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0:41

was

0:58

she a

0:58

piece of work? Amy

1:01

was a university professor, but

1:03

she was a professor from

1:05

hell. She was arrogant, she was

1:08

lazy, she had no interest

1:10

in her colleagues or her students,

1:12

and Amy also had some pretty terrible personality

1:15

traits. She was narcissistic, she was

1:17

entitled, she thought that the whole world

1:19

revolved around her, and if she did not

1:21

get her own way, there would be trouble.

1:24

The best way to describe Amy

1:26

is that she was a Karen. She

1:29

really was the Karen of all Karens,

1:31

the true president of the Karen

1:34

Society. She would complain about

1:36

everything to anyone who

1:39

might listen. Because she was

1:41

Dr. Amy Bishop, you must remember that

1:43

throughout this episode, she is Dr.

1:46

Amy Bishop. And unfortunately, because

1:48

of Amy's attitude on her personality,

1:51

this led Amy to carrying out an absolutely

1:53

horrific act on her university

1:56

campus. And that is what we are going to be talking

1:58

about today. So let's dive in. And

2:00

the Bishop was

2:03

born on the 24th of April 1965 making her a Taurus

2:05

and

2:06

Amy grew up in Braintree

2:13

Massachusetts where she lived with her parents

2:15

Sam and Judy and her younger

2:18

brother Seth who was three years younger

2:20

than her. Now as a child Amy was described

2:23

as very intelligent, very bright but

2:25

she was also very shy, very

2:27

withdrawn. Now her brother Seth was

2:30

like the polar opposite of that. He

2:32

was also very intelligent, the whole family

2:34

was actually very academically intelligent

2:37

but he was very social, he was more of an extrovert,

2:39

he didn't have any problems making friends,

2:41

he was very popular, very charismatic

2:44

and the relationship between Amy and her brother

2:46

is very significant, there is quite

2:48

a significant sibling rivalry

2:50

going on here which plays a big part.

2:53

And Amy just always struggled to understand

2:56

why her brother found everything easy,

2:58

like how did he manage to just make

3:00

friends so easily? How was he able to approach

3:02

people and just start talking to them? Amy

3:05

couldn't do that. However, this wasn't the only thing

3:07

that really frustrated Amy because

3:10

Seth was also the apple of their

3:12

parents' eye. Seth was the golden

3:14

child, he was the one that was always praised,

3:16

he was definitely the favourite child. And it was the

3:18

kind of dynamic as well that Seth kind

3:21

of knew about so he would definitely suck up

3:23

to his parents at time. He would do

3:25

things without asking, he would like shovel

3:28

the snow without asking, he would help

3:30

old ladies carry their

3:31

groceries across the road and I'm not even joking

3:33

there, he would. He could literally do no wrong,

3:36

he could never put a foot wrong and even when he

3:38

possibly did get into a little bit of trouble,

3:40

maybe wasn't the perfect child, he would

3:42

still not be criticized as much

3:44

as Amy would be. And Amy just struggled to

3:47

live constantly in her brother's

3:49

shadow. And this was obviously their dynamic,

3:52

their rivalry at home, but it also extended

3:54

to school and activities at school

3:56

as well. so Amy's best subject was

3:59

science. but Seth would always do better

4:01

at science. Amy started to play the

4:03

violin, she actually was pretty good at it. Well Seth

4:05

then asked if he could also play the violin

4:08

and Seth became better than Amy at violin

4:10

and Amy and Seth would fight constantly.

4:14

So it's not exactly unusual is it to have

4:16

a sibling rivalry, the things that I have described

4:18

right now are not exactly unusual

4:20

but their sibling rivalry

4:23

was like to the extreme.

4:25

Seth came first in pretty much every

4:28

academic challenge he ever entered. He

4:30

always did well at the

4:32

science fairs at school. Seth would often be

4:35

celebrated in the local newspaper

4:37

for his academic achievements and when the family

4:39

would sit down at the dinner table quite

4:42

often their mom would be sat there with the

4:44

local newspaper and hold it up and say

4:46

things like, oh look how good Seth is

4:48

doing. Everything that Seth did was

4:50

an achievement, a celebration, he was

4:52

always praised. Yet Amy who was

4:55

intelligent, gifted in her own right, was

4:57

only ever criticized. Even down to the

4:59

smallest things like Amy's hair, her mum

5:01

would always criticize her about her hair. Now

5:04

Amy would cut her hair herself and

5:06

she would take a pair of scissors and

5:08

she would cut her bangs really

5:10

short on her forehead which definitely became

5:13

her signature style. It was definitely her

5:15

style from childhood that she carried

5:17

on into her adult years and her mum would

5:19

just always go on at her about her hair and say

5:21

like oh you should just go to a hairdresser's and get

5:24

a proper haircut and actually get a nice haircut.

5:26

And this was just a constant pattern in

5:28

Amy's childhood. She felt like she had to jump

5:31

through hoops to even get attention. She felt like

5:33

she had to work twice as hard

5:35

as her brother to even just get the smallest

5:38

little bit of recognition. But even when she

5:40

did get the attention of her parents, her parents

5:42

would just turn around and say, oh that's

5:45

very good Amy but did you know that your brother can do

5:47

it a million times better? That is obviously

5:49

not exactly what they said but you

5:51

get what I mean. and from a very young age

5:53

Amy was a pretty angry

5:56

child she just felt like the world

5:58

was against and the world was never... never gonna

6:00

give her any attention or praise

6:02

that she deserved. And Amy grew

6:04

to see everyone as the enemy,

6:07

which is definitely something that

6:09

is a big part of today's case. But like

6:12

I said in the intro, she definitely made it

6:14

very clear at times, her credentials,

6:17

because she never wanted to feel undervalued,

6:19

if that makes sense. But yeah, that

6:22

all will be clear later on in the story. I feel like

6:24

I'm jumping way ahead there. Now after high school,

6:26

Amy went to Northeastern University

6:29

in Boston and to be honest, she was probably

6:31

relieved to be away from her family,

6:33

away from her brother. She felt like she could finally

6:36

go off on her own and step out of

6:38

her brother's shadow. But unfortunately that would

6:40

not last long because when it came time

6:43

for Seth to go to university, he

6:45

enrolled into the same university.

