Madness: Professor Amy Bishop Shoots & Kills 3 Colleagues at University of Alabama… She’s Killed Before
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on February 14, 2010
Prof. Amy Bishop was arrested after murdering three professors and wounding three others at University of Alabama during a faculty meeting; she was reportedly angry about not getting tenure. | Photo credit: Sunday Times Online
Absolutely chilling madness. When I first read about the three cold-blooded murders committed by Prof. Amy Bishop, a neurobiologist at the University of Alabama, I went numb with yet another realization that no one is ever truly safe, even while at work at a university.
No tenure, you say? Then, boom…
This is horrifically reminiscent of the post office shootings from 1983 onward in which United States Postal Service (USPS) workers shot and killed managers, fellow workers, and members of the police or the general public. In January 2006 was the biggest bloodbath at a U.S. postal installation since a post office massacre 20 years ago helped coin the colloquial term “going postal.”
Now “going postal” is happening on university campuses by unhinged professors.
It wasn’t the first time the professor had shot and killed someone… in a 1986 shooting in Massachusetts, Prof. Bishop killed her own brother. Why in the world now, in 2010, does this woman have access to a 9 mm? And why was she never prosecuted for the killing of her brother? What was former district attorney William Delahunt’s, now Democrat Rep. William Delahunt’s, relationship in the case?
Prof. Amy Bishop murdered three university professors after being told she would not be tenured.
From New York Times: A Previous Shooting Death at the Hand of Alabama Suspect:
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The neurobiologist accused of killing three colleagues at the University of Alabama, Huntsville, on Friday fatally shot her brother in 1986 in suburban Boston, and the police there are now questioning whether their department mishandled that case when it let her go without filing charges.
Early Saturday, the police in Huntsville charged the neurobiologist, Amy Bishop, who they said was 45, with capital murder in the shootings Friday that also left three people wounded during a faculty meeting. Dr. Bishop, who appeared to have had a promising future in the biotechnology business, had recently been told she would not be granted tenure, university officials said.
On Saturday afternoon, the police in Braintree, Mass., announced that 24 years ago, Dr. Bishop had fatally wounded her brother, Seth Bishop, in an argument at their home, which The Boston Globe first reported on its Web site. The police were considering reopening the case, in which she was not charged and the report by the officer on duty at the time was no longer available, said Paul Frazier, the Braintree police chief.
“The release of Ms. Bishop did not sit well with the police officers,” Chief Frazier said in a statement, “and I can assure you that this would not happen in this day and age.” He said at a news conference on Saturday that the original account describing the shooting as an accident had been inaccurate and, The Globe said, that while he was reluctant to use the word “cover-up,” it did not “look good” that the detailed records of the case have been missing since 1988.
From Gateway Pundit, Socialist Professor Amy Bishop Who Killed 3 Profs Yesterday Shot & Killed Her Brother in 1986 …UPDATE: Dem Rep. Delahunt Made Call to Release Bishop in 1986!:
AL.com is now reporting that this socialist professor also shot and killed her 18 year-old brother during an argument in 1986.
A Massachusetts police chief is now saying that UAH shooting suspect Amy Bishop shot and killed her brother during an argument, and the case may have been mishandled by the police department more than two decades ago when the fatal shooting occurred.
The Boston Globe reported that Amy Bishop, a biology professor at UAH who is accused of shooting and killing three colleagues yesterday, accidentally shot her 18-year-old brother, Seth M. Bishop, in the abdomen with a 12-gauge shotgun in December 1986.
The report said Bishop was asking her mother, Judith, how to properly unload the gun when it when off and a shot struck Seth.
Braintree Police Chief Paul Frazier is now offering a different account of the shooting to The Globe: “Bishop had shot her brother during an argument and was being booked by police when the police chief at the time ordered the booking process stopped and Bishop released to her mother,” the paper reports on its Web site. Records from the case have been missing since 1987.
Bishop shot at her brother 3 times.
