EP. 81 ALABAMA - The Killer Professor: Amy Bishop
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He's the most terrifying serial killer you've never heard of. Haddon Clark has confessed to several murders, but investigators say he could have over 100 victims. At the center of the mayhem, a cellmate of Haddon's that was able to get key evidence into Haddon's murder spree across America,

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Warning, the following podcast is not suitable for all audiences. We go into great detail with every case that we cover and do our best to bring viewers even deeper into the stories by utilizing disturbing audio and sound effects. Trigger warnings from the stories we cover may include violence, rape, murder, and offenses against children. This podcast is not for everyone. You have been warned.

Our story starts on February 12, 2010 at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. That afternoon, 13 members of the biology department gathered around a small oval desk for a routine faculty meeting. And for the next hour,

They all discussed their plans for the upcoming semester. One of the members in attendance was Dr. Amy Bishop, who had just been told that she would no longer be a professor at the university after the semester ended. Throughout the meeting, the doctor, who usually had a lot to say, sat quietly, fidgeting with the large bag that sat on her lap.

And then, just as the meeting was ending, Dr. Amy Bishop pulls out a gun and begins shooting at her coworkers one by one. We have discussed many mass shootings in this podcast, but this one is unlike anything we've ever covered.

Dr. Amy Bishop was a Harvard graduate. She was a writer, a researcher, a wife, and a mother. On paper, she was considered one of the most respected members in society.

But underneath it all, Dr. Amy Bishop was a disturbed woman with a very dark and violent past. And it turns out, the shooting at the University of Alabama was not her first encounter with murder. This is the story of the killer professor, Dr. Amy Bishop. I'm Courtney Brown. And I'm Colin Brown. And you're listening to Murder in America. You're doing really well in your classes, Allison.

Amy Bishop was born in Braintree, Massachusetts on April 24th, 1965 to parents Samuel and Judith Bishop. And a few years after having Amy, they gave birth to their second child, a son named Seth.

The kids grew up on some land where Judith cared for their horses. And Samuel was a professor in the art department at Northeastern University in Boston. So naturally, their family placed a lot of importance on academia. But according to the people who knew their family, they were always a little different. Sam and Judy weren't very affectionate with their children.

Some even said that they seemed to be above expressing emotion entirely When people came into contact with the family, many recalled that they seemed to give off a sense of superiority Like they were just better than everyone else And this made it difficult for them to have close friends But that didn't bother Sam and Judith They were more focused on making sure that their children were successful and smart And there's nothing wrong with that at all

The reason we even mention that, though, is because this plays a pretty big role in the person Amy Bishop would later become But after graduating from Braintree High School, Amy decides to continue her education at the same place her father works at Northeastern University in Boston

But her interest isn't in the arts like her father. Amy was fascinated with biology, which is what she decided to concentrate on in her undergrad. Amy seemed to be doing really well in her classes at Northeastern, and she even meets another biology major named Jimmy Anderson. Now, the two actually met through a live-action role-playing group who were obsessed with Dungeons & Dragons.

And I feel like if you like Dungeons and Dragons or you know someone who plays it, you know that the people who play are usually very passionate. And the game requires you to spend a lot of time with the people in your group, so Jimmy and Amy really bonded over it and eventually they started a romantic relationship.

And after about a year of dating, in the winter of 1987, Jimmy decides to bring Amy home to meet his parents in Foxboro, Massachusetts. At the time, Sandy and Jimmy Sr. had no idea that their son made the hour-long drive to come see them. He didn't give them any warning. So when he walked through their front door with his girlfriend, they were pleasantly surprised.

They had never met Amy and they didn't know much about her, so Sandy made sure to give her a warm welcome. "Hi, nice to finally meet you," she says. Now, Sandy was from the South, so naturally she went in for a hug. But upon doing so, she felt Amy immediately tense up and she muttered a quick and quiet, "Nice to meet you too."

as Jimmy ran up the stairs to grab something from his bedroom. According to Sandy, she and Amy stood awkwardly in the room together until Jimmy made his way back downstairs. The three then shared a bit of small talk and after about 30 minutes, Jimmy and Amy left.

And Sandy thought this was strange. Why would they drive over an hour to come over if they were only going to stay for 30 minutes? It bothered her. And even more so, she wasn't a big fan of her son's new girlfriend. She would later tell her husband, quote, "Jim needed something in his room. She just stood there and looked at me. Honestly, she was rude. There's something not right about that girl."

Even more so, Sandy noticed that Amy called her son James, which was strange because no one had ever called him by that name. It was as if the name change was a sign that they were slowly losing the old Jimmy to his new girlfriend, Amy Bishop. And Jimmy's parents were right. After this encounter, their son rarely ever kept in contact with them.

He and Amy would eventually both graduate from Northeastern University, and afterward, Amy got accepted into Harvard's graduate program to study genetics. Now, Jimmy had his own academic plans, but instead of following them, he decided to stick by Amy's side and move to Cambridge so that she could pursue her dreams. And on August 20th, 1989, the couple would get married at the All Saints Universalist Unitarian Church in Amy's hometown of Braintree, Massachusetts.

And for the next few years, the couple seemed to be doing really well.

Amy was at Harvard, and Jimmy actually stayed home to take care of things around the house. They figured that she would be the breadwinner, and he could prepare things for their future family. And it was from this point forward where Jimmy officially started going by James, the name that Amy gave him years earlier. Now, this is very common in doctors, but after their marriage, Amy decided to keep her last name and carry on the family tradition of Dr. Bishop. She

She wanted to make her family proud, and she knew that day would finally come once she received her PhD. But there were other exciting things happening in the couple's life. In 1991, Amy found out she was pregnant with her first child, a daughter that they would name Lily. Unfortunately for Jimmy, or James' parents, they almost had no relationship with their son at this point.

After the birth of their grandchild, they only received a few pictures of her via email and that was it. And we see this a lot in these types of relationships where someone will isolate their partner from all the people they care about as a means of controlling them. And you'll see throughout this story that Amy had a lot of control over her husband. James didn't speak to his parents for years after the birth of his daughter.

and he wouldn't speak to them again until 1993 when his other daughters, Thea and Phaedra, were born. And during all of this, Amy was hard at work at Harvard. Not only was she a mother of three, but she had also been working on her dissertation titled "The Role of Methazadin in the Respiratory Bust of Phagocytes."

