Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “Dr. Death” - Harold Shipman

Episode Date: February 19, 2018

What happens when a doctor, someone we should trust, becomes a killer? Harold Shipman, later known as Dr. Death, terrorized Britain for 25 years, killing over 200 of his patients. We look into Shipman’s life to learn how someone who went through years of medical training could become a killer hidden in plain sight.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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slash killers. That's Shopify.com slash killers. Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is California's number one entertainment destination for today's superstars. Catch the Jonas Brothers return to the Yamava Theater stage on April 30th, the powerful vocals of Demi Lovato on May 17th, and the signature Southern Country Rock of Eric Church on July 19th. Tickets on sale now at Yamavah Theater.com, only at Yamava Resort and Casino, celebrating its 40th anniversary. You in? Must be 21 to enter. Hi, I'm Greg Polson, and this is serial killers. Today, we're going to take a deep dive into the life of Harold Frederick Shipman,

otherwise known as Dr. Death. I'm here with my co-host Vanessa Richardson. Vanessa's not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but she's done a lot of research for the show. Hi, everyone. We'd like to ask you a quick favor. Would you leave a five-star review of serial killers on your favorite podcast directory? It seems so simple, but it really helps us out.

And don't forget to subscribe while you're there because a new episode comes out every Monday. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram at Parcast. And on Twitter at Parcast Network. Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes dramatizations and discussions of murder and assault that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. Doctors are some of the most exalted members of our society. rigorously trained and universally respected, doctors represent the best parts of us.

They're the friendly face during an annual checkup, the ones who selflessly care for us when we can't care for ourselves. Above all else, we trust our doctors. We know we can trust them because doctors are hardwired to value beneficence, the ethical term for doing good. Before any good doctor can don their scrubs and stethoscope, they must recite the Hippocratic Oath. quote, I will use my power to help the sick to the best of my ability and judgment.

I will abstain from harming or wronging anyone by it. I will not give a fatal draft to anyone if I am asked, nor will I suggest any such thing. End quote. But what happens when a doctor goes against his oath? What happens when our trusted doctors become murderers? Thoughts of Thomas Harris' character Dr. Hannibal Lecter might come to mind. the famous fictional psychiatrist who mutilated and cannibalized his patients. That's the kind of gruesome killer we're used to hearing about,

the kind that's easy to call a monster. But today, we want to explore a different type of killer, the practitioner of beneficence who became a maleficent force, and managed to murder for over 25 years virtually undetected. Worse still, he was welcomed into the homes of his victims, lauded and praised for his work, and considered a pillar of the community. Before his first year as general practitioner was through,

Dr. Harold Frederick Shipman went from promising to help the sick to actively harming them. Over the course of his nearly 30-year career, Shipman would go on to kill over 200 of his patients, patients who trusted him, patients who liked him, patients who had no idea that their visit from the good doctor would be their last. We put our lives into the hands of our doctors, but between the years of 1975 and 1998,

Harold Shipman took that trust and used it against the people of England, allowing him to carry out his murderous urges. Today, we'll dive into the life of Britain's most prolific serial killer, Dr. Death, a monster hiding in plain sight. It's hard to believe that anyone would go through that much training and schooling to become. a doctor would throw it all away by becoming a murderer. Has this happened with doctors before? It has. There's actually a word for it. Clinicide. This is a practice common enough to warrant a name, though not common enough that the average citizen should have to worry about it. I don't know. I might be a little cautious the next time I go in for a checkup. Does clinicide tend to manifest itself in the same way, the way that Shipman killed his patients? Well, it depends.

Forensic psychologist Richard Kaplan categorizes a few different types of clinocide. There are mass murder doctors who commit murders under the protection of their country, usually during times of war or genocide. So someone like Joseph Mangala? Yes, the notorious Nazi doctor who operated out of Auschwitz would fall into that category. These politically motivated doctors act in gruesome, terrifying ways, often carrying out horrific experiments on prisoners of war in the name of their country. Another category of clinicide is treatment killing. Treatment killers fall into two camps, mercy killers and hero killers. Mercy killers will kill people to put them out of their misery, or that's how they'll

rationalize it in their mind at least. Hero killers will purposefully put patients at risk in an attempt to save them afterwards. If they save their patient, they come off as the hero. Even if their patient dies, then they can say they tried everything they could, but it was out of their hands. treatment killers often have other underlying mental problems like Great Man Syndrome. Their overconfidence in their own abilities justifies, in their minds, pushing the medical limits with their patients. Was Shipman doing this?

