Transcript
A (0:00)
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B (0:30)
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C (1:00)
Hi, friends. How are you today? My name is Bailey Sarian, and today is Monday, which means it's Murder Mystery and Makeup Monday, if you're new here. Hi, my name is Bailey, and on Mondays, I sit down, I talk about a true crime story that's been heavy on my noggin, and I do my makeup at the same time. Let me tell you about today's story. Let me set this thing for you, okay? It's February 12, 2010, and it's just like another day at the University of Alabama. Professors are gathering in a small conference room, you know, just to have, like, another routine faculty meeting on again, this, like, ordinary Friday afternoon. The meeting goes on for about, like, 45 minutes, okay? Until one of their own stands up, pulls out a gun and starts firing. It's total chaos. Survivors flee, but three are left dead. Now, this wasn't some just random act of violence. Nay, nay, nay, nay. Because when investigators started digging into this killer's past, let me tell you, they uncovered something. Many things so disturbing, so deeply buried, that it left everyone asking, how the hell did no one see this coming? Listen, this is a story of Amy Bishop, a Harvard trained neuroscientist with a deadly temper, a past full of secrets, and a trail of violence that started long before that awful, awful, awful day. And trust me, by the end of this, you're gonna be like, what the. What in the. What in the butt was that? Because that's what I was saying. So let me tell you about this Amy lady. So Amy was born on April 24, 1965, to her parents, Judith or Judy, and Samuel Sam Bishop. Now, at the time, her father was completing his graduate studies in Iowa. So Amy was born in Iowa city, but in 1968, her father got a job as a professor at Northeastern University in Boston. Very smart family. Okay, so the family settled in the suburban town of Braintree, Massachusetts. That's a hard one for me. Massachusetts. First of all, I was like, braintree, What? What a name, huh? Yeah. Glad we had that talk. So the family moves great. That same year, Amy's younger brother, his name is Seth, he was born, making the family complete with two children, a boy and a girl. Growing up, Amy and Seth were raised in an environment that nurtured education, the arts, and science. It was very important to the family. Both children were musically talented. Amy began playing violin in third grade and became, like, an accomplished violinist. And then Seth, her younger brother, also took up the violin. It was said that Amy felt like an outsider in Braintree. She was gifted, she was very smart, but she was socially awkward. And it was said she was prone to outbursts, as Amy's mother put it. Amy had her father's temper. And that's, like, literally all that was ever said about the family, because Amy's mom, Judy, she came across from what I've learned as, like, the protector of the family. She would never say anything negative about her children or. Or her family, which is great, right? But not even after everything happened. It's bizarre. It's bizarre. And then her father, Sam, like, not much was said about him. He seemed reserved. He didn't talk much. And if he did talk or give, like, an interview, it was always, like, through his wife, Judy. Judy would have an answer for everything. She had an answer for everything. But people loved her. Judy and the family, they were very, like, involved with the community and their neighbors, and they were just all really close. So Ms. Amy, you know, she did really well in school. She was very, very smart. And in the late 1980s, like, she graduated high school, and she wanted to go after a career in science. Now, her younger brother, Seth, incredible, okay? He excelled in everything he did. First of all, I was like, is this guy real? Yes. Her brother Seth excelled as a violinist and was a member of the Greater Boston Youth Sympathy Orchestra and was going on to study electrical engineering. Everybody, based off what I read, I don't know. But everyone loved Seth. They had nothing but positive things to say about him. He was always helping out the community. He won so many awards for his achievements. I couldn't name him because a lot of the words I couldn't even say. I was like, this guy's smart. Smart. But a tragic turning point in Amy's early life came in late 1986, let me tell you. So December 6, 1986, Amy, 21 years old, shoots and kills her 18 year old brother Seth with a 12 gauge Mossberg shotgun in the family kitchen. I know. Right out the gate. What? Yep. Here's what happened. Allegedly, on the day of the accident, Amy's mother, the only witness to said accident, said that she and Seth were in the kitchen preparing lunch when Amy came down the stairs with her father's shotgun in hand. Amy told them she was unable to unload the gun and needed help. She's like, I don't know how to do it. So her mom instructed Amy to pump the gun, which ejected the first shell. Then Amy pumped it again, which she should not have done. Amy, thinking it was empty, pulled the trigger, shooting her brother right in the chest. Tragic. As Seth fell to the ground, Amy took off. She took off still with a shotgun in her hand. She fled, leaving the family home. I was like, huh? Go on, tell me, huh? Please come out. It's a whole. It's a whole thing, right? Seth sadly passes away. Amy was brought in to