6:48

Now I don't know why he did that. Like I

6:50

don't know whose decision that was. I don't know

6:52

if it was just coincidental. I don't

6:55

know. even though they're both adults

6:57

now, their rivalry still continued.

7:00

Seth continued to play violin and he

7:02

excelled at violin at uni.

7:04

He again was very charismatic,

7:06

he had lots of friends, he was the popular

7:08

kid. Seth was seen as the cool kid

7:11

on campus and Amy was seen as the

7:13

complete opposite. Amy was definitely a bit

7:15

of an outcast. She didn't have as many

7:17

friends, people thought that she was a bit weird

7:19

because she was a part of the Dungeons

7:22

and Dragons Society and she would often be

7:24

teased for being a part of that society

7:26

and Amy would go home and complain

7:29

to her parents

7:30

about the situation, about how Seth

7:32

was still taking the limelight from her,

7:34

but she would also complain to her parents that

7:36

they always favored Seth over

7:39

her. And I know I have gone on about

7:41

their sibling rivalry for a very

7:44

long time now, you're probably thinking okay Danyelle

7:46

we get it, but I'm just trying to emphasize

7:49

their relationship and the dynamic that

7:51

they had because it is very significant

7:54

to what happens next in the story.

7:56

So now we get to the 6th of December

7:59

19th Amy

8:01

is currently 21 years old and her

8:03

brother Seth is 18. So on

8:05

this day it was a seemingly normal

8:08

day for the family. Their dad went

8:10

off to work and Seth and his

8:12

mom also left the house. They were running some

8:15

errands and Amy was left in the house

8:17

on her own. Now around 2pm

8:19

that afternoon Seth and their

8:21

mom returned home. They went

8:23

into the kitchen, they were unloading

8:26

some groceries that they bought. when they hear

8:28

Amy coming down

8:30

the stairs. Now Amy entered

8:32

the kitchen

8:33

and she was holding a shotgun.

8:35

Her mom and brother look at her and are just

8:37

like what the hell is going on?

8:40

Like why the hell do you have a shotgun in

8:42

your hands? Now the family only had

8:44

this one gun and none of them really ever

8:46

used it. It was just for emergencies. It wasn't

8:48

like a hobby or anything like that. So the fact

8:50

that Amy was standing there with a gun she

8:53

had no experience with the gun. her

8:55

mom and brother were like what the hell is

8:57

going on and Amy starts to say oh I

8:59

was scared that someone was going to break in so

9:02

I got the shotgun and I loaded

9:04

it. Now there is a shell in here and

9:06

I can't get it out can you help me? And her

9:09

mom now knowing that this gun is

9:11

loaded is going into a panic right

9:13

now and she says to Amy do not

9:15

point that gun at anyone.

9:18

Now Amy seemingly ignoring

9:20

her mom proceeds further into the

9:22

kitchen and she swings the gun

9:25

until it is in the direction of her

9:27

brother. Amy as she swings the

9:29

gun towards her brother says

9:31

to her brother can you help me unload

9:34

this gun. Amy is currently

9:36

standing with a shotgun pointing

9:39

directly at Seth now

9:41

and the gun goes off.

10:00

Aimee had just shot her brother at point

10:02

blank range.

10:14

He collapsed instantly and Aimee

10:17

fled the scene with the shotgun

10:19

still in her hand. She is running

10:21

down the street with this shotgun. She

10:24

cuts through a woodland area

10:26

until she makes her way to

10:28

a car dealership. And she enters

10:30

the car dealership with shotgun in

10:32

hand and she literally tries to steal

10:35

a car from the car dealership. She goes

10:37

into the car dealership, she's pointing her gun at

10:39

the

10:39

employees there and she's shouting, I

10:41

need a car, I need a car, somebody

10:44

give me some keys. She even starts blurting out

10:46

this random story that she's trying

10:48

to get away from her husband and she needs a

10:50

car, but obviously that's a load of crap. The employees

10:52

don't do what Amy wants, they don't hand

10:55

over any keys. And thankfully Amy

10:57

just leaves the car dealership without

11:00

shooting anybody, which is obviously considering

11:02

what she has just done was a very strong

11:04

probability. So now Amy is just

11:07

back on the street with the

11:09

shotgun still in hand and the police

11:11

have obviously been phoned. They are on

11:13

their way. And when the officers arrive,

11:15

they corner Amy. An officer is holding

11:18

his gun up towards Amy and he's telling

11:20

Amy to put the gun on the floor.

11:23

Amy refuses. She refuses to put that

11:25

shotgun down. officer is slowly

11:28

approaching her, he's trying to calm down

11:30

the situation, he's saying like listen

11:32

just calm down, put the gun

11:35

down, no one needs to get hurt, you

11:37

know the kinds of things they said, but she is still

11:39

refusing to put it down. However just at that

11:41

moment another officer arrives on the scene

11:44

and he manages to sneak up behind Amy

11:46

and he is also pointing his gun at her.

11:49

Now Amy realizes that she is surrounded,

11:51

there is no way out of this situation. She

11:53

finally puts the gun down

11:56

and she is immediately arrested and

11:58

taken to the police station. Meanwhile,

12:00

back at Amy's house, paramedics

12:02

were on the scene trying to save her

12:04

brother's life. He had suffered a severe

12:07

gunshot wound to the chest. And

12:09

when the paramedics arrived, blood

12:12

was pouring everywhere. A main

12:14

artery had been ruptured and

12:16

his liver was completely

12:19

destroyed. And he was rushed to

12:21

the hospital, but sadly there

12:23

was absolutely nothing that anyone

12:25

could do. And an hour after

12:27

being shot, Seth was pronounced

12:30

dead. He had been shot and killed

12:32

by his sister, Amy. So now we go

12:34

back to the police station and police

12:37

officers hear that Seth has

12:39

died and they're thinking, okay, well,

12:41

this is now a murder investigation.

