Dark History

The professor who killed three of her colleagues during a department meeting also shot and killed her 18-year-old brother 24 years ago in Massachusetts. “But a local police chief and the district attorney’s office gave differing accounts today of the 1986 shooting, which occurred at the siblings’ home in Braintree, raising questions about the handling of that case. According to the current Braintree police chief, Paul H. Frazier, Amy Bishop fatally shot her 18-year-old brother, Seth, on Dec. 6, 1986, but was set free the same day by Braintree Police under orders from then-Police Chief John Polio. In news accounts at the time, Polio called the death an accident that happened when Bishop was learning how to unload a shotgun. Frazier challenged that account today, saying instead that Bishop shot her brother during an argument and fled on foot with the 12-gauge shotgun before being captured by police, who handcuffed her and took her to the station. The case file, including the report of the incident, disappeared shortly thereafter, he said. ‘I don’t want to use the word ‘coverup,’’ Frazier said. ‘I don’t know what the thought process was of the police chief at the time.’ But the Norfolk County district attorney’s office this evening released a six-page report from its archives that showed State Police investigators reviewed the case with Braintree Police and concluded that Seth Bishop’s death was an accident.”