UPDATE: Police released Bishop in 1986 after they received a call from district attorney William Delahunt, now Rep. Delahunt.
[...]
More… Bishop’s mother was in politics on the town Board of Personnel in 1986 at the time of the shooting.
Still More… It’s not the first time Rep. Delahunt has been linked to a murder.
From Tom Blumer, NewsBusters: Name That Congressman: AP Coverage of Ala. Prof’s Prior Killing Ignores Rep. Delahunt’s Involvement in Her Release:
Democratic Congressman Bill Delahunt’s far from minor role in the 1986 release of Amy Bishop, the University of Alabama in Hunstville biology professor implicated in the murder of three colleagues on Friday, has garnered significant press attention in the past 24 hours or so. Some reports have noted Delahunt’s party affiliation; others, mostly but not entirely out of New England, where Delahunt’s party affiliation may be common knowledge, have not.
But in two stories time-stamped early this morning — a 12:02 a.m. 300-word item by Jay Lindsay and a 6:43 a.m. comprehensive 1000-word report co-written by Lindsay and Desiree Hunter (saved here and here, respectively, for future reference, fair use and discussion purposes) — the Associated Press failed to even note Delahunt’s involvement.
From Boston Globe, Professor accused in Ala. slayings shot her brother in Mass. 24 years ago:
The district attorney at the time, current US Representative William D. Delahunt, is out of the country and could not be reached for comment.
Additional food for thought on the shootings from Eilene Zimmerman, True/Slant, Amy Bishop: murderer in a “Rage of Blind Violence?” Or should we have seen it coming?:
When a female professor, at the University of Alabama in Huntsville–Amy Bishop, a neurobiologist who had been denied tenure–pulled out a gun at a faculty meeting Friday and killed several of her colleagues, bloggers and reporters started writing about how unusual it was for a woman to commit a crime like this.
[...]
So what’s the most hard to grasp part of this story—that she was a woman? a professional? not a grad student under grad-student-pressure, not a member of the postal service? Perhaps what’s much easier to grasp, is that Amy Bishop had a troubled past, and a past that involved guns. Maybe she was just a woman on the verge… on the verge of instability because of psychological problems. Which makes much more sense, even if what she did is no less heinous.
See this by Gina Barreca in yesterday’s Chronicle of Higher Education:
Not only did she murder her colleagues with a 9 mm; more than twenty years ago, Amy Bishop shot and killed her brother. This is a woman who should not have had a gun. This is a woman who should have had more help. This is a woman about whom people will say, “How come nobody who worked with her day in and day out knew?” and “Are there more like her?”
Related reading:
Uncommon Descent: Will Evolution Weekend Sermons Discuss Alleged Murderer Amy Bishop?
Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: Inevitable “Tea Party” and “Amy Bishop” Link Attempt
Gateway Pundit: Socialist Alabama Professor Shot 3 Colleagues Dead, Shot Her Brother Dead, Robbed Auto Dealership With Shotgun & Was Suspect in Attempted Harvard Bombing
The Conservative Pup: Three Killed at University of Alabama By Woman Driven Crazy By Conservatives
Patterico’s Pontifications: The Shooting at UAH
The Lonely Conservative: Amy Bishop: Socialist Professor Who Killed Three Colleagues Also Killed Her Brother But Got Off Thanks to Dem Rep Delahunt
Conservative Nation: Politicizing Murder: Wrong No Matter Who Does It
The Trough: Dysfunctional Jewish Family: Amy Bishop (at 22) Killed brother Seth Bishop (18) and got away with it
Scared Monkeys: Amy Bishop, Univ. Alabama Murder Suspect Has a Past … Shot Brother in Massachusetts 24 Years Ago
Bloodthirsty Liberal: Wilhemina Horton?
Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: Proposed TPM and LGF Headlines
About the author
sick country…sick peoples
What a loser this woman is.