12:44

There was no doubt in anyone's

12:46

mind that this was murder. So

12:48

when the police take Amy in for

12:51

questioning, they are saying things

12:53

like, did you do this on purpose? Was

12:55

this intentional? Like what was going

12:57

on? And Amy was just like, no, no, no, like

12:59

I didn't. It was all an accident, but

13:01

the police officers were not buying it.

13:04

I mean, there were so many things that

13:06

just didn't add up. First of all, it

13:08

was discovered that when Amy shot

13:11

Seth, that was actually the second

13:13

bullet that was fired from that shotgun

13:16

on that day. So it was discovered that Amy

13:18

had accidentally fired the

13:21

shotgun when she was in her bedroom

13:23

prior to her mom and brother returning

13:25

home. And when she accidentally

13:28

fired the shotgun in her bedroom, it had

13:30

completely smashed a mirror and destroyed a wall.

13:33

It had put a hole through her wall. So the police

13:35

were just like, yeah, this does not add up. If

13:38

you accidentally fire

13:40

a gun, you don't then take

13:42

that gun, reload

13:45

it, and casually wander into

13:47

the kitchen and point that gun at family

13:49

members. But the biggest piece of evidence

13:52

against Amy was that she fled the scene

13:54

with the gun. Anyone could understand that

13:57

she fled the scene be out of panic, anxiety,

13:59

st- dress, but why would she take

14:02

the gun with her?

14:03

But not only that, when she fled the

14:05

scene, she reloaded

14:08

the gun again and essentially

14:11

tried to rob a car dealership

14:14

that does not scream accidental

14:16

shooting to anyone. So this is

14:18

a very weak, shaky story

14:21

coming from Amy. I mean, no one is

14:23

believing her, quite rightly so.

14:25

And then all of a sudden a message comes through

14:28

to the officers interviewing Amy, telling

14:31

them to let her go. And the

14:33

officers were stunned. I mean, they

14:35

were interviewing a murder

14:37

suspect. They had written on

14:40

their charge sheet, murder.

14:42

There was no doubt in anyone's mind

14:44

that this was murder. And now

14:46

they're being told to let her go. That

14:48

does not make sense. Or does it make

14:51

complete sense? Because it turns

14:53

out that Amy's mom, Judy, was

14:56

very good friends with the chief of

14:58

police. She was apparently a very big

15:00

supporter of him in her community

15:02

and she also donated

15:03

to his campaign. And now

15:05

Judy, after the shooting, phones up

15:08

the chief of police and says, "'Look,

15:10

I was there at the shooting. "'It was a complete

15:13

accident. "'Please let Amy go. "'I

15:15

do not

15:15

want to lose both of my children.'" And that was it. Case

15:18

closed. No further investigation

15:21

was made. So after Amy had

15:23

gotten away with murder, let's

15:25

not be around the

15:26

bush here because she murdered her

15:28

brother, she was able to just go on and

15:31

live her life. And this is why I was

15:33

saying it was very important for me to really

15:35

paint the picture of Seth and Amy's

15:37

relationship and what it was actually like, because

15:40

I think there is no doubt in anyone's mind that it was

15:42

murder. So Amy, after finishing her degree,

15:44

went on to study for a PhD

15:47

at Harvard and bloody hell, she would

15:49

not let anyone forget that she went to Harvard.

15:51

she started to work as a researcher

15:53

and a professor at the university and

15:56

this is where she also met her husband.

15:58

Now Amy's husband

15:59

was...

16:00

man called Jim Anderson. They had actually

16:02

met when they were in university because he

16:04

was also in the Dungeons and Dragons

16:06

Society and that is how they met. And five

16:08

years after Seth's murder,

16:11

they got married and started a family.

16:13

They would eventually go on to have four

16:16

children and this next bit is

16:18

honestly just really sick. I actually

16:20

couldn't believe this happened. So

16:23

they had four children and they had three girls

16:25

and one boy. The boy was the youngest and

16:28

when the boy was born,

16:29

he was actually born on Seth's

16:32

birthday. I know what are the

16:34

chances of that but not only that

16:37

Amy decided to call her son

16:40

Seth.

16:41

Are you being serious? I was just gobsmacked.

16:44

I was like really really really

16:46

you murder your brother and then by

16:48

some weird coincidence your

16:51

first born son is born on

16:53

his birthday and then you have the audacity

16:55

to call him Seth. Wow! So Amy

16:58

was just able to go on and live her life

17:00

and this is where we get to the part of the story

17:02

where she really does become the Karen

17:05

that she was always destined to be the

17:07

self-elected president of

17:09

the Karen Society. Amy too,

17:12

no surprise to any of you, was

17:14

an absolute nightmare to be around.

17:16

She was entitled ignorant,

17:19

arrogant and she was like this with everyone,

17:21

family, friends, even though

17:23

no one really wanted to be around her so she didn't really

17:25

have that many friends, colleagues.

17:28

Amy truly just

17:30

didn't like everyone. She was offended

17:33

and annoyed by everyone.

17:35

And Amy was always very vocal

17:37

about her dislikes and what

17:40

she didn't like and this and that. There

17:42

was one time when Amy was getting her

17:44

PhD when she literally

17:46

threw a hissy fit. So this all started because

17:49

she was working on a paper and her

17:51

name was listed second as one

17:53

of the authors and she thought that

17:55

she deserved to be listed first

17:58

and because she wasn't listed first she...

18:00

She threw a hissy fish. She went absolutely

18:02

crazy at the first name author.

18:04

She went absolutely crazy at this woman. She

18:07

was heard screaming at the fellow

18:09

author, the one that was listed first. She was heard

18:11

screaming, who do you think you are,

18:14

you silly bitch? I am Dr.

18:16

Amy Bishop.

18:18

And Amy loved

18:19

to remind people that she was Dr.

18:22

Amy Bishop. Harvard trained.

