Dr Death: The Shipman Case

Dr. Harold Shipman was born on January 14, 1946 in Nottingham, England. When he was 17 years old, his mother, Vera Shipman, died from lung cancer. He attended high school in Nottingham’s Pavement Grammar school and medicine at the University of Leeds on 1963. During this time, he met Primrose, who was three years younger than him. He married her on 1966 and the couple had their first child 4 months after. He graduated from medical school in 1970 and began to work at the general infirmary of Pontefract, a town which is located in the southeastern part of Leeds. It has been suggested that his killings began during this time.

It was in 1974 when Shipman started applying his general practice license in Todmorde, which is situated in the western part of Halifax. Detection of his drug abuse started when he was caught faking pethidene prescriptions. It was discovered that he was abusing the use of this drug. He was sent for a short while to a clinic for drug rehabilitation in York, after which he was announced fine.

He became a medical officer in Durham, specifically Hatfield College. Later on, in 1977, he became a general practitioner at Donneybrook Medical Center, which is found in Hyde, Greater Manchester.
All throughout 1980, Shipman went on with his practice. And on 1993, he built up his own clinic in Market Street. He was known as among the respectable citizens of the place.

It was in March 1998 when someone suspected that there was something wrong with Dr. Shipman. Dr. Linda Reynolds, who worked for Brooke Surgery which was located opposite the clinic of Shipman, was the first person to detect that there was something odd with the doctor. She approached John Pollard, who is a coroner for the district of South Manchester, and told him about her worries regarding the increasing rate of deaths from among the patients of Dr. Shipman. She grew suspicious as she was responsible to counter sign the cremation papers for those who died under his practice.

Dr. Reynolds suspected that Dr. Shipman was putting his patients to death; however, she did not know if it was due to malice or malpractice. This issue was attended to by the police, but they were not able to find enough proof to file charges against the doctor. Later on, an inquiry into the case of Dr. Shipman found that the police were not able to arrest the doctor right away as they assigned officers who did not have adequate experience in the case.

It was on March 6, 1995, when Dr. Shipman murdered his first victim. Marie West, aged 81, was injected by the doctor with lethal diamorphine dosage, a medical name for heroine. The Doctor told her son that the reason for her death was a massive stroke. Later on, he said that it was a heart attack that had killed her. Like the other victims of Dr. Shipman, Mrs. West came from Hyde, Manchester.

All of the victims of Dr. Shipman had been older women, each of them injected with lethal diamorphine doses. Some of them were killed in his office, while the others were murdered at their homes. After each of the murders, he would change the medical records of the women so he could divert attention away from himself. He would make a house visit and kill his patients right in their own homes. Later on, he would tell family members that the victim died of complications to their ailments.

Dr. Shipman’s last victim was Kathleen Grundy, who was the former Mayor of Hyde. She died in June 24, 1998, at her home and was found to have been overdosed with diamorphine. Like the other victims, Shipman had been the last person to see her, claiming that he visited her because he wanted to take a blood sample. Aside from falsifying her medical records, stating that Grundy had an addiction to morphine, he also forged a will, declaring that the old woman will leave her estate to the doctor. The daughter of Kathleen Grundy was concerned with the death of her mother because of the will that has been sent to her. She sought police help, asking for an investigation. The body of Mrs. Grundy was exhumed and went through further examination; sure enough, her body contained deadly traces of heroine. On September 7, 1998 Dr. Shipman was arrested and a typewriter was found at his office, which was believed to be used to create the will.

The total number of victims killed by Dr. Shipman cannot be accurately estimated although it has been speculated that the doctor has murdered at least 250 patients, from the year 1971 to 1998.

There have been other reports of shady deaths; however, there has been no adequate evidence to pin him to these cases. There was also a suspicion, which harbored on the death of a girl who was four years of age. This happened when the doctor was still starting out at the general hospital in Pontefract.

The total number of people who died under the care of Dr. Shipman is 459; however, it is not certain how many of them were intentionally killed by the doctor.

The trial started on October 5, 1999 and was presided over by Justice Thayne John Forbes. The doctor was prosecuted for death caused by murder for 15 women. After the jury deliberated on the case for 6 days, he was convicted on January 31, 2000, for murdering his patients. He was sentenced to 15 successive life sentences—and was recommended for non-release.

Harold Shipman murdered Marie West, 81, at her home on March 6, 1995

Dr. Shipman always denied that he was guilty and he did not make any kind of statement over his actions. His defense attempted to have the case of Kathleen Grundy tried separately; however, this attempt failed. There have been other cases which might have been sent to court, but it was stated that a fair trial would be difficult since, the original case was surrounded by great publicity.

Some comments have been made stating that he murdered elder women because of the pain that he felt when his mother died while he was still a teen. On the other hand, some said that he wanted to gain control over the life and the death of a person. An inquiry into his case also stated that he wanted to conduct experiments with drugs and it further concluded that the doctor may have been responsible for the death of 500 other victims.
harold shipman jailed On January 13, 2004, Shipman hanged himself. At 8:10 a.m. that same day, he was announced dead. The officials of the prison stated that he hung himself from the bar cells with the use of bed sheets. The family of his victims stated that they felt deceived with his death because they would never find out why he killed the women. Dr. Shipman’s reason for killing himself has not been established. But there have been reports that he confided to his probation officer of his plan to commit suicide so his wife would get lump sum pension benefits from the health service.
Shipman jailed for 15 murders

It was also asserted that he killed himself as a last gesture to control his own life.

It was in 2005 when the idea that the doctor stole from his victims transpired. In 1998, jewelry was found in Shipman’s garage, which was estimated to be worth more than 10,000 pounds. In March 2005, his wife pressed that the jewelry should be returned to her. However, the police asked the families of the victims to identify the various items. The only item that was identified was a diamond ring, which was established by the family as theirs through a photograph. A total number of 33 items was returned to Shipman’s wife and the jewelry that was not identified was given to the agency of asset recovery in May in the same year. These were put on auction and the proceeds were given to the victims’ support of Tameside.

A memorial garden called the Garden of Tranquility was also set up as a commemoration for the victims who were killed by the doctor. This opened on July 30, 2005 in Hyde Park.

By Carlos Cabezas López

Bibliography:

Ottley, Ted. "Dr Harold Shipman." Dr Harold Shipman, the world's most prolific serial killer. 13 May 2007. Crime library. 13 May 2007 .