Now, that is a complete foreign language to me, but according to Wikipedia, her research centered around the "induction of adapted resistance to nitric oxide in the central nervous system and utilization of motor neurons for the development of neural circuits grown on biological computer chips." Again, I have no clue what that means, but it sounds like Amy was doing really well for herself.

I mean, if you see a Harvard education on anyone's resume, you're going to be impressed. But according to Amy's colleagues, she wasn't as smart as she made herself up to be. You see, Amy loved to brag about how she was a genius. She constantly told people that she and her husband had an IQ of over 180, which is insanely high.

I mean, the average IQ is 85 to 115, so 180 is very, very intelligent. But we weren't able to find anything that confirmed that her IQ was indeed that high. And just like how people described her parents, she had this arrogance and superiority about her that was very unbecoming.

and although she seemed to be really smart, the people that she worked with would disagree. They said that her work wasn't good quality and she kind of did the bare minimum of what she was required to do. Yes, she ended up getting her PhD, but they said she barely scraped by and that she was a "weak doctoral candidate" in her program. Some of her professors even thought that she didn't deserve her degree.

But with this PhD, Amy finally achieved her lifelong dream of becoming a doctor. Now I do want to say that the fact she was even able to get her PhD from Harvard means she is undeniably very smart.

I don't know about genius, but you can't get to that point in your career unless you are above average intelligence. And after she got her PhD, she began working at a research position in the neurobiology lab at the Boston Children's Hospital.

And while she was there, she worked under a fellow doctor and researcher named Dr. Rosenberg. But almost immediately, it became clear that Amy was not easy to work with. I couldn't find the specifics on what Amy did exactly while she was in this position, but it seemed to reflect exactly what her old colleagues would say about her. Amy's work did not meet expectations.

and her boss was forced to give her a bad review. He would later say that Amy was "unstable, depressed, and exhibited violent behavior," and she could not meet the standards required for work, and was on the verge of a nervous breakdown after learning that her post-doctoral work would not receive a glowing review. After this, Amy abruptly left her position at the Children's Hospital to find work somewhere else.

But interestingly enough, shortly after, her old boss, Dr. Rosenberg, would come home to a mysterious package on his front porch. It was a white box that had six 29-cent stamps on it that were uncancelled, which means that the box hadn't gone through a postal service, but rather someone put it on his doorstep.

And this was strange for one, Dr. Rosenberg wasn't expecting any packages. And the fact that someone just set it on his porch was alarming. So just to be safe, he decides to call the police and a bomb squad was eventually sent to retrieve the package. Upon opening it, they discovered a pipe bomb.

whoever delivered that package fully intended on killing Dr. Rosenberg. A huge investigation went underway after this pipe bomb incident and their main focus was on none other than Amy Bishop. Her husband was being looked at as well. And the reason James was being brought into it all was because a witness would later come forward who claimed to have heard James say that he wanted to kill his wife's boss.

James even called his father after the investigation and told him, "Dad, this is really bad." Which sounds pretty incriminating to me. The ATF would eventually question the couple who of course denied any responsibility.

but Dr. Rosenberg and all of her other colleagues knew that Amy was responsible. One of them, named Sylvia Fluckiger, would later say, "No one thought that it was a coincidence that he would get those pipe bombs after she left." And the gossip around town was that Amy planted the pipe bomb because she thought that Dr. Rosenberg was taking credit for her research.

She even complained that he wanted to "jump on the train and take over the engine." But according to her old colleagues, this wasn't the only time Amy accused people of trying to take credit for her work.

She was constantly having arguments in the lab and she rarely ever got along with anyone. Investigators worked hard to try and form a case against the couple and the more they looked into Amy and her husband, the more skeletons they would find.

Authorities eventually interviewed a man named Donald Prolix, who was childhood friends with James Anderson. And he told investigators that not long before this, James and Amy had been having problems with their neighbor. And for some reason, this prompted James to want a gun. So he asked his friend Donald to buy him one so he didn't have to deal with Massachusetts' strict gun laws.

Donald admits that he did buy James a 9mm P85 semi-automatic Ruger in Troy, New Hampshire, just months before the pipe bombing incident. But what he tells investigators next really catches their attention. He says, James Anderson told me he wanted to get back at the guy. He said he wanted to shoot him, bomb him, stab him, or strangle him.

After hearing this, Amy and James become the lead suspects in the pipe bomb investigation, and on April 13, 1994, a search warrant was executed to search the couple's home. Unfortunately, the evidence that was recovered was not enough to charge them with the crime, and both Amy and James were eventually cleared as suspects. Over the next few years, James works as a freelance computer engineer, while Amy did her best to find more research positions in Massachusetts.

And surprisingly, despite the rumors that she had tried to kill her last boss, she didn't have a hard time finding work. She did, however, have a hard time finding a job that she could stick with. Amy hopped around to different low-paying part-time research positions around Massachusetts.

But she never seemed to get along with any of her coworkers. They said that she often had emotional outbursts. And in some instances, according to a colleague, if her work didn't meet expectations, she "broke down."

She was extremely angry at all of us. She exploded into something that we had never saw before in our careers. We tried to calm her down, but there was no calming her down. She kept screaming and swearing and crying. I will never forget it. Now, something else to keep in mind is that research positions do not pay a lot.

and the couple started to struggle financially. Eventually, in 1999, they are forced to move onto Amy's parents' property where her mother, Julie, helps alleviate some of the stress. And it's around this time when they start trying to have another baby.

With three girls, they really want to try for a boy so that they can carry on the bishop name. According to people who knew Amy, she was a good mom, but she was very temperamental. According to the Snapped episode on this case, Amy's husband James described their family as quote, "a house full of geeks. Everyone's a scientist. Everyone's a musician."

They were always trying to get their children to learn and grow. They didn't watch a lot of TV." So now that they're living in this small town neighborhood in Boston, their kids are growing up and they're interacting with other children their age.

And it soon became clear that Amy was not well liked among the neighborhood moms. The Birch Lane neighborhood where they lived with her parents was one of those communities where your neighbors are like family, where you could always rely on a helping hand. Many of the moms in this neighborhood were really good friends with one another.

but not Amy Bishop. She was commonly referred to as the local PETA, which stands for pain in the ass. The neighborhood kids also frequently called her crazy eyes, which is pretty self-explanatory if you were to Google what she looks like.