18:25

Don't forget that Harvard train. She's Harvard

18:27

train. Did you know that she's Harvard trained?

18:29

And Amy would just go crazy and

18:32

this incident is not isolated.

18:34

It did happen a couple of times but honestly we

18:36

don't have time to go through every

18:38

single one of her hissy fits. But she was very

18:40

scary, she was very intimidating

18:42

and she would reduce people to tears.

18:45

And Amy wasn't just like this at work

18:48

with her colleagues, she was also like

18:50

it with her neighbors. She was probably more so

18:52

like with her neighbors because if

18:54

the neighbors ever did anything that Amy

18:56

didn't like she would complain. Amy

18:58

would be the first one over knocking

19:01

on their door complaining about

19:03

absolutely anything and everything.

19:06

You know that program, Neighbors from

19:08

Hell is actually called that? Well,

19:10

Amy would definitely be on that program and she would

19:12

complain about the stupidest

19:14

things. For example, if kids

19:17

were outside of her house playing,

19:19

talking, laughing, god forbid,

19:22

she would go crazy. She would be ranting and

19:24

raving, scaring the kids off. If

19:26

someone was doing DIY in the house, even

19:29

on their own front drive, not really making

19:31

that much noise, Amy would be over

19:33

complaining, knocking on the door saying, how

19:36

dare you make this noise? How dare you

19:38

do DIY on your own

19:40

house? But Amy would complain to

19:42

her neighbors. She would complain to anyone that would

19:44

listen to her, but she wasn't satisfied with

19:47

just complaining about her neighbours

19:49

to her neighbours? Oh no, because

19:52

Amy would phone the police

19:54

constantly. She would phone the police

19:57

about kids playing outside of her house. It's

19:59

like you don't...

20:00

police for that? Why are you wasting police

20:02

time? Any petty small

20:04

neighborhood dispute, Amy would call

20:06

the police. There was one time where Amy

20:09

phoned up the police and said, listen,

20:11

there's a rock band playing outside

20:14

of my house. They're causing so much

20:16

noise. They're causing so much commotion.

20:19

I need you to come out immediately and

20:21

sort it out. So when the police arrived

20:23

they arrived to find a young boy

20:26

practicing guitar in his own garage.

20:29

Yeah Amy had said that there was a whole bloody

20:32

rock band outside of her house and this

20:34

poor young boy was doing absolutely

20:36

nothing wrong he was just practicing guitar

20:39

in his own garage and he would

20:41

have been so terrified because the police turned up

20:43

at his house and he was probably thinking oh

20:45

my god am I going to get arrested for practicing guitar

20:48

but I haven't even gotten to to the most current

20:50

of current things yet. So Amy's kids were

20:52

lactose intolerant, meaning that they could

20:54

have eat regular ice cream. And there would be

20:57

an ice cream van that would come around the

20:59

neighborhood.

20:59

And Amy would get so

21:03

angry that this ice cream van would

21:05

come down her street. She would say, oh,

21:07

how dare this ice cream van

21:10

come down the street and allow other

21:12

children to eat ice cream when mine

21:14

can't. And Amy was so annoyed

21:17

that this ice cream van come down

21:19

the street that she filed

21:21

a complaint. Have you

21:23

ever heard of something so ridiculous?

21:26

Who files a complaint about

21:28

an ice cream van? She filed the complaint and

21:31

said that it wasn't fair that the ice cream

21:33

van would come down her street when her

21:35

children were not allowed ice cream. And unbelievably,

21:38

like I actually can't believe I'm saying this, but

21:40

her complaining worked because

21:43

Amy managed to ban the

21:45

ice cream van from coming down her

21:48

street.

21:49

Why? Why do people give in to people

21:51

like this? Like why? And there

21:53

are many more incidents, those are just the

21:56

craziest, most unbelievable ones but

21:58

as you can imagine Amy was pretty much complaining

22:00

every single day. The neighbors

22:03

absolutely hated her. I know that is a very

22:05

strong word but they did. She was an absolute

22:08

nightmare. No one, absolutely

22:10

nobody wanted to be around her. Just

22:12

as much as the neighbors couldn't stand Amy,

22:15

Amy could also not stand any of them. She

22:17

didn't like any of them and she was determined

22:20

to pretty much make sure

22:21

that no one ever had fun around

22:23

her.

22:23

No one ever had any luxuries

22:25

like an ice cream van. And people like Amy

22:28

always feel like they are so

22:30

hard done by. They always feel that

22:33

the world is against them and Amy has said

22:35

that herself that she always felt like the world

22:37

was against her but with people like Amy

22:40

it's like you bring it on yourself.

22:42

But so far since her brother's

22:44

shooting anyway Amy has

22:47

never been physically violent

22:49

to anybody. She has definitely been

22:51

a nuisance and a nightmare. a lot of people

22:53

don't like her but she's never actually done anything

22:56

that has broken the

22:57

law since her brother's shooting but

23:00

that was all about to change.

23:13

And there were two incidents that we need to talk

23:15

about so the first one came in 1993.

23:20

Amy was working as a researcher

23:22

and she received a negative

23:24

review from a superior.

23:27

Oh no, god forbid. And Amy was

23:29

absolutely furious about this

23:31

review. She felt like she was amazing

23:34

and why would anyone not like her? She

23:36

did not deserve this negative review.

23:38

And because of this review, Amy

23:41

actually resigned from her job because

23:43

she was really upset and quote,

23:46

on the verge of a nervous breakdown. So

23:49

after Amy resigns, Amy is heard

23:51

ranting and raving about her supervisor

23:54

saying things like, I hate that man, I

23:56

hate him so much,

23:57

I want to shoot or step

24:00

or strangle him. And then not long

24:02

after Amy resigned, her supervisor,

24:05

who is a man called Paul, returns home

24:07

from work and he arrives home

24:10

to a suspicious package on

24:12

his front doorstep. And he was

24:15

very suspicious of this package,

24:17

like he was just like, this is not right, something

24:19

doesn't feel right here. And I should point out

24:22

as well that when this happened in 1993, this is

24:24

in the height of of

24:26

the Unabomber, okay? Ted Kaczynski

24:29

is still at large,

24:30

so when a university professor,

24:33

anyone in that kind of field receives

24:35

a suspicious package, everyone

24:37

is immediately wary and thankfully

24:40

Paul was like, okay, not really

24:42

going to touch this. He did actually open it a little

24:44

bit and he did see some wires, so he was like, okay,

24:47

I'm just going to leave it there and the bomb squad

24:50

arrived immediately and thankfully

24:52

defused

24:52

the bomb and no one was harmed.

