville, Virginia.

Back in 2018, the FBI removed him from the ranks of the ten most wanted. Nothing had become of the case, and the FBI found no resolution. Neither did the local authorities in Maryland.  After all these years, clues are still coming into the FBI's Baltimore office.

The disappearance of the crime suspect is a complete mystery and several authorities over the years have come to believe that they inadvertently enabled Bradford Bishop to escape by issuing legend documents. The FBI is realistic about this case. "Even for seasoned travellers, it can be difficult to maintain a new identity in a foreign country," said Steve Vogt, special agent in charge of the Baltimore division. "If you are a US citizen, it is usually easier to hide in this country," he explained. "Americans overseas tend to stand out."

In the meantime-this was October 2014- police even thought they had found Bradford Bishop with the exhumation of the decomposed remains of one John Doe, a hitchhiker who was killed by a car outside a restaurant in Scottsboro, Alabama in 1981 and buried anonymously in a pauper's grave. But the genetic test came back negative, even though the two men looked alike.

In the Washington Post in 2014, the FBI described Bradford Bishop as " ... a seasoned world traveller fluent in five languages - as smart, savvy and able to blend in and build a new life in the United States or abroad."

It is likely that Bradford Bishop lives or lived in Europe. A further possibility is that he returned to California, where he was born.

Bradford Bishop was actually a normal guy who, according to the FBI, was a "hiker and camper who enjoyed canoeing, skiing and motorcycling".

Other sources believe that he went into hiding in the former Yugoslavia during the civil war from 1991 to 1995. However, according to a call from an anonymous tipster, there was also the possibility that Bradford Bishop had been taken to a consulate in New York.  This call was made two years after the actual event.

What had actually happened?

Bradford Bishop was linguistically a highly gifted person who in his younger years had served in the US Army in Germany from 1961 to 1963, then worked for the American State Department. Rumour has is he also worked for the CIA in countries such as Botswana in the Gaborone branch, which was at the time exotic. It is documented that he worked for the army's intelligence service in Italy. According to the FBI's in-depth analysis, there had been a security problem with Bradford Bishop in 1967 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Since his Army days, he had a clearance for top secret matters. But the CIA announced during 1976 that Bradford was too small a fish to have been the target of foreign agents.  He spoke Serbo-Croatian, Italian, French, Spanish and several other languages, which were then very useful to him during his probable escape.

Bradford Bishop is still wanted today for the murders of his wife, mother and children. He probably committed in the between the first and the 2 of March 1976 at their house at 8103 Lilly Stone Drive, Carderock Springs, Bethesda, Maryland.

The victims were Brad, 14; Brenton, 10; and Geoffrey, 5; Bishop's mother Lobelia, 68, and his wife Annette, an ex-cheerleader.

The exact timing of the murders is unclear. Witnesses at the subsequent inquest said they would investigate Bradford Bishop's involvement in intelligence activities in detail.

This is also the story of the famous ballet dancer Jacques d'Amboise, a soloist in George Balanchine's New York City Ballet. D'Amboise wrote in his memoirs that he almost walked into the drama that night in 1976. He and his wife had been invited to see the man he had known and respected for decades: Bradford Bishop.

In all the years before the crime, Bradford Bishop had been in and out of psychiatric therapy for treatment of depression. Otherwise, according to the investigating officers, there was no motive to be found for this grisly act. There was no evidence of infidelity towards his wife, no evidence of financial or professional problems. It became clear how wrong this statement was, when in 2017 the fugitive's daughter, Kathy Gillcrist was identified. She was an adopted child, of which she was aware. But Gillcrist did not know that her biological father- Bradford Bishop- was such a well-known man. Since then, the FBI has also been looking into the years Bradford Bishop was at Yale University, from 1957-1960. Perhaps a motive for the events of 1976 could be found in his years at Yale. He was prone to violent emotional outbursts, irascibility and took strong antidepressants. In 2014, it was revealed that he was bankrupt.

In March 2000 Lorene Klepacki of Asheboro, N.C., paid $38 at a flea market at the Greensboro Coliseum for an old diary. Inside the notebook was written, "Bradford Bishop Diary." A relative read about the Bradford Bishop case on the internet and called the Montgomery County Sheriff's office. The diary, which spanned the six years from October 1965 to October 1971, spoke volumes about Bradford Bishop. The name "Sonny" appeared in the diary and became the subject of much speculation as to whether she might have been the mysterious dark-skinned woman witnesses had seen in connection with the dumping of the bodies.

The trail peters out

Bradford Bishop murdered his family and then drove their dead bodies in a red Chevrolet station wagon to the area of Columbia, North Carolina, about 450 km from the actual crime scene in his native Maryland. He tried to set their corpses on fire in a previously dug hole. This was done with gasoline and other accelerants that Bishop had bought in Montgomery County.

He tried as best he could to cover his tracks. But at this point he was seen by a witness out with his dog and later probably in the company of a dark-skinned woman.

It was not until the 8th of March 1976, more than a week after the suspected crime, that a neighbour who had not seen the family for some time informed the police. One of the officers found blood, human bones, tissue, fibres and hair on the landing between the veranda and the front door, then on the floor and walls of the entrance hall, then all over the house.

The bodies of the family members, already found on the 2d of March 1976, were identified by means of the dental chart. The bodies were "overkilled", as the coroner recalled years later.

The car Bradford Bishop had used was found a few days later in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, near the Great Smokie Mountains, about 640 km from where the family had been found.

A witness testified that the car was parked there between the 5th and 7th of March 1976.A

After that, Bradford Bishop disappeared, with the exception that he was said to have been seen in a good dozen countries in Europe.

