OGDEN -- There was one simple reason Arthur Gary Bishop was one of the most terrifying men that veteran police officer Don Bell had ever met.
It went beyond Bishop's serial killings of young boys that haunted Utah in the early 1980s.It was more than just the casual way he'd stuff a body in his car, work half a day, get something to eat, then dispose of the child's remains when it was convenient for him.
Bishop frightened the Salt Lake police detective for a reason all of us can understand: He appeared to be just like us.
"He was so normal he could sit in this conference in a chair next to you and you'd never know it," Bell told a packed room Tuesday during the 12th annual Conference on Child Abuse and Domestic Violence Prevention. Bell, a sergeant over sex crimes investigations, took workshop participants on a four-hour journey into the mind of Bishop, who was executed by lethal injection in 1988.
The serial killer preyed on young boys, befriending them with promises of toys, money, birthday presents and friendship, only to kill them and dump their bodies in rivers or bury them in a remote desert. Five young boys who disappeared and whose bodies were later found led to Bishop's conviction on five counts of capital murder.
Bell told the audience Bishop killed to cover up his sexual attraction for children. When he feared a child who had been molested would run to his parents and involve the police, the child died.
In the course of the investigation, Bell struck up a rapport with the former Eagle Scout, the former student at LDS Business College, the bright and witty man who had a knack for befriending children.
The hours the two talked about the horrific crimes represent a secretive peek into the mind of a "master manipulator" who Bell said wanted to convey to the public how simple it is to lure a child into danger. And Bell chilled the audience by detailing Bishop's crimes in the killer's own words. "You can offer them anything and they'll go with you."
Bishop told Bell parents need to stress simple rules of not talking to strangers, never getting into cars and never accepting gifts. His manipulation of his victims was tragically simple.
There was one victim, alone in a grocery store for just long enough, who Bishop happened upon. "I see the most beautiful little boy kneeling in the aisle," Bishop told Bell. The boy, however, appeared to ignore Bishop's offer of treats. Frustrated but not particularly upset, Bishop left the store, only to discover the child following him.
They talked. He persuaded the boy to go home with him. He put him on his lap, fondled him and the child started to cry.
The crying always angered Bishop. He simply put his hand over the child's mouth, pinched his nose until the boy stopped breathing. The body was buried in a desert.
What Bell said was tragic for the victims and harrowing for Bishop's surviving molestation victims was how spontaneously he'd decide if he should kill.
He nearly let one murder victim walk away. But Bishop changed his mind at the last minute and, fearing jail, he filled up the bathtub, let the little boy play with a boat, then killed him, shoved him in a speaker box and disposed of the body.
Bell's resounding theme during the lecture on the child killer was Bishop's amiable personality, underscored by how seldom he swore, how he had a marvelous sense of humor and was bright and articulate.
The appeal of the man is what made him so terrifying. "He was a perfect individual who was just a pedophile and he knew it."