I don’t care about a mental illness diagnosis (I’m sure that the many with mental illness will be “all” upset with this comment…) … in this situation innocent lives were taken…it’s a joke and a travesty … I’m an ER nurse…I’m a realist…I deal with mental illness every day. This is what the ER doctors classify as a “senseless loss of lives.”
This woman was a coward and a loser and should not have been allowed to remain on this Earth to exterminate other nice, kind, productive souls.
A simple “loser.”
How sad for the families of the victims.
Sadly the nurse’s comments above are uneducated, linear and single-minded. If you have ever suffered yourself, lived with a family member or watched a close friend have an acute onset of mental illness you would “get it”. Sadly you don’t. You are like millions in our society who pass judgment, stigmatize and offer your insulting opinion on a subject you know nothing about. I hope that you never work in psych. nursing unless you have been properly trained. Until then you should keep your opinions to yourself. There are books you could read to educate yourself in a profession meant to help people. One is titled “Lies Is Silence”, by SJ Hart. It is profound and powerful. The other is “Crazy” by Pete Earley a journalist from the Washington Post. Please get help if you are to help others.
Sadie R.
Sadie, I appreciate your input, but I’m sure you’re not intentionally excusing or condoning what Prof. Bishop did and you’d agree that most people with depression, anxiety issues, or mental health problems do not murder people in cold blood. She’s also been linked to a mail bomb threat against a Harvard professor back in 1993 and with killing her own brother in 1986. More is being uncovered.
Help has always been available — America has some of the best mental health experts in the world and Bishop obviously needed help for decades — but no one compelled her to seek it nor did she seek it. Also, it appears now that Democrat political forces may have helped in a cover-up in the 1980s shooting in Massachusetts because of a potential link between her mother and the district attorney at the time. There is much more here than meets the eye. In the coming days, we’ll find out more.
Reply – I work hard to not offer an opinion on a situation where I am not on the inside legally or clinically. And though I understand your response to my comment what I was responding to was the “professional” who used non-clinical and insulting words in a situation where I assume she knows nothing about. Do I believe the Professor should be held responsible? That is not a simple nor linear answer. If she had alzheimers and was your mother would you support a lethal injection or locked medical care? The mental health care in our country is substandard at best, and our providers lack the training needed to deal with complex medical and mental health situations. As far as the political end I don’t usually muddy the waters with other issues. In my personal and professional opinion mental illness is mental illness is mental illness. Thank you for your thoughts.
First of all, mental health treatment can be very difficult to get in this country. I tried for months to get an appointment with a psychiatrist two years ago. Anyone taking new patients in my area had a minimum 6 week waiting list for an appointment and my appointment with community mental health was cancelled, twice, with no notice after waiting for weeks. I had a prior diagnosis and knew I needed to go back on medication. I kept hearing the same thing: go to a particular emergency room in crisis and we will work you in. Otherwise, wait until an opening comes up.
I’ve spent a small fortune managing my mental illness. It is hard. The medications are expensive and don’t come without their own set of side effects. Plus the benefits are often underwhelming. Big Pharma isn’t always straight with you. Unfortunately I come across nurses all the time who think if you just take the pills as prescribed everything will be unicorns and rainbows. Repeat after me. There is no guarantee that the meds will work. There is no guarantee that meds will return a mentally ill person to a prior level of functioning. Don’t like it? Tough luck. We have what we have and if you die in your fifties from heart disease, that’s the nature of the beast.
One last thing before I hop off of my soap box. Everyone who commits a crime like this isn’t automatically mentally ill. Everyone who is a sociopath or violent person isn’t automatically mentally ill. Mentally ill people can function in society without sending pipe bombs, shooting shotguns in their brother’s direction or killing their co-workers. I suspect Amy Bishop was a difficult, spoiled person who had a history of getting away with using violence to satisify her need for vengence or as an expression of angry. If she were a different gender and race with an inner city address, we would call her a gangster thug and give not a single thought to mental illness.