Unravel the chilling story of Amy Bishop in this gripping true crime podcast episode. Dive into the shocking events of 2010, when a routine faculty meeting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville turned into a tragic mass shooting. Explore the dark history of this former biology professor, including the mysterious death of her brother in 1986 and her alleged involvement in other criminal activities. This episode uncovers the warning signs that went unnoticed and delves into the psychological and societal factors behind her actions. Perfect for true crime enthusiasts, this episode sheds light on a case that continues to haunt the academic world.
Follow us on Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bloodstainedbackstories/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bloodstainedbackstories/
Twitter/X: https://x.com/BloodstaindB
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bloodstainedbackstories
Discord: https://discord.gg/ByrDwT4pQE
References:
https://murderpedia.org/female.B/b/bishop-amy.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_University_of_Alabama_in_Huntsville_shooting
https://www.waff.com/2020/02/11/whats-changed-years-after-deadly-uah-shootings/
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/02/11/a-loaded-gun
#truecrimepodcast #murdermystery #truecrime #massacre
Follow us on Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bloodstainedbackstories/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bloodstainedbackstories/
Twitter/X: https://x.com/BloodstaindB
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bloodstainedbackstories
Discord: https://discord.gg/ByrDwT4pQE
References:
https://murderpedia.org/female.B/b/bishop-amy.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_University_of_Alabama_in_Huntsville_shooting
https://www.waff.com/2020/02/11/whats-changed-years-after-deadly-uah-shootings/
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/02/11/a-loaded-gun
#truecrimepodcast #murdermystery #truecrime #massacre
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome back to another episode of Bloodstained back Stories. I
am your host, Jace. In a world of academia, brilliance
often shines brightly, but sometimes it casts a shadow. Amy
Bishop was a Harvard educated biology professor with a promising career,
but behind the accolades and achievements lay a dark and
(00:21):
chilling story. Join us as we unravel the twisted tale
of Amy Bishop, which is a story of ambition, tragedy,
and the haunting question what drives someone to cross the
line from genius to killer. Our story begins on December ninth,
nineteen eighty six, where Amy was involved in a mysterious
(00:43):
shooting death of her brother in Brainshee, Massachusetts. She shot
her brother with a twelve gauge pump action shotgun, and
both Amy and her mother claimed it was an accident
and the brain Tree plice did rule it as such. Now,
at this time, Amy's mother was a political supporter of
the police chief. Go figure, if you know people in
(01:08):
high places like this, you could get away with murder.
And the files relating to the shooting disappeared by nineteen
eighty eight. Mysteriously kind of suspicious, but also at this time,
note that computer systems and databases were not as sophisticated
as they are today. A lot of records were kept
(01:28):
in file cabinets or boxes and warehouses or basements and
things like that, and so sometimes, unfortunately, records at this
time period did go missing more frequently than people would
like to admit. In nineteen ninety three, Amy and her
husband were suspected of sending two letter bombs which failed
to explode, to Paul Rosen, a Harvard Medical School professor.
(01:53):
Paul was Amy's supervisor at the Children's Hospital neurobiology lab
and had given Amy a negative of valueation. Amy was
said to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown,
and her husband reportedly said that she wanted to shoot
and strangle Paul. An investigation into the bomb was eventually
(02:13):
closed with no charges being filed. Thankfully, the bombs did
not explode and nobody was injured. On March sixteenth, two
thousand and two, Amy was involved in a fight with
the customer at an IHOT restaurant in Peabody, Massachusetts. The
customer had taken the last booster seat, and Amy confronted her.
(02:34):
When the woman refused to give up the booster seat,
Amy punched her in the head and yelled, I am
doctor Amy. Bishop. Amy did plead guilty to assault and
receive probation and anger management classes were recommended, but she
never went. Unfortunately, that is the downside to our justice
system when things like this are recommended and are not
(02:56):
required as part of the terms, is people can not
do them, and then nothing actually comes from it. People
don't grow from it, people don't learn and change, and
so Amy gets away with essentially nothing, just probation. Now.
