Harold Shipman is the most famous family doctor from Great Britain. The Englishman, however, was not famous for the miraculous healing of his patients. He's a serial killer who killed around 250 people by giving them a morphine injection. The murderer is known in England as "Doctor Death". Were all patients afraid of him? Why did Shipman murder such a terrifying number of people? Find out who Harold Shipman was and how he became the terror of Great Britain that is only whispered about today.
Harold Shipman was born on January 14, 1946, in Nottingham (Great Britain). He came from the working class and was a very intelligent child. He studied at an elite school, where he excelled with excellent results (High Pavement Grammar School). In addition to studying, the young Shipman was also a great athlete. He achieved sports success in the track and field team of which he was captain and also ran in short and long-distance competitions. Although his classmates described him as nice and cheerful, Harold could not boast of a large number of friends. He never went out with friends from school, mostly because of his mother. It was she who made Harold achieve great academic results. She often made him stay at home, thus warning against "bad people". She encouraged her son not to associate with anyone - saying that Harold was better than others. Some believe that killing was in Harold's blood. The death of the patients filled the man with joy, especially when, accompanying them in the last moments, he sensed the power over them. Exactly. Shipman felt he could decide their life or death. Where could Shipman's murderous tendencies come from? Well, when Harold was 17, his mother died of lung cancer. Apparently, she died for a long time and in terrible torments. So that she would not suffer, the doctors caring for her injected the woman with morphine injections. The image of the doctor administering morphine to his mother in the Shipman family home was forever imprinted in the mind of the young Harold. It was after these events that Harold decided to become a doctor himself. Did he already know then that he would kill people in cold blood like John Wayne Gacy? Did he make plans to compensate for the loss of his mother by taking the lives of innocent patients?
After Harold's mother died, Harold began studying medicine in Leeds. He saw no other way for himself. He dreamed of becoming a doctor and that was his life goal. During his studies, although he did not party with his friends, he managed to meet his dream girl - Primrose Oxtoby. Harold was seeing her more and more. Soon Primrose became pregnant, so the couple secretly decided to get married. Soon after, apart from their first child, three more Shipman offspring were born. Primrose was in love with her husband and stared at him as if at a holy picture. She had no idea what terrifying was starting to circulate in the man's head. When Harold finished his studies, he immediately got a job in one of the hospitals in Yorkshire. Patients liked him very much and found him nice. They felt that Shipman understood all their problems and that he was actually devoting his time to them - not only because of his profession but because of his concern for them. Harold became outgoing, completely changing his approach to people. The local community respected him very much, and he had a great reputation in the city. He was energetic, liked, and knew almost all medical news. With time, however, something strange began to happen in his head. He began to be arrogant towards lower-level employees. He wanted everyone to work as he wanted them to. If someone opposed him, he could scream loudly and make a fuss about the entire hospital. He also controlled everything that happened during his shift and did not allow his assistants to, for example, give patients injections. With time, he began to act even weirder. Harold Shipman increasingly took advantage of his associates. He also passed out sometimes but blamed the blame for his supposed epilepsy. It soon turned out that the painkillers that the patients did not receive at all began to disappear from hospital supplies. Or at least not as much as they should be getting them. Harold Shipman accepted them himself. He had to go to rehab, but he was never banned from practicing his profession. After Harold finished therapy, he started working at a medical center in Hyde. In 1993, however, he realized that publicly treating people was not his goal. So he started working on his own account. Since then, he has treated people privately as a home doctor.
Patients liked the doctor, and he treated more and more people. Over time, however, something stopped to match. First, Shipman's treatments have begun to raise some doubts. In the funeral home, there was an increasing number of patients who died treated by Dr. Harold Shipman. The death certificates did not agree with the causes of death, which were recorded by Harold in the documents (e.g. heart attack). Patients, usually elderly and sick women, were found dressed and seated in chairs. After all, it was not possible for every person to die of a heart attack in the same way! This strange matter was watched more and more closely. It turned out that the mortality rate of people treated by Harold was several times higher than that of other local doctors. The police dealt with the case, but - due to the small amount of evidence - they quickly discontinued the investigation. After a few months, Harold Shipman was reported to the police by Mrs. Woodruff. She claimed that the doctor killed her mother. Police received permission to search Shipman's home. A typewriter was hit there, which the doctor used to forge his patient's will. It turned out the doctor's fingerprints were on the machine. In addition, a large box with expensive women's jewelry was found in his house. The garage was full of soiled, scattered clothes. In the meantime, the body of the woman's mother, who reported the matter to the police, was exhumed. Diamorphine was found in her body, given in a lethal dose about 3 hours before her death. Investigators immediately ordered other Shipman patients who had not yet been cremated to be examined. It turned out that each of them had… identical substance injected. On September 7, 1998, Dr. Shipman was arrested, accusing him of committing 15 murders. The doctor, of course, denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty. Harold's trial began shortly after, with more and more witnesses constantly appearing. Everyone testified that their relatives died of unclear causes - of diseases that the family had no idea about. All of them were also in agreement on one point. Harold Shipman has always insisted that the bodies of his patients be cremated. He also never seemed particularly touched by the death of his patients when he informed his immediate family about it. Harold Shipman was sentenced to life imprisonment on January 31, 2000. It was found that he was guilty of all the acts with which he was accused. However, the investigation did not stop there. It found that Shipman killed more than 250 people over the course of his 25-year medical career! This is what made "Doctor Death" famous as one of the cruelest and most terrifying serial killers the world has ever heard. Although the evidence was conclusive, Shipman never confessed to the murders committed. On January 13, 2004, the murderer's body was found in his prison cell - hanging on a sheet. By committing suicide, did the doctor decide for the last time to prove that he is the master of life and ... death?
Bibliography:
- Roger Bamford: Harold Shipman - Doctor Death (film), 2002
- Stephen J. Giannangelo, Jarosław Groth (trans.): Psychopathology of Serial Murder, If P to Q Publishing House, Poznań 2007
- A. Czerwiński, K. Gradoń: Serial Killers, Muza Publishing House, Warsaw 2001
- Anna Poppek: Serial killers. True stories of the twentieth century, G + J Books Publishing House, Warsaw 2013
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