Amy Bishop Murder Spree

There is another reason why Patsy might want to plant evidence incriminating John. A TV movie about the Jaclyn Dowaliby case, Gone in the Night, came out in early 1996. David Dowaliby had been found guilty of the 1988 killing of his daughter (stepdaughter, I think), but his conviction was overturned in 1991 when the Illinois Appellate Court reversed his conviction, holding that the evidence against him had been no more probative than that against his wife who had been acquitted.

If Patsy saw this TV movie, it might have occurred to her that they could, with luck, both get off. (And if John went to jail, oh well.)

It seems a little farfetched, but apparently the Ramseys brought in one of the authors of the book Gone in the Night to make a presentation to the district attorney.

 

I don't remember that info, Fr brown, about the author of that book making a presentation to the DA--no surprise at this point in my deteriorating memory bank. Is that in the Ramseys' book?

When I said that the note was done on the fly, I didn't mean I believe it was written in a few minutes without any thought at all. I know about the practice note and missing pages, and I personally believe the final copy was made from a previously written draft because of the repetitive language and crossed out words at the bottom of the first page and top of the second page.

But I don't believe the writer had unlimited time, as in days and weeks, to write it. I believe it was concocted that night after JonBenet's death. I don't believe the writer was thinking for days or weeks about what to say, considering what LE would perceive and discard and how that would finally play out in the long term. When I say it was written on the fly, I meant under extreme duress, with a focused goal, in the limitations of the hours after the death and before 911 was called.

I have also wondered if some phone calls were made to get some advice/help, on a cell phone, the "lost" cell phone vaguely referred to by Patsy in a police interview. Was that meant to imply it was the one attached to the records "volunteered" by the Ramseys a year later, with the blank record for Dec. 1996? You remember: the phone records Alex Hunter refused to get a subpoena for...which have not been subpoenaed to this day.

So this is what strikes me as a parallel to the handling of Amy Bishop's killing of her brother. How, in either of these cases, was the investigation so completely obstructed by those whose duty it was TO UPHOLD THE LAW WITHOUT PREJUDICE?

TWO BOULDER DAs in the Ramsey investigation both worked for 12 YEARS to clear the family, at the expense of the taxpayers and the reputations of every person they've dragged out as suspects who did not kill JonBenet, instead of working to FIND THE TRUTH.

That also seems to be the same mindset of those who should have booked and charged Amy Bishop for any NUMBER of crimes she committed on the day she shot her brother. Instead, Bishop was released, became a Harvard graduate--think about the money and influence it takes to get into Harvard, by the way, continued to harass and even physically assault many people through her life, right up until she shot six and killed three, meaning to murder even more. Now she has a lawyer spinning how she doesn't remember any of it, how she is insane, and how her worry is if she has been fired by the U of Alabama!

[Sidebar: Looking at what we know now about our system of justice, the answer to Bishop's job-related question, reported today by the AP, is equally absurd: the U of Alabama says she's still on the payroll and under contract until the end of the semester, when her lack of tenure will terminate her employment. Inside joke: hubby and I used to kid that you'd have to murder someone to get fired from a government position. Now we joke even that won't do it!]

So when a case like Amy Bishop's comes to us, in which the circumstances of the prior murder of a sibling are so questionable and appear to have been handled very unethically and with bias by LE, we can't help but compare. Maybe the cases have nothing in common but corrupt LE.

Still, the similarities make me shiver.

 

It is rather shocking that all the high-minded, unaccountable, WORLD-CLASS INVESTIGATORS and BOULDER-CLASS DAs never thought to get experts with experience to walk them through the psychology and statistics of cases like these, isn't it?

Oh wait! They did! Maybe they just didn't listen. Might lead to the truth and then they'd have to work even harder to bury it even deeper.

 

Ping pong. It's this case.

 

The info about the GITN author comes from this article posted on topix:

Author draws parallels in case of slain girls where parents were 'wrongly' suspected

By Charlie Brennan
Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer
August 8, 1998

BOULDER -- A story was told Friday of two parents wrongly accused in their daughter's murder, two parents whose cries of innocence weren't heeded until one was wrongly convicted and their lives turned upside down.

David Protess, co-author of Gone in the Night, spoke to the Boulder County branch of the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar about miscarriages of justice, most notably the 1988 Chicago-area murder of Jaclyn Dowaliby. He was there on the invitation of Boulder lawyer Michael Bynum, who represents John Ramsey's company, Access Graphics, and is a Ramsey family friend.

