Harold Shipman

British physician and serial killer
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Also known as: Dr. Death, Harold Frederick Shipman
Born:
January 14, 1946 Nottingham England
Died:
January 13, 2004 (aged 57) Wakefield England

Harold Shipman, in full Harold Frederick Shipman, (born January 14, 1946, Nottingham, England—died January 13, 2004, Wakefield), British doctor and serial killer who murdered about 250 of his patients, according to an official inquiry into his crimes. Shipman’s murders raised troubling questions about the powers and responsibilities of the medical community in Britain and about the adequacy of procedures for certifying sudden death. Shipman was born into a working-class family in Manchester. A bright child, he became interested in medicine as he watched his mother receive morphine injections to ease the pain she suffered while dying of lung cancer. In ...(100 of 502 words)