By Toni Macy
In 1951, Arthur Gary Bishop was born into, from all accounts, a good Latter-Day Saint (Mormon) family. He was the oldest of six brothers. Although his parents were very young when starting their family, there has not been any reports of any type of abuse in the home. The family was very active in their religion. Arthur even earned his Eagle Scout in The Boy Scouts of America. He was an honor student, and went on to serve a two year proselytizing mission for his church to the Philippines. After his mission he went on to graduate in accounting, with honors, from Stevens-Henager College.
Arthur Bishop's first encounter with the law was in February 1978. He was just twenty-six years old. Bishop was found guilty of embezzling $8,714 from a used car dealership. Pleading guilty, he received a five years probation and a suspended prison sentence, as long as he paid restitution. Instead of paying back his debt, he moved to another area of Salt Lake City. A warrant was issued for Bishop. The LDS (Mormon) Church believes in following the laws of the land; Bishop would not turn himself in and accept the consequences of his actions, so he was excommunicated from the church. Whether or not he knew of his excommunication, Bishop continued living in Salt Lake. Throughout Bishop's criminal career he went by two aliases, Roger Downs and Lynn Jones; the timeline is skewed when these names were used. He worked as a secretary for a steel company in Salt Lake. He also volunteered working with children in the Big Brothers program. He used this platform to gain the trust of young boys and begin grooming them.
Alonzo Daniels was born December 22, 1974. His mother called him a "blessing from God". He was described as having the "light of God" in his eyes. Alonzo made up a song that he sang all the time, "I love Jesus, He loves me, He loves 'momie', I love Jesus sooooooo much, because Jesus told me." He was so kind hearted and loving that his mom was worried that ill-intending adults would take advantage of Alonzo. She taught him that if anyone tried to touch him inappropriately to yell and tell them that he was going to tell his mom.
On October 14, 1979 Alonzo's mom reported him missing from their apartment home. When the Salt Lake Police arrived, they questioned everyone in the building, including a man who lived in the same building as Alonzo and his mom: "Roger Downs". The police left without a lead. The Police didn't know that Alonzo had been lured into Bishop's apartment with the promise of candy.
When Bishop had Alonzo in his living room, Bishop tried to undress and molest Alonzo. Alonzo did exactly what his mom had told him to: he told Bishop he was going to tell his mom. His words panicked Bishop, and he grabbed a hammer and bludgeoned four year old Alonzo. The beating didn't kill or quiet Alonzo, so Bishop took him into the bathroom and drowned him in the tub. Bishop then placed Alonzo's small body in a cardboard box. He carried that box right past Alonzo's mother who was in the courtyard looking for her son. After being questioned, Bishop drove about an hour to a small town named Cedar Fort, Utah. He buried Alonzo in an unmarked grave. While driving back to his apartment, several thoughts and emotions ran through Bishop's mind; mainly excitement and the desire to kill again. To appease his blood lust, Bishop turned to a less suspicious way of getting his thrill. Bishop began adopting puppies. Over the next thirteen months, Bishop tortured and killed around 20 puppies.
According to a Deseret News interview Bishop said, "It was so stimulating. A puppy whines just like Alonzo did. I would get frustrated at the whining. I would hit them with hammers or drown them or strangle them".
About one year after the torture, molestation, and murder of Alonzo, Bishop was ready to find his next victim. November 9, 1980 on a Saturday morning at the roller skate rink, Kim Peterson, an 11 year old boy, was trying to sell his old skates so he could buy a new pair. Bishop struck up a conversation with Kim, pretending to be interested in purchasing his skates for $35. The following day, Sunday, Kim told his parents he was going to sell his skates. He didn't give his parents a name or address of the person that was buying them. He promised his parents he was just going there and coming straight home. The Salt Lake City Police were called that evening when Kim did not come home in time for dinner. Police questioned people at the skating rink, as well as neighbors around Kim's family home, including Bishop. What Bishop didn't tell police was that he had bought Kim's skates and then took him to go rabbit hunting in the West Desert area, where he shot and killed Kim. After Bishop killed Kim he buried him close to Alonzo, just outside of Cedar Fort.