Amy then moved on to University of Alabama as a professor,
(03:20):
and in two thousand and nine, several of her students
complained to administrators about her on at least three separate occasions,
saying she was ineffective in the classroom and had odd,
unsettling ways. There was even a petition that was signed
by dozens of students and sent to the department head,
but no changes became of this. In March of two
(03:42):
thousand and nine, Amy was denied tenure at the University
of Alabama. She filed for an appeal with the university's
administration and they determined the process was carried out according
to university policy and her appeal was denied. Then we
begin to go into Amy's last semester of teaching at
(04:04):
the university, and February twelve, twenty ten, was a day
like no other at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
During a biology department meeting in Room three sixty nine
on the third floor of the Shelby Science Center for Technology,
Amy stood up during the meeting and began to shoot
people close to her. Three people were killed and three
(04:27):
people were wounded during the shooting. After the shooting at
members in the room in a deliberate way, she turned
the gun towards herself, and the gun either jammed or
was out of bullets. According to witnesses, there were twelve
to thirteen people at the meeting, and her behavior was
described as normal prior to this shooting. The shooting started
(04:49):
about thirty to forty minutes into the meeting, and she
got up and started shooting across the room at people
who she knew. Deborah Minority, the dean of the Universe
Versus's graduate program and a professor of Biochemisty, said this
wasn't random. She was shooting as an execution style. After
the gun had jammed, Deborah and several other faculty tried
(05:12):
to stop Amy by pushing out of the room and
blocking the door. Amy then went downstairs to rinse off
the gun in her hands. She put the gun and
her bloodstained clothes in the trash. Next, she went to
one of the labs and asked a student to borrow
their cell phone. Using that student's cell phone, Amy called
her husband, Jim and said I'm done. Amy was then
(05:34):
arrested outside the building at the loading dock and was
saying things like it didn't happen and there's no way.
When she was questioned about the death, she continued to
state things like there's no way they're still alive. So
Amy continued to be very delusional at this point. The
(05:55):
victims of the shooting were Gopi Padilla, the chairman of
the biology department, Maria Davis, a biology professor, Adriel Johnson,
senior biology professor. The other people who were injured were
Lewis Roguelo cruz Vera, a bology professor, Joseph Lehi, obology professor,
and Stephanie Montecolo, who was a staff assistant. After Amy
(06:19):
was arrested, several in the biology department expressed concerns to
police that she had booby trapped the science building with
a herpes bomb intended to spread the virus while she
was completing her postdoctoral studies. Amy had worked with the
herpie virus and wrote in her novel that the spread
of a virus similar to herpes throughout their world was
valuing pregnant women to miscarry. Police did search the building
(06:43):
thoroughly to see if there was such a booby trap
or bomb, and nothing was found in the building. Amy
was charged with one count of capital murder and three
counts of attempted murder on February sixth teen, twenty ten.
The files that were missing from her brother's shooting were
(07:05):
located by then Norfolk County District Attorney Bill Keating, and
he was later elected to the House of Representatives, and
he stated that there would have been enough to charge
Amy with assault with the dead with a dangerous weapon,
carrying a dangerous weapon, and unlawful possession of ammunition, but
(07:25):
the statute of limitations on those charges had expired. Wonder
where those files mysteriously were and turned back up to.
It's kind of interesting how when someone's getting ready to
be elected those things might turn back up after these
statute of limitations had passed conveniently. On September eleventh, twenty twelve,
(07:49):
Amy pleaded guilty to the charges and waived her right
to an appeal so that way she would avoid the
death penalty. On September twenty fourth, a jury heard a
condensed version of all of the evidence, which is required
by Alabama state law, and she was sentenced to life
in prison without the possibility of parole on September twenty fourth,
(08:09):
twenty twelve. On February eleventh, twenty thirteen, Amy filed an appeal.
The appeal stated she was not informed of her rights
by waiving and pleading guilty, and she was not correctly
informed of the minimum range of punishment, and the circuit
court failed to explain that she could withdraw her plea. Now,
I find that hard to believe that someone with such
(08:31):
intelligence such as Amy didn't know these things and wasn't
actually explained them at all. And on April twenty six,
twenty thirteen, the Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama rejected
the appeal, stating that Amy failed to challenge the validity
of her guilty pleas in a circuit court and did
(08:52):
not file emotion to withdraw her please or emotion for
a new trial. After the tragic events of the shooting,
many changes and improvements to the university. The university now
offers an employee Assistance program for their employees to use.
They complete background checks on faculty, which they did not
do at the time that Amy was hired, although completing
(09:14):
a background check wouldn't have actually revealed anything since the
only thing that happened was Amy had probation for the
IHOP incident. The incident with her brother would not have
even shown up at all, nor would have anything related
to the letter bombs because she wasn't actually found guilty
(09:35):
of anything and no charges were ever filed. So I
don't know that a background check would have really changed
anything here, but it's good to know that moving forward,
the university did do those things. The university also formed
a Behavior Evaluation and Threat Assessment or BETA team to
help respond to faculty, staff, and students who are having
(09:56):
difficulties and or are demonstrating construs behaviors, So another good
piece of information to have, but I again don't know
that had that actually been in place, anything would have
happened either, as Amy, who was known to act this way,
wouldn't have really been reported, probably for having concerning behaviors
(10:19):
if this is the way she behaved. So again, had
something like this been in place, it likely wouldn't have
mattered or changed anything here or even prevented this tragic
event from happening. But it is good that they have
this in place now and are able to utilize it.