the police station for questioning, where she explained her side of things. Amy told investigators that she had been alone in the house, at least she thought she was. And she was feeling very anxious because about a year earlier, there was a break in at the family home. Now, these burglars, they like stole a bunch of valuables and stuff. Just stuff, right? And it left the family feeling very paranoid. According to Amy, she was home alone. She thought someone was breaking in again, so she went to her parents room, she grabbed the shotgun, and then she loaded it. Amy gets the gun. She goes back to her bedroom where she said she tried to unload it and like remove the shells, but instead the gun had gone off in her bedroom and shattering her bedroom mirror. Amy said after that happened, she heard her mother and brother in the kitchen downstairs. So she brought the gun with her to ask Seth to help her unload it. It was an accident. She told them she did not mean to kill her brother. That was her version. I had some follow up questions. I was like, okay, so maybe if you're like me, you're thinking, huh, hmm, something's not making sense. A shotgun going off upstairs and shattering your mirror. My first thought was, when do you think the family would hear this? Shotguns are loud as hell. I went down a rabbit hole with this specific shotgun. And like it was explaining the, what's it called, decimals or whatever. Where like anyways, this specific shotgun messes up your hearing. You're kind of deaf for a minute or two. So it's like she hurt her family downstairs, wouldn't she? Like whatever. Also, she mentioned to police that she originally like grabbed the gun, right? She loaded it and then when she was in her room, she was unloading it when it went off and shattered her mirror. And I was like, what girl? What? None of this is making sense. But you know what? None of it even matters because the Massachusetts State Police in 1986 determined that the shooting was accidental and no charges were brought against amy. And by 1988, detailed records of the shooting or this whole situation had completely disappeared from police records. Seth, his, his death was a obviously major loss to the family, but also to the community as well. He had like a very bright future ahead and all of it just came to like a very tragic end. End. A very questionable end too, you know. And after his death, the family tried, tried their best to move forward. Like they didn't move. You think you would want to move, but it's okay. They didn't move. The family lived in the same house and they left Seth's room completely untouched. Like it was a constant reminder every single day. I couldn't imagine Amy's father, I guess he seemed to like withdraw after this while her mom was just trying to like keep the family together. Everything's okay, Everything's great. It was said that Amy was sad. Like she was sleeping in her parents bed at the time and like was grieving. But she really didn't grieve that much. Instead she just kind of hyper focused and put all of her energy into school and education and like that. Now questions about the thoroughness of the investigation lingered for years. The community was like, okay. But nothing, nothing ever came of it. Now we will circle back to this because many years later, those police records that mysteriously disappeared, they resurfaced. But for now, Seth's death was considered an accident and the family had to keep moving forward without their beloved son and brother. 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Shop my favorite bras and underwear@skims.com after you place your order, be sure to let them know I sent you. Select podcast in the survey and be sure to select my show in the dropdown menu that follows. That would be super duper. All right, now let's get back to today's story. So despite the family tragedy, Amy, she pressed on with her education. She enrolled at Northeastern University in Boston where her father was a professor and she pursued a degree in biology. Now, Amy was known by like, her professors and stuff as a, like a serious, high achieving student. And she was really known for her intellectual focus. She was smart according to people at this time. So while she's attending Northeastern, Amy, she met a fellow student. His name is James Jim for short. Anderson. They were in the same program and they met while they were undergraduates. I heard they actually met in like a Dungeons and Dungeons and Dragons group, but I don't know if that's true. But they meet and they hit it off, and they start dating. Both Amy and James. They earned their biology degrees from Northeastern in 1988. Then the following year, Amy and James were married. So things are kind of, like, happening fast. They ended up having, like, a simple wedding ceremony at the same church where Amy's brother's funeral had been three years earlier. So they get married, whatever. Amy continued directly into graduate studies, where she was accepted into Harvard University's prestigious genetics doctoral program. So she's going to Harvard. I was like, good for you. Kind of. Not really. While doing this, she and James would go on to have four children together, three girls and one boy. She's really juggling it, juggling it all. Now, Ms. Amy here, she actually earned her PhD in genetics from Harvard in 1993. Her graduate research focused on cellular physiology. What's that? I don't know. But that's what she did. Good