A Killer In the Family by Peter Ross Range Published by Amazon on June 29, 2015
Genres/Lists: Kindle Single, Non-Fiction, True Crime
Pages: 49
Read synopsis on Goodreads
Buy the book: Amazon/Audible (this post includes affiliate links)
Potential spoiler alert: This Kindle Single is based on a highly publicized true story and the facts are discussed within.
Afoot and lighthearted, I take to the open road…..No husband, no wife, no friend, trusted to hear the confession, – Song of the Open Road by Walt Whitman
On March 1, 1976, William Bradford Bishop Jr., a family man with common troubles, horrified the nation by brutally murdering his wife, mother, and three young sons and disappearing – or so the story goes. Reality, it turns out, is a lot murkier because we don’t know for sure exactly what happened. To complicate matters, Bishop has been “missing” for 40 years and we have no idea if he’s dead or alive. In fact, with each renewed investigation, officials are left with more questions than answers and with every step forward they take two steps back. What’s left are a myriad of questions and very few answers. Did he murder them? Was he a victim, too? Did he run away? Did he kill himself? Did the CIA play a role? We may never know the answers to these questions but in A Killer In the Family, Peter Ross Range does a fantastic job of sorting it all out in under 50 pages.
Range dives into the sketchy details of Bishop’s life, from his glamorous career as a diplomat living abroad to his stagnant career stateside that left him unhappy and financially unstable. He chronicles each of the three times the case has been vigorously pursued – in the years following the murder, in the early 1990’s when he was added to the America’s Most Wanted list, and recently as social media has grown in popularity. During this time, bodies were exhumed, gang connections were made, and speculation about a hired hit gone wrong were pursued. But with each success came a dead end and Range gives a great, succinct overview of the major players and new information learned during each phase. He also drops mini-bombshells throughout that will turn even the most skeptical reader into a mini conspiracy theorist.
The most fascinating part of the book, for me, was the link between Bishop’s State Department service and his purported connections to the CIA. I won’t go into all of the details about what these inconsistencies are, but I will say that while the CIA is known for keeping things under wraps, Range has my imagination going in a hundred directions. Of course, despite all of the facts of the case, much of it is still speculation. Investigators are pretty confident that they know what happened but until Bishop is found, there’s no way to know for sure. For all we know, he could be your next door neighbor.
A Killer in the Family is a great #KindleSingle that can be read in under an hour. Click To TweetRecommended for: Fans of true crime and conspiracy theorists. If you don’t fall into either category but are fascinated by the longest-running fugitive on the America’s Most Wanted list, pick this one up, anyway. Plus, it’s free on Kindle Unlimited!