The conference room where the meeting took place has now
(10:41):
been converted to offices and a new conference room has
been built which is now all glass so that people
are able to see in and out of the room. Again,
a nice feature that probably wouldn't have changed anything anyways.
It's nice that you're able to see in and out
and you can see what's going on in the meetings,
but that wouldn't have prevented anything from happening here. Let
(11:02):
us know what you think about this case of Amy
Bishop and the events that transpired where she was able
to get away on several different charges through her years,
and only until the fatal one that ended up where
someone actually was murdered. She was then convicted. We would
love to hear what your thoughts are in the comments below.
(11:24):
Thank you for joining us on another episode of Bloodstained backstories.
Be sure to check us out on all the different
social media platforms. You can find the links to them
in our description below.
Welcome back to another episode of Bloodstained back Stories. I
am your host, Jace. In a world of academia, brilliance
often shines brightly, but sometimes it casts a shadow. Amy
Bishop was a Harvard educated biology professor with a promising career,
but behind the accolades and achievements lay a dark and
(00:21):
chilling story. Join us as we unravel the twisted tale
of Amy Bishop, which is a story of ambition, tragedy,
and the haunting question what drives someone to cross the
line from genius to killer. Our story begins on December ninth,
nineteen eighty six, where Amy was involved in a mysterious
(00:43):
shooting death of her brother in Brainshee, Massachusetts. She shot
her brother with a twelve gauge pump action shotgun, and
both Amy and her mother claimed it was an accident
and the brain Tree plice did rule it as such. Now,
at this time, Amy's mother was a political supporter of
the police chief. Go figure, if you know people in
(01:08):
high places like this, you could get away with murder.
And the files relating to the shooting disappeared by nineteen
eighty eight. Mysteriously kind of suspicious, but also at this time,
note that computer systems and databases were not as sophisticated
as they are today. A lot of records were kept
(01:28):
in file cabinets or boxes and warehouses or basements and
things like that, and so sometimes, unfortunately, records at this
time period did go missing more frequently than people would
like to admit. In nineteen ninety three, Amy and her
husband were suspected of sending two letter bombs which failed
to explode, to Paul Rosen, a Harvard Medical School professor.
(01:53):
Paul was Amy's supervisor at the Children's Hospital neurobiology lab
and had given Amy a negative of valueation. Amy was
said to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown,
and her husband reportedly said that she wanted to shoot
and strangle Paul. An investigation into the bomb was eventually
(02:13):
closed with no charges being filed. Thankfully, the bombs did
not explode and nobody was injured. On March sixteenth, two
thousand and two, Amy was involved in a fight with
the customer at an IHOT restaurant in Peabody, Massachusetts. The
customer had taken the last booster seat, and Amy confronted her.
(02:34):
When the woman refused to give up the booster seat,
Amy punched her in the head and yelled, I am
doctor Amy. Bishop. Amy did plead guilty to assault and
receive probation and anger management classes were recommended, but she
never went. Unfortunately, that is the downside to our justice
system when things like this are recommended and are not
(02:56):
required as part of the terms, is people can not
do them, and then nothing actually comes from it. People
don't grow from it, people don't learn and change, and
so Amy gets away with essentially nothing, just probation. Now.
Amy then moved on to University of Alabama as a professor,
(03:20):
and in two thousand and nine, several of her students
complained to administrators about her on at least three separate occasions,
saying she was ineffective in the classroom and had odd,
unsettling ways. There was even a petition that was signed
by dozens of students and sent to the department head,
but no changes became of this. In March of two
(03:42):
thousand and nine, Amy was denied tenure at the University
of Alabama. She filed for an appeal with the university's
administration and they determined the process was carried out according
to university policy and her appeal was denied. Then we
begin to go into Amy's last semester of teaching at
(04:04):
the university, and February twelve, twenty ten, was a day
like no other at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
During a biology department meeting in Room three sixty nine
on the third floor of the Shelby Science Center for Technology,
Amy stood up during the meeting and began to shoot
people close to her. Three people were killed and three
(04:27):
people were wounded during the shooting. After the shooting at
members in the room in a deliberate way, she turned
the gun towards herself, and the gun either jammed or
was out of bullets. According to witnesses, there were twelve
to thirteen people at the meeting, and her behavior was
described as normal prior to this shooting. The shooting started
(04:49):
about thirty to forty minutes into the meeting, and she
got up and started shooting across the room at people
who she knew. Deborah Minority, the dean of the Universe
Versus's graduate program and a professor of Biochemisty, said this
wasn't random. She was shooting as an execution style. After
the gun had jammed, Deborah and several other faculty tried
(05:12):
to stop Amy by pushing out of the room and
blocking the door. Amy then went downstairs to rinse off
the gun in her hands. She put the gun and
her bloodstained clothes in the trash. Next, she went to
one of the labs and asked a student to borrow
their cell phone. Using that student's cell phone, Amy called
her husband, Jim and said I'm done. Amy was then
(05:34):
arrested outside the building at the loading dock and was
saying things like it didn't happen and there's no way.