for her. Again, by all accounts, you know, Amy was diligent in her studies. One former instructor noted that she had been a high achiever since childhood and remained so, like, through her academic training. But there were murmurs amongst colleagues. Oo murmur. Mm. People were talking. People were saying that Amy's PhD work wasn't very good. One anonymous Harvard source called it, quote, poor quality and that Amy did not deserve her doctoral degree. This same source even told the New Yorker that the fact that Amy graduated was, quote, local scandal number one. I was like, well, I think her murdering her brother was local scandal number one. But okay, regardless, Amy still got her Harvard degree, and then she actually became a professor at Harvard's medical school. So, you know, this is no joke. She's working hard, whatever. I'll give her that. After Amy completed her PhD in 1993, a professor at Harvard Medical School, his name was Paul Rosenberg, he had actually worked with Amy on her dissertation. He, Paul gets the mail one day, he opens up a package. This package is containing two pipe bombs. What? Luckily for him, these homemade looking bombs, they didn't explode, they didn't detonate. So obviously calls the police. It's a whole situation. Investigators, they actually quickly identified Amy and her husband James as persons of interest. Why, you ask? Well, why? Let me tell you. There were rumors going around that Amy didn't like this Paul guy, and she felt that he was actually getting. And he was getting in the way of her receiving her doctorate. Now, you know, when all this came to light, like friends had come forward to investigators saying, that Amy and her husband were quote, unquote, jokingly asking how one might build a pipe bomb. Lol. This happened around the same time as the Unabomber was happening, which I did a murder mystery on, if you're curious. So packages containing like homemade bombs were like in the conversation. So like, it's believed they were like using that as, as their cover. Like, oh my God, Unabomber, right? I wonder how, like, how, how do you make a bomb? That's crazy. So Amy and James, they were questioned by federal agents and of course they denied any involvement and no charges were filed. There was no concrete evidence connecting them to the homemade bombs. And to this day it's a mystery as to who sent that bomb. But people had their strong beliefs that, you know, allegedly it was Amy and James. Now this incident, the whole pipe bomb thing was actually kept quiet. It only came, it only came to light like many years later after Amy's name hit the national news. For reasons we are getting into, we are not there yet, but I'm, you know, we've got signs of crazy lining up. Teaching wasn't Amy's only passion in life. She was really into creative writing. Amy believed that her writing would be like her ticket out of the academic world. She joined like local writers groups where people would share what they're working on, get feedback, etc. People in her, her writers group, they didn't really like her that much. Now they said that like she was first of all intense. And anytime someone describes Amy, they always say intense. And I was like, damn, what is that? What does that mean? But everyone says she's intense. She liked to brag to everyone that she had a literary agent. Unsure if that's true, but she told everyone that. And she would also brag that she was like distantly related to the well known writer John Irving. Oh, and I think she was whatever. It's not like she, whatever. So she was always like bragging about this kind of stuff. And people were like, okay, if someone in the group gave her feedback on her writing or whatever, Amy would take it as like a personal attack and then remind everyone in the room that she had a Harvard degree. And did you know that I'm related to John Irving? How dare you critique me. It was like that people were just like, yeah, we don't like you. I know. I was thinking, I don't know how she found the time to do all this, but she did. She loved writing. And by the end of the 1990s she had written three novels. And even though like none of them were published. She continued pursuing her passion for writing. Her three novels were dark thrillers, and the protagonist in her stories usually had, like, a career in science and were haunted by a death in their past, but in the end would be forgiven by God. There was always this theme. They were all similar in that kind of way. There's literally one story she wrote where the character in the book kills her brother and then God forgives her. Yeah, you could say it was a way for Amy to deal with her own, you know, life, tragedy. But knowing what we know now, or what you're gonna know now, it's like, girl, are these stories like low key confessions? So Amy's weird. Some time goes by, and there's this one Saturday morning in Peabody, Massachusetts. Amy, her four kids, and her husband. One went to IHOP for breakfast. As one does Amy, you know, she asked the waitress for a booster seat for her baby boy. The waitress tells Amy, oh, I'm so sorry. The last booster seat has been taken by, like, this woman with her children. They're all sitting at a booth already. This just set Amy off, okay? That little tick in her brain, it was ticking. So Amy hears this. She's like, what? No booster seat? So apparently Amy yelled at the waitress, telling her that we had been here first. Like, that's not fair. And