Arthur Gary Bishop
Encyclopedia
Arthur Gary Bishop was a convicted American
child molester
and serial killer
. He confessed to the murders of five young boys in 1983, as a result of a routine police investigation.
, the eldest of six brothers. Bishop was raised as a devout Mormon
, and was an Eagle Scout
and an honor student. When he was 18, Bishop served as a missionary in the Philippines
.
Bishop was arrested for embezzlement
in February 1978 and given a five-year suspended sentence, but he skipped his parole
and fled to Salt Lake City, living under the alias
"Roger Downs". In October 1978, the LDS Church excommunicated Bishop.
In Salt Lake City, Bishop, registering under his pseudonym, joined the "Big Brother
" program. No one initially suspected "Downs" of child molestation, although dozens of children would accuse him of abuse after he was arrested for murder.
the child, Bishop drowned him in a bathtub, and subsequently buried the boy's body in the desert.
In November 1980, Bishop killed for the second time. At a skating rink, he met an 11-year-old boy named Kim Petersen who he lured to his apartment on the pretext of buying a pair of roller-skates the boy was trying to sell. Witnesses described the man Petersen had talked with at the roller-skating rink the day prior to his disappearance as being white, aged 25–35, around 200 pounds and with dark hair. Bishop bludgeoned Petersen to death and his body was buried close to that of Alonzo Daniels outside of Cedar Fort
. Bishop was again routinely questioned, but was not considered a suspect in Petersen's disappearance.
On October 20, 1981, Bishop killed for the third time; luring a four-year-old named Danny Davis from a supermarket to his home half a block away. Several shoppers recalled a smiling man standing near the child, but could only give vague descriptions as to his appearance. Police launched one of the biggest searches in Salt Lake County
history: teams of searchers scoured neighborhoods, searching fields and nearby mountains, divers dredged ponds and lakes, shoppers at the supermarket where Davis vanished agreed to undergo hypnosis in an effort to dislodge greater details of the abductor, fliers were also printed offering a $20,000 reward and the FBI
were contacted but were unable to find any trace of the boy.
Almost two years later, on June 23, 1983, Bishop struck again, abducting a boy named Troy Ward from a park near his home the day after his sixth birthday. Troy was seen leaving the park on foot with a man just prior to 4 p.m. As with the prior victims, Bishop sexually assaulted him, bludgeoned him and drowned him in his bathtub.
One month later, on July 14, Bishop killed his final victim: 13-year-old Graeme Cunningham, who vanished from his neighbourhood prior to embarking upon a camping trip with a friend and an adult chaperone: one Arthur Bishop. The boy's disappearance was statewide news.
Local police looked into their past reports and found that Bishop ("Roger Downs") lived in the vicinity of four of the murders, and knew the fifth child's parents. Police brought "Downs" in for questioning on the pretext of him assisting officers with their enquiries into Graeme Cunningham's disappearance. At the station, police managed to obtain Downs' real name, and eventually got him to confess to all five murders.
The next day, Bishop led the police to three skeleton
s near Cedar Fort
and two more recent corpses near Big Cottonwood Creek
. Bishop told police he obtained a thrill from the act of murder, stating: "I'd do it again."
molded his violent sexual fantasies
and eventually drove him to act them out. The trial lasted six weeks; on March 19, 1984, Bishop was found guilty of five counts of aggravated murder
, five counts of aggravated kidnapping
, and one count of sexually abusing a minor
, and sentenced to death
. Upon receiving his sentence, Bishop apologized to his victims' families and made a request to be executed by lethal injection
.
After his conviction he wrote a letter in which he explained the motivation for his crimes:
Bishop was executed by lethal injection at Utah State Prison
in Point of the Mountain
on June 10, 1988. Prior to his execution, he again expressed remorse
for his crimes.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
child molester
Child sexual abuse
Child sexual abuse is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include asking or pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities , indecent exposure with intent to gratify their own sexual desires or to...
and serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
. He confessed to the murders of five young boys in 1983, as a result of a routine police investigation.
