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British Doctor Who Killed 215 Hangs Himself
By LIZETTE ALVAREZ
Published: January 13, 2004
ONDON, Jan. 13 — Harold Shipman, the suburban doctor who won his patients' trust before killing at least 215 of them, committed suicide in his prison cell today, prison officials said.
Prison officials found Dr. Shipman, Britain's most prolific mass murderer, hanging from a noose fashioned out of bed sheets this morning. Staff members at the Wakefield Prison in West Yorkshire failed in their attempts to revive him.
Jane Parsons, a spokeswoman for the Prison Service, said Dr. Shipman, who had been on suicide watch on-and-off at other prisons, was not considered a risk to himself at the time of his death. Dr. Shipman was serving 15 consecutive life terms, without parole.
"His behavior was not a cause for concern," she said. "He had not received any threats."
An investigation into the death will be carried out by Stephen Shaw, who will be the first person to fill the role of prisons and probations ombudsman.
Dr. Shipman, a gray-bearded, bespectacled doctor from Hyde, a suburb of Manchester in northern England, was convicted four years ago of murdering 15 of his patients through lethal injection. An official inquiry in 2002, headed by Dame Janet Smith, a High Court judge, found he had actually murdered 215 patients, and possibly as many as 260, over period of 23 years.
The doctor, a married father of four, never admitted his guilt.
"He betrayed their trust in a way and to an extent that I believe is unparalleled in history," Dame Janet said upon completion of the inquiry.
The inquiry report pointed to loopholes in the law that allowed Dr. Shipman to kills scores of people without suspicion, singled out two Manchester police detectives for bungling the investigation into the doctor and called for reforms in the coroners' office.
Dubbed "Dr. Death" by the press, Dr. Shipman preyed on elderly or middle-aged patients, usually women living alone, who needed checkups or complained of mild ailments.
Once inside their homes, he would administer a deadly injection, usually containing heroin. Dr. Shipman had found ways of stockpiling the drug, either by prescribing it falsely or stealing it from cancer patients.
Upon the death of a patient, the doctor easily persuaded bereaved relatives that no autopsies were needed, offering ready explanations for their sudden demise. Many of the victims were cremated, along with all evidence of Dr. Shipman's wrongdoing.
The sheer number of people he killed, and the simple, nonviolent way he killed them, shocked and horrified people in Britain, and made headlines for months.
Dr. Shipman's trial judge, Justice Forbes, described his crimes as "wicked, wicked."
"I have little doubt that each of your victims smiled and thanked you as she submitted to your deadly administrations," he said, after Dr. Shipman's conviction.
The quiet, respected doctor was caught only after Kathleen Grundy, the daughter of his last victim, challenged a will left by her mother. The revised will stated that all the money in the estate be left to Dr. Shipman. Her body was exhumed and doctors found traces of heroin in her remains.
Dr. Shipman had a fondness for heroin. He abused a heroin-like drug in the 1970's, when he was already a practicing doctor. He was convicted of writing himself prescriptions, was fined and fired from his job.
After a spell in drug rehabilitation, he resurfaced in 1977, when he began practicing medicine in Hyde.
The relatives of Dr. Shipman's many victims said in news reports today that they felt cheated, calling Dr. Shipman's suicide an easy way out. They also expressed remorse over the fact that the deaths will never be explained.
Judges and prosecutors have speculated that Dr. Shipman had a desire to play God. Dame Janet said he may have been "addicted to killing."
Dr. Shipman's lawyer, Giovanni di Stefano, told The Evening Standard of London that prison officials failed to safeguard his client. "The fact that he had done this is an outrage and the fault lies entirely, absolutely with the authorities."
In 2003, 94 prisoners out of a population of 70,000 committed suicide in prison, according to the Prison Reform Trust.
Last summer, Ian Huntley, a man accused of murdering two schoolgirls, attempted suicide by taking a drug overdose in an English prison. An inquiry was critical of the prison and said procedures to protect the prisoner "fell well short of acceptable standards."