then Amy, her dumbass, she stomps over to the lady who got the booster seat and started yelling at her, do you know who I am? Do you know who I am? I'm Dr. Amy Bishop. Yelling. It's like, okay, I. I couldn't imagine sitting there. You're like, ma', am, I'm just trying to have some pancakes with my kids. Why are you. I don't care who you are. So because of this, the manager of IHOP is like, you need to leave, please. Okay? And Amy's like, fine, I'll leave. Fine. But before she left, she walked right on over to that lady with the booster seat. And I'm not kidding, she. She punches her in the head, this poor woman, in front of her children. Ugh. The police were called. Amy was arrested and charged with assault, battery, and disorderly conduct. The charges ended up getting dropped. And this incident wouldn't even, like, appear on her record. Bizarre. And, you know, it seemed like everyone kind of had an excuse for her behavior. They would say, like, her husband and even her parents, her mom, they were like, she's under a lot of stress. You know, she's got four young kids. 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Well then in 2003, Amy got a job teaching biological sciences at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Great opportunity. So she, James and their four kids moved down to Alabama where she taught five different courses at the college. Now while here, it seemed like Amy starts really going downhill in Huntsville. Like she had no family or friends like she did back in Massachusetts. She was working all the time. And again, kids, family, her creative writing, like it was a lot and she had no sense of community. So there was one member of the faculty who was actually like really concerned with Amy's behavior. This person went on to say that within the first five minutes of meeting Amy, they knew that something was off with her and that they were actually worried about her mental health. I mean, it was said, but like, you know, nothing can be done about that, on top of this, Amy wasn't even popular with her students. It just seems like she was not the greatest teacher. Amy had dismissed several graduate students from her lab, and many of her other students throughout the years asked to be transferred out of her class. So people don't like Amy as a teacher. She's not great. Then in 2009, it's about six years into Amy's time at UAH University Alabama of Huntsville, something like that. UAH, okay. So she's there for about six years. Several students, they actually end up, like, complaining to administrators about her. The students said that, like, overall, bad teacher, okay, she was super off and she had unsettling ways is what was said. A petition actually went around and was signed by dozens of students asking for her removal. They didn't like this chick. It seemed like students had been complaining about, you know, Amy's teaching methods for, for quite a while. And even though no immediate action was taken by the university, Amy was denied tenure in March of 2009. Now to me, Bailey Sarian. Hi. I didn't understand the world of tenure. And this story alone sent me down this learning lesson about it. Let me explain. Not getting tenure is like, it's a big deal in academia because tenure essentially grants job security and professional standing at a university or a college, getting it can take like six or seven years, sometimes longer to get tenure. There's a certain criteria that you have to meet in order to get it. Usually publishing research, demonstrating effective teaching and other things. After that period, the professor undergoes a 10 year review. If you get tenure, you're much harder to fire. You gain a level of prestige that can impact everything from your salary to research, funding, your future as a whole. Now, if you don't get tenure, like in Amy's case, you typically have to leave that institution, like, oftentimes right away, your career might stall, and usually most struggle to find a similar position elsewhere. It's essentially like spending your years and years or even your whole life proving that, like, you're the real deal, right? Education, publishing stuff, teaching, researching, only to be told, nope, sorry, Bye. So for like many professors, being denied tenure can feel like a huge personal and professional failure, leaving them feeling really uncertain about their future. Because if you try to go a different college and apply for a job, like, they're gonna be like, you were denied tenure. No. Sorry. Bye. After review from the committee, Amy again was denied tenure. They believed she did not meet the criteria. Well, when Amy found this out, it was IHOP all over again. She was paid pissed okay. She completely disagreed with their decision, and she tried every which way she could to fight it and prove that she deserved tenure. You know, she goes to her husband James, and she's like, I even denied tenure. He was completely shocked by the school's decision and stood by his wife's side, believing 100% that the school had really done her wrong. Ultimately, though, the administration denied her appeal, and their decision was final. Because of this, In March of 2009, her last semester teaching at UAH would be spring of 2010. That'd be it. She'd be done. So many of Amy's co workers had expressed concern over her intense behavior. According to them, like, she would interrupt meetings with weird rants. She would make off the wall comments, and she was just