Their next-door neighbor, a tax attorney named Arthur Kerr, said that Amy was obnoxious, always bragging about her credentials. He would later say, "The first thing she told us was that she went to Harvard and how smart they were, and within days they had their first dispute with someone." And Arthur was right. Amy was your quintessential Karen who was constantly complaining about petty nuisances. They were so annoying to their neighbors that fences were built on both sides of their yard just so that the neighbors could have some peace.

In one instance, Amy started running after an ice cream truck and screamed at the driver for driving down their street because her children were lactose intolerant. She told him, "It's not fair that they have to see the ice cream truck when they can't have any." On another occasion, Amy called the local police to do a welfare check on her father because he wasn't answering the phone. When the police went to check on him, they found that her father was indeed alive and well.

he just simply didn't want to talk to Amy. Not long after this, she calls the police again to report her daughters, Thea and Phaedra, missing. She told the officers, "Normally phone calls are exchanged before children are allowed to leave someone's home, and that didn't happen." And missing children are a very serious matter, so the cops grab some pictures of the girls

and they left to go look for them. But almost immediately after they started asking neighbors, one of them said, yeah, they're over here playing with my kids. The Andersons knew that, end quote.

Allegedly, the girls had only been over there for about 15 minutes, and Amy knew where they were the whole time. But one of the worst things that Amy did while living in this neighborhood was when she physically shoved a teenager named Joey LeFoe to the ground just because he was riding his bike in front of the Bishop home. He tells his mom, Pamela, and she pays the couple a heated visit, telling Amy, this is not happening. You will not put your hands on my kid, she warned. With

Without a word, Amy rudely slams the door in her face and calls 911. When asked about the assault on the boy, James denies that it happened, and the officer tells them, "Look, Mr. and Mrs. Anderson, don't confront these kids yourself. Call the parents first and let them know that they are loud. Then call the police."

The LeFos want to press charges, but they don't want any further confrontation with the crazed woman across the street. So instead, they just keep their distance. By August of 2001, Amy finally gives birth to the son they always wanted.

and they name him Seth Bishop after Amy's late brother. But an incident that occurs shortly after the birth of their son shows that Amy was definitely dealing with some untreated mental illness. On this particular day, March 16th, 2002, she and her family all drive to the local IHOP for some lunch.

And as soon as they get seated at a booth, Amy asks for a booster seat for her son. The waitress walks away to retrieve one, but she comes back empty handed. The waitress tells Amy "I am so sorry, but we actually just gave away our last booster seat to another family. But don't worry, as soon as one comes available, we will bring it right over."

And all of a sudden, the calm and collected Amy starts to feel her face grow red with anger. "What do you mean you're out of booster seats? We were here first. Who the fuck do you people think you are? We were here first." A woman at a nearby table heard Amy cussing at the waitress and told her, "Hey, please watch your language. There are children around."

The woman's name was Michelle and she was actually the one who got the last booster seat. Seeing this, Amy went into a blinding rage, telling her "Shut up you dumb bitch, you have no idea who you are dealing with." Michelle is mortified cause she's sitting there with her two young children.

And at this point, the manager of the IHOP approaches Amy and tells her, "Ma'am, you are creating a big disturbance. I'm going to have to ask you to leave." But this only made Amy more mad and she begins screaming at the top of her lungs, "Do you know who I am? I am Dr. Amy Bishop." Amy then lunges at Michelle and begins punching her in the side of her head.

right in front of Michelle's two children, who are now crying in fear. And all while Amy is assaulting this woman, she's screaming at her, "I am Dr. Amy Bishop." Back at Amy's table, her children are also crying after witnessing their mother's behavior.

And James is just sitting there quietly, letting his wife make a fool of herself. Amy then yells "Let's go!" before she and her family quickly run out of the IHOP. But Michelle is not about to let Amy get away with assaulting her in front of her children.

So she quickly runs outside and writes down her license plate number and calls the police. Shortly after, Officer David Murphy arrives at the IHOP to find a distraught Michelle with a visible welt on her head. Dr. Murphy then runs the plates and gives Amy Bishop a call. Ms. Bishop, I'm calling about an incident at the IHOP in Peabody.

But of course, Amy refuses to take responsibility for her actions. And instead, she blames Michelle for starting the entire altercation. She claimed Michelle shoved her, saying,

Ma'am, we have an entire room of witnesses that have a completely different story. Everyone there said that you were the aggressor. And because of that, we have to issue a criminal summons and you're going to have to appear in court. Are you fucking kidding me? Well, if that's the case, then I'm going to take a complaint out against her. Well, you're free to do that. The court opens first thing on Monday morning if you want to file a complaint.

In What Do You Know, as soon as Monday rolls around, Amy confidently walks into court and files a complaint against Michelle. But she purposefully doesn't list her home address, listing her reason as, quote, I would like to keep my address confidential, as the defendant and her husband seem vituperous, end quote.

Under the witness section, she lists, quote, End quote.

When asked to describe the facts of what happened, Amy Bishop wrote: 1. The defendant initiated an argument. 2. She appeared angry and agitated towards her children before she initiated the argument. 3. She swore at me and my husband and we decided to leave the restaurant. She blocked our exit and grabbed my shirt at the waist and announced, "I swear to God I'm going to knock you out cold."

Now, everyone knew this story was a lie, but Amy signed the victim impact statement anyways, signing it Amy Anderson. She couldn't have word of this getting out to prospective universities she planned on applying to in the future.

A few days later, she is summoned to court by the Peabody Police Department on charges of assault and battery and for disorderly conduct. Essex County Prosecutor Cesar Archilla recommended that Amy Bishop be forced to attend anger management classes, but the judge didn't heed his warning. Instead, they continued to prosecute the case, and they ended up making a deal with Amy.

If she admitted to the facts of the case as stated by the witnesses and prosecution and stayed out of trouble for at least six months, they would dismiss the charges. She takes the deal, never serves any time, and the entire incident is wiped off her criminal record. She still pursues charges against Michelle Jicka, claiming assault, forcing the woman to hire defense attorney Stephen Scully. He would later recall...

