harold shipman

1. Harold shipman
Detection
In March 1998, Dr. Linda Reynolds of the Brooke Surgery in Hyde—
prompted by Deborah Massey from Frank Massey and Son's funeral parlour
—expressed concerns to John Pollard, the coroner for the South Manchester
District, about the high death rate among Shipman's patients. In particular,
she was concerned about the large number of cremation forms for elderly
women that he had needed countersigned. She suspected Shipman was,
either through negligence or intent, killing his patients.
The matter was brought to the attention of the police, who were unable to
find sufficient evidence to bring charges; The Shipman Inquiry later blamed
the police for assigning inexperienced officers to the case. Between 17 April
1998, when the police abandoned the investigation, and Shipman's eventual
arrest, he killed three more people. His last victim was Kathleen Grundy, a
former ceremonial Mayor of Hyde, who was found dead at her home on 24
June 1998. Shipman was the last person to see her alive, and later signed her
death certificate, recording "old age" as cause of death.
Grundy's daughter, lawyer Angela Woodruff, became concerned when
solicitor Brian Burgess informed her that a will had been made, apparently
by her mother (although there were doubts about its authenticity). The will
excluded her and her children, but left £386,000 to Shipman. Burgess told
Woodruff to report it, and went to the police, who began an investigation.
Grundy's body was exhumed, and when examined found to contain traces of
diamorphine, often used for pain control in terminal cancer patients.
Shipman was arrested on 7 September 1998, and was found to own a
typewriter of the type used to make the forged will.
The police then investigated other deaths Shipman had certified, and created
a list of 15 specimen cases to investigate. They discovered a pattern of his
administering lethal overdoses of diamorphine, signing patients' death
certificates, and then forging medical records indicating they had been in
poor health.
Prescription For Murder, a book by journalists Brian Whittle and Jean
Ritchie, reports two theories on why Shipman forged the will. One is that he
wanted to be caught because his life was out of control; the other reason, that
he planned to retire at fifty-five and leave the country.
Trial and imprisonment

2. Shipman's trial, presided over by Mr Justice Forbes, began on 5 October
1999. Shipman was charged with the murders of Marie West, Irene Turner,
Lizzie Adams, Jean Lilley, Ivy Lomas, Muriel Grimshaw, Marie Quinn,
Kathleen Wagstaff, Bianka Pomfret, Norah Nuttall, Pamela Hillier, Maureen
Ward, Winifred Mellor, Joan Melia and Kathleen Grundy, all of whom had
died between 1995 and 1998.
On 31 January 2000, after six days of deliberation, the jury found Shipman
guilty of killing 15 patients by lethal injections of diamorphine, and forging
the will of Kathleen Grundy. The trial judge sentenced him to 15 consecutive
life sentences and recommended that he never be released. Shipman also
received four years for forging the will. Two years later, Home Secretary
David Blunkett confirmed the judge's recommendation that Shipman never
be released, just months before British government ministers lost their
power to set minimum terms for prisoners.
On 11 February 2000, ten days after his conviction, the General Medical
Council formally struck Shipman off its register.
Shipman consistently denied his guilt, disputing the scientific evidence
against him. He never made any statements about his actions. His defence
tried, but failed, to have the count of murder of Mrs Grundy, where a clear
motive was alleged, tried separately from the others, where no obvious
motive was apparent. His wife Primrose apparently was in denial about his
crimes as well.
Although many other cases could have been brought to court, the authorities
concluded it would be hard to have a fair trial, in view of the enormous
publicity surrounding the original trial. Also, given the sentences from the
first trial, a further trial was unnecessary. The Shipman Inquiry concluded
Shipman was probably responsible for about 250 deaths. The Shipman
Inquiry also suggested that he liked to use drugs recreationally.
Despite the prosecutions of Dr John Bodkin Adams in 1957, Dr Leonard
Arthur in 1981, and Dr Thomas Lodwig in 1990 (amongst others), Shipman
is the only doctor in British legal history to be found guilty of killing
patients.
According to historian Pamela Cullen, Adams had also been a serial killer—
potentially killing up to 165 of his patients between 1946 and 1956—and it
is estimated he may have killed over 450, but as he "was found not guilty,
there was no impetus to examine the flaws in the system until the Shipman
case. Had these issues been addressed earlier, it might have been more
difficult for Shipman to commit his crimes." H. G. Kinnell, writing in the

3. British Medical Journal, also speculates that Adams "possibly provided the
role model for Shipman".
Death
Harold Shipman committed suicide by hanging in his cell at Wakefield
Prison at 06:20 on 13 January 2004, on the eve of his 58th birthday, and was
pronounced dead at 08:10. A Prison Service statement indicated that
Shipman had hanged himself from the window bars of his cell using bed
sheets. Some British tabloids expressed joy at his suicide and encouraged
other serial killers to follow his example; The Sun ran a celebratory front
page headline, "Ship Ship hooray!"
Some of the victims' families said they felt cheated, as his suicide meant
they would never have the satisfaction of Shipman's confession, and answers
as to why he committed his crimes. The Home Secretary David Blunkett
noted that celebration was tempting, saying: "You wake up and you receive a
call telling you Shipman has topped himself and you think, is it too early to
open a bottle? And then you discover that everybody's very upset that he's
done it."
Despite The Sun's celebration of Shipman's suicide, his death divided
national newspapers, with the Daily Mirror branding him a "cold coward"
and condemning the Prison Service for allowing his suicide to happen. The
Independent, on the other hand, called for the inquiry into Shipman's suicide
to look more widely at the state of Britain's prisons as well as the welfare of
inmates.
In The Guardian, an article by Sir David Ramsbotham (former Chief
Inspector of Prisons) suggested that whole life sentencing be replaced by
indefinite sentencing as these would at least give prisoners the hope of
eventual release and reduce the risk of their committing suicide as well as
making their management easier for prison officials.
Shipman's motive for suicide was never established, although he had
reportedly told his probation officer that he was considering suicide so that
his widow could receive a National Health Service (NHS) pension and lump
sum, even though he had been stripped of his own pension. His wife
received a full NHS pension, which she would not have been entitled to if he
had died after the age of 60.
FBI profiler John Douglas asserted that serial killers are usually obsessed
committing "suicide by cop", can be a final act of control. Shipman had been
emotional and close to tears when his refusal to take part in courses which

4. would have encouraged him to confess his guilt led to privileges including
the opportunity to telephone his wife being removed. Privileges had been
returned the week before the suicide.
Additionally, Primrose, who had consistently believed that Shipman was
innocent, might have begun to suspect his guilt. According to Tony Fleming,
Shipman's ex-cellmate, Primrose recently wrote her husband a letter,
exhorting him to "tell me everything, no matter what".