not liked. It was hard to find someone saying something positive about her. Yeah. So after her tenure was denied, Amy found out that a co worker had called her crazy. Oh, yeah. So she filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. And in this complaint, she said she was a victim of sex discrimination. And the fact that this other professor had called her crazy was proof. This other professor in question, he didn't back down. He stood by the fact that he believed Amy was indeed off her rocker, saying that she was out of touch with reality and that she was mentally unwell. And yeah, he. He called her crazy. Maybe not the right word, but, like, he wasn't. He did not back down. That's what I'm getting at. Then came February 12, 2010. That day, Amy taught her class as usual. And, you know, a student later on said, like, oh, she was her normal self in class. And then afterwards, she headed to a faculty meeting with the biology department. So 13 staff members all gathered in a conference room. And they all are gonna, like, they all sit down. It's like a big oval, oval desk. You know, they're all taking their place. And it started off like any other work meeting. I guess. They had discussed holding, like, an open house during spring, you know, and then they talked about, like, plans for fall. Amy sat there quietly. She didn't say anything, just listening to the conversations. And honestly, like, she didn't have to go to this meeting. So it was kind of weird because none of it applied to her since she wasn't gonna be teaching there anymore. But they were like, just let her sit in. It's fine. So Amy sits there for almost an hour, and again, she says nothing the entire time. Then she quietly gets up, she reaches into her pocket, and she pulls out a handgun. Then she starts shooting she started with the person closest to her, then she went down the row of seated professors, shooting each one in the head point blank. A survivor later said that it wasn't random. This was no, like, random shooting. Amy was going after people execution style, not saying a peep. People screamed, we're ducking for cover. But Amy was blocking the only exit. She instantly killed three people on her side of the oval conference room table while the others, like, dropped to the floor. This woman named Deborah, she's a biochemistry professor who was in the room. She dove under the table, she, like, crawled towards Amy and like, grabbed onto her legs. And she's looking up at Amy and she's begging for her to stop. She's like, it's sad. It's really sad. And Deborah remembers that Amy points the gun at her and Deborah's like, you know, fuck, right? Amy then pulls the trigger and all they heard was a click, you know, like, oh, fuck. So this moment gave Deborah a chance to fricking run, which she did right for the door. So Deborah takes off into the hallway while Amy starts following her gun pointed right at her and just click, click. The gun was jammed. Amy kept trying to fire, but again, it was jammed. So she's very frustrated. Amy, she stops and she tries to unjam it. So Deborah, she actually took that moment to run back into the conference room where she and another colleague barricaded the door. Joseph Ng, an associate professor who was also in the room, said that Deborah was probably the reason they were all still alive. So on that day, six people had been shot. Three of them were shot fatally. The entire episode had lasted less than a minute. These victims included Gopi Podila, who at the time was the chairman of the university's department of Biological Sciences. The second victim was Maria Davis, who was an associate professor of biology. And the last victim was Adriel D. Johnson Sr, who was also an associate professor of biology. Amy also wounded three other staff members who were taken to the hospital. One got released like the next day. And there were two other victims who got shot who stayed in the hospital for over two months. But both would go on to recover physically, you know, but now they had to live with this horrible, horrible memory. So after getting locked out of the meeting room because they remembered they had barricaded the door, Amy acted calmly. She went to the ladies room where she rinsed off the gun in the sink. Then she stuffed the murder weapon and her blood stained blazer into the bathroom's, like, trash can. She then went into one of the science Labs and asked a student if she could borrow their cell phone, which she does. The first thing she does is she calls her husband James, who would normally pick her up after class. So she calls him up, and all she tells him on the phone is, I'm done. So Amy tried to leave out of, like, a back door, but luckily was quickly arrested by police. Shortly after being arrested, Amy started saying that the shooting didn't happen. She kept saying that there was no way she did it. And when police asked her about her dead colleagues, Amy, Amy said that they were all still alive. It's like, no, ma', am, they're not. You shot them. Remember? It happened three seconds ago. So, you know, Amy gets arrested, and then at some point, police interview her husband, James. They're like, you know, where'd she get the gun? All that stuff. What's up with your wife? You know, whatever. So James tells the police that they actually bought the gun from a family friend years earlier. James also told police that just a week ago, he and Amy went to the gun range together to target