UK - Dr. Harold Shipman, British serial killer, 1974-1998

Hugh

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The UK's own Dr Death was found hanged in his prison cell this morning. Shipman was found guilty of murdering 20 elderly patients but subsequent investigations have found that the number is in excess of 200.

in the light of the Fred West suicide how was it possible for the prison staff not to ensure that Dr Shipman was on suicide watch.
 
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Serial killer Harold Shipman, known as "Dr. Death," has been found dead in his prison cell in northern England, officials say.

Shipman was found hanging in his cell at Wakefield prison, West Yorkshire, at 6:20 a.m. Tuesday and was pronounced dead at 8:10 a.m. after resuscitation efforts failed, a Prison Service spokeswoman said.
His death will be investigated. Shipman would have been 58 on Wednesday.

Shipman, a family doctor in the town of Hyde near Manchester, northwest England, was convicted for the deaths of 15 elderly women patients in 2000.

In July 2003, an inquiry found that Shipman murdered at least 215 patients, mainly elderly women.

Shipman hanged himself using bed sheets from the window bars in his cell, a Prison Service spokeswoman told the UK Press Association.

He had been on suicide watch briefly earlier in his sentence at Manchester prison and on being moved to Frankland prison in February 2000, but never since he arrived at Wakefield in June 2003.

"He was showing no signs whatsoever of pre-suicidal behavior at all," said the spokeswoman. "He was behaving utterly normally. He was working as normal and doing education as normal.

"There was absolutely no indication that this was coming and he was giving no cause for concern."

Shipman killed his victims with large amounts of diamorphine, or heroin, from 1975 to 1998, the 2,000-page report concluded.

Full Article with Photo from CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/01/13/shipman.death/index.html
 
Fellow sleuthers,

As part of my research for my upcoming novel, I've been studying physicians who also are serial killers. So far, the most chilling case I've come across is that of Dr. Harold "Fred" Shipman. Estimates differ, but the general consensus is that Shipman murdered anywhere from 300 to 1200 of his elderly (usually female) patients by overdosing them with heroin, then signing off their death certificates as death by natural causes.

But for a few critical mistakes (like forging one of his victim's wills and having her leave everything to him), many experts feel he could have gone undetected indefinitely.

This happened in the UK, so there hasn't been a great deal of press about it in the US.

If you want to read up on it, you can visit the following Web site:
http://www.cavendish-press.co.uk/shipman.htm

A good book on the subject is The Good Doctor by Wensley Clarkson (St. Martin's True Crime Library, 2002).

Shipman was convicted and sentenced to prison, but early in 2004 he was found hanged in his cell. It was ruled a suicide, but many think that he was murdered by other inmates.

Anybody else following this case?

Jim
 
the spelling/typos at that link are atrocious

and I can't believe a (former?) nun has so little moral fibre that she would attempt financial gain in this manner
 

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