Early life
Arthur Gary Bishop was born in Hinckley, UtahHinckley, Utah
Hinckley is a town in Millard County, Utah, United States, in the middle of the Sevier Desert. Irrigation water from the Sevier River, passing nearby, has been used to turn Hinckley into a farming oasis. The mountains that are common in Utah, are seen only in the distance, and beyond the reach of...
, the eldest of six brothers. Bishop was raised as a devout Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
, and was an Eagle Scout
Eagle Scout (Boy Scouts of America)
Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Boy Scouting program of the Boy Scouts of America . A Scout who attains this rank is called an Eagle Scout or Eagle. Since its introduction in 1911, the Eagle Scout rank has been earned by more than 2 million young men...
and an honor student. When he was 18, Bishop served as a missionary in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
.
Bishop was arrested for embezzlement
Embezzlement
Embezzlement is the act of dishonestly appropriating or secreting assets by one or more individuals to whom such assets have been entrusted....
in February 1978 and given a five-year suspended sentence, but he skipped his parole
Parole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...
and fled to Salt Lake City, living under the alias
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
"Roger Downs". In October 1978, the LDS Church excommunicated Bishop.
In Salt Lake City, Bishop, registering under his pseudonym, joined the "Big Brother
Big Brothers Big Sisters of America
Big Brothers Big Sisters of America is a 501 non-profit organization whose mission is to help children reach their potential through professionally supported, one-to-one relationships with mentors that try to have a measurable impact on youth....
" program. No one initially suspected "Downs" of child molestation, although dozens of children would accuse him of abuse after he was arrested for murder.
Murders
Bishop killed his first victim, a four-year-old named Alonzo Daniels, on October 14, 1979. Bishop lured the boy from the courtyard of his apartment complex to his own apartment with the promise of free candy. After attempting to assaultSexual assault
Sexual assault is an assault of a sexual nature on another person, or any sexual act committed without consent. Although sexual assaults most frequently are by a man on a woman, it may involve any combination of two or more men, women and children....
the child, Bishop drowned him in a bathtub, and subsequently buried the boy's body in the desert.
In November 1980, Bishop killed for the second time. At a skating rink, he met an 11-year-old boy named Kim Petersen who he lured to his apartment on the pretext of buying a pair of roller-skates the boy was trying to sell. Witnesses described the man Petersen had talked with at the roller-skating rink the day prior to his disappearance as being white, aged 25–35, around 200 pounds and with dark hair. Bishop bludgeoned Petersen to death and his body was buried close to that of Alonzo Daniels outside of Cedar Fort
Cedar Fort, Utah
Cedar Fort is a town in Utah County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Provo–Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 341 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Cedar Fort is located at ....
. Bishop was again routinely questioned, but was not considered a suspect in Petersen's disappearance.
On October 20, 1981, Bishop killed for the third time; luring a four-year-old named Danny Davis from a supermarket to his home half a block away. Several shoppers recalled a smiling man standing near the child, but could only give vague descriptions as to his appearance. Police launched one of the biggest searches in Salt Lake County
Salt Lake County, Utah
Salt Lake County is a county located in the U.S. state of Utah. It had a population of 1,029,655 at the 2010 census. Its county seat and largest city is Salt Lake City, the state capital. It occupies Salt Lake Valley, as well as parts of the surrounding mountains, the Oquirrh Mountains to the west...
history: teams of searchers scoured neighborhoods, searching fields and nearby mountains, divers dredged ponds and lakes, shoppers at the supermarket where Davis vanished agreed to undergo hypnosis in an effort to dislodge greater details of the abductor, fliers were also printed offering a $20,000 reward and the FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
were contacted but were unable to find any trace of the boy.
Almost two years later, on June 23, 1983, Bishop struck again, abducting a boy named Troy Ward from a park near his home the day after his sixth birthday. Troy was seen leaving the park on foot with a man just prior to 4 p.m. As with the prior victims, Bishop sexually assaulted him, bludgeoned him and drowned him in his bathtub.