British Doctor Who Killed 215 Hangs Himself
By LIZETTE ALVAREZ
Published: January 13, 2004
ONDON, Jan. 13 — Harold Shipman, the suburban doctor who won his patients' trust before killing at least 215 of them, committed suicide in his prison cell today, prison officials said.
Prison officials found Dr. Shipman, Britain's most prolific mass murderer, hanging from a noose fashioned out of bed sheets this morning. Staff members at the Wakefield Prison in West Yorkshire failed in their attempts to revive him.
Jane Parsons, a spokeswoman for the Prison Service, said Dr. Shipman, who had been on suicide watch on-and-off at other prisons, was not considered a risk to himself at the time of his death. Dr. Shipman was serving 15 consecutive life terms, without parole.
"His behavior was not a cause for concern," she said. "He had not received any threats."
An investigation into the death will be carried out by Stephen Shaw, who will be the first person to fill the role of prisons and probations ombudsman.
Dr. Shipman, a gray-bearded, bespectacled doctor from Hyde, a suburb of Manchester in northern England, was convicted four years ago of murdering 15 of his patients through lethal injection. An official inquiry in 2002, headed by Dame Janet Smith, a High Court judge, found he had actually murdered 215 patients, and possibly as many as 260, over period of 23 years.
The doctor, a married father of four, never admitted his guilt.
"He betrayed their trust in a way and to an extent that I believe is unparalleled in history," Dame Janet said upon completion of the inquiry.
The inquiry report pointed to loopholes in the law that allowed Dr. Shipman to kills scores of people without suspicion, singled out two Manchester police detectives for bungling the investigation into the doctor and called for reforms in the coroners' office.
Dubbed "Dr. Death" by the press, Dr. Shipman preyed on elderly or middle-aged patients, usually women living alone, who needed checkups or complained of mild ailments.
Once inside their homes, he would administer a deadly injection, usually containing heroin. Dr. Shipman had found ways of stockpiling the drug, either by prescribing it falsely or stealing it from cancer patients.
Upon the death of a patient, the doctor easily persuaded bereaved relatives that no autopsies were needed, offering ready explanations for their sudden demise. Many of the victims were cremated, along with all evidence of Dr. Shipman's wrongdoing.
The sheer number of people he killed, and the simple, nonviolent way he killed them, shocked and horrified people in Britain, and made headlines for months.
Dr. Shipman's trial judge, Justice Forbes, described his crimes as "wicked, wicked."
"I have little doubt that each of your victims smiled and thanked you as she submitted to your deadly administrations," he said, after Dr. Shipman's conviction.
The quiet, respected doctor was caught only after Kathleen Grundy, the daughter of his last victim, challenged a will left by her mother. The revised will stated that all the money in the estate be left to Dr. Shipman. Her body was exhumed and doctors found traces of heroin in her remains.
Dr. Shipman had a fondness for heroin. He abused a heroin-like drug in the 1970's, when he was already a practicing doctor. He was convicted of writing himself prescriptions, was fined and fired from his job.
After a spell in drug rehabilitation, he resurfaced in 1977, when he began practicing medicine in Hyde.
The relatives of Dr. Shipman's many victims said in news reports today that they felt cheated, calling Dr. Shipman's suicide an easy way out. They also expressed remorse over the fact that the deaths will never be explained.
Judges and prosecutors have speculated that Dr. Shipman had a desire to play God. Dame Janet said he may have been "addicted to killing."
Dr. Shipman's lawyer, Giovanni di Stefano, told The Evening Standard of London that prison officials failed to safeguard his client. "The fact that he had done this is an outrage and the fault lies entirely, absolutely with the authorities."
In 2003, 94 prisoners out of a population of 70,000 committed suicide in prison, according to the Prison Reform Trust.
Last summer, Ian Huntley, a man accused of murdering two schoolgirls, attempted suicide by taking a drug overdose in an English prison. An inquiry was critical of the prison and said procedures to protect the prisoner "fell well short of acceptable standards."
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