Harold Shipman

Harold Frederick Shipman (14 January 1946 – 13 January 2004) was a British general practitioner (a type of doctor) and serial killer. He is thought to have killed 250+ of his patients.[1] He was a psychopath.[2]

Early life and career

Shipman was born in Bestwood council estate in Nottingham. He studied Medicine at the Leeds School of Medicine on scholarship. In 1974 he became a GP in Todmorden. In 1993 he started his own doctors' surgery in Hyde.

Crimes

In 1975, he was convicted of forging prescriptions for pethidine, to which he was addicted.

In 1999 he was put on trial and found guilty of 15 murders. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for each murder. An investigation identified another 235 suspicious deaths. His usual way of killing was using morphine. Most of the patients he killed were old women.

Death

While he was an inmate in Wakefield prison, West Yorkshire, he committed suicide on the day before his 58th birthday. It is not known why. At the time of his death he was still married to Primrose Shipman.

Aftermath

A garden in memory of Shipman's victims was opened in Hyde Park on 30 July 2005.[3]

In pop culture

Post-punk band The Fall released a song about Shipman called "What About Us?".

  • John Bodkin Adams - British general practitioner and suspected serial killer
  • Michael Swango - American doctor and serial killer

References
  1. "Harold Shipman: The killer doctor". 13 January 2004.
  2. "PMJ" (PDF).
  3. "Garden tribute to Shipman victims". 30 July 2005 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
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