In the end, Amy's lawyer offers up a deal that proposes both women meet in front of the judge, where they both have to admit to one assaulting the other, and then they could both drop all charges.

But Michelle's lawyer says, absolutely not. He claims he knows his client is innocent of any wrongdoing. He later says, My client was punched in the face in front of her kids. She didn't do anything wrong. I'm taking it to trial then. The trial doesn't last long and Michelle's lawyer is successful in getting all charges against her dismissed.

Which is just such an annoying outcome because obviously Michelle didn't do anything wrong and Amy should have been held accountable for her actions. But as you'll see later on, Amy has a way of getting out of trouble when it comes to her violent behavior. But aside from her research and being an annoyance, Amy also loved to write.

It was an escape from the world and a huge passion of hers. She started off by writing poetry and then she moved into fiction thriller novels. And she actually wrote three novels by the time she moved in with her parents on their property. Two of the novels were based on the life of an Ivy League educated scientist who is tasked with the mission of saving the world.

The first novel was told through the perspective of a 12 year old in Belfast and was titled "Martians in Belfast." And as you can imagine, Amy thought she was the best writer in the world. She even joined an organization called the Hamilton Writers Group, which was a large group of scriptwriters and other published authors who all met up to receive feedback on their work.

And while Amy was in this group, she made sure to tell everyone that she was a doctor with a graduate degree from Harvard. She also never missed an opportunity to tell people she was related to the world-famous novelist John Irving. They were allegedly second cousins through her mom's side of the family. But throughout the time she spent writing, she eventually came into contact with a parent from her kids' school.

A man named Lenny Cavallaro. He was a musician, writer, and a literary agent. And he and Amy actually had a lot in common. She grew up playing violin, she too loved to write, and meeting Lenny was very exciting for Amy. Not only did she have a friend, but she felt like he could help her get one of her books published.

And surprisingly, Lenny actually really liked Amy at first. Sure, he thought she could be abrasive, but it was clear to him that she was very intelligent and passionate. How bad could she be? He would later say, "We got friendly. Our daughters were roughly the same age and she seemed pretty level-headed."

The two eventually got pretty close and spent a lot of time talking about writing. But almost immediately, Lenny noticed that Amy desperately craved fame and attention. She would even tell him: "My dream is to quit academia and write fiction full-time." Which is a great dream to have, but Amy wasn't the best writer. Lenny just didn't know that yet.

The two of them would constantly talk about collaborating on a project together and they eventually settle on writing a piece about a disease outbreak that's killing off humanity and they save the world by creating a new species using Neanderthal DNA and Amy is so excited about it because she gets to mix her writing skills with science The two begin the project and eventually Amy decides to bring her husband in on it as well and the three of them name it Amazon Fever

fever. Over time, they all meet at Amy's home and, in the beginning, the project seemed to be going really well. Lenny would even say: "I spent a lot of time there, especially with my marriage falling apart. I saw the fights with the neighbors, but I also saw Amy's side in those matters. She had a cranky baby, she was trying to get to bed, and there was a loud noise or loud bikes. She had some legitimate points." After a while, the trio of writers came up with about 90 pages of Amazon Fever, and they were really pleased with where the story was going.

But then, shortly before 2003, Lenny said that Amy and James started to completely take over the writing of the novel, and he's not allowed any input at all. In addition, he said that the direction they were taking the story was outrageous.

and he began questioning whether or not he wanted his name on it at all. He would later say, "The writing was terrible, the plot was awful, her heroine had become Amy Bishop. She tried to make a person that was almost as great and wonderful as Amy Bishop." Now, keep in mind, Linney was the literary agent. So without his help, Amy was going to have a really hard time getting the novel published.

And she specifically wanted Linny to help get them an advance on the novel, which basically means to pay them before the novel's even published. Linny politely informed her that that would be literally impossible, especially since she was a shit writer and had never even published a book before. Upon hearing this, Amy is persistent, telling him quote,

End quote.

Lenny is stunned at her reaction and tries to calm her down by telling her he would try to contact his connection to see what he could do, but that still isn't good enough for her. Lenny then suggests, "Well, why don't you ask your world-renowned novelist cousin, John Irving?" And something about that statement caused Amy to fly off the hinges, telling him, "This is my novel, and I don't need you to represent me or write with me anymore!"

and with that, their collaboration was over. Lenny didn't want to work with Amy anymore after seeing that side of her. Months later, he was able to get his hands on the updated version of Amazon Fever, and he said: "The mechanics of her prose are abysmal. For a woman with a PhD, even in the sciences she was really inarticulate. She couldn't spell 'cat' without a 'k.' Working with her was excruciatingly painful. She flew off the handle constantly.

And something interesting about her book, Amazon Fever, was that it would go on to reflect the real struggles that Amy would later face in the following years. Now, keep in mind, at this point in Amy's research career, she had been bouncing around to different low-paying research positions around Massachusetts. And the whole process had been very unfulfilling. She didn't feel the respect she so desperately wanted.

and she also really wanted job stability. So by 2003, Amy spent a lot of time applying to different positions outside of Massachusetts. And one of the jobs she applied for was a teaching position at the University of Alabama at Huntsville. This isn't a very popular school in the US, but they do have a very good research program. So Amy was excited to apply there.

And even though she didn't have the best resume with how often she moved around, she ended up getting the position. It's likely they saw she was a Harvard graduate and figured she'd be a good fit.

So, by late 2003, she and her family moved to a beautiful five-bedroom home on McDowling Drive, which was located in a suburb outside Huntsville, Alabama. And their home was only 23 miles from the university, so it gave Amy plenty of time to be alone with her thoughts on the drive each morning. In the beginning, it seemed like this move was the best thing that had happened to them.

And one thing Amy and James really liked about Alabama was that it was significantly cheaper than Massachusetts, so they would be able to live more comfortably and not have to stress about money. And Amy was very happy because the university was excited to have her on board.

The head of the school's biological science program, Gopi Padilla, even said in the university's magazine Science Horizons, quote, "The arrival of the neurobiologist from Harvard University will help bring a new dimension to our department's research and teaching potential." End quote. Amy was proud that she was finally getting the respect that she always longed for.