24:55

But if Paul wasn't so wary,

24:57

God forbid what actually could have happened.

25:00

And I don't think the bomb was as

25:02

sophisticated as the Unabomber

25:04

bombs, but it was a bomb you know,

25:07

like it still would have done damage and

25:09

who knows it could have actually killed Paul.

25:11

And the only suspect for sending

25:14

this pipe bomb was Amy Bishop.

25:16

Paul could not think of anyone

25:19

else that would send the pipe bomb and

25:21

the police did interview Amy as

25:23

a suspect. However there wasn't

25:25

enough evidence to actually prove

25:27

that she was the one that sent it and therefore

25:30

no charges were ever brought against

25:33

her. She did do that pipe bomb by the way it

25:35

was her and I just couldn't believe

25:37

when I read this I was like oh my god she sent

25:39

a pipe bomb. That is very,

25:42

very rare. You don't really hear of

25:44

bombs being sent that often and 9.9 times

25:48

out of 10 it's normally a man that's done it,

25:50

not a woman and it's just very bizarre, isn't

25:52

it? Amy is definitely a very

25:55

unusual

25:55

case and that is just a severe

25:57

escalation just because she received.

26:00

a negative review, she

26:02

sends a pipe bomb to the

26:04

person. So yeah, Amy

26:06

sends a bomb and it is suspected

26:08

that her husband helped her a little bit

26:11

but we don't know, there's no evidence of that.

26:13

So yeah, Amy sends

26:15

a pipe bomb and no charges abroad,

26:17

she's not arrested but there is another incident

26:20

that actually would end up in Amy

26:22

getting arrested. So this is on a Saturday

26:24

morning in 2002 so we have I

26:27

jumped ahead a little bit here. Amy, Jim

26:29

and the children are going to an IHOP

26:32

restaurant. Now, side note, I

26:34

didn't know what an IHOP was. I'd heard

26:36

of it, but I didn't actually know what it was in

26:39

my head.

26:40

This is gonna sound so stupid. I just had

26:42

visions of people on pogo sticks literally

26:44

hopping around. I thought it was kind of like

26:46

one of those playground, restaurant

26:49

things from people hopping around. I didn't

26:51

have a clue that IHOP stands

26:53

for International House

26:56

of Pancakes.

26:58

Wow, now I wanna go because

27:00

I love pancakes and I wish we had things like that

27:02

in the UK because we don't. So

27:05

back to the story anyway, I feel

27:07

so stupid. I can't believe I've actually just said that.

27:10

So Amy, Jim and the children are

27:12

at this IHOP restaurant. It's very,

27:15

very busy. They need a booster seat

27:17

for one of their children but the restaurant

27:19

is very busy. So they ask a waitress

27:22

like, we need a booster seat. can you go get

27:24

us a booster seat? And the waitress says

27:26

to them, oh, I'm really, really sorry, but

27:28

we've just given away our last booster

27:30

seat. Now this is Dr. Amy Bishop,

27:33

and she does not take no for

27:35

an answer. And she absolutely loses

27:37

it. Amy starts shouting in the restaurant,

27:40

we were here first, we deserve that

27:42

booster seat, get us a booster seat. And

27:44

then Amy gets up from

27:46

her table and makes her

27:49

way over to another table,

27:51

which was the table that just so happened to

27:53

get the last booster seat. The woman that was sat

27:55

there with just her children, her name was Michelle.

27:58

He goes up to Michelle and stuff demanding

28:00

the booster seat off her. And Michelle is just

28:03

innocently sitting there eating breakfast

28:05

with her children and she's like, no,

28:08

I'm kind of using it. And Amy

28:10

says to Michelle, quote, you bitch,

28:13

give me the booster seat. I was here

28:15

first. Who the F do you

28:17

people think you are? And Michelle was still

28:19

just sat there, innocent, not engaging

28:22

really in this behavior. And she was just

28:24

saying like, listen, leave us alone. We

28:26

just want to eat breakfast in peace. Amy said back

28:28

to her quote,

28:30

shut up you dumb bitch, you

28:32

have no idea who you're

28:34

dealing with. Amy just had completely

28:36

lost it, she was shouting, screaming,

28:39

swearing at this woman, she was making

28:41

this whole scene in this restaurant.

28:44

The restaurant staff were actually being pretty

28:46

polite to Amy which honestly she doesn't

28:48

deserve that and they were saying please

28:51

can you leave like I think you should leave

28:53

and then all of a sudden Amy goes

28:55

back up to Michelle who was just that innocent

28:58

customer sat at her table with

29:00

her children and Amy starts punching

29:02

her repeatedly in the side

29:04

of the head shouting at the top

29:07

of her lungs, I am Dr.

29:09

Amy Bishop.

29:10

I am Dr. Amy

29:13

Bishop. Eventually, Amy

29:15

does leave the restaurant. I

29:16

don't know how they managed to get her out

29:18

of that restaurant, but poor Michelle,

29:21

she just sat there and she has been physically

29:23

assaulted by Amy. And it's ridiculous when

29:25

you actually think about it that all of this was over a

29:28

booster seat. Following the incident

29:30

Amy was arrested but in

29:32

the end the charges were dropped and

29:35

this never went on her permanent record and

29:37

I don't know why the charges were dropped, I don't know

29:39

any of the details, that is all I know. Unfortunately

29:41

with people like Amy they do just seem to

29:44

bully their way out of every situation.

