Life StoryBorn the middle child into a working class family on 14 January 1946, Harold Shipman known as Fred, was the favourite child of his domineering mother, Vera. She instilled in him an early sense of superiority that tainted most of his later relationships, leaving him an isolated adolescent with few friends. When his mother was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, he willingly oversaw her care as she declined, fascinated by the positive effect that the administration of morphine had on her suffering, until she succumbed to the disease on 21 June 1963. Devastated by her death, he was determined to go to medical school, and he was admitted to Leeds University medical school for training two years later, having failed his entrance exams first time, before serving his hospital internship. Still a loner, he met his wife-to-be Primrose at the age of 19, and they were married when she was 17, and five months pregnant with their first child. By 1974, he was a father of two and had joined a medical practice in Todmorden, Yorkshire, where he initially
thrived as a family practitioner, before allegedly becoming addicted to the painkiller Pethidine. He forged prescriptions for large amounts of the drug, and he was forced to leave the practice when caught by his medical colleagues in 1975, at which time he entered a drug rehab programme. In the subsequent inquiry he received a small fine and a conviction for forgery. The local undertaker noticed that Dr. Shipman's patients seemed to be dying at an unusually high rate, and exhibited similar poses in death: most were fully clothed, and usually sitting up or reclining on a settee. He was concerned enough to approach Shipman about this directly, who reassured him that there was nothing to be concerned about. Later, another medical colleague, Dr. Susan Booth, also found the similarity disturbing, and the local coroner's office were alerted, who in turn contacted the police. Hiding behind his status as a caring, family doctor, it is almost impossible to establish exactly when Shipman began killing his patients, or indeed exactly how many died at his hands, and his denial of all charges did nothing to assist the authorities. |
Police later established that Shipman would, in most cases, alter these medical notes directly after killing the patient, to ensure that his account matched the historical records. What Shipman had failed to grasp was that each alteration of the records would be time stamped by the computer, enabling police to ascertain exactly which records had been altered. Following extensive investigations, which included numerous exhumations and autopsies, the police charged Shipman with 15 individual counts of murder on September 7, 1998, as well as one count of forgery.
Shipman died in January 2004 after hanging himself with bed sheets in his cell at Wakefield Prison in West Yorkshire, this angered many involved who felt it was an easy way out for him and that he shouldn't have been allowed to die. |
Bibliography
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3391871.stm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2005/aug/25/health.shipman
http://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/crime-files/harold-shipman/biography.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2005/aug/25/health.shipman
http://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/crime-files/harold-shipman/biography.html