«Doctor Death» – a doctor who became a serial killer. Police credited him with over 250 victims

The echoes of Dr. Death’s crime persist in Great Britain to this day. The BBC has produced a documentary series dedicated to its victims. The question is still repeated, how is it possible that the elderly were left to fend for themselves. If they had been more interested, would there be a place for Shipman in society? And would he be able to hide his murders for over 20 years?

1. Harold Shipman’s character was marked by a sense of superiority, arrogance and a manic need to control his surroundings
2. A doctor killed his patients with an injection of diamorphine, or medical heroin
3. Older women were the majority of the victims of the British doctor
4. Dr. Shipman has never spoken to investigators and has never confessed to any of the charges against him.
5. You can find more such stories on the TvoiLokony home page

“Dokotr Śmierć” was exposed thanks to an attempt to forge a will

When, at the end of June 1998, Kathleen Grundy, the former mayor of Hyde, who had been very active as a volunteer in one of the many local charities, did not show up at the appointed time, her friends decided to check immediately that she was okay. . They drove to her house and found her on the sofa. She was dressed as if ready to leave and… dead.

They immediately called her doctor, Harold Shipman, an extremely popular and well-liked family doctor. Shipman admitted that he had visited her to obtain blood, and did not notice anything disturbing. He immediately wrote out a death certificate, stating “old age” as the cause of death.

Her sudden death causes a shock, because the energetic 81-year-old has been a good example of health so far, leading an intense social life.

Shipman took it upon himself to notify the daughter of the late Angela Woodruff. In the conversation, he emphasizes that there is no need to perform an autopsy, as he saw her mother several hours before her death. So Woodruff is organizing the funeral.

Soon he gets a phone call from a lawyer who says he has a will of an old lady. Woodruff, who works as a solicitor, is surprised because she has handled all of her mother’s affairs on her own.

Her suspicions turn into certainty when she takes her last will in hand. First, it was typed, which a mother would never have done. Secondly, it is too short, lacks detail, which does not suit her meticulous mother. And third, Ms Grundy donates all her assets (worth nearly £ 390) to Harold Shipman. And why doesn’t the mother mention who inherits her second home? Finally, it is time for the signature. It doesn’t look plausible. Mrs. Woodruff looks through her mother’s papers, finds the signature patterns, and compares them to the one on the document. Do not fit. This makes him decide to report the forgery.

Police start investigating, and the forgery case soon escalates into a criminal scandal on a scale the UK has never seen before.

A carefully disguised addiction

Apparently, Shipman was intelligent and aloof as a young boy. He attended an elite school, where he earned high grades. Although he was considered laid back and nice, he had no friends.

His mother was watching over him with ambitions. She discouraged her son from making “inappropriate” acquaintances, isolated him, instilling a sense of superiority over his peers.

Unfortunately, Harold’s mother died when he was 17 years old. She had lung cancer, and as her symptoms worsened, the doctor gave her morphine more and more often. The boy, returning from school, met him in the living room, sat on the sofa with a ready syringe.

After his mother died, Harold decided to become a doctor. While studying at Leeds, he met Miss Primrose Oxtoby. The couple began dating, and Primrose soon became pregnant. The young people took a quiet wedding, and their first child was to have three more siblings.

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Shipman graduated in 1970 and immediately began working at Pontefract General Infirmary in Yorkshire. And in 1974 he opened his first practice. Doctors from the Abraham Ormerod Medical Center in Todmorden considered him a “gift from heaven”. So young, energetic, familiar with medical news. In his new job, Shipman became more social, seen as a respected member of the local community. Patients loved him for the attention he gave them.

However, the mid- and lower-level staff found him condescending and rude. His arrogance was clearly visible – he demanded that everything should go his way, and when someone disagreed with him, he would start fights. He maniacally controlled everyone, not allowing anyone to inject his patients or draw their blood.

Shipman’s behavior grew weirder over time. He had fainting, but explained it by epilepsy. Then one of the receptionists noticed some discrepancies in the drug registry: Shipman was prescribing a lot of pethidine, a painkiller usually given to women in childbirth. In the course of the investigation, it was found that many patients never received the drug, and those who did receive it did not take the amount Shipman prescribed.

There was a confrontation. Shipman pleaded for a second chance, but was handed a termination notice. It made him feel mad. Shipman screamed at the other doctors and finally threw the medical bag and ran out. He went to an elegant drug rehabilitation facility. He was fined a small fine for prescription fraud, but was not disqualified from practicing.

