“There is no need to hide one’s inner life in an academic institution. Murderers, great criminals, should ideally be dons,” writes Anita Brookner in her novel The Debut. “Plenty of time to plan the coup and no curious questions or inquisitive glances once it is done.”
But Amy Bishop is not one of those great criminals.
But a criminal she may be. Not only did she allegedly murder her colleagues with a 9 mm; more than 20 years ago, Amy Bishop reportedly 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?”
”Amy Bishop” has now become one of those names. Anybody else with the name Amy Bishop is trying to find an alias or a nickname, and fast.
Everything about the story changed for me when I found out that she’d reportedly shot and killed her 18-year-old brother back in 1986, back in Braintree, Massachusetts, and back when Amy Bishop was released into the custody of her mother.
So says a report out of the Boston Globe, which goes on to quote Braintree Police Chief Paul Friazer as saying “I don’t want to use the word ‘coverup’ … but this does not look good” because, according to the writer of the story, “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. Frazier said he was basing his statements on the memories of one of his officers who was on the department at the time and had arrested Bishop. He said the records from the case have been missing since at least 1988.” [read the whole story here.
My reaction to the horror of what went on at Huntsville was wholly altered when I read that she reportedly shot her brother.
I’m trying to figure out why and to be honest about it. It’s not easy.
The best I can come up with is this: At first I could almost feel a sense of tragic sympathy for the person who snapped, for the unhinging of a potentially great mind — I had only recently watched the disturbing movie Dark Matter, which itself deals with the murder of faculty by a disgruntled graduate student and is based on actual incidents at the University of Iowa — and this story from Alabama seemed to be drawn from a similar pattern.
I told myself: Here was a horror story. Here was a mother of four children, a woman whom others regarded as successful despite her denial of tenure, who nevertheless couldn’t stop thinking and talking about her rejection. According to an article in The New York Times, she would practically corner strangers at cocktail parties and talk passionately about how unfairly she was treated by her institution. Here was an assistant professor denied tenure, allegedly killing three people at a faculty meeting and wounding three others, a Harvard-trained neuroscientist who was described by her colleague as being “not as good as she thought she was,” who was mangled by a system she then sought to destroy in a rage of blind violence.
But there’s more to this horror story. This was a different soul, one who apparently howled out her pain and rage 20 years ago, one who might have been rescued or restrained, one who might have been cured or caged or at least taken out of circulation. But because she was smart and because someone was willing to take care of her, the system forgave her — only to have her attack and allegedly kill those who represented another kind of system, one that did not reward her to her satisfaction, 24 years later.
She thought the world was unfair and she was right.
16 Responses to The Hidden Past of Amy Bishop
katiebeautifulkatie - February 13, 2010 at 8:30 pm
What disturbs me most is that she had a husband and family and therefore other people did indeed see her on an everyday basis. Was there no one who knew what was going on in her life? How did she have a gun? This is not the loner-stereotype and is not representative in any way, obviously, of what academic life is like. This is ‘going postal’ except now it’s going to be ‘going academic’ or ‘going committee’ which is not to make a joke out of it but to point out that when it happens in your own field of work, it becomes truly upsetting to watch other people outside the profession simply assume it is representative. Does anyone know how old her children are? This will be the story of their lives no matter what else happens to them.
mozman - February 13, 2010 at 9:44 pm
This is not in any way meant as support for her actions, but here is the 1987 state police report of the shooting that supports the fact that it was an accident.http://www.necn.com/02/13/10/State-Police-investigative-report-86-Bis/landing.html?blockID=180126&feedID=4215
imaniohaji - February 14, 2010 at 11:04 am
Amy Bishop beleived she deserved tenure and the chair of her department agreed. Pity she was unaware of his support (or did it simply not matter in those mangled psychotic milliseconds when she chose to do something about a perceived injustice?) Perhaps she will receive long overdue medical attention.I was a grad student at UI when the campuse experienced its first “gone academic” incident. Now as then, I identify with the deep sense of despair, fear, and depression a human being experiences after jumping all the demeaning academic hoops successfully, especially those ancient hurdles created specifically to keep women and people of color in their place,only to be denied tenable reward be it status, grant,recommendation, fellowship, or position. Now as then I send light and love to the souls of my colleagues, ordinary academics murdered during what they thought would be a typical faculty meeting. I pray the families of all involved will be comforted and soon find peace. Now as then I hope each academic reading about this extreme reaction to rejection in academe will reevaluate her/his inner life. If as Octavia Butler’s philosophy espoused in the Parables, you find a speck of greed, indifference,insecurity, dishonesty, unresolved personal issues period, it’s time to heal yourself, change.