Well, some of Shipman's underlying mental illnesses suggest he may have been involved with treatment killing, but his frequency and volume of victims suggest he was mainly participating in medical serial killing. This is when an individual is fully aware that they're committing murder. and they get pleasure out of it, sometimes even financial gain. Though he was never convicted of his crimes, John Bodkin's Adams is another UK doctor suspected of killing over a hundred of his patients. Operating in the mid-20th century, Adams had several patients who added him to their wills and mysteriously died shortly after. Financial gain isn't the only motive for medical serial killing, but it definitely is a factor, and a factor that would end up causing trouble for shipment.

I guess I never thought about how easy it would be for a doctor to harm someone and make it look like an accident. Giving them all the control means there are lots of ways doctors can harm us. Well, you probably wouldn't have anything to worry about, especially not with Shipman. Why is that? Well, Shipman's victims were primarily elderly women living alone. But to get to the reasons behind his modus operandi, we have to go back to his childhood. Harold Frederick Shipman was born on January 16, 1946. in the English city of Nottingham.

He was the middle child of his middle-class parents, Harold Shipman and Vera Shipman. His parents called him Fred, and so will we for the purposes of clarity. Vera had a dream of moving up the social ladder, and as a result, her family didn't interact much with the other members of their middle-class neighborhood. Vera's feelings of superiority extended to her son,

who wasn't shy about appearing better than his peers, accepted into high pavement, the best grammar school within commuter, distance of the Shipman home, Fred took pride in his blazer and tie uniform. It made it easier for Fred to pass himself off to strangers as a member of the upper class. Even his friends noticed his superiority streak. Classmate Bob Studham recounted young Shipman's response to a filthy joke told in the locker room. Bob said, quote, he wasn't grinning like the rest of us. It was a condescending smile as if he was looking at a gang of kids and thinking, you'll grow up one day,

end quote. Fred's belief he was better than his peers, instilled in him by his mother, meant that Fred operated at an odd in-between place with his classmates. He wasn't an outsider, but he wasn't really part of the gang either. He had to be seen in order for his superiority to be acknowledged, but at the same time, he had to maintain his separateness. He was also able to keep away from the other boys by focusing on his studies. Shipman was a hard and fastidious worker, but even still, he had trouble with his grades. That's why he had to work twice as hard to keep up with them. Where Shipman did excel naturally, though, was on the rugby field.

A strong and active player, Shipman was an asset to the Nottinghamshire City team, but there was a darkness to his playing ability. Bob Studham also commented on this at one point, saying, quote, he could rattle people's teeth. He was an aggressive player. He was definitely not the same person off the pitch as he was on, end quote. aggressive indeed. He was known as a terrifying tackler and an imposing force. While it's not uncommon for young athletes to be more aggressive on the field than in their everyday life,

it's chilling to think about how Fred could hide his combat of behavior and change into a seemingly different person so easily. Fred's athletic overcompensation may have been an early sign of the built-up aggression our good doctor would unleash later on in life. Throughout his entire childhood, one constant remains. his closeness to Vera. Some relatives even worried they were too close. It seemed that everything young Fred did, he did to please his mother and live up to her expectations. So imagine how devastated Fred was

when just after his 17th birthday in January of 1963, his mother was diagnosed with cancer. Vera's illness came on rapidly, sapping her energy, weakening her. This stay-at-home mom, who kept the family in check and supplied a driving force for Fred, soon had to spend her days off her feet, often in great pain. With his father working full-time, his sister off on her own, and his youngest brother just 13, Fred became Vera's caretaker. He'd race home from school every day so he could comfort his mother.

He also was present for home visits from the family GP or general practitioner, Dr. Andrew Campbell. Dr. Campbell would give Vera injections of morphine to ease her ever-increasing unbearable pain. Vera Shipman passed away on a Friday afternoon in June 1963 while Fred was still in school. It stormed that night in Nottingham, and Fred Shipman, Ever the Athlete, ran for hours in the pouring rain. Shipman's relationship with his mother, Vera,

would be the defining relationship of his lifetime. She was his drive, his champion, the person he was closest to in the world, and at the age of 17, Shipman lost her. Vera's sickness would create a monumental impact on Fred, not only because of her passing, but also because of the treatment she received from Dr. Campbell. Seeing his mother in agony and unable to do anything about it would have been Fred's own kind of torture. But Dr. Campbell's ability to take that pain away with a little vial of liquid

opened up Harold Frederick Shipman's eyes to a new kind of power. This was to become Shipman's weapon of choice later in life. The same drug that took away Vera's pain would be the one Shipman would use to extinguish life. We'll return to our story in just a moment. And now, back to serial killers. Fred Shipman's desire to pursue medicine was seen as a direct response to his mother's death.

