Dr. Harold Shipman/Fred Shipman/Dr. Death was One of mid 20 century deadliest serial killers, he was a married family man who managed to perform 218 credited murders (number increase to as many as 250) while working as a popular British general physician.
The early life of Harold Shipman:
He was born on 14 January 1946 in Nottingham. He was the second child in the family. His parents were working-class and committed Methodists. He was a successful rugby player in youth leagues. He was an excellent runner, and at school, he also served as vice-captain of the athletics team. When he was aged 17, his mother, whom he was closed to, died of lung cancer. Her death was in a manner similar to what later became Shipman's own modus operandi (manner of killing). Later in 1966, he married Primrose May Oxtoby and had four children.
He studied medicine at the University of Leeds, in 1970 and began working at Pontefract. In 1974, he took his first position as a general practitioner at the Abraham Ormerod Medical Centre in Todmorden. In the same year, he was caught forging prescriptions of Demerol (opioid pain medicine) for personal use. He was fined and briefly attended a drug rehabilitation clinic. He again became a GP in 1977.
He worked as a GP throughout the 1980s and later established his own surgery center in 1993. He was a respected member of the community. In 1983, he was also interviewed in a documentary "World in Action" (how the mentally ill should be treated in society).
His killing spree starts in 1972, and he approximately killed at least 71 patients while working at General Infirmary, and killed double the number at Hyde.
In 1998, both the local authority and other doctors noticed the rapid increase in the number of death certificates signed off by him. They also noticed the similarities in the cause of death in the deceased patients. Majorly they were elderly women, who were sitting and fully clothed.
CONVICTION:
His luck ran out in 1998, when his last victim "Kathleen Grundy", was found dead at her home on 24 June 1998. He was the last person to meet her when she was alive and he also later signed her death certificate, reporting them as "old age".
Grundy's daughter, who was a lawyer "Angela Woodruff", became concerned when a solicitor "Brian Burgess" informed her that a will had been made, assumably by her mother, with doubts on its authenticity.
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The will doesn't include Woodruff but left £386,000 to Shipman. Woodruff went to the police, who began an investigation. Grundy's body was investigated and traces of diamorphine (heroin) were found, which often is used for pain control in patients or organ transplant cases.
He argued that Grundy had been an addict and as evidence, showed them comments he had written regarding this in his computerized medical journal. However, the examination of his computer showed that they were written after her death.
He was arrested on 7 September 1998 and was found to own a typewriter that was used to make the forged will. And because the investigation was not very serious, he was able to kill more victims in the provided time. At last, he was finally charged with 15 murders and was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2000, where he died in 2004, after hanging himself inside his cell.
Though, he never admitted to any of his killings.
AFTERMATH:
Shipman's case, and the Shipman Inquiry report, led to
· Changes in the standard medical procedures in the UK.
· Death certification practices were altered.
· The movement from single-doctor to multiple-doctor general practices.
The report stated that there was not much safeguarding and monitoring of doctors' decisions.So, the forms for cremation in England and Wales have had their questions to be answered by family members like-
· Do you know or suspect that the death of the person who has died was violent or unnatural?
· Do you consider that there should be any further examination of the remains of the deceased person?"
