Amy Bishop Plot Thickens: Accused University of Alabama Shooter is Cousin of Author John Irving

CBS News Blog ^ | February 18, 2010 | Carlin DeGuerin Miller

[Pharmboy]

BOSTON (CBS/AP) Yet another surprising twist in the story of Amy Bishop, the Alabama university professor who allegedly opened fire on campus, killing three of her colleagues.

Bishop is the second cousin of John Irving, a publicist for the author confirmed today.

Irving is writing a novel and declined to comment about his relationship with Bishop's family. Random House publicist Anne Tate except said he is a cousin of Judith Bishop, who is Amy Bishop's mother

[Pharmboy]

Sorry, Admin Mod...it allowed me to post the full piece, so i thought it OK.

[Pharmboy]

As was pointed out, it’s really first cousin once removed.

[Abathar]

You can’t pick your relatives unfortunately...

[massmike]

I had wondered what had happened to that post.....

[OldDeckHand]

Does this really surprise anyone? Irving is to novels and screenwriting what Larry Flynt is to magazines. The left is a cesspool of compromised values and depraved behavior.

[fullchroma]

I wonder if the internationally acclaimed author made a helpful phone call to the Massachusetts Attorney General or the Governor after the spiteful Ms. Bishop murdered her younger, more talented brother.

[Mr. Jazzy]

So the Odumbo nut case is related to the pro-abortion writer.

I am shocked . . . not.

[DrC]

“As was pointed out, it’s really first cousin once removed.”

Hopefully they weren’t kissing cousins. But if they were, John Irving surely has the talent to craft an entertaining yarn about it...

[Pharmboy]

Hmmm...what a FASCINATING point.

[atomic conspiracy]

Lemme guess. Irving latest novel is about a psycho serial killer who keeps getting away with it because she is a lefty intellectual but finally goes too far.

[thefactor]

I remember sitting down and watching Garp and Hotel New Hampshire at a relatively early age. Pretty weird stuff. Still remember certain scenes. Or should I say haunted by certain scenes? Ha!

[VeniVidiVici]

Irving probably called the press and said, “Hey, just want you guys to know I’m related to that Bishop wackjob.”

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

Are we really go to play “Six Degrees of Seperation” on this?

Let’s see: Rene Russo starred in Tin Cup with Don Johnson, and Don Johnson is the first cousin of one of my co-workers, so I must know Rene Russo! Cool!

[Diogenesis]

”Freelance writer Rob Dinsmoor, a friend of Bishop's since they met at a Hamilton,
Mass., writers group in the late 1990s, said Bishop had written three unpublished novels
and saw them as a way out of the frustration and politics of her university job. She hoped
her mother's cousin, novelist John Irving, would help her get published, Dinsmoor said.
Sally Marvin of Random House, Irving's publisher, confirmed that Bishop and Irving are
related but said the author of "The World According to Garp" and "The Cider House
Rules" had no comment.
Bishop often dropped Irving's name, Dinsmoor said. "I think she looked up to him, and
she was always trying to figure out a way to use that connection," he said.

One novel was about the troubles of a girl growing up in Belfast, and another was a
thriller about a scientist who was an IRA operative, according to Dinsmoor. The third,
"Amazon Fever," was about a virus that renders women infertile. According to an excerpt
obtained by The Boston Globe and posted on the newspaper's Web site, it involved a
scientist working during a pandemic who struggled with fear of losing tenure.”

[Haiku Guy]

This woman was obviously “untouchable” because she was connected to law enforcement, local government and the academic institutions. She has been protected every step of the way.

There is one law for them, and another law for you. Get used to it.

[Dudoight]

Well....Irving, great writer that he is, certainly doesn’t create the standard ‘characters’ in his books. It would be hard for the average normal psyche to identify with his book situations.

Wonder if this somewhat weird mental strain is to some extent familial.

At least Irving doesn’t go around picking off various souls with a firearm.

[Dudoight]

Irving is FIRST cousin to Dr. Bishop’s mother. Close enough.

[Albion Wilde]

Irving is to novels and screenwriting what Larry Flynt is to magazines. The left is a cesspool of compromised values and depraved behavior.

And it's such a shame. One of his early works, A Prayer for Owen Meany, is one of my favorite books ever, in spite of its anti-war undercurrent. Everything after that was so nasty, I stopped even thumbing through at the book store.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Do you have a source for your quote? The link just takes me to an article about students complaining about her teaching style — nothing about the writers’ group. Another article I read this week said that she was working on a novel about a woman who had killed her brother and who was working on becoming a famous scientist to gain fame for herself. “Just a novel, work of fiction”, said her husband.