Dr. Harold Shipman: Born to Kill

Harold Shipman was an English doctor considered to be one of the UK’s most prolific serial killers, responsible for murdering more than 215 of his patients. His crimes shocked Britain and raised serious concerns about the medical profession and the adequacy of its procedures for certifying sudden deaths.

Shipman was born in Manchester in 1946 to a working-class family. He received a degree in medicine from Leeds University in 1970 and became a medical practitioner in Lancashire. However, he was forced to leave his practice a few years later when it was discovered that he had become addicted to the opiate pethidine and was writing fraudulent prescriptions to obtain it. In 1977, Shipman found work again as a medical practitioner in Hyde, Manchester, eventually gaining the respect of the local community and building up a successful practice.

In 1998, one of his elderly patients was found dead just hours after he had visited her. Suspicion was raised by the fact that she had appeared to be in good health, Shipman’s insistence that no autopsy was required, and that her will had been changed to his benefit. The patient’s family contacted the police, who then investigated other deaths that Shipman had certified. Investigators discovered a pattern of Shipman administering lethal doses of the painkiller diamorphine to patients and then signing death certificates attributing their deaths to natural causes.

In 2000, Shipman was sentenced to life imprisonment on fifteen counts of murder. A government inquiry was ordered to determine how many more patients he had killed. The report concluded that he had murdered between 215 and 260 people.

Dr. Harold Shipman: Born to Kill paints a profile of a serial killer whose crimes shocked a nation. His actions were considered especially egregious given the trust and respect he was afforded in his role as a doctor.