Protess's talk was timely in light of the unsolved JonBenet Ramsey homicide, in which John and Patsy Ramsey are suspects. The audience included prosecutors from Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter's office, as well as two lawyers assisting the Ramseys with their own investigation of the Christmas night slaying....

Turning to the phone records which I took out of your quote just for space reasons, the situation does seem suspicious. I know the Ramseys fought hard to keep from turning them over and it's not obvious why. The records once turned over showed there was no activity for the month of December on one of the cells. Something like that. (I don't remember: did calls resume in January?)

I agree about Amy Bishop and the way people dealt with her. I'm sure we'll find out more about that. I hope they are looking at her in relation to suspicious deaths of those around her.

 

By Cathy Conley
GateHouse News Service

Braintree —This article was printed in the Dec. 17, 1986 Braintree Forum after an interview with the family of Amy Bishop.

Seth Bishop couldn’t think of a thing he wanted for Christmas.

This is probably because he already had everything that was important to him.

He was the core of the family that loved him as much as any family could love a son or brother.

And that’s all that mattered to him.

Just as extras, he was an accomplished musician and a brilliant scholar.

Even though he didn’t know what he wanted for Christmas, holiday shopping together was a family tradition.

So, on Saturday afternoon, Dec. 6, Seth was going Christmas shopping with his mother Judy, his father Sam and his sister Amy.

He was carrying in groceries before his trip to the Plaza, when a horrifying accident occurred in the kitchen of his home on Hollis Avenue.

And in the fraction of a second his life was taken.

How can a family carry on when its core has been shattered?

“We have to. He loved us so much,†his mother Judy said.

When he was a toddler, she called him Dandelion because his wispy gold hair sprouted out of his head like petals on a dandelion. The joy that he brought her, his father and his sister only grew as time went on.

“I remember one day when he was five, he came home sobbing. He had a stain on his new hand-knit blue sweater.

“He had crushed a robin’s egg in his hand by mistake and thought he had killed a baby bird.

“It took an hour to calm him down.

“I said to myself how can I send this gentle little boy out into the world.â€

But the gentle little boy did go out into the world.

He amazed his teachers at the Colbert and Hollis schools, then East Junior High with his penchant for math and music.

In fact, no subject was beyond his grasp.

“He knew physics even when he was seven years old,†Amy Bishop said.

“One of his favorite things was to go exploring.

“He would go to the town hall and get a map, first in Braintree, then when he was older, in Holbrook and Randolph.

“He would map out a route and follow it on his bike. The point was to cover as many streets as possible

“One day when I was about seven and I was with him, I fell down a small cliff and couldn’t get up,†Amy said.

“He knew even then if he spread his body a certain way, he could add strength and pull me up.

“He saved my life that day,†Amy said.

It was in high school Seth Bishop really hit his stride in his studies and in his music.

In his junior and senior years he studied violin with George Tuerck.

“He was like a son to me,†George said.

“He loved music and we had a wonderful rapport. He did his utmost for me. He even enjoyed my humor.

Seth became the Braintree High School concertmaster and a member of the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra under George Tuerck’s tutelage.

Seth graduated from Braintree High in June and began as an electrical engineering student at Northeastern in September.

At the time of his death, he was about to join the university symphony orchestra.

The symphony director offered to find him a special teacher, but Seth said he planned to return to George Tuerck.

“What a compliment,†George said., after learning of his student’s decision.

Honor upon honor was heaped upon Seth at Braintree High School. He won the Arion music award, the national high school math award and first prize in the science fair in chemistry and biology.

“He never told me about anything. I would read about it a few days later in the paper,†Judy said.

One of the sweetest sounds to Seth, second only to the sound of his violin, was the whir of a car engine.

After saving for six years, he bought his first car last year, a fire engine red Camaro.

He practically bent the steel fenders, he shined it so often, his mother remembers.

A friend David Ludwig was very proud of his new Porsche and its stereo system.

“He took Seth for a ride and was blasting the stereo to show it off.

“All Seth wanted was for him to turn the stereo down so he could hear the sound of the engine,†Judy said.

The tall, lean young man, who kept in shape by running and lifting weights, did not limit his love of wheels just to four-wheeled vehicles.

Motorcycles intrigued him.

In fact, a ride on his friend George Phillips’ cycle prompted him to write a short story on the subject which was printed in the high school literary magazine, “Stone Soup.â€

If a certain type of weather brings out a person’s character, then one would choose snow for Seth Bishop. “He loved snow. First he would make sure that each one of us was home safe in the house, then he would shovel the front walk so Sam wouldn’t have to, then he’d go around the neighborhood shoveling,†Judy said.