29:46

So again Amy has gotten away with this,

29:48

she's gotten away with physical

29:49

assault just like she got away with murder. So

29:51

now we are entering the story of

29:54

the series of events that leads

29:56

up to the tragic events of today's

29:58

case. So this all

30:00

started because Amy was offered

30:02

a new job. Honestly, who wants to

30:04

hire her? But clearly somebody did.

30:06

The offer came from the University of

30:08

Alabama in Huntsville. And this job

30:10

that was offered to Amy gave her

30:13

the prospect of getting tenure, which

30:15

is something that Amy had always wanted

30:17

her whole life. This was her dream. She'd always wanted

30:19

tenure. So Amy jumped at the chance of

30:22

taking this job. So she moved the family

30:24

from Massachusetts to Alabama.

30:27

And just a quick side note here. remember

30:29

that Amy is the neighbor from hell.

30:31

So when the street that Amy lived

30:33

on found out that she was moving

30:36

and leaving

30:36

for good they were all so happy

30:39

that when she left they celebrated

30:41

and threw a pizza party which

30:43

I found absolutely hilarious.

30:46

So now Amy is a

30:47

professor at the University of

30:49

Alabama in Huntsville and to no

30:52

surprise she is a professor

30:54

from hell. Amy was not liked by

30:56

her students

30:58

at all. She was reportedly very

31:00

awkward in lectures, she was

31:02

very arrogant and also very

31:05

lazy because a lot of the students have

31:07

said that she would just read out of the textbook,

31:09

just stand there at the front and read out of the textbook.

31:12

And when I was at university I had a couple of lecturers

31:14

that did that and it was so infuriating

31:17

and you can actually see some of the students

31:20

reviews of Amy online

31:22

which honestly are so funny. So

31:24

some of the students would say things like, horrible

31:26

professor, I don't like

31:28

her, don't recommend her, Dr Bishop

31:30

is very intelligent but a horrible teacher.

31:32

And Amy's relationship with her students

31:35

became that bad that a petition

31:37

was started to remove

31:39

her from her job. And this is rare,

31:42

the University of Alabama in Huntsville

31:44

had never seen this before, like this

31:46

doesn't happen. The students actually handed

31:49

this petition in by hand

31:51

to the university board but in the end the

31:54

petition was dismissed and Amy

31:56

was allowed to continue on teaching

31:58

which is It's honestly just so infuriating.

32:00

and it really is because when you go to

32:02

university, that is expensive

32:04

and it's so annoying when you get landed with

32:07

lecturers, professors that literally

32:09

don't care and they're not putting in

32:11

any effort and you're not learning anything but

32:14

you're paying all of this money. And

32:16

this went on for years that

32:18

students were dissatisfied with Amy's teachings.

32:20

But Amy didn't care. She didn't care that she wasn't

32:22

liked. All she cared about was getting tenure. So

32:25

it is now 2009 and the opportunity for Amy

32:29

apply

32:30

for 10 year comes up and she

32:32

really needed to get this otherwise

32:34

she was going to lose her job. Now I don't quite

32:36

know how that works because I don't know how

32:38

tenure works but all I know is that

32:41

she needed to get it otherwise she was going to lose

32:43

her job. So Amy

32:43

applies for 10 year but the

32:46

problem is is that none of her

32:48

colleagues liked her which is honestly not

32:50

a surprise is it because everywhere that Amy goes

32:53

no one likes her. Several of her colleagues

32:55

had actually complained about her and pointed

32:58

out her erratic behavior. She was

33:00

very, very difficult to work with.

33:03

She was very overbearing. She didn't

33:05

respect other people's views or beliefs.

33:08

She would fly off the handle at the smallest

33:10

thing. She was very confrontational. So

33:13

Amy's tenure application

33:13

was denied. And of course,

33:16

Amy was absolutely furious about this because

33:18

I've said this a million times but Amy

33:20

does not take no for an answer. She thought that

33:22

there was this big conspiracy against her.

33:25

Amy always thought that the whole world was

33:27

against her. She even hired a lawyer

33:29

and tried to sue the university.

33:32

But all of her appeals failed

33:34

and Amy was told that by the end

33:37

of the semester in 2010 she

33:39

would no longer be able to teach and

33:41

that she was being fired. All of Amy's colleagues

33:43

breathed a sigh of relief

33:46

because they thought finally she's

33:48

out of here. But unfortunately Amy

33:51

had other plans and this is where

33:53

we get to the tragic events of today's

33:55

case. on the 12th of February 2010

33:57

around 3pm

34:00

Amy Bishop entered a staff

34:02

meeting with fellow colleagues

34:04

and staff members from her department at the university.

