What’s the matter with Massachusetts?

Now comes the astonishing case of Amy Bishop, who last week shot six colleagues
during a faculty meeting at the University of Alabama-Huntsville — three died.
In 1986, when the Harvard Ph.D. was 19 and living in her family home in
Braintree, Mass., she shot to death her 18-year-old brother, Seth Bishop. The
Norfolk County DA, the aforementioned Delahunt — then in the middle of his
almost 20-year term as DA — didn’t press charges.

The relatives and colleagues of those six victims must wish that he had.

Traveling in Israel when the story broke of his long-ago involvement, Delahunt,
through a spokesman, said he had no clear memory of the case. Some of the
records are said to be missing. A report of the investigation carried out at
the time by the state police pointed to Seth Bishop’s death as a tragic
accident.

Unfortunately, no successor to Delahunt ever reopened the case.

There were only two references that I could find that raise suspicions that
there might have been some sort of political reason why officials at the time
didn’t take a closer enough look at the older sister’s involvement.

On Monday night’s “O’Reilly Factor,” in a conversation with Fox anchor Megyn
Kelly, Bill O’Reilly, said, “And the press reports that Delahunt didn’t go
after Amy Bishop back then because of some political reason. That her family
was wired in the state.”

In Sunday’s Boston Herald, reporters
O’Ryan Johnson and Jessica Fargen wrote that Bishop “was freed decades ago
after a politically derailed investigation into her fatal shooting of her own
brother.” They add, “According to [Paul] Frazier [current Braintree Police
Chief], then-Chief John Polio ordered cops to release Bishop — whose mother,
Judith Bishop, Frazier said was a public official sitting on the Personnel
Committee.”

We will see what comes of that, but a few things are certain — that case will
be re-examined, and Amy Bishop, now 42, will likely spend the rest of her life
in prison — if she’s lucky. Alabama has the death penalty. If Delahunt runs for
his eighth term in 2010, the name Amy Bishop will often be on the lips of his
opponent(s).

Postscript — Amy Bishop’s Who’s Who of American Women entry is full of fascinating information (in
retrospect). The youngest of her four children, her only son, is named Seth
Bishop, presumably in memory of her brother. Under civic-military involvement,
she lists participation in MoveOn.org, Huntsville, 2005-06. She also lists
professional involvement with NASA.