Silent madness - A model doctor in the eyes of residents, but murdered 215 people in a row

When it comes to doctors, I believe most people think that it is a noble profession.

Before each medical student graduates, they take an oath that they will dedicate their lives to the service of humanity and never use their knowledge to harm human rights and justice.

The selflessness of this profession gives us a special respect for doctors, and 23 years ago, this was the attitude of the residents of Hyde, England, toward Harold Shipman, a physician.

A general practitioner, Shipman has practiced in Hyde, England, for more than 20 years and has had more than 3,000 patients. Local residents generally trusted him and liked him.

It was only after Shipman was convicted of 15 murders and a will forgery that Hyde residents realized that this respected doctor was a cold, cruel, lying serial killer.

And this devil in white, who used the cover of his position to kill more than 200 people in a row over a period of 28 years, was the serial killer with the highest number of killings in British history.

Had it not been for a will forgery case, no one knows how long Shipman would have remained at large and how many more people would have died as a result.

1. Accidental Death

The town of Hyde is located seven miles east of Manchester, and Kathleen Grundy was one of the approximately 35,000 people living there at the time of the 1998 crime.

Born in 1916, Kathleen Grundy is the widow of former Hyde Mayor John Grundy. A Conservative councillor, Kathleen worked for many years at City Hall and also served as chair of the local Community Health Committee.?

When her husband died, Catherine lived a solitary life. Her only child, Angela Woodruff, lives two hours away in Warwickshire.

In 1998, despite being 81 years old, Catherine was still energetic, alert and chatty.?

She volunteers weekly at the charity store and, in addition to that, organizes lunch meetings for the town's elderly three times a week and helps prepare and distribute food.?

She is energetic, loves to socialize and has few health problems. Daughter Angela commented that she was "more like 60 than 80."?

On June 24, 1998, Catherine was supposed to arrive early in the morning, as usual, to help prepare food at the Warners Center where the seniors were meeting. But her colleagues waited until noon and didn't see her, and no one answered her home phone, which had never happened before.

Out of concern, two colleagues went to Catherine's house. 11:55 a.m. When they found Catherine, she was dressed appropriately and curled up on the couch.

Catherine looked calm, like she was asleep. But her bloodless, blue face made the two colleagues realize that this energetic old woman was feared dead.

Catherine's colleagues notified her doctor, Harold Shipman. After examining Catherine's body, Shipman announced to her colleagues that Catherine had died of cardiac arrest.?

Shipman sorrowfully told them that he had also seen Catherine between 8:30 and 9:00 a.m. and had talked to her briefly.

He also told Catherine's colleagues that they could call the town's law firm, Hamden, which would handle what happened next, and left the scene.?

But when Catherine's colleagues contacted the law firm, they denied they were Catherine's agent and suggested they contact Catherine's relatives. Because Catherine's daughter Angela could not be contacted, the colleagues finally had to call the police.?

Two officers then conducted a survey of Catherine's home. After not finding any suspicious traces, they contacted Shipman. Shipman confirmed to them over the phone that Catherine had died of natural causes. The police then informed Angela of her mother's death.?

For Angela, the news of her mother's death came extraordinarily suddenly. Catherine had just visited her and her husband in Warwickshire a few weeks earlier, and the three of them had gone for a walk together. When they returned home, the elderly woman, who was in excellent spirits, even ironed her clothes while Angela and her husband were sitting on the sofa relaxing.?

Angela could not understand, for good reason, how her mother suddenly died? Driven by grief and shock, Angela and her husband drove to Hydetown early the next morning, hoping to talk to Shipman.

When they arrived at the clinic, Shipman told them that he had prepared Catherine's death certificate. In the cause of death column, Shipman filled in "advanced age".

Shipman advised Angela not to perform an autopsy because the process would only add to their grief and implied that Catherine's death was not as sudden as they thought and that she had actually been feeling unwell for some time.? Shipman's explanation did not convince Angela and her husband; after all, there is no direct causal relationship between advanced age and death. But since the police didn't find anything to suspect either, they had to let it go.?

