32 Facts About Bradford Bishop

Bradford Bishop attended South Pasadena High School and received a bachelor of science degree in history from Yale University and a master of arts degree in international studies from Middlebury College.

Alternatively, Bradford Bishop has been reported to have a bachelor's degree in American Studies from Yale and a master's degree in Italian from Middlebury College.

Bradford Bishop holds a master's degree in African Studies from UCLA.

Bradford Bishop joined the United States Army and spent four years working in counterintelligence.

Bradford Bishop spoke five languages fluently: English, Italian, French, Spanish and Serbo-Croatian.

Bradford Bishop served in Africa, including posts in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and Gaborone in Botswana, from 1972 to 1974.

Bradford Bishop's last posting, which began in 1974, was at State Department headquarters in Washington, DC, as an assistant chief in the Division of Special Activities and Commercial Treaties.

Bradford Bishop was living in Bethesda, Maryland, with his wife and three sons as well as his mother, Lobelia.

On March 1,1976, after learning he would not receive the promotion he had sought, Bradford Bishop told his secretary that he was feeling unwell and left his office in Foggy Bottom.

Bradford Bishop's last confirmed sighting was outside the State Department by colleague Roy A Harrell Jr.

Bradford Bishop allegedly drove the bodies 275 miles in the station wagon to a densely wooded swamp about 5 miles south of Columbia, North Carolina.

Bradford Bishop is known to have purchased tennis shoes at a sporting goods store in Jacksonville, North Carolina, later that same day.

Police theorized that Bradford Bishop joined the flow of hikers on the Appalachian Trail; they attempted to follow his scent with bloodhounds but without success.

Bradford Bishop was unhappy at his desk job and interested in another foreign posting, but Annette was reluctant.

Bradford Bishop had begun to study art at the University of Maryland despite his desire for her to remain a stay-at-home mother.

The FBI states that Bradford Bishop is an avid outdoorsman who enjoys camping and hiking, and reports that he has a pilot's license from when he was stationed in Africa.

Bradford Bishop enjoys riding motorcycles and working out on a weekly basis.

Bradford Bishop has a history of depression and insomnia, having been afflicted with both conditions and taking Serax in the time leading up to the murders.

Bradford Bishop has a six-inch vertical scar on his lower back from surgery, a cleft chin and a facial mole on his left cheek.

Bradford Bishop is believed to have taken his diplomatic passport with him, as his was the only one among the family's diplomatic passports that was missing.

Bradford Bishop had approximately one week of advance time before the authorities began looking for him.

Bradford Bishop was profiled on the AMW website thirty-three years to the day since his family's bodies were discovered, with a new age-enhanced bust of him with facial hair.

In 2010, authorities believed Bradford Bishop was living in Switzerland, Italy or elsewhere in Europe, or possibly in California; he may have worked as a teacher or become involved in criminal activities.

Authorities revealed in 2010 that before the murders, Bradford Bishop had been corresponding with federal prison inmate Albert Kenneth Bankston in the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois, though it is unknown why or how.

Bradford Bishop evidently had instructed Bankston to send letters to his State Department office address.

America's Most Wanted posted on its website the last letter from Bankston, which he had mailed to Bradford Bishop sixteen days after the murders unaware that Bradford Bishop was a fugitive and unable to receive mail at his office.

In 2014, the FBI exhumed the body of an unidentified man resembling Bradford Bishop who had been killed by a car in 1981 while walking along an Alabama highway.

The FBI used fingerprints to determine in 2011 that reports that Bradford Bishop had died in Hong Kong or France were false.

Authorities stated in 2014 that Bradford Bishop was probably living in plain sight in the US and avoiding discovery by avoiding arrest.

That same year, at the request of the FBI, forensic artist Karen Taylor created an age progression sculpture to suggest Bradford Bishop's projected appearance at about age 77.

On July 27,2014, the search for Bradford Bishop was a featured story on The Hunt with John Walsh on CNN.

In March 2021, a woman who had been adopted came forward claiming she found out through a DNA testing service that Bradford Bishop was her biological father.