And something else that she was really looking forward to at this job was working towards tenure. Now, to be honest, I wasn't too familiar with academic tenure and exactly how it works, but essentially, it's given to professors who meet specific requirements. And it ensures that they get to keep their job indefinitely until they retire. So it basically gives them job security for life.

The only way you can be fired if you have tenure is if you do something really extreme, which is pretty rare. So every single professor is usually working towards tenure because obviously it's nice to have that safety blanket. And of course, Amy really wanted it as well. Throughout her life, she didn't have a lot of job stability and working towards tenure was now her new priority.

And you have to work really hard to get it. It's not just given to you. So once she and her family relocated to Huntsville, Alabama, Amy worked really, really hard to excel in her career. She worked long hours. She really connected with her students and coworkers. She was really involved on campus. And it seemed like she had finally found her calling.

One of her students named Taylor Reed said on the snapped episode on this case: "She would always help you out. She'd give extra credit on tests if you needed help, and she would really help you out." For the first time in her life, Amy felt a sense of peace. But unfortunately, it wouldn't last very long. Like every job she had before, Amy eventually started to show her true colors.

She began to run into social issues with some of her students and coworkers. Some said she refused to make eye contact and that she always made them feel nervous. Others said she was overly arrogant. Now, if you've ever taken a college course before, you will probably know of the very popular website called Rate My Professor.

This website saved my life on multiple occasions when I was in college, but it's essentially a website where you can leave a review about your professor. You can list their strengths and weaknesses, the kind of work to expect, whether or not they teach well, and it kind of gives future students an idea as to whether or not they should sign up for their class.

Amy Bishop's review on this website showed that she was not very liked by her students. One wrote, Another wrote,

Dr. Bishop is very unclear in her test preparation, grading, and overall teaching style. She is not at all organized, and neither are her lab instructors. The tests are fairly easy, and you never have to go to class except on review day. Some students complained that her class was boring, and that she read straight from the textbook, and didn't teach the subject very well. Others said she would constantly tell her students that they weren't smart.

and that her Harvard students were way more intelligent than they were. But eventually, Amy's relationship with her students became so strained that a petition was made to actually have her removed from the university, and a number of signatures were on this petition.

The students who started the petition hand-delivered it to the head of the department, Dr. Padilla, but nothing really came about of it. After all, teaching was only part of Amy's job description. She was also getting paid by the university to conduct research to help the school earn grant money. And in 2006, Dr. Amy Bishop and her husband James had actually developed a very successful electronic petri dish, which acted like an incubator to keep the cells that they were studying alive longer.

This creation was huge and it brought about a lot of financial success. In fact, it would end up bringing in over a million dollars for the university and would be marketed by Prodigy Biosystems which raised another 1.2 million dollars. So despite her shortcomings in her teaching position, this success was big.

In January of 2009, Amy was even featured on the cover of the Huntsville R&D Report, which is a huge win for someone wanting to make tenure. But after the success of her petri dish, Amy resorted back to her old ways. She started slacking, doing the bare minimum to get by.

the students and colleagues noticed that she was a lot less interested in her job. And I didn't know this, but people in her position are supposed to be publishing their work pretty frequently. But after her success, she didn't publish as often as she was supposed to. In addition, she began arguing with her colleagues a lot more. According to them, her superiority complex was worse than ever.

Anytime she walked in the room, she turned the conversation towards herself. And it got to the point where she just wasn't pleasant to be around.

Which wasn't good because her tenure evaluation was just around the corner. At the University of Alabama at Huntsville, you have to work in the associate professor program for at least five years before you can apply for tenure. And if you haven't received tenure by your sixth year, you'll basically be let go from your job. And by 2009, Amy was coming on six years at the university, so the clock was ticking.

She eventually applied for it and it went through a five-step process. It begins with a department review, then a college-level tenure committee review. From there, it goes to a university-level review board, and finally, a review from the university's senior-level officers. And I'm sure in Amy's mind, she was confident she would get it. After all, she had brought in millions of dollars in research to the university. And she was a Harvard graduate.

All of her other colleagues that had tenure went to way less prestigious universities. So there was no doubt in her mind that she would get it. But in April of 2009, Amy got the earth-shattering news that her tenure had been denied. And if you know anything about Amy Bishop by now, you won't be surprised to know that she didn't take the news very well.

"How could they do this to me? Don't they know who I am? All the success I've brought to this university? How dare they?" This news was a huge blow to Amy's confidence. And at first, she seemed to be really depressed about the news. She even told some of her colleagues that this decision marked the end of her life and that there was no way she could move on. She even told some of them that she contemplated suicide.

But soon enough, that sadness turned to rage. According to another professor at the school named Eric Seaman, he remembers running into Amy after the tenure list was released and she said to him, "These people are against me. This tenure process is slanted. They want to take me down. There are people in my department who have personal beef with me. These people are directly involved with the tenure. I got a raw deal.

Amy eventually filed an appeal and a gender discrimination complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission about a male colleague who was on the tenure review committee, who said out loud that Amy was quote, crazy and she shouldn't get tenure, end quote.

When this guy was questioned about his comment, he told the Chronicle of Higher Education that he did not regret his comment about Amy and that she was indeed crazy. He also said, quote, I knew something was wrong with Amy Bishop five minutes after meeting her. I said she was crazy multiple times and I stand by that. The woman has a pattern of erratic behavior. She did things that were not normal, end quote.

Around this time, Amy talked to her husband James about how she wanted to go out to the shooting range so she could learn how to fire a gun. James, who kept a gun in their home, agreed and didn't think much of it. And eventually, Amy hires a lawyer to fight the university's tenure decision, but there isn't much that can be done. At this point, Amy had spent almost a year of her life appealing their decision.

But then she received an email that confirmed there was no future for her at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Reading this email made Amy more angry than ever.

The university was getting rid of her just like that, after all of her hard work. And to make matters worse, she still had to finish out the semester, knowing in just a few months they were going to make her leave. And to them, her time here may be over, but to her, she was just getting started. Amy Bishop was going to teach them a lesson and show them exactly the kind of person they were dealing with.

and that no one messes with Dr. Amy Bishop, which brings us to February 12th, 2010. It was a Friday around 10 a.m. when Amy Bishop stepped onto campus that morning for her first class. Her anatomy and physiology students didn't recognize anything out of the ordinary other than her walking into class with a large canvas bag. The only reason this was strange was because Amy never carried a bag to class. She always walked in empty-handed.