On July 1, 1998, with grief and disbelief, Angela buried her mother in the cemetery of Hyde Church.

2. The will

The turn of events occurred on the twelfth day after the funeral. On that day, Angela received a phone call from Hamden Law Firm in Hyde Town, according to which Catherine had sent them a will and a letter of explanation.

In this will, Catherine claimed that her family did not need her wealth. She wished to leave all her possessions, money and house to Dr. Harold Shipman in gratitude for his care of her and the residents of Hydetown.?

Because they had never met Catherine in person, the law firm was not willing to execute the will directly, so they contacted Angela.

Holding the phone, Angela was confused. As a lawyer, she had handled almost all of her mother's legal documents. No one knew better than her that her mother had made her will 12 years earlier, naming her only daughter, Angela, as the primary beneficiary. If her mother wanted to change the will, why didn't she come and talk to herself first?

What's more, Angela and her husband were not in a bad financial situation (her husband was a physics professor at Warwick University), and even if the mother wanted to donate part of her estate to Dr. Shipman, this would not have caused a strong conflict between mother and daughter. Why would she make a special trip to a strange law firm to leave a will?

Two days later, Angela received a copy of the will. From the copy, it appeared that the will had been printed on a typewriter. The typewriter was in such bad condition that some of the letters were not legible.?

In addition to this, there is a misrepresentation in the text. According to this will, Catherine wanted to leave her house to Dr. Shipman, but in fact, Catherine owned two properties.?

Angela knew that with her mother's meticulous nature, in her will she would have listed exactly what assets she had and how she wanted them to be distributed.?

What's more, Catherine had worked as a secretary during her lifetime, specializing in printing documents, and there was no way she would have accepted that they were printed so badly.?

The moment she saw the copy of the will, all Angela's confusion disappeared. She was sure that the will had been forged. Although Harold Shipman was the direct beneficiary of the will, Angela and her husband did not immediately suspect him. After all, Shipman had been working in Hydetown for 21 years, and everyone had always remembered him as a dedicated, caring doctor. Angela and her husband thought that perhaps someone had falsified Shipman's will in order to frame him.

3. Investigation

To find out what happened, Angela found two witnesses to the will. According to Paul Spencer, he had indeed witnessed a document, but he did not know it was a will.

On that day, he was originally in line at Shipman's clinic with another woman. Shipman suddenly poked his head out of his consultation room and asked if they would mind doing him a favor and coming to witness a document.?

Because the document was folded up, Paul didn't know what he was signing, and he figured it was probably a routine medical document. Out of trust in Shipman, he signed it. Because he did not see the visitor in the consultation room, he could not be sure that it was Catherine who was in Shipman's office that day.?

Paul also mentioned that the signature on the will did not look like his. The second witness to the will said essentially the same thing as Paul. She additionally added that the way her address was written on the will did not match the way she was usually used to writing it. In addition to contacting the witnesses, Angela also obtained a deposit slip with her mother's recent signature from the bank in Hydetown. The signature on the deposit slip was much smaller than the signature on the will.

After investigating, Angela became more convinced that her mother's will had been forged and reported it to the police at her place of residence.?

Because Catherine lived in Hyde Township, the case was quickly transferred by the Warwickshire Police Department to the Greater Manchester Police Department, which is responsible for the Hyde Township area. Early on July 31, Inspector Stan Egerton and Constable Dave O'Brien of the Greater Manchester Police Department arrived in Warwickshire from Manchester to check in with Angela.

Because Shipman is the sole beneficiary of the will, and because he was probably the last person Catherine saw during her lifetime, Inspector Engerton believes that Shipman is suspected of Catherine's murder. But beyond that, another, more frightening thought hovered uncontrollably in his mind: if Shipman had really killed Catherine, had he killed more people.

4. Suspicion

Inspector Engelstein will have this thought because in March, the police department had just quietly investigated Shipman, and the purpose of the investigation was to determine whether he had murdered his own patients.?

The police investigation into Shipman was commissioned by local coroner John Pollard. In March, another Hyde Town doctor, Linda Reynolds (Linda Reynolds), told Pollard that she suspected Shipman had been murdering his patients.?

