William Bradford Bishop Murder Case: If This Guy Gets Nabbed After 32 Years on the Lam, So Can Family Annihilator Bishop
News out of Arkansas reports the arrest of Steven Dishman, a common thief who escaped from prison 32 years ago and who has been living a quiet, low profile life in his home state. A neighbor described him and a housemate as “nothing but nice” and "people you would be thankful to have as neighbors.”
A year ago, Bob Stackowitz was apprehended in Georgia after being the lam for 48 years. He escaped from prison following conviction for robbery. How did they catch him? Bob got careless. He applied for social security benefits. Badda-bing, badda-boom! Nabbed.
A year prior to that, the New York Times reported the arrest of Bernard Welch aka Norm Hamilton. "The Hamiltons seemed to make for an enviable family. They lived in a sprawling brick house in Great Falls, Va., and drove around in a silver Mercedes. Neighbors knew the father of the family as Norm, a successful real estate investor and antiques dealer who shared stock market tips with his friends. The Washington-area police had a different name for him: a one-man crime wave. Norm Hamilton was the unobtrusive creation of Bernard C. Welch Jr., a serial burglar who escaped from the grounds of the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y., decades before."
“Your first priority is finding a secure place and a source of money,” said Darrin Giglio, chief investigator for the private agency North American Investigation. “You don’t want anything traceable, so you’ll either have to establish a new identity or get paid off the books, maybe as a day laborer.”
William Bradford Bishop, a U.S. diplomat who murdered his mother, wife and three young sons in 1976 and then vanished, clearly had a plan. He was a whip-smart, methodical man. Was his plan to blow his own brains out in some secluded wilderness setting after his heinous crime, or to travel far away, change his identity and assume a line of work that would keep him under the radar? Nobody knows. But he's on the FBI's Most Wanted List. He'll turn 81 this August - if alive.
Bad guys do get caught after many years in hiding. All it takes is one slip-up, like applying for social security benefits. Another family annihilator, John List, was caught after 18 years as a fugitive, turned in by a neighbor who had just watched America's Most Wanted coverage of the case. The wily Irish-American gangster James "Whitey" Bulger remained at large for 16 years until an ex-neighbor turned him in. CNN's The Hunt (also with John Walsh) did an hour-long report on Bishop. The case has defied the hard work and best brains of American law enforcement.
If you have solid reason to believe Brad Bishop is your neighbor, your ex-co-worker, the old guy who feeds the pigeons in the park, call the FBI tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI (225-5324).
See also:
William Bradford Bishop Murder Case: After Forty Years, Is It Time to Move On?
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