People who were about to die of a heart attack sat quietly in the chair

In 1977, Shipman applied to work at Donneybrook Medical Center in Hyde. A city where tourists used to come to see the home of serial killers Myra Hindley and Ian Brady. Always confident, Shipman admitted to a prior drug addiction during his job interview, but reassured him that he was now clean. He was hired.

He soon became famous among elderly patients for being exceptionally polite and attentive. While he was still rude to the staff he hid it better than at Todmorden.

In 1993, he shocked everyone with the declaration that he was leaving and taking his patients. He conducted his private practice with increasing success, mainly thanks to whispered advertising.

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However, as time went on, his treatments began to raise suspicions. Funeral home owners were surprised that so many of Shipman’s patients were dying. It was also strange that the dead – mostly elderly women – were sitting on chairs fully clothed. This was inconsistent with the causes of death listed in the death certificate – myocardial infarction or heart attack. Would someone dying of a heart attack sit still in a chair?

The funeral home owner shared her suspicions with an acquaintance of a doctor, Susan Booth. The latter, in turn, secretly asked a group of local doctors to investigate the matter. It turned out that even taking into account age and disease, the death rate of Shipman’s patients was three times higher than that of other doctors. And it has been for years.

The case was reported to the coroner. This one was also concerned, because Shipman said in the death records that he had carried out a full external examination, but the bodies were clothed.

The findings were submitted to the police. But the investigation went to an inexperienced detective. In March 1998, police found Shipman innocent and closed the case.

Suspicions grow and the police start another investigation

A few months later, Mrs. Woodruff reported to the police with a false will and suspicion of murder. However, to prove that Shipman killed her mother, the body had to be exhumed.

At the same time, the police secretly searched the house and the doctor’s office. An old Underwood typewriter was found – the one used to counterfeit the will. Forensic tests confirmed it was the same machine, and Shipman’s fingerprints were later found on the last will.

Shipman’s house seemed shockingly neglected to the police for a doctor. Full of dirty clothes and rubbish thrown around. A computer with medical records was seized, and a box filled with women’s jewelry was found in the garage.

On the other hand, laboratory workers examining the body of Mrs. Grundy discovered in her tissues deadly levels of diamorphine – medical heroin. The substance must have been administered three hours before she died, exactly when Shipman was with her. This discovery extended the investigation to his other patients.

Investigators focused on those who died shortly after Shipman’s call and those who were not cremated. 11 more women were exhumed and examined. Diamorphine was detected in all of them.

1. He just liked to kill people ». The horror nurse used injections

Although Shipman’s medical records indicated that his patients’ conditions were consistent with the causes of their deaths, IT specialists were consulted. Shipman was found to edit patient files, sometimes minutes after their death, and changed them to reflect the cause of death. In the case of Ms. Grundy, he wanted to show that a wealthy socialite was addicted to heroin. In a few cases, Shipman printed death certificates before the patients died.

On September 7, 1998, the doctor was arrested on suspicion of 15 murders and one forgery. During the interrogation, he denied everything. He treated investigators as contemptuously as hospital staff.

The body of “Doctor Death” hanging on the sheet is found in the cell by a guard

His trial began in October 1999. Subsequent witnesses testified that their able-bodied parents or relatives died suddenly of illnesses that no one knew about. Some said that when they visited the dying, Shipman casually admired the porcelain. He never called an ambulance or attempted resuscitation. Instead, he always insisted on the cremation of the bodies. He also often acted heartlessly when he informed them of the death of his loved ones.

It took the jurors almost 34 hours to agree on the verdict. On January 31, 2000, a court found Shipman guilty of all charges against him. The harshest sentence was passed – life imprisonment.

However, the matter did not end there. One year later, an investigation was launched into 22 more Shipman-related deaths. The results of the investigation were shocking. The doctor, starting in 1975, most likely killed 215 of his patients. He was later linked to even more deaths – over 250, making him one of the cruelest serial killers in history.

Apparently, his first victim was a 4-year-old girl suffering from cerebral palsy. He injected her with diamorphine or some sedatives in 1972, when her mother left the girl in his care for a while.

However, since Shipman was already serving a life sentence, he was not prosecuted for other murders. The doctor, who was nicknamed “Doctor Death”, never admitted to any crime. During interrogations, he would turn his chair over to sit with his back to the investigators. He didn’t speak. He picked his nose and yawned in utter contempt.

On January 13, 2004, the day before his 58th birthday, rangers found Shipman hanging on a sheet in his cell. The body was handed over to his wife, who cremated it.

His trial led to changes in medical practices. Drug prescriptions began to be checked more meticulously, e.g. how to submit death certificates and cremation applications.

In 2005, a small Shipman Memorial Park was established in Hyde.