practice. Why? Why now? It was like they. They never did this. They never went to shooting ranges. Based off what I read, I could be completely 100 wrong. But, like, it was. It was weird. But her husband, like, you know, he had nothing to say. They had nothing on him. He wasn't allegedly involved in any way. And so weird guy, we'll get to. I'll talk about him at the end. After Amy was arrested, this is when her past came to light, especially the accidental death of her brother, Seth Braintree. Police started looking at Seth's 1986 death a little differently. But the problem was, remember, all the records of Seth shooting had disappeared. So Braintree's 2010 police chief, his name was Chief Paul Fraser. He had his own theory on what happened with the brother situation. He believed that the police chief back in 1986 was in cahoots with Amy's mom to cover up the murder. He even said, like, maybe cover ups the wrong way. Maybe it was more of like, the police chief chief at the time was looking the other way, whatever. But according to the police chief Frazier, Amy's mom was like a big political supporter of the other police chief at the time of the incident. And when Amy first got arrested when she was a kid, it was said that Judy came into the police department and said, I need to speak to the police chief. We're good friends. I need to speak to him. But she called him by his first name, and all the police at the station were like, that's kind of weird. Like, why are you on a first name basis with this guy? But apparently they spoke. Whatever. And the police officer that was questioning Amy was told that it was an accident and to let her go. That's allegedly, like, what happened. According to Amy's mom, Judy. You know, she denied these allegations, saying, like, that was completely ridiculous, that never happened, even though there are people who said it did. But then four days after Amy's attack, police were able to find the missing files related to Seth's death. Yeah, magically they appeared. They actually just went looking for them, seems like. But whatever. After further review, the district attorney was like, yeah, this Amy chick, she should have been charged. Let me tell you why. Because there's more. Okay. Let me tell you. Woo. Let me tell you. So remember how she accidentally, quote, unquote, shot her brother, then she fled the house? Yeah. They kind of, like, breezed past that. I was like, what? Well, turns out there was more to the story. So after shooting her brother Seth, Amy took off, leaving through the home, her house, like, the back door, taking the shotgun with her. She ended up running through, like, some wooded area, and she ended up in an alley that came to, like, a dead end to, like, an auto dealership place. So according to the employees working there, Amy came into the shop holding the gun, pointing it at them, demanding that they give her keys to a car. The men, they took a chance and they ran. We don't know what happened after that, but she ends up outside of the dealership. So a police officer was in the area actually looking for Amy, you know, when he came across her outside. So according to police notes, you know, they tell Amy to drop the weapon. They're demanding, they're calling to her, drop the weapon. Because she's still holding it, and she's kind of like, she's got a firm grip on it. And they said in the notes that she was, like, pointing it towards them. So they keep telling her to drop the weapon. She's not dropping it. And this goes on for, like, a bit of time. Eventually, a police officer, like, sneaks up behind her, points a gun at her and tells her, like, you know, drop the weapon. And then she did. She finally does. She lets go, she puts her hands up, and then she was arrested. So with that information, the new police chief was like, yeah, she definitely should have been charged. Pointing a loaded gun at anybody, anybody, let alone a police officer, is grounds for a felony charge. That alone. So it was like, what the, you know, what was that about? So the Massachusetts governor ordered the state police to review the investigation to set the death. And apparently, in this new inquest, a shocking new detail was found. So the day of Seth's death, the home wasn't treated like a crime scene. So unfortunately, they didn't have any proof or evidence. They had, like, a couple of photos, and that was it. But in one of those photos, there was a picture of Amy's room. So they're looking at this photo, okay. It's an enlarged crime scene photo of Amy's room. And in it showed a news article on the floor of her bedroom. And the news article was like, a crime similar to hers in the photo? Well, yeah. Hold on, hold on. Let me get this eyelash on. The article was about an actor named Patrick Duffy. Ring a bell? No. Me neither. I was like, who's that? Well, he was on the show Dallas. Now, his parents were killed when. With a 12 gauge shotgun. And then the people who did it, they fled. After killing the parents, they fled and they held up a car dealership where they stole a truck and they fled. Investigators believe that that article in the crime scene photo of her bedroom may be proof of, like, inspiration, because they kind of, you know, so they saw that and they were like, that's kind of interesting, huh? On top of that, in the police report, it said that they found a box of 25 rounds on Amy's bed. One was fired in her room. A second round was used to kill Seth. Then