NBR: The Amy Bishop Case

earthycrunchymama

is anyone else paying attention to the Amy Bishop case? - She was the woman involved with the University of Alabama in Huntsville shooting last friday...

this is crazy insane. 

I found this on the Boston Globe: 

Details of the Amy Bishop case College professor Amy Bishop, is charged with capital murder in Friday's shooting of three faculty members at the University of Alabama at Huntsville. Since the shooting, new details have emerged surrounding the former Massachusetts resident's past.

Scary that this woman was a professor at a university. Who goes and shoots up their colleagues?  and who manages to get a position like that with her past history?

She got her PhD in Genetics at Harvard?  Do colleges do background checks on students? Harvard had accepted another student with a weird history like this but revoked it when her history surfaced... This all makes me think twice about trusting classmates AND professors.

MrsD627

Just because someone is educated doesn't mean that he or she is sane!

kategw

Did you know she also "accidentally" shot her brother when she was a teen?  I'm not positive, but I think he died and it was ruled accidental. 

SGolden7310

I'm from the Boston area too and I've been following this story - new details have come out about her "accidental" shooting of her brother back in the 80's in Braintree - apparently the police report was "lost" and she was never charged but now they've "found" the missing records and have decided there was enough evidence to charge her!  What a nut! But just imagine - if she had been charged back then she probably would have been in jail and this latest shooting probably never would have happened!  How scary and sad.

SGolden7310

kategw:

Did you know she also "accidentally" shot her brother when she was a teen?  I'm not positive, but I think he died and it was ruled accidental. 

Yea, he did die but some shady business went down and she wasn't charged!  It's insane. 

earthycrunchymama

kategw:

Did you know she also "accidentally" shot her brother when she was a teen?  I'm not positive, but I think he died and it was ruled accidental. 

yes! and that same day (25 years ago) she held up a car dealer or something to get a car after shooting him. HOW did she get away with shooting him AND the car dealer thing?

 

 

koat

MrsD627:

Just because someone is educated doesn't mean that he or she is sane!

Damn skippy...just look at the Base Commander up here in Canada that's abducted and killed a few girls.  He's a Colonel!  How do these people slip through the cracks.

Also, he was apparently friends with Paul Bernardo when they were younger.

Wait...do Americans know about Paul Bernardo?

AbJams

No, they don't do background checks on students. And even if they did one on her a professor, nothing would've come up. She is also apparently a BRILLIANT scientist.

earthycrunchymama

earthycrunchymama:

kategw:

Did you know she also "accidentally" shot her brother when she was a teen?  I'm not positive, but I think he died and it was ruled accidental. 

yes! and that same day (25 years ago) she held up a car dealer or something to get a car after shooting him. HOW did she get away with shooting him AND the car dealer thing?

oh it was a car repair not a car dealer... article:

 

Quincy man recalls Amy Bishop with gun

SGolden7310

koat:

MrsD627:

Just because someone is educated doesn't mean that he or she is sane!

Damn skippy...just look at the Base Commander up here in Canada that's abducted and killed a few girls.  He's a Colonel!  How do these people slip through the cracks.

Also, he was apparently friends with Paul Bernardo when they were younger.

Wait...do Americans know about Paul Bernardo?

Nope! Who is he? 

BarbieNCSU

Yes - I am definitely watching it since I live there - thankfully not anywhere close to UAH though. This isn't an area where things like that happen either which really makes you worry since its a hub of brilliant engineers, scientists, etc.  Its extremely scary, but I think most colleges just do a quick scan of grades, activities, etc. and thats about the extent. Apparently the whole killing her brother thing was swept under the carpet and never fully investigated - which again is really scary!! Unfortunately its hard to trust anyone these days.

earthycrunchymama

MrsD627:

Just because someone is educated doesn't mean that he or she is sane!

I'm just baffled at how she can have done so much over the years and still gotten to where she is (or was before friday)

Is this national news? I'm assuming the school shooting is, but Boston is getting detailed coverage because her brother was shot (by her) here.

BarbieNCSU

earthycrunchymama:

MrsD627:

Just because someone is educated doesn't mean that he or she is sane!

I'm just baffled at how she can have done so much over the years and still gotten to where she is (or was before friday)

Is this national news? I'm assuming the school shooting is, but Boston is getting detailed coverage because her brother was shot (by her) here.

I'm not 100% sure now - but I know DC had coverage of it all through the weekend  - of course they also made the mistake of saying it was UA in Tuscaloosa and not UAH.

koat

SGolden7310:

koat:

MrsD627:

Just because someone is educated doesn't mean that he or she is sane!

Damn skippy...just look at the Base Commander up here in Canada that's abducted and killed a few girls.  He's a Colonel!  How do these people slip through the cracks.

Also, he was apparently friends with Paul Bernardo when they were younger.

Wait...do Americans know about Paul Bernardo?

Nope! Who is he? 