Dr. Linda would think so because the number of deaths of Shipman's patients was so high. In England, GPs are qualified to issue death certificates to their own patients, but this requires a second doctor to sign a review.? In addition, the GP has to sign the patient's cremation consent form, which also requires a second doctor to review the signature.?

Because Shipman had only one doctor in his private practice, whenever he needed a second doctor to review and sign, he would always go to another practice across the street and get a doctor there to sign, and Dr. Linda was one of them.

At the time, Dr. Linda had not been in Hydetown long. During her first few months on the job, she noticed that Shipman alone had signed almost as many cremation consent forms as the six doctors in their practice combined.?

In addition to Dr. Linda, the number of deaths of Shipman's patients and the unusual circumstances of the deaths likewise drew the attention of Alan Massey, who ran the family funeral business, and his daughter Deborah.

The father and daughter found that too many of Shipman's patients died in the afternoon, fully clothed. It was as if the pause button had suddenly been pressed on their lives, and most of them were engaged in other daily activities even before they died.?

This situation is very unusual. In the experience of the father and daughter, most people who die at home have been ill for some time and pass away in bed; rarely do they die so suddenly while properly dressed.?

Suspecting Shipman of murder, Alan found Shipman directly to question. But Shipman produced detailed records of his condition and explained to him why the patient had died seemingly suddenly.?

Deborah, in turn, voiced her suspicions to the clinic where Linda was working. Linda then relayed their concerns to the local coroner in charge of Hydetown, who consequently commissioned the Greater Manchester Police Department to conduct an investigation into Shipman.?

During the first investigation, the police obtained the medical records of Shipman's patients who had died within the past six months. But they never spoke to Shipman or the family of the deceased patient.? Although the mortician happened to have the remains of Shipman's patients on hand at the time, the police did not conduct an autopsy on the remains.?

The only thing they did was consult another hospital about the cases, and after receiving feedback that there were no abnormalities, the police told the coroner that Shipman was innocent.

They didn't even find out that Shipman actually had a criminal record!?

In 1974, Shipman, who had just become an assistant general practitioner, forged many prescriptions and illegally obtained large quantities of Dulcolax for his own use.

The following year, seeing the after-effects of his drug addiction becoming more and more apparent, Shipman admitted to his colleagues that he was addicted to Dulcolax. He was immediately fired and also sent to York for mandatory drug treatment.?

Shipman was simultaneously charged with falsifying medical records and illegal possession of contraband and left on the record. But the physicians' association did not revoke his license to practice medicine after it was determined that he had been successfully detoxified.?

The police acted so haphazardly in their first investigation, perhaps because they could find no motive to explain why a well-respected physician would murder his own patient.?

But this time, being the sole beneficiary of a will, Shipman had an obvious motive for the murder-an inheritance. After speaking with Angela, Detective Engelstein asked Coroner Pollard to perform an open casket autopsy.?

At 3 a.m. on August 1, 1998, the police exhumation at Hyde Church Cemetery began.

But little did they know at the time that, in addition to Catherine's coffin, they would also be digging up the largest number of victims of serial murder in British history.

5. Evidence

On August 1, 1998, forensic pathologist John Rutherford performed an autopsy on Catherine's body at Tameside Hospital.

The autopsy soon ruled out all physical causes of death. There was nothing wrong with Catherine's heart, and all other organs were intact.

Meanwhile, tissue samples from the remains were sent to the North West Forensic Laboratory in Lancashire. The tests took a while because the police could not provide any clues to the forensic scientist in charge of testing the samples.

On the same day, in addition to conducting an autopsy on Catherine, police searched Shipman's private practice and his home.

In Shipman's private practice, police found a Brother portable typewriter. The typewriter was submitted by Shipman on his own initiative. He told police that Catherine occasionally borrowed this typewriter.

A forensic document expert identified the will and the explanatory letter as having been printed on this typewriter. The expert also confirmed that the signature on the will had been forged.

In addition, the police also found a half fingerprint of Shipman's left little finger on the will. However, the fingerprints of Catherine and the two witnesses were not found on the will.