there was a third round that was found after Amy's arrest in her jacket pocket. And then police found a fourth round in the chamber, ready to fire. So according to police, at some point after she shooting Seth, Amy must have racked the slide. I think that. Racked the slide? Is that how I say wrong? She must have, like, done that and then loaded a fresh round before being arrested, which I'm sure we can all agree here is odd behavior. If this was all just an accident, right? Well, just three days after the shooting at uah, Amy was charged with one count of capital murder and three counts of attempted murder. So she's sitting in jail. Right. A few months later, In June of 2010, Amy was indicted for the 1986 killing of her brother. Uh. Oh, and this is really when, like, all of the information started to come out, like, about the pipe bomb belief, you know, situation, the IHOP incident, her being shady when she was trying to get tenure. So all this is coming out, and I guess Amy is just having a hard time because two days later, you know, when she finds out she's being indicted for the killing of her brother. Amy attempts to end her life in jail. She wasn't successful, but she tried. You know, Amy told her friends that she didn't want to spend the rest of her life in a tiny box. Oh, God, I freaking roll, right? I was just like, sh. Shut the. Maybe you shouldn't have killed anyone. You dumb. What a stupid comment. I hate stupid comments. Like, like, don't. No, shut up. Okay, thank you. There's more. Just you, Lee. Once Amy was in jail, her court appointed lawyer went, you know, to go visit her. Her lawyer literally said, quote, something is wrong with this lady, end quote. I was like, yeah, I think something is wrong. That is valid and correct. I think. Amy entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. The defense hired a ton of different psychiatrists, you know, to evaluate her, but they could not conclude that she had, like, a certain mental illness. A few months later, In November of 2010, two of the survivors from the university shooting. Excuse me. Filed lawsuits against Amy and James. And then in January of 2011, to the victim's families filled. Filed wrongful death suits against Amy, James and the university. I know I was like, James too, but I couldn't figure out how he was, like, involved. I wanted more information, but, like, her husband is just. Something ain't right there, but whatever, okay. Amy's lawyer urged her to plead guilty in exchange for the prosecution not to seek the death penalty. Technically, Amy wanted the death penalty, and she said that outright, but her lawyer told her, like, look, even if you get the death sentence, it takes forever for them actually to kill you, so don't do that. So In September of 2012, Amy changed her plea to guilty. There was still a short trial, you know, per Alabama law, in which the jury heard like a shortened version of the evidence. So Amy was taken to court in her red jail uniform. She's looking like Lord Farquaad. Okay. She's got that haircut. All right. She's. Yep. She had her feet shackled. She sat between her two defense attorneys. And when the trial began, Amy would just shake her. Her head anytime someone said that her killing spree was intentional. And this, like, upset the district attorney. The district attorney was like, it doesn't make sense for Amy to be shaking her head in denial like that. You can't just take a loaded gun, shoot it at like a person's head, and then say you didn't mean to do it. Makes no sense. During the trial, an investigator testified that police believed Amy opened fire during that faculty Meeting because she was angry over being denied tenure. The ones that were targeted, the ones that she murdered, were the ones who voted against her receiving tenure. After the short hearing, the jury deliberated for 20 minutes before finding Amy guilty. Of course, Amy was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. And though, like, Amy did not speak in court, her lawyer said that she often expressed great remorse for what she did, saying she was, quote, horrified by the UAH incident, end quote. Which pissed me off, because she never referred to it as like a. Like what she did. She kept saying it was a UAH incident. She kept calling an incident, like, bitch, you murdered people. What are you talking. Anyways, she was horrified by the UAH incident. And also, you know, she told people that she had no memory of it. None. It's crazy. In February of 2013, Amy filed an appeal. The thing is, Amy didn't realize that with a guilty plea, she had also waived her right to an appeal. So then, because she's exhausting and she never gives up, in her appeal, she claimed that she had not been told of the rights she'd be waiving with her guilty plea. It went back and forth for quite some time, but the court essentially rejected it. She's still trying to this day, really. And so, with this in mind, Amy decided to try and clear her name for something else. Her brother's jet. She told a public defender that she wanted to be tried for her brother's death because she wanted the truth to come out, and she wanted for her and her family to finally get closure. It looks like it was gonna happen, but the courts decided not to go through with it, saying that she's already serving, like, a life sentence. You know, she's already served, like, they just didn't see the point in doing it. So to this day, she is still serving