As we mentioned, Shipman's grades were never the best in the class. By the end of his time in grammar school, he had a B in physics, a C in biology, and a D in chemistry. Despite these poor marks in science, he was accepted to Leeds University to study medicine. Partially because there was a shortage of doctors in England around this time. That's true. Plus, if there's anything we've learned so far about Shipman, is that he was a very hard worker.

Shipman arrived at Leeds University in 1965 at the age of 19. It was at Leeds where Shipman would meet his eventual wife, Primrose Oxteby. Primrose was a somewhat homely girl, unfamiliar with attention from boys. This lack of male interaction also came from her family, a religiously conservative bunch that kept to themselves. That's why starting school at Leeds, even if it was just for a certificate in art, gave her more of a sense of freedom and of courage.

After months of flirtatious glances on buses and around Weatherby, Primrose mustered up the courage to ask him out. She was only 16. The relationship escalated rather quickly, and within a few months, Primrose was pregnant. And this was in the 60s when, only about 8% of children were born out of wedlock. Exactly.

It was a scandal for the oxybee, certainly. But Fred was surprised by his family's outrage also. His father even insinuated that he was glad Vera had died and wouldn't have to see this. You have to understand Fred's state of mind at this point in time. His mother's death felt like an abandonment. He was all alone in the world. And Primrose felt like a distraction from that. He needed her.

A November 5th, 1966, five months after the price of, pregnancy had been announced, Harold Frederick Shipman and Primrose-Ox to be married. Throughout the rest of Shipman's time in medical school, he would have a wife and a daughter to come home to, and although his feelings of abandonment had subsided, he still had a pain that needed numbing. While still in grammar school, Shipman had taken up a habit of generously applying Sloan's liniment on his aching muscles in the locker room. Eventually, he started inhaling this tingling rub right from the container. As a boy, she Shipman started to realize that there were other methods of escape besides just getting drunk with his classmates. He could use other substances to achieve different effects, hinting at some of his later problems to come.

While he was encouraged by his professors to perform experiments on himself, he went back to where his fascination with medicine started. One night, while Prim Rose and his daughter slept, he injected himself with morphine so he could see how his mother's pain was relieved. Over the course of his first year of residency as a junior houseman at Pontefract General Infirmary, this casual experiment would turn into a full-blown addiction. He moved from morphine to an easily available opiate, pethadine, or as we in the U.S. would call it demoral. Shipman's growing dependence on this drug was frightening, although it was recommended to take a dose every four hours.

During this time at the hospital, Shipman was shooting up every two hours, sometimes adding alcohol into the mayor. In 1974, Shipman moved his family, now including a newborn son, to Todd Morden, so that Shipman could join a small group practice. But here, his addiction grew even worse. I'm going to be honest here, Vanessa. Right now, it's very easy for someone to feel bad for Fred Shipman. He lost his mother at such an early age. He developed such adult responsibilities when he was still a teenager. It sounds like he turned to drugs to get a little escape for himself.

Plenty of people developed drug addictions. without harming anyone. What's so alarming is that it revealed more of Shipman's duplicitous side. Soon he was up to 300 milligrams of pethidine a day, and neither his co-workers nor his family suspected his indulgence. This was probably because Shipman devoted lots of his time to ingratiate himself to others. A colleague of Shipman's, Dr. Anthony Babolal, would later note how unnerving this was to watch. One minute, Shipman would be cruel to a co-worker, the next he would tentatively listened to a patient. His ability to turn his personality on a dime was startling. But it seemed to work. Though Dr. Babelal and some other practitioners may have been suspect of a social

behavior, he was still popular among patients. And it was through his patients that he managed to procure his pethidine. It was a rather simple scam, actually. Shipman would over-prescribe opiates for his patients, then kept the excess, allowing himself to get high whenever he wanted without a massing suspicion. It was finally in the quiet little market town of Todd Morden, where a shipment had the kind of status he had always wanted but never gotten. He moved his family into a nice home. He joined the Rochdale Canal Society, and Shipman became one of the most popular doctors at his practice, as a junior partner with a confident bedside manner and a keen diagnostic eye that helped save lives. He also became well known with the younger patients as a doctor who freely prescribed amphetamines.