Francis Cleggett, an elderly neighbor on Dearing Avenue, will never watch the snow fall again without remembering Seth’s kindnesses.

“He was a good boy. He was so helpful. “Anytime, anytime†he repeated, “I needed him he was there, especially if I was stuck in the snow..

“They raised a good son. Dear Lord we will miss him,†he said.

Another neighbor Debbie Kosarick of 42 Hollis Avenue also will almost hear the scraping of Seth’s snow shovel on her driveway in years to come.

“He watched out for me and my baby. He shoveled. He salted the driveway. He even brushed off my car and turned it around. And this was without my asking.

“I never saw a young man with such a strong sense of family..

“He cared about each one so much.

“He was concerned about his father’s safety because of a dragging muffler and spent hours fixing it a few days before his death.

“The last thing he did was to run up to Purity to get some groceries for his mother.

“He loved my baby so much and was so good to her. It’s unbearable to drive into my driveway now without him.,†Debbie Kosarick said.

Braintree High School student Kevin Scales will remember Seth as a concerned tutor who went out of his way to smooth the rough edges of math for him.

School Committee Member Paul Agnew was intrigued by the young man’s dry humor and intense curiosity “about everything in this life.â€

His English teacher Pam Forde thanked Seth’s mother Judy at the funeral “for allowing me to know him for a year.â€

It seems like all of the kindnesses that Seth bestowed on his friends, teachers and neighbors came back to his family during their tragedy.

“You cannot imagine how kind the Braintree police were to us,†Judy Bishop said.

“Officer Bill Finn was the first one here and he was so concerned. They all tried so hard to save him.

“Bill even came back that evening and asked if he could buy us food.,†she added.

“Otis Oakman gave such a beautiful eulogy at All Souls Church. Seth would have shook his hand and said thanks.

“And Russell Peck could not have been kinder to us. He found the exact color of dandelions in the beautiful yellow flowers around the casket.,†she said.

But ultimately, it is Judy, Sam and Amy Bishop who must now live with the loss.

Amy will remember a “calm, giving, funny brother who was always there for me.â€

Sam will remember a “loving son, a helpmate and most of all a best friend.â€

July will remember a brilliant and talented young man “who loved us to distraction.â€

There was one disappointment Seth Bishop had.

He had no writeup in the Braintree High yearbook because he was caring for his mother at home who was injured in a horseback accident when the biographies were submitted.

And he hated his high school picture because he was wearing braces.

The braces came off on Wednesday.

He died on Saturday.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/braintree/news/x640758690/Seth-Bishop-He-loved-us-to-distraction

 

so sad

How could it be an accident with three shots fired? Especially since one shot went into the ceiling and one into the wall and one just happened to hit the boy when he walked through the doorway.

 

Thanks so much for bringing that here, Fr brown. How interesting. And how incredibly sad.

Did his sister shoot him out of sibling rivalry? Jealousy of a younger sibling getting all the attention, outpacing the older sister?

I have read/heard conflicting stories about what happened before the shooting. One early story was that the father had an argument with Amy before he left the house and then the shooting happened shortly thereafter. A later story was that the victim/brother and Amy had an argument before the shooting.

Obviously the family had money and clout. The police couldn't have been kinder to them? Nothing wrong with that. As long as your kindness doesn't get into the way of your investigation. It appears in this case it did.

About the blank cell phone record of the Ramseys, you can read Patsy's (obvious rambling lies, to me, anyway) about losing a cell phone before that Christmas, in her '98 interview with Haney when asked about their phones. Thomas wrote in his book that Hunter blocked the detectives investigating the case from getting a subpoena for the Ramseys' home, work, and cell phone records, saying Hunter told them he wanted to develop a camaraderie with the Ramseys by allowing them to offer them.

The Ramseys "offered" them a year later, with limitations: LE only got to see the one month of December for the questionable cell phone, which Thomas picked up at the cell phone office and which was entirely blank, though the employee who gave Thomas the record said that there were calls on the phone in the months prior to that December '96, but Thomas had no permission to see them. No access to records after that month, either. So the upshot was that in spite of whining about looking high and low for that intruder, NOBODY IN LE ever got to see those records intact to investigate whether the "intruder" might have FOUND that "lost cell phone," nor to see if there might have been some other link to the murderer through the phones. Amazing, isn't it?