Four year old Danny Davis lived with his grandparents in Salt Lake City. Danny loved his grandfather, and was always with him. October 20, 1981 Danny was at a grocery store with his grandfather. Danny got separated from his Grandfather. It is unclear if Danny had gone to look at the toy aisle, or the candy machines. Either way, Bishop saw who he described as a "beautiful boy" alone, and took advantage of Danny's trusting personality. Statements say that Bishop either offered him candy or toys if he followed him. There are no details of how Danny was murdered, but we do know that Salt Lake City police had their "most intense" investigation to date. No leads were found.
Less than nine months later, six year old Troy Ward was playing at a park while waiting for his birthday party to start. He never made it to his party. Police were called, and a search started immediately. One witness thought he saw Troy happily leave the park with a man, but that trail quickly went cold. There were no leads. After Bishop got Troy back to his apartment, he molested him. According to Detective Bell, Bishop had almost let Troy leave his apartment alive, but fearing being reported to the police, he beat Troy with a rubber mallet and then drowned him in the bathtub. Instead of taking Troy's body to Cedar Fort to be buried, he took him to Big Cottonwood Creek.
During Bishop's crime spree, he would "befriend" young boys, buying them presents and giving them weed, in exchange for nude photos of themselves. It is suspected that Bishop abused and photographed at least 50 boys. One boy, "Jeff," was a child he met in the Big Brothers Program. Jeff had a school friend named Graeme Cunningham. Bishop invited the two boys on a trip to Southern California. The day before the trip, Bishop called Graeme asking him to do some work in exchange for money. That evening Graeme's parents called police when Graeme wasn't home for dinner. Friday afternoon Bishop took Jeff on the trip to California, when they returned home the police were waiting for him.
After the disappearance of Graeme, the police noticed all the missing boys lived in the same areas that Bishop lived. They also found the warrant for Bishop for embezzlement. Bishop was placed under arrest and was questioned for several hours by detectives. After being caught in several lies, Bishop's confession began to flood out from him.
Arthur Gary Bishop was found guilty of:
Five counts of capital murder (punishable by death)
Five counts of kidnapping
Two counts of forced sexual assault
One count of sexual abuse of a minor.
Although Bishop was guilty of far more than this, these are the counts that the courts would be able to prove him guilty of. The five counts of capital murder were the most important crimes to prove. Being found guilty of these would allow for Bishop to be sentenced to death.
When being sentenced, he read a letter that he wrote himself to the judge, trying to explain his actions. "I am a homosexual pedophile convicted of murder, and pornography was a determining factor in my downfall". If Bishop was looking for pity, it fell on deaf ears. Arthur Gary Bishop was sentenced to death with the choice of lethal injection or firing squad. Bishop opted for lethal injection. His execution was on June 10, 1988. He opted out of a final meal, preferring to fast and pray prior to his death.
Bishop was calm and obeyed the orders the officers gave him while walking and preparing for his execution. His final words were prayed: "When I kneel before Christ in the next life, having a perfect recollection of all my guilt, with a broken heart, I will humbly plead, 'Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on my soul.'"
Editor's note: this article ran in Serial Killer Magazine and is reproduced as written. It matches this archive's record: Arthur Gary Bishop is carried at five convictions, and the five counts of capital murder set out here, for Alonzo Daniels, Kim Peterson, Danny Davis, Troy Ward and Graeme Cunningham, are those convictions. He was executed by lethal injection on 10 June 1988. Two things in the piece are worth separating from the verdicts. The estimate that he abused and photographed at least fifty boys is an investigative figure and was never charged. And the line he read to the judge, naming pornography as the cause of his downfall, is the account of a man addressing his own sentencing; it is quoted here as he said it, not endorsed as an explanation. The article's own framing, that the counts listed are what the courts could prove rather than what he did, is the right one.