34:07

There are around 13 other people

34:09

in that room as well as Amy. Now the other professors

34:12

were really surprised to see Amy

34:14

there because this meeting was about

34:17

the following semester and Amy wasn't

34:19

going to be there the following semester, she had

34:21

been fired. So it was very awkward,

34:23

the other professors were like um okay

34:26

why is Amy here? But they continued on the meeting

34:29

just acted normal

34:30

and normally Amy was very vocal

34:32

in these meetings. She was very confrontational,

34:34

she would always, always talk over

34:36

people but this meeting she

34:39

was very, very quiet. Inside the room

34:41

was a fellow colleague called Deborah

34:44

Moriarty. Now she had become

34:46

friends with Amy even though no

34:49

one was really friends with Amy. They had like

34:51

formed some sort of friendship, they had

34:53

bonded over similar interests and

34:55

similar lifestyles, they bonded over

34:58

their kids and over grandkids. However,

35:00

Deborah had voted against

35:02

Amy in her tenure application,

35:05

so things between the two were a little

35:07

bit awkward. So 40 to 50 minutes

35:09

had passed, the meeting had gone on as

35:12

normal, but it was coming to an end now

35:14

and Amy had not said a single

35:16

word the whole meeting, which was definitely

35:18

very weird. Another thing that was extremely

35:21

weird about Amy is that she was carrying

35:24

a purse. Now Amy never

35:26

carried a purse anywhere. So when the meeting

35:28

ended, Amy got up out of her seat,

35:31

she moved in front of the door blocking

35:33

the way, she then reached into

35:35

her handbag and pulled out a gun

35:38

and just started firing at her colleagues

35:40

one by one. Amy first aimed her

35:43

gun at the man running the meeting, Gopi

35:45

Padilla. She shot

35:46

him in the head, execution style,

35:49

killing him instantly. She then aimed

35:51

her gun at another colleague, wounding

35:54

them, but not killing them. Amy then

35:56

shot two more colleagues in quick succession,

35:58

Adriel Dronson and Maria Davis

36:00

and tragically both of them would lose their

36:03

lives. She then aimed her gun at another

36:05

colleague, shooting them again,

36:07

wounding them, but they would survive. And

36:10

everything that I have just said there

36:12

literally happened in the space of 60 seconds.

36:15

This whole thing

36:16

was chaos. The terror inside

36:19

that room is unimaginable.

36:21

Some other colleagues managed to dive under

36:23

tables to avoid the shots,

36:25

but they were all completely helpless in

36:28

that room. However, it was at this point,

36:30

Deborah, who was Amy's ex-friend,

36:32

saw an opportunity to possibly stop

36:34

her. At this point, Deborah was under a table

36:37

and she could see Amy's legs. So

36:39

she reached out and grabbed her legs,

36:41

trying to shock her, trying to knock

36:44

her over in some way, but it didn't

36:46

work.

36:46

Amy just shook her off. And

36:48

then Amy turned her gun and

36:51

pointed it at Deborah. Deborah was literally

36:53

staring into the barrel of the gun.

36:56

she was expecting it to go off at any minute.

36:58

And then Amy pulled the

37:00

trigger, but the gun jammed and

37:02

the shot did not fire and Deborah

37:04

was still alive. Then Deborah quick

37:07

thinking on her part, she saw

37:09

this as an opportunity to actually stop

37:11

Amy because the fact that Amy's gun

37:13

had jammed, startled Amy and

37:15

it kind of took her out of the situation for

37:17

a couple of seconds. And Deborah started

37:20

pushing Amy, pushing her over

37:22

and over again, trying to force

37:24

her out of that room. and she managed

37:27

to push Amy completely out

37:29

of that room and shut the door. So now

37:31

Amy is not in the room. The rest

37:33

of the colleagues that are able to get

37:36

up on their feet and block and barricade

37:38

the door so Amy cannot get back in because

37:40

they are all terrified that Amy is

37:42

going to somehow fix the gun and

37:45

come back into the room and start shooting them all again.

37:47

But thankfully Amy wasn't able to fix

37:49

the gun. She just calmly walked away

37:51

from the scene. She actually went into a bathroom

37:54

and disposed of the gun. She then walked up

37:56

to a random student who,

37:58

I'm sure that student did... not think that she

38:01

was the shooter, she walked up to this random

38:03

student, asked to borrow their cell

38:05

phone. Amy then phones her husband

38:08

and says quote, I'm

38:11

done. And then she asks her husband

38:13

to come and pick her up from the campus.

38:16

Now at this point the police were already

38:18

on the scene, they had received numerous

38:21

phone calls from a lot of people on campus

38:23

who had heard the gunshots and so many

38:25

people were fleeing the campus it

38:28

was total panic and mayhem. When

38:30

the emergency services were on the scene

38:32

they quickly attended the conference room to

38:34

tend to the wounded and three people were

38:37

injured and very tragically three

38:39

people had lost their lives. Following

38:42

the arrival of the police they were informed

38:44

of the identity of the shooter so they

38:46

were scouring the campus for Amy

38:49

Bishop. They knew who they were looking

38:51

for and they actually quickly found her

38:53

because she was just stood outside

38:55

of the campus like at the back of the campus

38:58

calmly waiting for her husband to pick her

39:00

up and Amy was immediately arrested

39:02

and it was at this moment that a photographer

39:05

managed to get a photo of Amy just

39:07

as she was being put in the police car and

39:09

you can see in her face she has this

39:12

cold dead stare

39:14

she's just so creepy there just looks like

39:16

there is no emotion there

39:19

whatsoever police also had to investigate

39:21

a potential bomb on the campus as well.

39:24

People had become concerned that

39:26

Amy had booby-trapped the science

39:28

department with a quote

39:30

herpes bomb. You heard

39:32

that right, herpes bomb. Now Amy had

39:34

done some research into

39:36

the herpes virus and they were worried

39:38

that she had made a chemical bomb

39:41

from the herpes virus in order

39:43

to spread herpes around the

39:45

campus. However, the police found

39:48

no evidence of this and the investigation

39:51

into the bomb was closed. But

39:53

to be honest, given Amy's past,

39:56

I wouldn't be surprised. Amy Bishop

39:58

was then taken into custody.

40:00

and charged with capital

40:02

murder, three counts of capital murder, and

40:04

three counts of attempted murder.

40:06

When people first heard that there was a mass shooting

40:09

at the university, people's minds immediately

40:11

went to a student on student

40:14

attack. People were in disbelief

40:16

that this middle-aged woman with a

40:19

PhD from Harvard, who

40:21

was a very high achiever with

40:24

no criminal record, even

40:26

though she should have had a criminal record, but right

40:28

now it seems like she doesn't have a criminal

40:30

record. She does not fit the profile

40:33

of a mass shooter. She doesn't fit

40:35

the profile of your typical bomber

40:37

either. But then after it obviously started to circulate

40:40

that it was Amy Bishop that was behind the shooting,

40:43

stories were coming out about her character.

40:45

And obviously we all know about her

40:48

character. So the stories were coming out about

40:50

how she was a neighbor from hell,

40:52

a colleague from hell, the incident at IHOP.

