Publisher for a Day

What are the odds that the investigators reviewing Amy Bish­op’s non-murder of her brother in 1986 and the telephone call that magically let her go pin the call on some dead guy?

This being Massachusetts, that would surely be the most comfort­ing finding that the Norfolk County District Attorney’s investigation into the Braintree Police Department’s odd investigation of the case could come up with. Comforting, at least, for the people who have the most at stake — anyone involved in the original investigation. Bishop, as you may know, is the 44-year-old biology professor who shot and killed three (as of this writing; others were wounded) colleagues at the University of Alabama at Huntsville earlier this month. In December 1986 she shot and killed her 18-year-old broth­er at their home in Braintree with a shotgun. Braintree police officially ruled the earlier shooting an accident, even though Bishop apparently tried to make a getaway that included pointing a shotgun at two car dealership employees.

So why wasn’t Bishop booked for that incident, even if murder or manslaughter couldn’t be proved in the death of her brother?

Well, someone made a telephone call. It sounds too much to be true. Surely nobody has that kind of power, and no one had it 23 years ago? So is this just mindless specu­lation from the press?

Well no, actually. It’s the official (current) position of the Brain­tree police. If you’re familiar with law enforcement statements, then you know that police generally try to give the appearance publicly that they are working together and implicitly trust and respect the work of their colleagues.

So consider this stunning statement from the current chief of po­lice in Braintree, Paul Frazier: “I (Chief Frazier) spoke with the retired Deputy Chief who was then a Lieutenant and was responsible for booking Ms. Bishop. He said he had started the process when he received a phone call he be­lieves was from then Police Chief John Polio or possibly from a cap­tain on Chief Polio’s behalf. He was instructed to stop the booking process. At some point Ms. Bishop was turned over to her mother and they left the building via a rear exit.” In the event I ever find myself on the wrong end of the law, can I leave the building via a rear exit, too? The Braintree police chief said he couldn’t find the police report, and that neither could a previous police chief.

More from Frazier: “I was not on duty at the time of the incident, but I recall how frustrated the members of the department were over the release of Ms. Bishop. It was a difficult time for the department as there had been three (3) shooting incidents within a short timeframe. The re­lease

of Ms. Bishop did not sit well with the police officers and I can assure you that this would not happen in this day and age.”

It’s that last part that makes me curious. We do live in a more for­malized age — more computers, more procedures, more rules, more forms. You can’t fix a speeding ticket the way you used to be able to, for instance. (Or so I’m told.) Information gets out in many more ways than it used to. So I can see saying that it’s less likely that a simple telephone call could make a murder investigation disappear.

But could it happen again?