Calling Brad Bishop! Calling Brad Bishop!
For those of you who have been following my one-way correspondence with William Bradford Bishop, Jr., I would like to ask your help in locating him urgently. In my last post on this, William Bradford Bishop, Jr: Let's Meet, I informed Brad (who previously has been spotted in Italy, Switzerland and Sweden) that I was planning to be traveling in Europe in July and that I'd like to meet up with him. You see, Brad, a former Foreign Service officer like myself, murdered his entire family back in 1976 and has been on the lam ever since, and I want to talk him into giving himself up and letting me write The Brad Bishop Story. I had even laid out ways by which he could contact me securely. So, here I am in Venice, and no sign of Brad. Very disappointing, but hardly too late. Brad speaks fluent Serbo-Croatian as well as fluent Italian. Guess what? Next stop: Dubrovnik! And soon after that, Kotor, Montenegro. If we don't link up there, Brad can catch me in Naples, Rome, Florence, Marseilles, Monte Carlo or Barcelona.
So, for those growing fans of this blog, especially those of you who reside in Europe, I ask that you study carefully the above depictions of an age-enhanced Brad Bishop -- one of him clean-shaven, the other with facial hair -- and rack your brains to see if perhaps you may have seen this man, or to keep an eye out for him. If you happen to spot Brad, please do not approach him. You see, Brad is a jittery old man, easily spooked and and prone to run away if recognized. If you do know where he is, or have seen him, you can alert me via this blog, or you can notify the legal attache at the American embassy nearest you. If you're in the U.S., you should contact the FBI.
If I spend my three weeks in Europe without one sign of life from Brad, I'll be very let down. I feel that, at 77, his conscience would finally get the better of him and compel him to finally own up to his ghastly crime. And who better to approach than a guy (me) who has so much in common with him. In fact, it's uncanny. Moreover, if Brad never shoots me a signal, I'll be sorely tempted to write about him again in my next novel. And this time, I won't be so understanding of his psychological condition.
I've already splashed Brad's picture before my fellow writers at ThrillerFest in New York City a few days ago, asking for their help in locating him. I had given a presentation there on "Writing the National Security Thriller." And I may repeat this in September at Bouchercon, the annual meeting of crime and mystery writers. Brad Bishop must be found. The souls of his mother, wife and three young boys demand an answer.
See also:
An Open Letter to William Bradford Bishop, Jr.
William Bradford Bishop, Jr: Let's Meet