FBI adds Yale graduate to
its Ten Most Wanted list

Thirty-eight years after he allegedly bludgeoned his family to death, the FBI has added William Bradford “Brad” Bishop ’59 to its Ten Most Wanted list.

It was March 1976 when Bishop, a foreign service officer in the US State Department, allegedly used a hammer to kill his wife, mother, and three young sons in their Maryland home. He then drove the bodies to North Carolina, dug a shallow grave, and set them on fire before fleeing, the authorities say.

The FBI believes Bishop, who would be 77 years old, is alive. And despite his globe-trotting career and fluency in five languages, they believe he may still be in the US, the Washington Post reports:

“Brad, I believe you are likely watching this message,” Montgomery County Sheriff Darren Popkin said into a bank of TV cameras, making a direct appeal to the Yale-educated amateur pilot. “You’ve been living with this on your conscience now for 38 years. I am the voice for your family who can no longer speak. The time is now for you to contact law enforcement.”

An American Studies major who entered with the class of 1958, Bishop played freshman football and joined Delta Kappa Epsilon. According to the FBI, “He drank scotch and wine and enjoyed eating peanuts and spicy food. Bishop was described as intense and self-absorbed, prone to violent outbursts, and preferred a neat and orderly environment.”

And, the FBI adds, Bishop “had been seen in many photos wearing his class ring from Yale, something that meant a lot to him and that he still may have or wear.”

“It’s a gold ring,” Special Agent Stephen Vogt tells the Post. “It had significance to him.”

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The Yale Alumni Magazine is published by Yale Alumni Publications Inc., an alumni-based nonprofit that is not run by Yale University. Its content does not necessarily reflect the views of the university administration.