On the other hand, the police officers who went to Shipman's house to search recalled that Shipman's house was very dirty and smelly.

In the Shipman house's garage, police found a large amount of jewelry that clearly did not belong to Mrs. Shipman (Mrs. Ship was very fat and many of the rings were clearly too small for her size). Some of them did not appear to be valuable, but they certainly had special significance to the holders.

The police also found a surprising number of patient medical records in Shipman's home. The cases were so disorganized that some were tucked inside a briefcase in the garage, while the rest were packed in a large box.

The police commissioned a senior nurse to sort and identify the notes, and from them they identified Catherine's cases.

In Catherine's case, Shipman documented his suspicion that Catherine was using drugs, and the case also documented some of the after-effects of drug use.

In 1996, Shipman wrote that Catherine had gastrointestinal distress, as well as narrowed pupils. In 1997, he wrote "drugs at this age! I don't know if I should take her blood pressure and do a urinalysis. "

After document experts identified this part as a later addition and not written at the same time as the original content of the page.

In addition, the police department's computer expert, Inspector John Ashley, downloaded the computer's background records from Shipman's computer and the electronic medical records of Shipman's patients.

By comparing the two, Ashley found that Shipman had repeatedly modified his patients' medical records shortly after their deaths, inserting symptoms and physical problems at some point in the past that never existed before.

Computer records showed that Shipman similarly modified Catherine's case after her death. He added four new records, two of which implied that Catherine abused drugs.

Fourteen days after the police autopsy, the medical examiner detected opioids in Catherine's remains, and on August 28, forensic scientist Julie Evans informed police that they had detected lethal amounts of morphine in Catherine's remains.

Based on the morphine dosage, the medical examiner speculated that Catherine would have died within approximately three hours.

Because opioids are not naturally broken down by the body, if Catherine really had a drug habit before her death, as Shipman suspected, then morphine should also be detectable in her hair.

The medical examiner determined after testing Catherine's hair that Catherine had not abused drugs prior to her death.

In addition, Catherine's neighbor told police that Catherine had told her a day before she died that Dr. Shipman had made an appointment with her to come to her house the next morning to draw her blood.

On the day of the murder, Shipman told Catherine's colleagues that he had seen Catherine during the time period of the murder, which means that Shipman was probably the last person to see Catherine alive.

Based on the evidence available, police speculate that Shipman forged the will and used Catherine's trust in her doctor to kill her by injecting her with a lethal dose of morphine on the morning of the 24th.

Because Catherine's body had already begun to decompose at the time of the autopsy, the medical examiner was unable to find any needle holes in the body from blood draws or injections, or any signs of capillary blockage that might have been caused by the injections.

6. Arrest

Although the police had enough evidence to arrest Shipman on August 28, they gave him time to hand over to other doctors because Shipman had a large number of patients and they were confident that he would not pose a further threat to the community. They gave Shipman advance notice of his arrest date.

On Sept. 7, Shipman walked himself into the police station, accompanied by his attorney, to be arrested.

The police then interrogated Shipman, hoping that he would come forward and confess to the crime and explain his modus operandi, process, and motive.

During the first interrogation, although Shipman's attitude was contemptuous, he would at least respond to police questions.

When the police told Shipman during the second interrogation that they had evidence that he had altered Catherine's electronic medical records, Shipman suddenly fell silent. He told his lawyer that he wanted a break in the interrogation.

After returning to his cell, Shipman broke down. During the interrogation that followed, he sat with his hands in his hands and his eyes closed with his back to the police. He refused to answer all questions from the police and refused to look at the photographs they showed him.

7. More autopsies

On August 19, while the police were still waiting for the results of the toxicology tests on Catherine's tissue samples, the media reported on the case, which was still under investigation.

The report caused an uproar in the area. Many people discovered that their relatives, friends and neighbors had died in almost identical circumstances to Catherine.

They all died suddenly in their homes, fully dressed, all seemingly peaceful, while the last person they saw or found the remains of before they died was Shipman.