laoshi - February 14, 2010 at 1:08 pm
Don’t blame the gun. Blame the weak excuse for a human being named Amy Bishop. Yes, she should have been taken out of circulation years ago.
skottd - February 14, 2010 at 2:22 pm
Laoshi is just making excuses for the affirmative action environment that was the cause of this murder. If you treat people unfairly they should push back. I we didn’t live in racist affirmative action climate and if the “victims” were fair, they would be alive today.
11159786 - February 14, 2010 at 4:15 pm
I certainly hope the AAUP investigates Amy Bishop’s story and unfortunately there is no other group that is competent to do it. Perhaps you wonder: what is to be gained from exploring the tenure decision-making at her campus. My answer is simply this: tenure decisions ought to be made on grounds of research, teaching and service. What I read of this case is that her tenure prospects suffered from her individuality and perhaps lack of collegiality, but also there appears to be some issue about “thin” publication record. I wonder how “thick” is the record of her colleagues at this institution. In reckoning “thin”, has someone worried about more than bean-counting, most administrators’ forte?
usaret - February 14, 2010 at 5:03 pm
Don’t you all think it’s a bit too soon to make judgments of any kind about an incident that happened just a couple days ago, and about people we’ve never met? Few of the facts are in; I imagine we’ll have many more to discover over the coming weeks and days.
macheath - February 14, 2010 at 5:28 pm
Gina, you told us what you think of Amy Bishop and how you reacted and then changed your mind, and how you felt when you read the New York Times. How are you feeling now?
kcissna - February 15, 2010 at 8:00 am
Do we actually know that this was related to the tenure denial? Have there been any reports of her saying anything immediately prior to, during, or right after the shooting that might shed light on her motivation?
danlarkin - February 15, 2010 at 8:23 am
usaret — I’m with you. In fact, I find it deeply disturbing that the Chronicle would publish a piece as full of conclusions whose most solid foundation is a disputed, multiply-hearsay account of a series of events that occurred more than 23 years (and so roughly half the life time of the accused) ago.
drhypersonic - February 15, 2010 at 8:39 am
Laoshi is absolutely correct. There is one person responsible for this tragedy, and no one else: Amy Bishop. The tragedy is not hers; rather, it is the tragedy of her colleagues being gunned down by this murderous wretch, who was so self-obsessed that she had no regard for the lives of anyone around her.
lkcox - February 15, 2010 at 10:28 am
Usaret and danlarkin-I agree with you both. The Chronicle is not immune to senationalism any more than any newscast, newspaper or other publication. To report a story immediately is far more important to the Chronicle than waiting for a few facts. That is the sad truth.
