Neurobiologist Amy Bishop, charged with killing three faculty colleagues at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, had a squeaky-clean public record despite several brushes with the law. There's more than one reason her record didn't follow her, writes Patrik Jonsson for the Christian Science Monitor.

After the bloodletting at the university, police ran a background check on Bishop, who they suspect of methodically gunning down six colleagues, killing three. "Nothing came up," said an Alabama police official. Bishop's public record showed her as a squeaky-clean, law-abiding citizen.

Bishop had, in fact, a long record of interaction with police, including lodging dozens of complaints against neighbours and two cases of potentially murderous behaviour. So, how did Bishop - an odd and cantankerous person by some accounts - pursue a career at high levels of academia without ever facing any fallout from a troubling rap sheet?
Full report on the Christian Science Monitor site

Braintree native Amy Bishop was "cogent and clear" but broke down in tears during jailhouse interviews after her arrest for a fatal shooting at an Alabama campus, her attorney said, writes Jessica Fargen for the Boston Herald today. Bishop misses her family, and twice cried during hours-long interviews on Wednesday and Thursday, Bishop's attorney, Roy W Miller, said.
Full report on the Boston Herald site

A survivor of a fatal Alabama university shooting says the professor charged in the attack started firing without warning, writes Greg Bluestein for Associated Press. Associate professor Joseph Ng (ing) says in an e-mail he was one of 12 people sitting around an oval table for a department meeting Friday at the University of Alabama-Huntsville.
Full report on the Associated Press site

She's a scientist at an Alabama university. Her career is on the rocks, and she struggles with depression, worrying constantly about her future. One night she dreams, writes Meghan E Irons for the Boston Globe. A draft of a novel that Amy Bishop gave to a Massachusetts friend last year, described the thoughts of the book's heroine, Olivia. But in light of accusations that Bishop drew a gun last week and shot six of her colleagues at the University of Alabama at Huntsville after they denied her tenure, it seems an echo of longstanding worries and grievances that may have been Bishop's own.
Full report on the Boston Globe site

Amy Bishop and her husband gave top billing to their three teenage daughters in the author credits of a paper they published last May in the International Journal of General Medicine on the impact of antidepressants on motor function, write Laurel J Sweet and Ira Kantor for the Boston Herald.
Full report on the Boston Herald site

On 12 February Huntsville, a city of rocket scientists and brainy inventors, was stunned when a neuroscientist with a Harvard PhD was arrested in the shooting deaths of three of her colleagues after she was denied tenure, write Shaila Dewan and Katie Zezima for The New York Times. But that was only the first surprise in the tale of Amy Bishop, who was regarded as fiercely intelligent and had seemed to have a promising career in biotechnology.
Full report on The New York Times site

Three new charges of attempted murder were added against Bishop, already under arrest for capital murder in the shooting of faculty members, reports The Huntsville Times. Bishop is charged with killing three colleagues during a meeting last Friday, and wounding three more, two of them critically. Bishop was arrested without incident soon after the shooting at 4pm. She was booked into the Madison County metro jail on Friday and charged with a single count of capital murder. Her husband was detained and questioned by police, but was not charged. She is being held without bond.
Full report on The Huntsville Times site

More than 23 years before a college professor was accused of shooting six of her colleagues, her teenage brother died from the blast of a shotgun she held in the kitchen of her family's home in Massachusetts, reports Associated Press. The 1986 shooting was ruled accidental and no charges were filed against Amy Bishop. The case could get a closer look as authorities try to explain why they believe she opened fire on Friday, killing three.
Full report on the Associated Press site

As authorities searched for clues into what could have sent Bishop on an alleged killing spree, friends and family on Sunday described her as an awkward introvert on the brink of losing her teaching job, reports the Boston Herald. Bishop's husband said he wife had been fighting the university for over a year about a tenure denial, and several months ago received a final decision. She was upset, but not overly emotional, approaching her appeal "like a game of chess," he said.
Full report on the Boston Herald site

Meanwhile, a former auto-body worker told the Boston Herald that Amy Bishop put a gun to his chest and demanded a getaway car just minutes after she shot her brother to death 24 years ago in a controversial case that is now being reviewed. Tom Pettigrew, 45, said he working at an auto repair shop in South Braintree, near the former Bishop home, when he saw the gun-wielding woman run into the dealership with what he thought was a BB gun.
Full report on the Boston Herald site

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