INTRODUCTION
Harold Frederick Shipman, better known as Frederick Shipman was a British serial killer who worked as a medical practitioner in England. He was declared guilty on January 31, 2000, at Preston, England, for the murder of 15 patients, with a list of around 200 victims, or probably more. 80% of his victims were old-age females.
Born in 1946, Harold was brought up in a working middle-class family in Manchester. He received a medical degree in the 1970s from Leeds University and became a general practitioner at the Abraham Ormerod Medical Practice in Lancashire. In 1975, it was discovered that he dishonestly consumed opiate pethidine by writing fraudulent prescriptions for which he was banished from the service and sentenced to pay compensation and fine by the Halifax Magistrates Court. He was sent to the drug rehabilitation center. Later, from August 1992, he began working as a practitioner in Greater Manchester until 1998, when he was arrested.
In July 1998, Shipman was caught in an inquiry of one of his patients’ death, Mrs. Kathleen Grundy (age 81). Thereafter, the investigation circle widened when the mode of death of his other patients was acknowledged. On 31st January 2000, Harold was convicted by the Jury at Preston Crown Court.
BACKGROUND OF THE CASE
Mrs. Grundy, a widow, was in good health according to her age and lived a healthy social and economic life. She was found dead in her home on 24th June 1998, shortly after Dr. Shipman had visited her. Her daughter Mrs. Angela Woodruff got suspicious of her death on the discovery that Mrs. Grundy has bequeathed her entire estate worth £386,000 to the doctor, leaving nothing for her grandchildren. Shipman had passed her forged death certificate mentioning a reason for old age. However, according to the scientific analysis carried out in August 1998, morphine poisoning was held responsible for her death.
Few days before Mrs. Grundy’s death Shipman had visited her, compelling her to participate in research related to ageing process. This reason paved the way to visit Mrs. Grundy on a regular basis. A day before her death, he visited her to get her ears syringed and notified her that he needs her blood sample for which he managed to visit her at 8.30 am, the next morning. The next morning (24th June), when she didn’t visit her friend’s house, two of her colleagues Mr. John Green and Mr. Ronald Pickford reached her house during midday. She was found with a cold body, lying on the sofa, discovered dead. The status of the door was unlocked. They immediately informed Dr. Shipman, who on reaching conducted a perfunctory examination and declared Mrs. Grundy dead due to “old age”. He also stated that he had a meeting with someone at the coroner’s office after which the cause of death was ascertained. However, there were no records of his discussion with anyone in the office.
Mr. Green contacted police shortly after Mr. Shipman left as he was unable to convey this news to Mrs. Woodruff, Mrs. Grundy’s daughter. The police summoned Mr. Shipman regarding the instance, to which he replied that he had visited Mrs. Grundy as she was unwell, but he didn’t put forth the fact of blood sample collection. He also pinned that he had issued a certificate from the coroner’s office regarding the cause of death due to natural reasons. Thus, on finding nothing suspicious, police had suspended the inquiry.
Mrs. Woodruff agreed to the doctor’s reasons for Mrs. Grundy being unwell until she came across her mother’s new will which was handed over to Hamilton Ward legal firm on the same day of her death. The new will was poorly typed which read that Mrs. Grundy has handed over her entire estate to the doctor. Mrs. Woodruff was unable to process this as her mother was a meticulously tidy person and she couldn’t have signed such an important document with bad typing. She got intensively suspicious when the handwriting on will looked larger than how her mother used to sign.
This led to an exhumation to verify the cause of death for forensic evidence. Post mortem examination revealed morphine poisoning due to administration of fatal doses. Thus, this contradicted the doctor’s reason about natural causes for death. Many false entries were also found in medical records after death such as Mrs. Grundy being exposed to unwell bodily conditions and her history of abusing drugs which were inconsistent with her body examinations.
FORENSIC INVESTIGATION
The primary evidence that put the doctor into suspicion was the forging of the will. It was found that Mr. Shipman possessed an old-fashioned portable typewriter that had the same ink and paper which was used in forging the genuine will. Also, the handwriting evidence revealed that Mrs. Grundy’s signature had been forged. The new will was generated on 9th June 1998, when Shipman had a consultation session with Mrs. Grundy. This proved the doubt that the doctor must have obtained her signature as her consent for the research and the signatures of two of his patients as witnesses. He then copied those signatures on the forged will.
The handwriting evidence indicated that there was a discontinuity in both the signatures which usually occurs as a result of the act of forging. Also, the bigger size of Mrs. Grundy’s signature was inconsistent with her normal signatures.
Other evidence that pointed suspicion on Mr. Shipman was the sudden death of Mrs. Grundy as it was difficult to rely upon the entries mentioned in the medical report about drug abuse because she was in a perfectly healthy state. Being a security-conscious person, leaving the main door unlocked after Dr. Shipman left was another major reason to get suspicious over the testimony.
MOTIVE
Motives for crime by the Doctor were seemingly unclear. According to a few people, it was suggested that it must be out of vengeance for his mother’s death as she was infected by lung cancer, and to ease the pain, she used to administer morphine injections. However, few argued that this must have happened as he was practicing euthanasia so that he can remove older people from the population. A third reason was also surfaced, that he might be deriving pleasure by killing patients, as being a doctor, he had the power of life and death. Monetary benefits behind the forgery also cannot be overruled. These were the speculated reasons regarding his motives for the crimes committed by him.
JUDGEMENT
On 31st January 2000, Mr. Shipman was found guilty of 15 murders by the administration of diamorphine in lethal doses, and for forging Mrs. Grundy’s will. He was sentenced to life in prison for 15 consecutive life sentences. Besides, he also received four years of imprisonment for will forgery. Later investigations in his case revealed the fact that he was also responsible for over 200 murders.
AFTERMATH
Shipman committed suicide in Wakefield prison, West Yorkshire at the morning in his cell by hanging. On the eve of his 58th birthday, he was officially declared dead on 13 January 2004.
REFERENCES
- Derrick J. Pounder, September 2003. The Case of Dr. Shipman, The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, Vol. 24(3).
- Keith Soothill, September 2001. The Harold Shipman case: a sociological perspective, The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, Vol 12(2): 260–262.
- Keith Soothill, David Wilson, December 2005. Theorising the puzzle that is Harold Shipman, The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology, Vol. 16(4): 685 – 698.
- Case study: Harold Shipman from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/criminology
- Harold Shipman: British Physician and Serial killer from https://www.britannica.com/biography
- Harold Shipman – The Forensics Library from https://aboutforensics.co.uk
- Harold Shipman biography from https://www.biography.com/crime-figure
- Harold Shipman case study from https://acasestudy.com
Author
Prajakta Wanjari
Intern, Dept. of Forensic Science and Criminal Investigation
Legal Desire Media & Insights