cichacech - February 15, 2010 at 11:51 am
Could someone please write something about the unfortunate murder victims? It seems that most writers feel more sorry for Dr. Bishop than for those she killed. Incredible… and unbelieveable. A comment from Canada’s Olympic city…
johntoradze - February 15, 2010 at 12:56 pm
Many, if not most professors, have been treated unfairly in academia. Some have been pursued mercilessly for one of the greatest crimes possible in academia – honesty in the face of lies and corruption. I was, myself, pursued by a cabal of corrupt professors for the crime of exposing their manufacturing of data to support publications and hiding of data that showed mortal danger to patients. None other than David Kessler, former head of the FDA was hounded out of UCSF for the crime of honesty. He refused to give up asking where a large amount of money went, and challenged Yudof, so they chased him out. There are few limits to academic corruption. Many of us know this. These things happen. Academia has a large proportion of criminals in it, many of them department chairs. I believe there are more white collar criminals per capita in academia than in most demographic segments. If academics ran banking, the financial system would collapse. The environment is easy for criminals to suborn. We who have been in academia for a long time learn this. But, this vicous murderer doesn’t even have the excuse that she was fighting for what was right. She did not kill those who tormented her for telling the truth. No. She obtained a gun without the knowledge of her husband, she sat quietly for a long time, having brought the gun with her. She premeditated her killings of wonderful people. By her murderousness she proved, forever, that they were far better people than she. Amy committed murder one. After committing murder, for the benefit of cameras focused on her being placed in a squad car, she said, “It didn’t happen.” A clearer, more brain-dead simple play for the insanity defense could not be imagined. Anyone who thinks a bright professor isn’t able to think that simple minded strategy through raise your hand. I am astonished that not only the media, but the intelligent elite is buying that without comment. Then, we find out she murdered her brother, a talented violinist by shooting him when he was 17. From the description, it sounds like mama saved her only surviving child from the jaws of the law by lying. That motive for a mother is easy enough to understand. But when her mother did that, she made herself an accessory to her son’s murder, a felony, and should go to prison for it. Had she not done so, three people would still be alive who were great people. The motive to murder a brother who received too much attention for his talents is also easy to understand, if vile and despicable. Then we find out that mysteriously, a member of her committee that she didn’t like received a pipe bomb. Really? Now that is just too much coincidence. And it underscores a grim reality of life that police know too well. Most criminals who get caught have committed crimes before, usually a large number of crimes. For instance, the best median estimate for how many children were victimized by pedophiles is north of 200. Life isn’t like the movies. The story of the murderer who has successfully killed 2 or 3 spouses, where the spouses all told their friends they were afraid for their lives is the norm, not the exception. Criminals learn that people close to them don’t want to believe it, that those same people will excuse almost anything. They also learn that people just don’t want to hear anything negative, and don’t want to get involved. The usual reaction to being near a crime is to walk away. And what would allow a person to perform this succession of crimes? One thing – overweening narcissism and sociopathy. This woman is spoiled rotten and believes that she is supposed to be kowtowed to, loved, cared for and excused – no matter what. She believes that she is supposed to be allowed to kill people who get in her way. Sorry, Gina. That is not someone who needs “help”. Sociopaths do NOT improve with therapy. Sociopaths get worse. It makes them more clever, it gives them the chance to practice dissembling, makes them better at pretending. Sociopaths have one goal when put into therapy, learning how to play their therapist. Amy should have gotten life in prison, or at least a good stretch for manslaughter, when she killed her brother. Sociopaths and narcissists cannot be helped, they can only be met with force. They are the kind of people that the criminal justice system was developed to deal with. They do not reform, they only pretend to reform. Amy should get the death penalty, which Alabama still has. If ever there was a case that deserves that, it is her. Amy is a menace who cannot ever be reformed, cannot be helped, and must be made to pay for her heinous crimes. Sadly, Alabama does it by lethal injection, which is far too kind for what Amy has done.
chandrak - February 15, 2010 at 9:13 pm
It is an avoidable tragedy. Dr. Bishop was a troubled person. She needed assistance from counselors and others. She methodically planned to murder her fellow colleagues in a calculated way thinking that they somehow downgraded her. She was angry about the whole world for unknown unimaginable way. No one at the college/home/department identified her psychic problems and helped her.It is interesting to look at her family and how she interacted with her husband and children and neighbors. It may tell the story about her life.
broadway_dave - February 17, 2010 at 3:11 pm
“Anybody else with the name Amy Bishop is trying to find an alias or a nickname, and fast.”The Canadian singer/songwriter Amy Bishop has a decade-old career, and the website amybishop.com