Her next class is Intro to Neuroscience that starts at 11:30 AM, and this was actually her favorite. In fact, all 22 of the students in that class signed a petition to help save her job, and they did notice that Amy seemed a little off. One student named Rena Webb, who sat in the front row, noticed that Dr. Bishop seemed distracted, and throughout the lesson she had a strange look on her face.

She would also later say: "She made continuous eye contact with me the entire time we were in there. I felt so uncomfortable. I kept looking up at the projector." Other students said that Amy Bishop was stuttering and rambling throughout the entire lesson, talking about evolution, chickens, dinosaur DNA, and dormant genetic programming.

When class let out later that day, Amy announced, I'm going home. I'll be back this afternoon to finish up a grant proposal. After this, Amy leaves campus to go home and have lunch with her husband, James. According to him, Amy seemed to be completely normal that afternoon. And before leaving, she asks him if he can pick her up from campus after her faculty meeting that afternoon. He would later say, She didn't say anything peculiar. She said she was going to put her time in, get in, get out. Just a run-of-the-mill faculty meeting.

I'd pick her up and we'd go out. And with that, Amy makes her way back to the University of Alabama at Huntsville, clutching her large black bag. The routine faculty meeting took place in a small room on the third floor of the Shelby building on campus. It started at around 3 p.m. and 13 people were in attendance, all crammed around a large oval table.

The purpose of this meeting was to discuss the upcoming fall schedule and their budget for the following year. So everyone was very surprised that Amy Bishop showed up for the meeting. She didn't have to be there since she wasn't going to be there next semester. And as you can imagine, this was not going to be easy for Amy to sit through. Throughout the entire meeting, Amy stares down at the table

fidgeting with the large bag sitting on her lap. And she's not saying a word the entire time, which was strange for her because usually she had a lot to say. No one at the table knew it at the time, but inside of her bag was a 9mm Ruger that she specifically brought there so she could execute every last one of her colleagues.

And I'm sure as the meeting went on, Amy ran through the process of what she was about to do in her head. The clock slowly ticked by and soon enough the meeting was coming to an end. Then, at 3:57pm, just as the biology department chair Gopi Padilla said his closing statements, Amy Bishop stands up and pulls out a gun from her bag.

Before anyone even knows what's happening, Amy turns to her left and shoots Maria Ragland in the head. As soon as she's down, Amy turns to the person next to her, Dr. Adriel Johnson, and shoots him in the head as well.

According to a surviving witness, she "got up suddenly, took out a gun and started shooting at each one of us. She started with the ones closest to her and went down the row shooting her targets and the head. This wasn't a random shooting around the room. This was execution style." Amy was almost robotical in her movements as she continued to aim the gun at her coworkers.

Luckily, at this point, most of the people in the room were able to grasp the reality of the situation and duck under their desk for cover, but not before she aims her gun at Gopi Padilla and shoots a bullet into his chest as he backs away from her.

Next, she shoots Dr. Louise Cruz-Vera in the chest and then aims the gun at staff assistant Stephanie Monchichiolo and pulls the trigger, shooting her in the face. The room is now in chaos. People are screaming, moaning in pain, ducking for cover. But Amy isn't finished just yet.

She then turns the gun towards Dr. Joseph Leahy and shoots him directly in the head. By now, there are about six people hiding under the table, including Dr. Mariardi. Knowing it's just a matter of time until everyone in the room is dead, she decides to plead with Amy Bishop. After all, they had always gotten along.

And if anyone in the room was to talk some sense into her, it was going to be Dr. Mariardi. So she grabs Amy by the ankles, begging her to stop. Amy, don't do this. Think about my grandson. Think about my daughter. Please don't do this. Don't do this, Amy. Please. You know I've helped you. I'll help you again. It's me. It's me. But callously.

Amy looks her in the eyes, points the gun right in her face and pulls the trigger. Luckily, it jams. Amy then looks at the gun in confusion, points it at her again and continues to pull the trigger over and over again. But nothing happens. The people in the room know that this is their only opportunity to get away from Amy Bishop.

And all at once, they all run towards her and shove her out of the room. They then slam the door shut, lock it, and barricade it with a small coffee table and mini-fridge. And once they are sure that she can't get back inside, they call 911 and tend to the wounded. It's clear, however, that some of their colleagues are already dead.

Dr. Luis Cruz-Vera is the first to reach 911 dispatchers, but he's severely injured and is bleeding heavily from his chest. "I think I'm hit. I have to hand the phone off." Emergency workers coach Moriarty as she applied pressure to Dr. Luis' punctured chest. She can see that there is no exit wound, so it's clear that the bullet is still lodged somewhere in his body. A couple other survivors press thin, deli-style napkins to Dr. Leahy's hemorrhaging head.

Shortly after being pushed out of the room, Amy Bishop runs down a flight of stairs, takes off her bloodstained jacket and wraps it around the gun. She then casually walks into a restroom and hides the evidence in a trash can, throwing crumpled up paper towels on top. Then, she calmly walks into a classroom and asks a student named Sean Tate if she can borrow his cell phone.

Shawn said that she looked very anxious, and at 4.05pm, she placed a call to her husband and said, quote, I'm done. Come pick me up.

By now, the entire campus, with nearly 8,000 students, had erupted in panic and chaos. Every law enforcement agency in the county was making their way towards campus. And just minutes after the first 911 call, the local SWAT team was running inside the building trying to locate Amy Bishop. And as they were running in, hundreds of students were running out of the building, trying to get as far away from campus as possible. Law enforcement was even worried that Amy may have booby-trapped the building with a herpes bomb.

According to some people she worked with, she had mentioned on multiple occasions that the herpes virus could cause encephalitis In fact, this was a narrative she often featured in her book, Amazon Fever And interestingly enough, the main character, Sophie, had an obsession with being awarded tenure at a respected university

But back at the campus, authorities do a thorough sweep of the building and while they don't find evidence of a herpes bomb, they do find the gun and bloodstained jacket in the restroom's trash Then, at 4:09 PM, about 12 minutes after the shooting, a campus security guard sees a woman acting suspiciously as she wanders out of the maintenance entrance loading dock of the Shelby building

By then, everybody had been on the lookout for a stocky woman with short black hair styled in a bob and sharp bangs, wearing faded blue jeans and a pink sweatshirt. The security guard yells out to the woman, "Stop! Right there! You're under arrest!"