Soon, calls poured in from all directions to the police station. According to the police media chief's recollection, the police department would then receive about 300 calls a day.

The police glued the names, home addresses and other information of these possible victims onto a large white board. In the blink of an eye, the first whiteboard was full. Then came the second, third and fourth, until the police had to move to their largest major crime investigation room.

Even after narrowing down the investigation to patients who had died within a year, there were still too many cases to be investigated. To filter the priority investigations, Superintendent Bernard Postles, who was in charge of directing the investigation, created a scoring sheet.

The table has five items, the highest score of five points, and the case to get five points will be prioritized for investigation. The contents of the table are as follows.

1. whether the remains were buried or cremated? (One point for burial)

2. Did the circumstances of the deceased cause the family to suspect? (One point for suspicion)

3. did the police suspect the case? For example, do the medical records make sense and were there any financial items missing from the crime scene? (One point for suspicion)

4. were the medical records altered after the patient's death? (One point for suspicion)

5. Give all cases with a score of 4 an extra point to prioritize the investigation of the case.

Over the next four months, based on the screening of this table, the police exhumed the remains of eight more bodies in a row, all of the victims were older women. After forensic testing, they all had lethal amounts of morphine in their systems, and they had no history of morphine abuse during their lifetime.

In addition, by collecting peripheral evidence, such as eyewitness testimony from neighbors, altered electronic cases, or falsified medical records, the police concluded that six of the cremated victims also died from murder. These victims were also female.

Based on the autopsy results, police concluded that Shipman was a serial killer and that his modus operandi was to inject lethal doses of morphine into the victims' bodies, either at their homes or at his clinic.

Shipman had almost everything a serial killer could hope for: he had a good reputation as a cover, access to the murder scene without suspicion, reasonable access to the murder weapon, the ability to sign the victim's death certificate, and someone to help him dispose of the victim's remains.

8. Trial

On October 5, 1999, Shipman was charged with the murder of 15 victims in connection with the falsification of Kathleen Grundy's will. Shipman refused to admit that he had committed these crimes, arguing that Catherine had been abusing drugs, but could not explain why morphine had been detected in the other 15 patients.

On Jan. 31, 2000, the judge announced that all 15 counts had been found guilty. Shipman was sentenced to 15 life sentences and one four-year prison term. The judge recommended that the Home Secretary allow Shipman to spend the rest of his life in prison.

In 2001, a year after Shipman was sentenced, the British government commissioned a High Court judge, Janet Smith, to conduct a thorough investigation into Shipman's crimes.

In the first phase of the investigation, released in 2002, Judge Smith determined that there was clear evidence that Shipman had murdered at least 215 patients. She suspected that 260 people were actually killed in Shipman's case, but there was not enough evidence to prove that the other 45 deaths were also murders.

Of the 215 identified victims, more than 80 percent were elderly women living alone, many of them healthy, and the youngest victim was a 41-year-old man.

Judge Smith suspected that Shipman had begun killing when he first became an assistant general practitioner at the age of 28. By 1977, after he joined Donnybrook Medical Center in Hydetown, Shipman's murders began to become more and more systematic.

During his first few years on the job, Shipman was still figuring out the dose of morphine needed to kill. By 1984, he was murdering eight to 12 people a year.

From 1977, when he joined Johnnybrook Medical Center in Hydetown, to 1992, when he announced his solo career, Shipman murdered 71 people in 15 years, with another 30 suspicious cases. During the year between 1992 and 1993, when he was waiting for his clinic to open, Shipman took a break from murder. But he didn't stay idle. He took advantage of this time to quietly accumulate a large amount of morphine - more than enough to kill 700 people.

Some of this morphine was recovered from the homes of deceased cancer patients, some was overprescribed in the patients' names, and some was collected from pharmacies in the patients' names after their deaths.

By 1993, when Shipman moved into his own private practice, his murders began to become unscrupulous. In just six years, Shipman murdered 144 people.

On the early morning of January 13, 2004, after four years in prison, Shipman hanged himself in prison. With Shipman's death, no one knows how many people died as a result of his murders.