Shooting at Univ. Alabama Huntsville (merged thread folds in Parents Cafe comments)

<p>She also was suspected in a pipe bomb that was sent to a Harvard Med School prof in 1993.</p>

<p>"The professor who is accused of killing three colleagues at the University of Alabama on Friday was a suspect in the attempted mail bombing of a Harvard Medical School professor in 1993, a law enforcement official said today.</p>

<p>Amy Bishop and her husband, James Anderson, were questioned after a package containing two bombs was sent to the Newton home of Dr. Paul Rosenberg, a professor and doctor at Boston’s Children’s Hospital…</p>

<p>Rosenberg was opening mail, which had been set aside by a cat-sitter, when he returned from a Caribbean vacation on Dec. 19, 1993, according to Globe reports at the time.</p>

<p>Opening a long, thin package addressed to “Mr. Paul Rosenberg M.D.,” he saw wires and a cylinder inside. He and his wife ran from the house and called police."
[Alleged</a> Ala. killer was suspect in attempted bombing of Harvard professor - Local News Updates - The Boston Globe](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/02/ala_slay_suspec.html]Alleged”>http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/02/ala_slay_suspec.html)</p>

<p>AL34, I can’t even imagine how much strength it takes to get up and keep going everyday in light of the tragedy that struck your family. Thank you for sharing your perspective.
Any more news on your friend, mom2college? It is good that he was able to move his extremities; I hope that this bodes well for his recovery.
This story gets more bizarre by the minute.
Yes, I agree with the poster who pointed out that informal background checks will become easier and easier in the internet age, as criminal and child abuse checks to not turn up situations where people were arrested but not charged. We also have to guard against the other extreme, where people can be arrested or suspected unjustly; what a fine line!</p>

<p>I suspect that there will be services in the future to wash the internet of a reference for a fee.</p>

<p>I wonder if the police chief’s job was elected, appointed, or what.</p>

<p>She might have been innocent in the 1993 bombing attempt. If she and her husband were suspects, it’s hard to believe that the police couldn’t find evidence against them if they’d done it. </p>

<p>“Instructor” is the first rank on the faculty promotions ladder at Harvard Medical School - equivalent to assistant professor elsewhere.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.hms.harvard.edu/fa/juniorfacultysearch/[/url]”>http://www.hms.harvard.edu/fa/juniorfacultysearch/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>In Massachusetts, the police chief is an appointed position.</p>

<p>MYMomof2 said: She might have been innocent in the 1993 bombing attempt. If she and her husband were suspects, it’s hard to believe that the police couldn’t find evidence against them if they’d done it. </p>

<p>As I have pointed out above, things work differently in Massachusets if you are connected politically. At the risk of revealing my political persuasion, look at the recently deceased senior senator from Massachusetts and a place called Chappaquiddick (sp?).</p>

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<p>This is one of the issues that Martha Coakley had - not prosecuting the connected and prosecuting the innocent but not connected.</p>

<p>I think that the bombing incident was investigated by the Feds, though and it has typically been the Feds that cleaned up after the funny stuff in the state. Of course even the Feds have their faults as was seen in their dealings with Whitey Bulger.</p>

<p>It seems to me that a coverup of a murder within a family is much more likely than a coverup of an attempted bombing of a professor. And Harvard is much more connected than the Bishop family could possibly be, and they would have wanted the crime solved.</p>

<p>MYMomof2: Possibly, but Harvard is very adverse to negative publicity. Unless the police/feds had hard, incontovertible evidence againt Bishop in the bombing attempt, Harvard would likely want it to just go away rather than risk a high profile public trial. </p>

<p>Last year a non-student was shot to death inside the common area of a Harvard residence house (drug deal gone bad). Harvard quickly put a gag order on its staff and the media had great difficulty getting to the nature of the situation.</p>

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<p>That’s the point, though, isn’t it? Harvard might be adverse to bad publicity but there was no hard, incontrovertible evidence against Bishop–or for that matter, anyone else as far as I can see, so there could be no trial. Prosecutors are loath to go on fishing expeditions.</p>

<p>I believe that during the summer, one more perpetrator of the drug deal gone bag was arrested. But the Crimson staff was on vacation.</p>

<p>Marite, agreed. But the lack of hard evidence against Bishop in no way means she was not involved in the attempted bombing.</p>

<p>Very true. But it would make it impossible for anyone to point this possibility to potential employers without risking a suit for slander/libel.</p>

<p>Oh, of course. I am just trying to build a mental image of this bizarre person. I am sympathetic to UAH in that they had no way of knowing about these past incidents. </p>

<p>By the way, I am afraid to check any on line Boston media for fear that there will be another shocking incident uncovered.</p>

<p>^^^</p>

<p>I agree…at some point, we’ll probably hear that she was mean to small animals or some other odd (and telling) thing.</p>

<p>Now that her name is out there, anyone with an odd story about her is going to get heard.</p>

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At least within HMS, Instructor is not an equivalent position to Assistant Professor. You can see [url=<a href=“http://www.hms.harvard.edu/fa/purplebook/i.html]here[/url”>http://www.hms.harvard.edu/fa/purplebook/i.html]here[/url</a>] that it’s not considered a “full-time” position like assistant/associate/full professor, and it’s non-tenure track.</p>

<p>For example, in my PhD program, we are allowed to get help on our preliminary qualifying exam from students and postdocs, but not from faculty members. We are specifically allowed to get help from Instructors, as they’re generally long-term postdocs who haven’t been able to find jobs outside their postdoc labs.</p>

<p>My lab had something like five Instructors at one point a few years ago, but several of them were able to find jobs.</p>

<p>At any rate, I don’t mean to be argumentative – it’s not that Instructor is a useless title, but it is often functionally used within HMS to give a small promotion to a long-term postdoc.</p>

<p>Another thing that occurred to me is that she had more recent employment and that recommendation letters would have come from the more recent jobs. There would have been no need for UAH to delve into the history of her studies/employment at HMS. I assume that strings of postodocs may be more common in certain fields than others.</p>

<p>Has anyone read and can cite anything as to a reopening of the investigation re: the death of her younger brother? From what I’ve read a whole lot of people connected to that case have some serious questions to answer. </p>

<p>I hope this just doesn’t disappear.</p>

<p>Her brother’s death will not disappear. While Massachusetts keeps its dirty little secrets closely guarded, once it hits the fan it goes viral. If you follow the Boston media, it will get major coverage in the weeks/months ahead.</p>

<p>My condolences to the family and friends of the victims. </p>

<p>This story is just a Stephen King thriller. It’s very unbelievable. Just wow.</p>

<p>There’s a cautionary tale here for those who think that going to Harvard or some similar school guarantees a happy, successful life and for those who think that the mark of successful parenting is having one’s child accepted to such a school.</p>

<p>My hope is that my offspring will be well balanced, kind people who can handle well the inevitable adversity that comes with life. I don’t know whether my parenting has resulted in this, but I do hope that’s what my sons become.</p>