One month later, on July 14, Bishop killed his final victim: 13-year-old Graeme Cunningham, who vanished from his neighbourhood prior to embarking upon a camping trip with a friend and an adult chaperone: one Arthur Bishop. The boy's disappearance was statewide news.
Local police looked into their past reports and found that Bishop ("Roger Downs") lived in the vicinity of four of the murders, and knew the fifth child's parents. Police brought "Downs" in for questioning on the pretext of him assisting officers with their enquiries into Graeme Cunningham's disappearance. At the station, police managed to obtain Downs' real name, and eventually got him to confess to all five murders.
The next day, Bishop led the police to three skeleton
Skeleton
The skeleton is the body part that forms the supporting structure of an organism. There are two different skeletal types: the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, and the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside the body.In a figurative sense, skeleton can...
s near Cedar Fort
Cedar Fort, Utah
Cedar Fort is a town in Utah County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Provo–Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 341 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Cedar Fort is located at ....
and two more recent corpses near Big Cottonwood Creek
Big Cottonwood Creek
Big Cottonwood Creek is one of the largest streams entering Salt Lake Valley from the east from the Wasatch Mountains. The creek flows through the Big Cottonwood Canyon in a westerly direction until it emerges into Salt Lake Valley about eighteen miles from its highest source...
. Bishop told police he obtained a thrill from the act of murder, stating: "I'd do it again."
Trial and execution
Bishop was brought to trial on February 27, 1984. During his trial, Bishop claimed that an addiction to child pornographyChild pornography
Child pornography refers to images or films and, in some cases, writings depicting sexually explicit activities involving a child...
molded his violent sexual fantasies
Sexual fantasy
A sexual fantasy, also called an erotic fantasy, is a fantasy or pattern of thoughts with the effect of creating or enhancing sexual feelings; in short, it is "almost any mental imagery that is sexually arousing or erotic to [an] individual"...
and eventually drove him to act them out. The trial lasted six weeks; on March 19, 1984, Bishop was found guilty of five counts of aggravated murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
, five counts of aggravated kidnapping
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
, and one count of sexually abusing a minor
Child sexual abuse
Child sexual abuse is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include asking or pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities , indecent exposure with intent to gratify their own sexual desires or to...
, and sentenced to death
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
. Upon receiving his sentence, Bishop apologized to his victims' families and made a request to be executed by lethal injection
Lethal injection
Lethal injection is the practice of injecting a person with a fatal dose of drugs for the express purpose of causing the immediate death of the subject. The main application for this procedure is capital punishment, but the term may also be applied in a broad sense to euthanasia and suicide...
.
After his conviction he wrote a letter in which he explained the motivation for his crimes:
Bishop was executed by lethal injection at Utah State Prison
Utah State Prison
Utah State Prison, or USP, is one of two prisons managed by the Utah Department of Corrections' Division of Institutional Operations. It is located in Draper, Utah, United States, about 20 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.-History:...
in Point of the Mountain
Draper, Utah
Draper is a city in Salt Lake and Utah Counties in the U.S. state of Utah, located about south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front. Between 1990 and 2000 Draper was Utah's fastest-growing city over 5,000 people . Its population in 1990 was 7,143 and had grown to 25,220 by the 2000 census...
on June 10, 1988. Prior to his execution, he again expressed remorse
Remorse
Remorse is an emotional expression of personal regret felt by a person after he or she has committed an act which they deem to be shameful, hurtful, or violent. Remorse is closely allied to guilt and self-directed resentment...
for his crimes.
Victims
- Alonzo Daniels, age 4, October 14, 1979
- Kim Petersen, age 11, November 8, 1980
- Danny Davis, age 4, October 20, 1981
- Troy Ward, age 6, June 23, 1983
- Graeme Cunningham, age 13, July 14, 1983