Myths Surrounding the William Bradford Bishop Murder Case
As readers of this blog are aware, I've written about the William Bradford Bishop, Jr. murder case in this venue and in my thriller, CHASM. Last year, I sought to reach out to Bishop during a tour of European countries, where many in the law enforcement community believe he may be hiding out. This year, CNN asked to interview me about the case for their new crime investigative series, The Hunt (the show airs Sunday, July 27 at 9pm ET). My interest in Bishop spanned my twenty-three-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service and since. Brad Bishop was a Foreign Service officer when he bludgeoned his mother, wife and three young sons to death in their home on March 1, 1976 and then disappeared. I have no official role in this case. I am just another citizen who would like to see justice served.
As often happens with tragic events, lively imaginations go into overdrive conjuring up all manner of fantastical scenarios, often centering on the conspiratorial. From the JFK assassination to 9/11, Americans have engaged in a favorite pastime of building conspiracy scenarios. My intent here is to dispel several myths that have grown around the Bishop murder case. Here goes --
Brad Bishop was actually a CIA "agent" working under cover in the U.S. State Department: Bishop was an economic ("econ") officer working in the very unsexy Division of Special Trade Activities and Commercial Treaties. At that time, this was the State Department office charged with managing and negotiating trade relations with other countries. Based on my two-and-a-half decades of service inside the U.S. government foreign affairs apparatus (including the intelligence community), and on talking to those who had worked with him, I can say unequivocally that Brad Bishop was a bona fide State Department Foreign Service officer. Some of the basis of this myth of Bishop-as-spy stems from his previous tours of duty in the U.S. Army as an intelligence officer. So what? Many FSO's did stints as military intel officers prior to joining State. I myself had served in military intelligence as an analyst prior to joining the State Department. People change jobs in all spheres all the time. What you were isn't necessarily what you are now. As of August 14, 1963, when he was honorably discharged from the Army, Bishop was no longer an intel officer of any stripe.
Sinister elements in government, possibly the FBI itself, or elsewhere are protecting Brad Bishop: For what possible reason?? The spinners of this tale have yet to flesh it out. Therefore, not much further can be debated about it. The FBI placed Bishop on their Top Ten Most Wanted list in April. A serious outfit, you know the FBI is real serious when it puts someone on its famous list of top wanted criminals. Nobody, nobody, wants Bishop apprehended and brought to justice more than U.S. law enforcement. Believe me.
The murders were an act of revenge by some Yugoslavian entity due to something Brad Bishop may have done while spying on that nation: Bishop was trained by the Army as a Serbo-Croatian linguist. Two aspects of his Army intelligence work have come to light: a) he monitored Yugoslav broadcasts for possible intelligence value; and b) at one point, his superiors tasked him with infiltrating a Yugoslav ski team visiting Italy to try to recruit its members to become spies for the U.S. As for the radio monitoring gig, such work hardly spurs target countries to "take revenge." Such official eavesdropping is done by most nations of any consequence. It is a kind of passive spying. The ski team ploy deserves more guffaws than respect. Sort of a real life "Spy vs Spy" spoof ripped straight out of Mad Magazine. Bishop recounted to friends that he failed miserably in this ridiculous cold war mission, therefore, hardly making him a target of righteous fury from Belgrade. Finally, the now defunct Yugoslav regime was not noted for carrying out assassinations, least of all against American officials.
Conspiracy theories involving me:
I wrote my second thriller, CHASM, back in 1996. It went on to become an Amazon bestseller. As thriller writers are wont to do, I drew on real secret programs and real life characters to spin my tale of fiction. My invented top secret program, "Operation CHASM," imported Balkan war criminals into the United States to help keep the peace in that volatile corner of Europe. I based Operation CHASM on a real life program, Operation Paperclip -- a covert cold war project run by the OSS and its successor, the CIA, to bring in Nazi war criminals to work on our fledgling space program. One of the protagonists in my novel is William Winford Ferret, a State Department officer who is assigned to help run CHASM. He starts losing his mind as the Balkan malefactors commit murder and mayhem within the U.S. Ferret ends up murdering his family and going on the lam. Sound familiar?
Well, I've been receiving messages along the following lines lately:
In Chasm you fabricate a setting that suggests that (former Secretary of State) Warren Christopher had something to do with the deaths of Brad and his bothers, mother and grandmother. He did not. The murders occurred in March 1976 when Kissinger ran State. Yugoslavian criminals are fictitiously blamed for their deaths. Who in reality should be blamed?
Then there is the Chasm overlay. Astonishingly, a neighbor and friend of xyz is in fact a former Nazi. Another casually asked me if I knew Warren Christopher, Sec. of State during the drafting of the Dayton Agreement. You say Chasm is virtually entirely fictitious, but is it?
Mr. Bruno, it is clear you based your book, Chasm, on the real William Bradford Bishop story. Having been in the government with a top secret clearance, it is evident that you know what is really behind the Bishop murders. Could you please divulge your secrets on this case?
Ich bin vom Himmel gefallen! as the Germans say; or I'm gobsmacked, to quote the Brits. Suddenly, my novel reveals dark knowledge of nefarious real programs and people. And I know the real story behind the Bishop case. On the one hand, I'm flattered. My fiction writing must be really good. On the other hand...
Let me set the record straight here and now: Brad Bishop, Foreign Service officer, under psychiatric treatment and on antianxiety medication, killed his entire family on March 1, 1976. He hauled their bodies to eastern North Carolina where he attempted to incinerate them. He then disappeared. There have been at least two credible sightings of him in Europe over the years. William Bradford Bishop is a wanted felon. The FBI has put 100 grand in reward money on his head. Period. Full stop.
Brad: if you're reading this, please set them straight. You can write it right here in my blog.
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