40:55

Also people started talking about the suspicious

40:57

death

40:57

of her brother. In the four days since police

41:00

say Professor Amy Bishop opened fire inside

41:02

a faculty meeting, a string of unsettling episodes

41:04

has emerged in her past, including a report tonight

41:06

that in 2002, she was charged with assault after

41:08

allegedly punching a woman during a restaurant argument.

41:10

She also killed her brother, but that was ruled

41:12

an accident. Was Amy Bishop

41:14

a ticking time bomb all along?

41:16

And thankfully, after this

41:18

mass shooting, the investigation

41:21

into her brother's murder was actually reopened.

41:24

People started to look at that case in

41:26

a completely different light now. And

41:29

after reinvestigating, Amy

41:31

Bishop was also charged with

41:34

the murder of her brother, Seth.

41:36

Amy's husband, Jim, was also questioned

41:39

on his connection to the mass shooting

41:41

because it is suspected that he

41:44

knew about it. I mean, when

41:46

she phoned him after the shooting, she

41:48

did say, I'm

41:49

done. And you don't

41:51

say that to someone unless someone on the

41:53

other end of the phone knows what you're talking

41:56

about. but he was never charged

41:57

with anything. and obviously it's also... that

42:00

he helped with the pipe bomb earlier

42:02

on in the story, but he was never charged with anything there

42:05

either. So I don't know

42:06

the husband's involvement. So then Amy's case

42:09

went to trial and she tried to plead

42:11

not guilty by reason of insanity, but

42:14

she wasn't exactly in saying, why should

42:16

let's be realistic? And her defense realized

42:18

that this, it wasn't gonna work. So

42:21

in the end, Amy did plead guilty

42:24

and she did that because there was a deal on the

42:26

table that if she pled guilty, the death

42:28

penalty would be taken off the table. And then after

42:30

she was sentenced to life in

42:32

prison without the possibility

42:33

of parole,

42:35

the charges relating to her

42:37

brother's shooting were dropped because

42:39

the prosecution was satisfied that Amy

42:42

was never gonna get out of prison. So there

42:44

was no point trying to pursue

42:47

the charges of her brother. I kind

42:49

of feel different. I feel like everyone should

42:51

be held accountable for what they've done. And

42:54

there should be justice for her brother, but yeah,

42:56

she wasn't charged with anything to do with

42:59

her brother. And Amy for pretty much

43:01

her whole life got away

43:03

with things. She was never really held accountable

43:06

for anything. I mean, look at what she

43:08

did in her life starting with

43:11

her brother's murder. And she

43:13

got away with all of it. And she probably

43:15

thought that she was gonna get away with

43:17

this shooting at the university. But

43:19

thankfully she didn't. And this is where we

43:22

should now focus on the victims of

43:24

this story because I didn't really get a chance to

43:27

tell you anything about the victims during

43:29

the story. Following the shooting, a memorial

43:32

service was held at the University

43:34

of Alabama in Huntsville with over 3,000

43:37

people in attendance. Gopi Padilla

43:40

was the chairman of the biology department

43:43

of the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

43:45

He was a great leader in the

43:47

science community and he was absolutely

43:50

loved by everyone on campus.

43:53

He was described as having such a warm,

43:55

kind-hearted smile and he had such

43:57

a gentle manner. He survived.

44:00

by a wife and children. Maria

44:02

Davis was an associate professor

44:04

of biology. She was the happiest

44:06

when she was cooking or with her

44:08

dog, and it was her smile and

44:11

laugh that would light up any room

44:13

that she was in. She is survived by

44:15

her husband and his children. Adriel

44:18

Johnson was an associate professor of

44:20

biology. He enjoyed fishing

44:22

with his family. He enjoyed spending

44:25

so much time cooking on the grill

44:27

with his friends and family and neighbors, just

44:29

spending time with his loved ones.

44:31

He was described as such a pleasant

44:34

person to be around, someone that was just

44:36

so kind, he had a really kind-hearted

44:39

warm smile and he is survived by

44:41

his wife and children. And then we also have

44:43

to talk about Seth Bishop because he

44:46

was only 18 years

44:48

old when he was murdered. He was

44:50

so young, he had his whole

44:53

life ahead of him and And Amy

44:56

took that away. Seth was intelligent.

44:58

He had a bright future. He had

45:01

so many friends. He was the kind

45:03

of person that lived life to the full. And

45:05

it's such a tragedy because he never

45:07

got to fulfill his dreams that he

45:10

had and he had so many. And there were just so

45:12

many lives that were destroyed because

45:14

of one person. Every single

45:16

victim that I have just said had

45:18

a wife or husband and children.

45:21

They have been taken away from their family.

45:23

all of those families have to suffer

45:25

now and have to go through the

45:28

loss of their loved one because of one

45:30

person. And then you've also got to think of the other

45:32

victims of the stories that did survive

45:35

this attack, the other colleagues in that

45:38

room, the trauma that they went through and they have

45:40

to live with that for the rest of their lives, the

45:42

other students that were at the university

45:45

on the day of the shooting, the other colleagues

45:47

that were in the building, everyone that had to deal with

45:49

this they are all victims as well and

45:52

mass shootings are always just really sad

45:54

aren't they they always just hit different and it's

45:56

just so annoying when people like Amy

45:58

that go through life.

46:00

and they are so entitled,

46:02

so privileged, and they

46:04

just take advantage of that

46:07

and they use and abuse people, think that they

46:09

can get away with everything and

46:11

then tragedy like this happens and

46:13

it's just absolutely heartbreaking.

46:17

And

46:17

that brings us to the end of the episode on Amy

46:19

Bishop. Thank you so much everyone for listening today.

46:22

There are no updates on this case. Subscribe

46:24

or follow to make sure you never miss an episode of The Criminal

46:27

Makeup. and if you enjoy the show it would mean

46:29

a lot if you could leave a five-star review. In

46:31

the meantime if you've been affected by any

46:33

of the themes in this episode please take

46:35

the time to look at the description for this episode

46:37

for some helpful resources. Special

46:39

thanks to my producers at AudioBoom Studios

46:42

and I'll see you all in the next one.