Harold Shipman

Early Life

Harold Frederick Shipman was born January 14, 1946 on the Bestwood council estate in Nottingham, England. He was the second of four children to Harold and Vera Shipman, a pair of working class parents who were also devout Methodists.

Harold grew increasingly close to his mother, who was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer when he was a teenager. He became fascinated by the effects of morphine on his mother, and watched as a doctor came into their home to administer it. Many experts claim that this fascination with morphine played a pivotal role in his murderous tenancies, and his modus operandi. Harold was 17 when his mother passed away in June 1963, and it is believed her death inspired him to study medicine.

At the age of 19, Harold met his future wife, Primrose. She was just 17, but she quickly became pregnant with their first child.

After a short investigation, the council declared that Shipman was fit to return to work, and that he was not a risk to his patients. However, in 1976, he was convicted of 83 counts of forgery and deception and was fined £600.One year on, Shipman became a General Practitioner at the Donneybrook Medical Centre in Hyde.

Shipman stayed as a GP at the Donneybrook Medical Centre until 1993. During these years, he became an accepted part of the community of Hyde and was not suspected of any illegal behaviour amongst his patients or colleagues. In 1983, he was interviewed on the Granada Television documentary, A World in Action regarding treatment of the mentally ill within the community. He claimed:

"In the past, if a patient had got a mental illness that required admission to hospital, the patient was formally admitted, undressed and placed in bed and was treated as though they had a physical illness. A consultant would come round - often in a white coat - and there was an invisible barrier between the patient and the doctor.

[In present times] If you have got a mental illness such as depression, to have you admitted to a hospital is adding another factor towards that depression. If you can stay in the community, receive your treatment in the community with your family around you and your friends, then this all adds to the speed of recovery from the illness."

The doctor left the Medical Centre to open his own surgery on Market Street, in Hyde.

Reports indicate that the funeral director visited Harold Shipman regarding these concerns, and was assured that there was “nothing to be concerned about.”  Unsatisfied with Shipman's lack of explanation, Deborah Massey, from the funeral parlour approached Dr Susan Booth, from a neighbouring practice. She expressed her concerns to the doctor, who in turn, returned to her surgery and discussed the matter with her fellow practice owners. She discovered that her colleague, Dr Linda Reynolds was also having concerns regarding Shipman, and was growing increasingly alarmed at the amount of cremation forms she was being asked to countersign.

They called an urgent meeting in late March 1998, and unlike usual discussions, the doctors held it away from Hyde in a pub in Heaton Moor. The team discussed their suspicions, and decided to look at both their own, and Shipman's cremation forms which he has asked them to countersign. They found that over the period of several months, Dr Shipman had requested their signature on 41 cremation forms. In their own surgery over the same time span, there had been only 14 deaths in total.

The doctors reported their findings to the Greater Manchester Police that month, and an investigation was immediately launched into the the allegations made against Dr Harold Shipman. DI Smith was assigned to the case, and began by visiting Dr Linda Reynolds at Brooke Surgery. She expressed a concern over the high death rates at Doctor Shipman's surgery, adding that his death toll was far higher than in her former practice at Reddish.

DI Smith then interviewed a representative of the Pennine Health Authority, Doctor Banks. Doctor Banks was assigned to deal with complaints regarding health practitioners in the area, and was asked his professional opinion about Shipman's activities. He declared that there was nothing out of the ordinary in Shipman's notes or his actions.

Shipman continued on his usual routine, unaware of DI Smith's investigation. During the time of the investigation, a further two of his patients died, Ava Warburton and Martha Marley. Despite the seriousness of the allegations made against Shipman, no autopsies were carried out on either women. Instead, DI Smith focuses his attention to the town hall to discover how many death certificates had been registered by the doctor in the past six months.

Due to a clerical error, Smith was not handed all of the death certificates issued by Shipman. This led him to believe that the doctor was involved in far fewer deaths than he was, giving him yet another reason to believe there was nothing to be concerned about in regards to Shipman murdering his patients. Shortly afterwards, DI Smith closed the investigation, easing the minds of the majority of doctors at the Brooke Surgery. However, Lynda Reynolds remained doubtful of the findings of the investigation, and because of this, the doctors all agreed to keep a close eye on Dr Shipman.

It is now understood that a further three patients died at the hands of Harold Shipman after the investigation was closed, the final being that of Kathleen Grundy.

Kathleen's daughter, Angela was contacted by her mother's solicitor several days after the funeral. They informed her that Kathleen had left all of her assets to the family doctor, Harold Shipman. Kathleen's family were shocked and surprised, as they were aware that Kathleen was not close to her doctor in anyway. She had been a healthy woman and needed little contact with him.

When Angela saw the will, she immediately became aware of how amateurish the document was. It looked as though it had been typed in a rush, and also held inaccurate information. In one section it reads: 'All my estate, money and house to my doctor.' Yet Kathleen had owned two houses, and had she made that will, it would contain both properties. Angela obtained several copies of her mother's signature and compared them to the one at the bottom of the will. They did not match. Armed with such information, Kathleen's daughter reported the will to the police.

As this was the second time Harold Shipman's name came to the attention of the police, a thorough investigation soon took place. On the day of Kathleen's death, Shipman had been to her home to collect a blood sample, yet the sample could not be located anywhere. Under further scrutiny, police discovered that Shipman never handed in any blood sample from Ms Grundy.

By this point, the authorities now believed that Shipman was responsible for the death of Kathleen Grundy, at the very least, and had forged her will in an attempt to inherit £400,000. A typewriter of the same make and model the will was typed with was found in his surgery, and Shipman's fingerprints were found on the will, proving that he had come into contact with it.

Harold Shipman was by now aware that he was under investigation, but this did not stop him from carrying out his usual daily activities and joking with his patients. To the police, he appeared to be inconvenienced by the investigation, as opposed to being worried in anyway. Despite Shipman's calm attitude, the town of Hyde was rife with gossip and disbelief. Shipman had spent years building up an excellent reputation in the town, ,and many of his patients simply did not believe the accusations.

Arrest

Kathleen Grundy's toxicology reports came back, and showed that she had died from an overdose of diamorphine. On 7 September 1998, the police arrested Harold Shipman. To avoid a media circus, they asked the doctor to come to Ashton police station of his own accord with his solicitor.

According to the interviewing officers, Shipman acted confidently throughout his interrogations. He was in the firm belief that he would be released, free of all charges, and denied all accusations thrown at him. Despite the doctor's confidence, evidence was mounting against him. They had searched through his surgery's records and found many discrepancies within Shipman's notes. Specific patient's records had clearly been altered, and despite his best efforts, they did match up to the patient's death and cremation certificates.

Police ordered further exhumations to take place, investigating the deaths of many more of him deceased patients.

Whilst in police custody, Shipman's surgery was flooded with the support of his patients. They could not believe he would be capable of murder, and were adamant that he was a victim of a terrible misunderstanding.

 Despite the local support, evidence against Shipman was mounting. By the time his case reached trial at the end of 1999, Shipman was accused of murdering 15 of his patients.

On 11 February 2000, ten days after his conviction, the General Medical Council formally struck Shipman off its register.