1978
Bishop was hard, professional, greedy and cunning -- a loner who had trouble trusting anyone other than himself. After three tours in 'Nam, he came home with new attitudes about his mind and body. Five minutes talking to Bishop might make you think he's a quiet philosopher, ten minutes would reveal how wrong you would had been. Bishop is a guy who nurtured a carefully controlled ambition, together with a passion for killing and destruction. He used his highly developed skills to satisfy this urge and amass as much money and power as possible.
Bishop despised the out-of-control night life that Slink represented. In fact, the only thing he hated more than disco or funk was someone assuming he must love them because he's black. He looked down a little on The Mexican's training as it was non-military, though he did respect him as a tough fighter. He disliked Slink's uncouth, flippant nature, though secretly enjoyed trading the odd grumbled insult with him.
Bishop was often quiet because he was thinking; thinking and planning. When he was planning he was ruthless; and when he was ruthless he got what he wanted.
2006
Bishop wisely invested his share of the money into a thriving illicit drugs market. But Bishop doesn't operate at the dirty end of the business, he's the clean, respectable society face of it. If you didn't know, you'd think he was a shining example of the self-made millionaire, sharp-suited, respectable, educated and powerful. He owns several luxury properties dotted around the city, a private jet, numerous sports cars and a stable. He's the playboy with the perfect wife, the man everyone wants to be -- the man Slink, most of all, wanted to be, but somehow missed out on becoming.
Bishop's the man with more money than he knows what to do with and his playboy urges for expensive gadgets and toys sometimes gets the better of his clear-thinking and his tendency for caution and thoroughness. All this surface dazzle masks a man who, underneath, is a ruthless money maker and major drug trafficker. For all he has changed since his twenties, he's still a man concerned about refining himself and improving his mind, his body and exploring Eastern ideas about the balance of the two. His business interests are in the projects in Harlem, but his leisure time is spent entertaining in Manhattan with politicians, businessmen and society types.