The Schoolgirl Killer.  With his wife, Karla Homolka, they raped and killed three girls, including Karla's sister.  It's an odd coincidence that this Colonel and Bernardo were friends when they were younger.

CityGirl07

Yes, what a crazy case. She actually used to live in the town I grew up, in my friend's old house. She used to yell at the neighborhood kids for doing horrible things like playing basketball in their driveways.

earthycrunchymama

BarbieNCSU:

Yes - I am definitely watching it since I live there - thankfully not anywhere close to UAH though. This isn't an area where things like that happen either which really makes you worry since its a hub of brilliant engineers, scientists, etc.  Its extremely scary, but I think most colleges just do a quick scan of grades, activities, etc. and thats about the extent. Apparently the whole killing her brother thing was swept under the carpet and never fully investigated - which again is really scary!! Unfortunately its hard to trust anyone these days.

I totally agree. I'm in genetics/molecular biology at Harvard. that's why this baffles me. Do people NOT see warnings or do they assume that because you're smart/educated that you wouldn't pull stuff like this... sometimes I feel like it's the smart ones you have to be more careful of as they'd be clever enough to do something and not get caught...

I know MIT has a high rate of suicides among their students do to pressure, and I've read about mental illness/self injury/eating disorders being prevalent in Ivy league schools... I wonder about violent crimes instead of harming yourself when you're in competitive fields like Science & Engineering... why her coworkers??? everyone else she shot was in biological sciences as well...

She was a professor at Harvard Med before this?

I wonder why she'd leave Harvard for Alabama...

from Wikipedia:

Concerns raised by colleagues

Multiple colleagues of Bishop had expressed concern over her behavior. She has been described as interrupting meetings with "bizarre tangents ... left field kind of stuff", being "strange", "crazy", "did things that weren't normal", and she was "out of touch with reality".

One of these colleagues was a member of Bishop's tenure-review committee. After Bishop's tenure was denied and she learned that this colleague referred to her as "crazy", she filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), alleging gender discrimination, with the professor's remark to be used as possible evidence in that case. The professor did not retract his comments: "The professor was given the opportunity to back off the claim, or to say it was a flippant remark. But he didn't. 'I said she was crazy multiple times and I stand by that,' the professor said. 'This woman has a pattern of erratic behavior. She did things that weren't normal ... she was out of touch with reality.'"^[22]

Student complaints

In 2009, several students say they complained to administrators about Bishop on at least three occasions, saying she was "ineffective in the classroom and had odd, unsettling ways." A petition was signed by "dozens of students", which was then sent to the department head. The complaints, however, did not result in any classroom changes.^[23]

AbJams

koat:

SGolden7310:

koat:

MrsD627:

Just because someone is educated doesn't mean that he or she is sane!

Damn skippy...just look at the Base Commander up here in Canada that's abducted and killed a few girls.  He's a Colonel!  How do these people slip through the cracks.

Also, he was apparently friends with Paul Bernardo when they were younger.

Wait...do Americans know about Paul Bernardo?

Nope! Who is he? 

The Schoolgirl Killer.  With his wife, Karla Homolka, they raped and killed three girls, including Karla's sister.  It's an odd coincidence that this Colonel and Bernardo were friends when they were younger.

 

Can you believe they let Karla Homolka out of prison?! That case is so disturbing.

Mrs.Weggy

I also saw today on the news that she was charged with Assault in 2002 for punching a lady in the head at an IHOP b/c she took the last booster seat!  Crazy!

MommyStemple

I know I can't believe the school didn't do a better background check! I read yesterday where they thought that she might have been involved in her brother's death but couldn't ever prove it.  That right there would've been enough for me not to hire her...  Absolutely crazy!

koat

AbJams:

Can you believe they let Karla Homolka out of prison?! That case is so disturbing.

Blech.  I know.  I don't know how much of her "he forced me to do it" story I believe.  It feels like it was just a way to get out of prison.  Apparently, it worked for her.

mysticporter

As horrible as Amy Bishop is, I'm not sure what the University could or should have done differently.  What would show up in a background check?  That she killed her brother under suspicious circumstances, but nothing was ever proven and it was considered an accidental death?  If she did kill her brother, it's the legal system that failed, not the University, I would seriously question any employer who refused to hire someone for a position like that based on what amounts (legally) to rumors.

uagirl

mysticporter:

As horrible as Amy Bishop is, I'm not sure what the University could or should have done differently.  What would show up in a background check?  That she killed her brother under suspicious circumstances, but nothing was ever proven and it was considered an accidental death?  If she did kill her brother, it's the legal system that failed, not the University, I would seriously question any employer who refused to hire someone for a position like that based on what amounts (legally) to rumors.

 This.  Nothing would have shown up on a background investigation anyway.  She wasn't charged with killing her brother, she wasn't charged in the pipe bombing, and the number of people who have misdemeanors, such as the assault charge, is insane.