He then grabs her by the arm and places handcuffs around her wrists as he calls for backup. Without putting up a fight, Amy walks with him to the patrol car as he announces to the officers, Suspect is in custody. Repeat, suspect is in custody. Female shooter Dr. Amy Bishop is in custody. Around this same time that Amy was being placed in the patrol car, her husband James pulls up to the campus to pick her up. Officers have to inform him that his wife just shot up her faculty meeting.

James is horrified and claims that he had no idea his wife was planning to murder her colleagues. At the end of the day, three people had died, murdered at the hands of their colleague, Amy Bishop. Gopi Padilla, Maria Raglin Davis, and Adriel D. Johnson had all lost their lives. And another three people's lives were changed forever as they healed from their wounds.

When Amy was brought into the station for her booking process, she tried to deny even being at the shooting, saying "I wasn't there. It wasn't me. I am Dr. Amy Bishop. I didn't do anything. Why am I here? I have to get back to school and write a grant. I have a meeting at 4pm. I was not there. I didn't do anything. You can't hold me. I am Dr. Amy Bishop."

When she was led out of the police station to a patrol car, reporters waiting nearby asked her, "Why did you do it? Why did you kill your colleagues?" "It didn't happen." "There's no way." "What about the people who died?" "There's no way. They're still alive." And this comment was concerning for a lot of people. Was she trying to give off the idea that she was mentally incompetent? That she didn't even know what happened that day? That's what it seemed like at the time.

But with that, the officer shuts the car door and takes her to the Madison County Jail to be held without bail. Amy Bishop is charged with one count capital murder and three counts of attempted murder. Now, at first, investigators were not releasing who the shooter was because they wanted to get all of their ducks in order before going to the media. When they eventually did release the identity of the shooter, everyone was shocked.

Most people expected it to be a student, not a professor. And as you can imagine, Amy Bishop's students were more shocked than anyone. One of them, named Keith, told Snapped, quote, You go from seeing her in class to seeing her on TV in an orange jumpsuit. You just don't expect that from professors. End quote.

Following the murders, the entire nation couldn't believe that a doctor and Harvard graduate would snap and murder off her colleagues one by one. And it became clear pretty early on that Amy was going to try and plead insanity. And as the weeks passed by, many began to question what makes a woman with a seemingly spotless record commit such a horrible act.

But it turns out Amy's past was far from spotless and we aren't talking about her involvement in the 1993 pipe bomb or her violent assault in the IHOP. Soon enough, Amy Bishop's skeletons that she had fought hard to keep beneath the surface were slowly being unearthed and it all began with a phone call from a detective in Massachusetts.

The detectives in Huntsville, Alabama weren't expecting to get a call from another agency that day. But when they answered, they were met with a bombshell. It turns out the shooting at the University of Alabama was not Amy's first brush with murder. Well, I guess it depends on who you ask. Some call it murder, others call it an accident. We will let you decide.

But first, we have to take you all the way back to Braintree, Massachusetts on December 6th, 1986.

At the beginning of our story, we mentioned that Amy Bishop had a younger brother named Seth. And in 1986, Amy and Seth were 21 and 18 years old. Now, growing up there was always some competition between her and her younger brother. Both of them played violin and they both were very smart. But if we know anything about Amy by now, it's that she was always trying to one-up everyone and be the center of attention. And I can imagine that she did the same with her younger brother.

In 1986, Amy was going to college at Northeastern University, and she was already dating James. But on December 6th, 1986, she was back in Braintree, Massachusetts, staying with her parents. Now, apparently, sometime before this, the Bishop's home had been broken into, and afterwards, they were all a little shaken up about it.

so much so that their father Samuel had bought a gun for protection. And on this particular Saturday, Amy and her father got into a pretty bad argument and Amy ended up at the house all by herself. The dad left to go shopping, her brother, Seth, was out getting groceries, and her mom was out by the stables tending to the horses.

So, Amy was all alone. And according to her, she was nervous being there alone, considering their house had been broken into months earlier. So, she decided to grab her dad's loaded gun and keep it with her in her room, just in case. Now, eventually, both her mother and Seth come back home.

And they were just casually having a conversation in the kitchen area when all of a sudden, Amy comes walking down the stairs with a gun in her hands. According to Judy, as Amy's walking down the stairs, she yells out "I don't know how to unload this gun." Judy claims that she tells her daughter not to point the gun in their direction.

But as soon as she says that, a blast goes echoing in their direction. And when they look over, Amy's 18-year-old brother Seth is on the ground with a large gunshot wound to the chest. Now we have to take Judy's claims with a grain of salt because as we will find out later, there are a lot of holes in this story. Judy goes on to tell the police that Amy ran out to go find help.

and she was supposed to run to a nearby neighbor's house who was a nurse. But that's not at all what Amy did after killing her brother. First of all, she takes the gun with her as she runs out the back door. And I know everyone reacts differently to trauma, but one would think that after you just accidentally shot and killed your brother,

You would want to immediately get as far away from that gun as possible. But after running away from the home with the gun still in hand, Amy runs towards a nearby auto shop. Mechanic Tom Pettigrew and his coworker Dave Dinger were inside, hard at work, when all of a sudden they hear a loud noise coming from the back door of the shop. They all go to investigate and open the door.

When they do, however, they're all looking down the barrel of a pump-action shotgun. Amy Bishop looks deranged and she yells at them, "Put your hands up! I need you to give me a car right now! Go get me the keys, now!" Thinking quickly, the men shut the door and make a run for it, away from Amy Bishop.

Shortly after, 911 is called and a police officer confronts Amy outside of the shop. Surprisingly, Amy actually raises her weapons towards the officer and for a moment, there was a standoff between the two before he ultimately gets her to lower her weapon. Meanwhile, another 911 call was being placed by Judy Bishop.

When Amy was questioned, she told police that after she and her father got into an argument, she retreated to her room. And then when she noticed she was home alone, she grabbed the gun and loaded it with several bullets for protection. She even said that Seth was the one who taught her how to load the gun.