her sentence at the Julia Tutwiler Prison. Did I say that right? Let me know. I probably didn't. It's a prison for women, and it's in Wetumpka, Alabama. She's there. She's still trying to appeal. I read in one article, it was recent, whatever. And I was like, girl, stop. It's not gonna happen for you, okay? Stop. You murdered people. Stop. Get a new haircut. And that's where she sits. But get this, because, my God, talk about another tragic twist. My brain, kind of low key was like, what? So remember, Amy and her husband, Sketchy James, had four kids, Three girls and a boy. So Amy's youngest son was literally born on her brother's birthday. Remember it was still all an accident at this point. And so you know what? She named her son Seth after her brother. In April of 2021, Amy's in prison. Her son and a few friends were hanging out in a parking lot in a friend's car. So one of the kids had a gun? Yep. One of the kids, they're like 17 or 18 years old, these kids. One of the kids has a gun and was like, look, you know, start showing it off. Well, the gun accidentally went off and Amy's son Seth was killed instantly. I was like, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, right? According to police, like, her son's death had nothing to do with her mom's crimes at all. Point blank, period. But, my God, what are the odds of that, right? Tragic. The kid who accidentally shot the gun, I believe is still awaiting his trial. I couldn't find any updates on that, but yeah, so, yeah, that's the story about Amy Bishop and what a crazy ass bitch she is. I have some ending thoughts because I didn't know how to end this. There was so much more I wanted to say. So her parents have, like, remained quiet. Obviously, that's. That's fair. It's valid. And they only speak highly of Amy even after the shooting going on. To say that Amy is. Should I find the direct quote? Hold on. After the shooting spree, Judy, specifically, her mom said to the media that Amy, Amy is a brilliant, brilliant girl. And she just snapped. And that's literally all they said about their daughter. I love that I busted this out for that one thing. Can you tell by that one comment that maybe, like, you know, they, they, they have a hard time accepting truth. The family, it seems, in my personal opinion, I could be completely wrong, but whatever. Her husband, James, I was trying to figure out what the hell was up with him because I believe personally, in my opinion, he was involved in some way. He truly seemed like her main hype man. Like, if Amy was mad at someone, he was like, yeah, yeah, that guy sucks. Yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, that person who you could be completely wrong, but that hype person is like, yeah, you're right. Yeah, that was her husband. And I think we can all can say, like, it was odd that they went to a shooting range together literally the week before. And it was like, why now? Like, what did he know? He was allegedly not involved in any way, shape, or form or had no idea that his wife was gonna do this. But it was just like, I had so many more questions with the Guy. Amy literally said that, like, her husband's too smart to work, so he didn't. I think that kind of says a lot, too. I don't know what I'm getting at. Exhausting story. Okay, I think we can all agree here that Amy should have been arrested for her brother's death. Luckily, that police chief, the original one, and all that, they're all out of there and have passed on, I believe. I think we can all agree that she should have been arrested for her brother's death, period. Right? Now, listen to this. Now, this was rumors, so I didn't know where to put it. There were rumors going around that the morning of her brother's death, Amy and her father got into a heated spat. There were beliefs that Amy thought it was her father coming home and not her brother. Mother. The newspaper article that was found on her bedroom floor made me think, like, oh, she was gonna kill her parents. Or maybe just her father and maybe not her brother. And literally, those are all just rumors. But I wanted to kind of believe that because the only information you would hear from Amy's mom, Judy, was that, like, oh, oh, Amy's got a temper, like, just like her dad. Amy and her dad would bump heads, but it was nothing. Like, it was nothing. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. But there was definitely some. There was something, ma'. Am. There was something. Amy has never given, like, a clear answer as to why she did anything, any of this, down to the IHOP situation. And she doesn't remember anything. The one thing she has said to the media, she's complained that since being in prison, she feels like her IQ is dropping due to everyone's poor vocabulary. And that is the story of Amy Bishop. So many victims, so many opportunities for her to get arrested and potentially, like, not lead to this situation. But unfortunately, I don't know what the Was going on behind the scenes. I don't know if she was sucking dick. I don't know if people were getting paid off. I don't know. But isn't it weird that she kept getting off? Weird, huh? Probably won't get any answers there. And I think all we can do is hope that the justice system does better next time, right? Well, you guys, thank you so much for hanging out with me today. I'm laughing because I don't know. Thank you. I hope you make very good choices, and I will be seeing you very soon. Goodbye.
