Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more!
Arthur Gary Bishop’s Crimes: What To Know Before ‘Violent Minds: Killers On Tape’ Premiere
Arthur Gary Bishop killed five boys. What did his prison interviews with clinical psychologist Dr. Al Carlisle reveal?
How did I become a serial killer?
After being convicted of killing five boys, Arthur Gary Bishop was desperate to learn the answer to that chilling question, according to the late clinical psychologist Dr. Al Carlisle.
“Violent Minds: Killers On Tape,” airing Sunday, April 2 at 7/6c on Oxygen, features Carlisle’s previously unheard interviews with Arthur Gary Bishop and several other mass murderers. These conversations may shed new light on the infamous cases.
RELATED: Who Is The Most Infamous Serial Killer In Each State
Born in Hinckley, Utah in 1952, Bishop was an honors student, Eagle Scout and missionary. But his life took a dark turn when he was in his 20s.
In the mid-1970s, he was forced out of his role with Big Brothers of Utah when he was caught molesting youths, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. In 1978, he was charged with embezzlement, which led to his expulsion from the Mormon church. He began using various aliases.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a series of child murders terrorized residents of Utah. In 1979, 4-year-old Alonzo Daniels was abducted and found murdered, followed by 11-year-old Kim Petersen in 1980, and 6-year-old Danny Davis in 1981, according to a June 1988 Salt Lake Tribune report.
The boys’ bodies were found in shallow graves about 30 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, according to the same UPI report.
Then, Troy Ward, 6, and Graeme Cunningham, 13, were found dead in 1983. The five boys had all been sexually abused and slain, Deseret News reported.
Bishop came under police scrutiny because he knew Cunningham’s parents and lived in close proximity to the four other victims. Bishop was brought in for questioning and arrested on July 24, 1983, after he confessed to the five murders.
Bishop said he lured his younger victims with promises of toys and ice cream. He sexually molested or took nude pictures of the boys, and then killed them,” according to a March 1984 UPI report.
Bishop bludgeoned his victims with a hammer, drowned or shot them. He admitted to police his urge to kill was out of control.
Carlisle chronicled his professional encounters with Bishop in the book “Mind of the Devil: The Cases of Arthur Gary Bishop and Westley Allan Dodd.” Both men became mass murderers of children and both wanted to know why that happened.
What did Carlisle learn about Bishop? What happened at Bishop’s trial and where is he today? To find out the answers and more, watch “Violent Minds: Killers On Tape,” airing Sunday, April 2 at 7/6c on Oxygen.