The Boulder detectives also got to see a phone bill the Ramseys turned in for that '96 month. Big whoop. To this day, the Ramseys' phone records have never been obtained by subpoena. (Not that it would matter by now.) Even in Boulder, getting warrants and legal subpoenas for evidence like searching the house, clothing worn by the Ramseys, phone records, credit card records, etc., was investigation 101 for a serious crime. They did get the warrants to search the house, which we can see in part, at least. As for the rest of that list, the Ramseys were allowed to turn in whatever they chose, whenever they chose. They chose to wait until they had the same crime lab reports that the BPD investigators had, which Hunter handed over to them as quickly as he got them himself. Some evidence either never appeared, like ALL the phone records prior to that month and after it, or came a year later, like the clothing the Ramseys wore--if they could find it or find something like it.

Oh well...you KNOW better than to get me started.... :banghead:

 

Not to mention, she ran to a business nearby and held THE SAME SHOTGUN on the owner, demanding his car, saying her husband was chasing her and she had to get away. Then she ended up being apprehended by LE, STILL with the shotgun, found crouched behind a car with the shotgun loaded and an extra cartridge in her pocket. I thought I heard she pointed the shotgun at the cops, but with the storeowner talking about how she did that to him, I'm not sure if that was mixed up.

I do NOT get it. Never will. Six people shot by this woman who had continually abused people, obviously, her entire life. Three MORE dead. Does anyone here really believe that we'd have been treated the same under the circumstances, if we'd just shot our brother and subsequently committed all these OTHER crimes, to boot? SIX FAMILIES HAVE PAID THE PRICE FOR THIS PRIVILEGED COVER UP.

What I want to know is who IS this family and how do THEY feel now, knowing they helped breed and free such a monster?

 

Thanks for posting this, fr brown. I haven't seen this before. It's amazing that this happened. If this author influenced Hunter and his office's lawyers, it's truly just another sad element of how the Ramseys' powerful spin team managed to obstruct this investigation so thoroughly.

 

I wonder how Bynum found out about the Dowaliby case. Did Patsy tell him about it perhaps?

The movie Gone in the Night was shown in two parts on CBS, 2-25-96 and 2-27-96. I remember seeing the movie, but I think it was years later. At the time I saw it I was vaguely aware that Shannen Doherty was the Lindsay Lohan of her day.

 

Frankly, I'm amazed that any of the clothing the Ramseys wore on Christmas got turned over, however belatedly, because it incriminated them. There must be a story there. Thomas doesn't tell it.

I've read that Patsy had beaver fur boots and I've looked on the net for present-day versions of such. They're either mukluks which I don't think Patsy would wear or naughty monkey high-heeled boots which she might. But could the source of beaver fur possibly be one of her mink coats? Beaver and mink is apparently a common combination.

My question is: Why did Amy Bishop murder her brother that day? It appears to have been an impulsive act rather than a well-planned one.

 

Here is a good article in The New York Times yesterday about this case and the family's history:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/us/21bishop.html?pagewanted=1

I read in a blog that the former DA who handled the shooting of Seth Bishop was the one who called the booking and investigation off--but I don't know if that's true as the blog seemed to be one of those wingnut sites.

It does appear that Amy Bishop's lack of charges of any kind in 1986 was a cover up from the word go, as she was 21 at the time and at the very LEAST committed numerous other crimes at the time when she left the scene. Also, this part of the NYT's report stuck out to me [regarding the shooting of her brother in 1986]:

Oh, yeah, and whoever DID "the investigation" of this crime at the time waited ELEVEN DAYS to talk to Amy and her parents, because they were all so distraught and all. The parents said it was an accident...oh, well! Then it was an accident! Case closed!

I want to see reporting on this that involves who ordered her to be released and the police to stop their investigation. The DA at the time is said in another article I read to have done the investigation in his office--anyone feeling dejavu all over again? There is something very wrong with all of this, and I hope we hear at least half of the truth now that this product of corruption has come back to haunt all those who covered up for her.

But I won't count on it. We've seen this dance too many times: they'll all cover for each other because they ALL are responsible.

 

I don't remember that we actually have been told if Patsy's fur coat/boots were ever tested against the evidence, fr brown.

What I do know is you can see a man's black jacket hanging on the back of a chair in the kitchen at the countertop in photos of the crime scene, and Patsy said in one interview (Haney, 1998?) that it was John's jacket and had a FUR LINING. Did anyone ever bother to test that? I doubt it. Seriously.

