Ep 9: The Family Annihilator

Detective Society

TWO guest hosts join Natalie to talk about our first unsolved episode, the story of Bradford Bishop, The Family Annihilator.

Show Intro:

In 1976, Leo the Golden Retriever was just your average american dog. He was happy, goofy, and living with his family in Maryland, just outside of Washington DC

His master was a man named Brandford Bishop and he loved Leo.

He took Leo on long hikes in the woods, and on weekend camping trips with the family: Bradford, his highschool sweetheart and wife, Anne, their 3 sons, William, Brenton, and Geoffrey, and Bradford's mother Lobelia.

They were a very outdoorsy family. It was one of the reasons Leo loved them so much!

But mostly, Leo loved his nightly walks with Lobelia. She was 68, but she took him out on nice long walks after the boys went to bed.

On March first 1976, Lobelia and Leo were just coming inside Bradford had come home at some point while they'd been out, but there was something wrong.

Anne was slumped in a corner with a jacket over her, and Leo could smell blood. Then Leo watched as his Master, Bradford Bishop bludgeoned his own mother lobelia to death with a 10-inch sledgehammer.

After that Bradford went upstairs and used the same hammer to calmly murder each of his 3 boys. William was 14, Brenton was 10, and Geoffrey the baby, was only 5.

Later investigators would find deep grooves in the ceilings of the bedrooms, caused by how forcefully Bradford swung the hammer while killing his sons.

Then he packed the bodies, a gas canister, and his dog Leo into the family's station wagon. What strikes me most is that Leo must've stayed quiet the entire time. because the neighbors never heard a sound.

The next day Bradford would be seen with Leo the yellow dog at a sporting goods store. No one has seen or heard from either of them since.

This is the story of Bradford Bishop, the family annihilator.