Then, once she realized he was back home, she walked downstairs with the gun so that he could teach her how to unload it. Now, something investigators would later discover was that in Amy's bedroom, she had fired off a round into a lamp and had actually shot a huge hole into her wall. She said that she did this while she was trying to figure out how to unload the gun. But something about this just doesn't add up.

In my mind, if you accidentally shoot a hole into your wall, why on earth would you pick the gun up again? I would immediately set it down and not touch it again until someone else came home, if ever. And the fact that she accidentally shot it in her bedroom and then went downstairs and accidentally shot her brother in the chest just doesn't seem real.

What are the odds that you accidentally fired two shots so close together? And even if that is all true, why on earth would Amy run to a mechanic shop afterwards and try to rob them at gunpoint? To me, that's pretty incriminating. It's also pretty suspicious that Amy and her father got into a fight right before she decided to bring the gun into her room.

Is it possible that she was angry at her father and he was the intended target? Did she shoot her brother to get back at him? We don't know. Now, Seth would ultimately die from his injuries at just 18 years old and his death was ruled an accident. And almost immediately after a very small investigation, Amy was released from the police station back to her parents.

Now, it is widely believed that Amy shot her brother on purpose and that her mom, Judy, lied to protect her. It's also worth mentioning that Judy had a lot of connections in town. She served on the town's committee along with 240 members who had direct control over how the town spent its money, including the police department. She was also very close to the police chief, John Polio,

In fact, she called him before the ambulance even arrived. And interestingly enough, when the police report was made about this entire incident, there was absolutely no mention of Amy Bishop holding several people at gunpoint.

Because Seth Bishop's death was ruled an accident, Amy faced no consequences for what happened that day in 1986. Her record remained spotless. She was able to go on with life, get her doctorate, start a family, and two decades later, murder three of her colleagues. Now,

Now, at the time of the 1986 shooting, there were many officers that believed Amy had shot her brother on purpose. And over 20 years later, when they heard that she had shot up a faculty meeting at her university, they were more convinced than ever.

which is what led them to call the Huntsville Police Department shortly after the shooting on campus And believe it or not, they actually ended up reopening the investigation of Seth's death in June of 2010 and Amy was ultimately indicted for his murder and she took this news hard She thought that this part of her past was long gone and she never expected it to resurface She also hated the fact that her parents were going to have to relive this nightmare all over again

Amy was so distraught over this indictment that she attempted suicide inside of the Madison County Jail, but she ended up surviving this attempt. As more and more information came out about the killer professor, many people around Alabama wanted her to be executed for her actions. And in May of 2011, the DA announced that they would indeed seek the death penalty. And at her arraignment on September 22, 2011...

She pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. Now, this didn't come as a surprise to anyone. Based on her own comments to reporters after the murders and that her own attorney described her as a wacko, everyone saw this coming. But it was clear to most people that Amy Bishop was not insane.

She had the wherewithal to load a gun that day, pack it in her bag, bring it to the meeting, and sit there for nearly an hour waiting to execute her colleagues. She also had a good motive. Now, surprisingly, in 2012, the victim's families wrote a letter to the judge indicating that they had already suffered so much loss and quote, didn't see any benefit from the loss of another life.

In response, the state agrees to take the death penalty off the table if Amy pleads guilty and accepts the sentence of life without the possibility of parole. But with this, she also had to sign an agreement that she could never apply for an appeal. And of course, Amy refuses.

She clearly loves to appeal things. But eventually, after some persuading from her parents, she eventually agrees and pleads guilty. Now, interestingly enough, in Alabama you still have to have a trial even if you plead guilty. And on September 24th, 2012, that trial finally started.

With a packed courtroom, everyone sat quietly as Amy Bishop walked into the room, wearing a red jumpsuit and a bulletproof vest. You could hear her shackles clinging together as she walked through the room. All eyes were on her. Throughout the entire trial, Amy sat emotionless, staring blankly ahead. Many said you could see the evil in her eyes.

And at the end of the trial, the jury found Amy Bishop guilty of capital murder and she was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

And now that the university shooting was over, it was now time for Amy to face her brother's murder trial. They planned on extraditing her to Massachusetts to stand trial and hopefully give her another life sentence. But just four days after her trial in Alabama, they decided to drop the charges against her. In their mind, she was already serving life in prison without the possibility of parole, and having another trial would simply be a waste of time.

Now, surprisingly, Amy was upset about this decision. She even wrote a letter to the prosecutors in Massachusetts because she wanted to stand trial and prove her innocence. But they declined. And just when you thought this story was all wrapped up, there were actually some recent tragedies connected to Amy Bishop. We mentioned that Amy had a son who she named Seth after her late brother.

And not only did they share the same name, but they actually had the exact same birthday. And they would share the same fate. On April 19th, 2021, Amy's son Seth was hanging out with his friend when he was accidentally shot and killed. Just like his uncle. It seems like with the story of Amy Bishop, tragedy seems to follow her everywhere.

And from now until her death, she will rot away in prison, finally paying for her actions.

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Hey, everybody. It's Colin here. And Courtney. We want to thank you all so much for listening to another week's episode of Murder in America. But before we get into the outro, I want to thank all of our new patrons this week. Kenzie Richardson, Corey Strader, Stacy Lenhart Gravely, Jenna Kagawa, Melissa Spencer, Dana Dale, Oziel Escobar, Kyle E., Taylor Owens Experience, Tina Fury, Erica Stauffer, and Taylor. Wow, that is a lot of names and it grows every single week. If you want to become a member,

on Patreon. Just search Murder in America on Patreon and you can get access to the ad-free versions of every single episode that we drop as soon as they go live on all streaming platforms. You can also follow us on Instagram at Murder in America and join our Facebook group.

Yeah, so we have some absolutely incredible episodes coming up for the spooky season, right? Oh, yeah. I'm like absolutely incredibly excited to get into some of these cases. And yeah, the show has been just growing and we are so thankful of everybody out there that's listening. Courtney, you have anything else to say? We just love you guys. Thank you all for the support. And we couldn't do any of this without you. So thank you.

Yeah. Like, uh, like I've said many times before, thanks for listening. We will see y'all next week and, uh, have a good rest of your weekend, everybody. Bye.