When she was questioned about the death, she continued to
state things like there's no way they're still alive. So
Amy continued to be very delusional at this point. The
(05:55):
victims of the shooting were Gopi Padilla, the chairman of
the biology department, Maria Davis, a biology professor, Adriel Johnson,
senior biology professor. The other people who were injured were
Lewis Roguelo cruz Vera, a bology professor, Joseph Lehi, obology professor,
and Stephanie Montecolo, who was a staff assistant. After Amy
(06:19):
was arrested, several in the biology department expressed concerns to
police that she had booby trapped the science building with
a herpes bomb intended to spread the virus while she
was completing her postdoctoral studies. Amy had worked with the
herpie virus and wrote in her novel that the spread
of a virus similar to herpes throughout their world was
valuing pregnant women to miscarry. Police did search the building
(06:43):
thoroughly to see if there was such a booby trap
or bomb, and nothing was found in the building. Amy
was charged with one count of capital murder and three
counts of attempted murder on February sixth teen, twenty ten.
The files that were missing from her brother's shooting were
(07:05):
located by then Norfolk County District Attorney Bill Keating, and
he was later elected to the House of Representatives, and
he stated that there would have been enough to charge
Amy with assault with the dead with a dangerous weapon,
carrying a dangerous weapon, and unlawful possession of ammunition, but
(07:25):
the statute of limitations on those charges had expired. Wonder
where those files mysteriously were and turned back up to.
It's kind of interesting how when someone's getting ready to
be elected those things might turn back up after these
statute of limitations had passed conveniently. On September eleventh, twenty twelve,
(07:49):
Amy pleaded guilty to the charges and waived her right
to an appeal so that way she would avoid the
death penalty. On September twenty fourth, a jury heard a
condensed version of all of the evidence, which is required
by Alabama state law, and she was sentenced to life
in prison without the possibility of parole on September twenty fourth,
(08:09):
twenty twelve. On February eleventh, twenty thirteen, Amy filed an appeal.
The appeal stated she was not informed of her rights
by waiving and pleading guilty, and she was not correctly
informed of the minimum range of punishment, and the circuit
court failed to explain that she could withdraw her plea. Now,
I find that hard to believe that someone with such
(08:31):
intelligence such as Amy didn't know these things and wasn't
actually explained them at all. And on April twenty six,
twenty thirteen, the Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama rejected
the appeal, stating that Amy failed to challenge the validity
of her guilty pleas in a circuit court and did
(08:52):
not file emotion to withdraw her please or emotion for
a new trial. After the tragic events of the shooting,
many changes and improvements to the university. The university now
offers an employee Assistance program for their employees to use.
They complete background checks on faculty, which they did not
do at the time that Amy was hired, although completing
(09:14):
a background check wouldn't have actually revealed anything since the
only thing that happened was Amy had probation for the
IHOP incident. The incident with her brother would not have
even shown up at all, nor would have anything related
to the letter bombs because she wasn't actually found guilty
(09:35):
of anything and no charges were ever filed. So I
don't know that a background check would have really changed
anything here, but it's good to know that moving forward,
the university did do those things. The university also formed
a Behavior Evaluation and Threat Assessment or BETA team to
help respond to faculty, staff, and students who are having
(09:56):
difficulties and or are demonstrating construs behaviors, So another good
piece of information to have, but I again don't know
that had that actually been in place, anything would have
happened either, as Amy, who was known to act this way,
wouldn't have really been reported, probably for having concerning behaviors
(10:19):
if this is the way she behaved. So again, had
something like this been in place, it likely wouldn't have
mattered or changed anything here or even prevented this tragic
event from happening. But it is good that they have
this in place now and are able to utilize it.
The conference room where the meeting took place has now
(10:41):
been converted to offices and a new conference room has
been built which is now all glass so that people
are able to see in and out of the room. Again,
a nice feature that probably wouldn't have changed anything anyways.
It's nice that you're able to see in and out
and you can see what's going on in the meetings,
but that wouldn't have prevented anything from happening here. Let
(11:02):
us know what you think about this case of Amy
Bishop and the events that transpired where she was able
to get away on several different charges through her years,
and only until the fatal one that ended up where
someone actually was murdered. She was then convicted. We would
love to hear what your thoughts are in the comments below.
(11:24):
Thank you for joining us on another episode of Bloodstained backstories.
Be sure to check us out on all the different
social media platforms. You can find the links to them
in our description below.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.