 

They never got any beaver fur boots from Patsy. The police thought she had some.

Here's something about John's fur coat from Patsy's '98 interview. Later on in the interview she identifies it hanging over a chair and says that it has an odd name. I assume she's talking about the jacket brand rather than the fur:

12 THOMAS HANEY: How about a fur
13 coat, did you have fur coats?

14 PATSY RAMSEY: Yes, I had fur
15 coats.

16 THOMAS HANEY: Was it at the house
17 or in storage or --

18 PATSY RAMSEY: It was at the house,
19 black mink.

20 THOMAS HANEY: Mink, okay.
21 How about boots, gloves, jackets,
22 other things that would have had fur on it?

23 PATSY RAMSEY: There is a leather
24 jacket that has a fur lining, men's leather
25 jacket. It was John's. It was reversible.

0305

1 THOMAS HANEY: Do you know what
2 type of fur that would have been?

3 PATSY RAMSEY: Well, it was like
4 real low cut, black shiny pile.

5 THOMAS HANEY: Was it real fur?

6 PATSY RAMSEY: Yeah.

 

IMHO, I think Patsy said she lost her cell phone that month AFTER the R defense team (which included DA Hunter) decided to block police access to the phone records and after they were able to have the phone records erased. She didn't lose her phone. That is simply a lie meant to cover up the erased records.

As far as the animal hairs found in JB's hands....if her father had a jacket lined with fur that happened to match, there is nothing unusual in that- I might expect to find hairs or clothing fibers belonging to a parent in a child's hands if they held that parent's hands. There is nothing about that which is incriminating. It is the LIE about it which is incriminating. If Patsy's boots or JR's jacket lining had matched- so what? Patsy pulled on her boots with her hands, JR put on his jacket with his hands. Either or both parent(s) likely held JB's hand that day. Completely normal transference. So why weren't the itmes tested against the hairs in JB's palm? Why say you lost the boots? Why NOT turn over those items for testeing? Why not DEMAND they test anything they can? Well--if you are GUILTY, then you want to distance yourself from anything you can about that night. The pineapple, the fur boots and jacket. Normal things, nothing about them implies presence at the death or staging.
It is the LIE that implies guilt.
BUT....hairs or fibers belonging to the parents do NOT belong in the garrote knot, inside of the tape, or inside her panties. THOSE fibers imply presence at the death, staging or both.

 

If you haven't already read it, you might be interested in reading Wendy Murphy's article on The Daily Beast.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-02-16/did-she-murder-before/

 

I'm joining this discussion a little late but here's my two cents. I have several theories which I list in order of probability. My first theory is that Burke started the assault and the parents finished with a coverup. I've always had a hard time believing that one parent would cover for another unless, of course, the perpetrating parent had something really bad on the other. I, also, cannot see how the innocent parent could ever trust their other child to the guilty parent.

I believe the ransom note had three purposes. The first purpose was to make Burke believe that he was not responsible for what happened to JBR. Whatever he knew he had done that night, Burke knew he didn't write a ransom note and kidnap his sister. When he left the house that morning, all he knew was that his sister had been taken by a kidnapper. I don't believe any child is going to offer to any one that he had hit his sister.

The second purpose, of the ransom note, was to make sure that police found JBR's body and not the parents. Why do I think this? If I have a child missing, and there is a ransom note, I search my whole house before I do anything to make sure this is not a joke...especially with such a strange ransom note. The Ramseys did not make this search. Secondly, the body was placed in the wine cellar. If police inquired as to why the Ramseys didn't search the house, they could always say: "We knew there wasn't a way out of that room."

The third purpose, of the ransom note, was to send police after obvious suspects early in the investigation while the Ramseys could "grieve" and lawyer up. The ransom note was written to make it look like someone had it out for John...an acquaintance, a business associate, a housekeeper, etc....plenty of suspects to keep police busy. It was written as if someone with knowledge of the family had done so.

And keeping with this theme, John immediately, upon finding the body, says:
"This is an inside job."

I don't think it would have been hard at all to convince a 10 year old that his sister was killed by a horrible intruder.....a child would grasp at any opportunity to distance himself from the death.

I believe LE exonerated Burke because they knew Burke didn't write the ransom note, etc. Ultimately, the person (s) who wrote the ransom note were guilty.

 

Excellent posts here!

For sure, there's nothing better than reading excellent posts when one can't sleep. These posts are
really making me think harder. Thank you, one and all!