Alabama University8217;s killer Prof triggered virus scare

Police launched a combing operation after the suspicions were raised,but found nothing but a 9 mm handgun in the bathroom.

On February 13,Bishop went on a shooting rampage killing three biology professors,including Podilla,the department8217;s chairman,and wounding three others,after she found that she had failed to gain tenure at the University.

People who had worked with Bishop said she had done work with the herpes virus as a post-doctoral student and had talked about how it could cause encephalitis.

Bishop had also written an unpublished novel in which a herpes-like virus spreads throughout the world,causing pregnant women to miscarry,according to the daily.

Bishop8217;s lawyers have said that she does not recall shooting the biology professors and that he plans to have the troubled professor checked by psychiatrists.

A long history of violent behaviour on her part came to light following the incident and the media reported that Bishop had shot her 18-year-old brother when she was 21,but the case was never fully investigated.

In 1994,she and her husband were questioned in a mail bomb plot against a doctor at Harvard. There is also concern why these incidents never came to light before the tragic shootout.

While the University of Alabama did not know about the previous incidents,colleagues and neighbours described her as having a persisting erratic and dangerous behaviour.