ULTIMATE DISAPPEARING ACT 45 YEARS LATER
TODAY SHOW: The Ultimate Disappearing Act: NBC's Fred Francis investigates one of the greatest fugitive stories of all time. Now 45 years after Brad Bishop was charged with brutally killing five members of his family on March 1, 1976, in Bethesda, Maryland, the State Department diplomat and suspected spy remains one of the most elusive fugitives in the world. The FBI added William Bradford Bishop to its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list in April 2014, only to be removed from the list in 2018 while he was still presumed to be alive.
In October 2014, after years of unconfirmed sightings around the world, FBI agents focused on an unidentified man buried long ago in the small town of Scottsboro, Alabama. A photo showed the so-called "John Doe" had held a striking resemblance to the fugitive, but DNA testing proved the dead man was NOT Bishop. The FBI, Sheriff and Police of Montgomery County, Maryland, believe Bishop is living under a false identity and, despite the passage of time, they have not given up their hunt for the mass murder suspect.
This Today Show story about a reported sighting of Bishop in Switzerland, originally presented by correspondent Fred Francis in January 1998, was produced and co-written by Michael Austin; with principal cameraman Rob Fortunato and editor Peter Chhun.