Three sightings were particularly interesting because they were apparently people who knew him from before or recognised him, such as a colleague who was with him on a business trip to Ethiopia.

Another witness recognised him in a park in Stockholm twice within a week.  She was absolutely certain, she stated to the FBI, that the man was Bradford Bishop.

She had not contacted the police because she did not know he was wanted for murder in the US. This all took place in July 1978, more than two years after the crime in Maryland.

In January 1979, Bishop was personally approached by a colleague in a public restroom in Sorrento, Italy. It is important to know that the witness, a certain Roy Alwin Harell Jr, knew Bradford Bishop very well and had spoken to him on the afternoon of his disappearance, according to the FBI files.

"Hi, you're Bradford Bishop?" And the man replied in a familiar American accent that he was not, and then fled into a busy city square in a literal downpour. He was poorly dressed, the witness stated.

On the 19th of September 1994, Bishop was standing a few meters away from a former acquaintance of the family, at the railway station in Basel, and she testified that he had got into a vehicle. Where he had travelled to, she could not say.

In 2010, authorities believed Bradford Bishop was living in Switzerland, Italy or a neighbouring state. It even came out that he had been in contact with a murderer at the state prison in Marion, Illinois, before the 1976 crime. Why, it was never clarified. Ken A. Bankston, as the man was called, died of cancer in prison in 1983, and he never revealed the secret of the correspondence.

Sources: 

State Department, USA

FBI

Washington Post

New York Times

Update 11.02 h

While the Western world reacts partly angrily and with speechlessness, "the most massive sanctions" are being prepared against Russia, according to the German Foreign Office.

President Volodymyr Selensky spoke of a war of aggression, "The world must force Russia to make peace", he said, according to the Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform.

In addition, Kamianka-Dniprovska and Mykolaiv and the Kulbakinsky airfield were shelled. People were injured and a shop and three houses were destroyed.
The Ukrainian army is unexpectedly strong, and Putin's Soldateska has to fear the partisans formed from citizens. The Russians concede that about 50 soldiers of the aggressors have been killed.

Consideration is being given to bringing Vladimir Putin and his entourage before an international war crimes tribunal.

The front can currently only be traced by Russian military columns that have crossed the borders at Kharkiv, Luhansk and Chernihiv. The Belarusian army is in tow. After the brutal bombardment of civilian targets in Kharkiv, the Russian news agency Interfax has a suitable excuse at hand.

Alexander Lukashenko, according to Belta, wants to act as an angel of peace and let Putin's troops through, and in the height of cynicism, he wants to prevent bloodshed and massacres. For the latter, he is the specialist. Not to forget, Belarusian forces attacked Ukraine at dawn.

To companies on the scene: evacuations via Manager SOS

Update 06.05 h

Vladimir Putin has sounded the attack. During the night, he attacked cities in Ukraine. There are no reports of deaths or injuries so far.

Mariupol is reported to be under heavy fire. In the recordings from the night, bright flashes and heavy explosions can be seen. Another emergency meeting of the UN Security Council has been held in New York.

Putin's soldiery marched into the neighbouring country without reason and without foreseeing the consequences, to create facts that fit the world view of those in power in the Kremlin.

“We'd like to have a problem…”

As if manhood didn't have enough problems already.

After Corona and countless natural disasters, the situation in Ukraine is not easing.

Oracles in the White House

President Biden is sure that Vladimir Putin will attack Ukraine within the next few days. Again. This time with Kiev as the target. The agencies report that Putin's script, which is now playing out in eastern Ukraine, speaks for this.

The news situation is confusing and little is known about the true background of the main actors. The fact is, last week the war that was so vehemently announced by the American government, time and again in the lived transparency for last Wednesday, broke out twice.

This may all be true—or the United States' sources may be falling for Putin's disinformation campaign. Which would be even worse. Putin, on the other hand, is fabricating about a troop withdrawal and will himself be present today at a manoeuvre with nuclear weapons to be carried out together with Belarus and the despot there. Meanwhile, the OSCE recognizes that mutual attacks are increasing in the contested areas in eastern Ukraine. The normal reader had understood that the observers left last week because they were afraid of war. Yes, now they are observing, from where and how remains open.

To now pontificate about a “Russian Crisis” at the Munich Security Conference, as the German Foreign Minister Baerbock is doing, is completely improper.

The problem is in Ukraine.

Circus Putin

On the other hand, in eastern Ukraine, one can only trust observations of this very OSCE and not reproduce what those involved reveal. Presently, it became known this morning that the self-proclaimed Donetsk Republic is undergoing general mobilization.

Pushilin, a clown in Putin's circus, cannot be the Geiger counter of a possible war. What to make of it, one does not know. Is it a tactical manoeuvre to call Putin to his aid and get a justification for the long announced war? Or is it the absolute failure of nerve of Moscow's satellites?

The assumption in Ukraine, as reported by correspondents and observers, is that Putin's attack is imminent and that it will be aimed at the capital Kiev. In this tense situation, the American embassy has moved to Lviv in the west of the country.

Even Olaf Scholz's visit to the Kremlin only brought a respite, and the situation is escalating from day to day. Putin, who is sitting on a barrel of dynamite, is lighting the fuse, forgetting that the only way he can de-escalate a war between the great powers, the United States and Russia, is by completely withdrawing the troops from the border and returns to the table with the diplomats. No one, however, understands the statements of the American president any more, who keeps referring to new attack dates and thus probably loses credibility, as Putin would like.

But the biggest losers are the citizens in eastern Ukraine, who seem to be no longer the issue at all, but only the threat potential of Ukraine.

The current situation is characterized by absolute incompetence for all those involved and seems to be becoming a grotesque of international politics that has been distorted to the point of ridiculousness.