even if his younger patients didn't quite understand what that meant. It seems that Shipman's experiments in drug testing extended beyond himself as he started testing the limits of what these younger folks could handle. Reports from locals say that Shipman was the man to go to if you wanted to get some slimming pills, which contained amphetamines. Shipman handed them out like candy. But this was just a side experiment that Shipman didn't put much time into, mostly because he was depressed.

Even his increased dosages of pethidine weren't, the trick anymore. Horrible feelings were getting worse for Shipman. With his depression deepening, Shipman was developing a taste for something darker. Reports differ on who Shipman's actual first victim was, but authorities suspect it may have been the first death certificate he ever signed. Ruth Highley was a 72-year-old woman in rapidly declining health who lived on the edge of town. Her cause of death was listed as, quote, hypothermia and kidney. But there might have been something about Mrs. Highley that reminded the unstable shipment of his mother. Maybe it was her eyes. Maybe it was her pain. Maybe Shipman just wanted to see if he could kill her.

At this point in his life, he may not have seen an overdose on morphine as an act of murder. He may have seen it as an act of mercy. Ruth Healy died on May 10, 1974. His next act wouldn't be so merciful. Elaine Oswald, an attractive 25-year-old, visited Dr. Shipman because of a suspected kidney stone, but Shipman told her he'd like to draw some blood from her when she had a moment, to be sure. Shortly after Shipman stuck the needle under her skin, Elaine woke up on the floor, surrounded by Shipman and paramedics, informed that she'd stop breathing.

Shipman stayed with her on the ride to the hospital and by her bedside. Elaine's mother believed that Dr. Shipman saved his daughter's life. This, of course, wasn't the case. Shipman told the emergency responders that he believed Elaine had an allergic reaction to the diaconol he gave her. But really, he was just performing another experiment. Elaine Oswald would spend the rest of her adult life avoiding medicine, believing that she was allergic, as Shipman had told her. And Shipman would spend the rest of his murderous career targeting the elderly, the frail, those who could not fight back. His veneer of invincibility had been shattered by his unsuccessful assault on Elaine Oswald.

It's uncertain if Shipman intended to kill Elaine, sexually assault her, or simply test the power of his drugs on a younger subject. But what is clear is that from this point on, Shipman would keep away from more youthful victims, instead focusing on the elderly, the helpless. Even then, Shipman wouldn't attempt any more lethal drug experimentation on his patients, or as he now saw them, his lab rats, until the new year. On January 21st of 1975, Shipman started the morning by visiting 73-year-old Lily Crossley for a check-up in her home. Following her exam, he went to the home of 84-year-old Elizabeth Pierce. He ended the day by checking up on 63-year-old Robert Lingard. All of these patients were in relatively good health for their age. All of them died within minutes of being visited by Dr. Shipman.

The causes of death, listed by Shipman, were all very very very very. varying degrees of vague, a heart attack, a hemorrhage, cancer. This day marked a significant uptick in Shipman's murderous spree. It's chilling to think that this day came just seven days after Shipman's 29th birthday, a present for himself. After a tumultuous childhood and a long-seated sense of otherness, Fred Shipman had finally found a way he could play God. These years spent in Todd Morton were a happy time in the Shipman's

family's life. Primrose would later say it was the happiest time of her marriage, partly because Fred, who had been so reserved and stoic before, had broken out of his shell, becoming a pillar of the community. His good-naturedness probably resulted from his continued addiction to pethadine. Shipman's habitual use over such a long period of time, however, had its consequences. The good doctors started having blackouts. He would blackout at work and at home. This was troubling to all around him. him, but was first explained away as a stress response. As the blackouts continued, he was referred to another doctor who diagnosed him with idiopathic epilepsy, or epilepsy of an unknown origin. Shipman's so-called epilepsy had gotten so bad that he couldn't even use a car anymore. His wife

became his driver and primary source of transportation. Not to mention constant support system, validating her darling Fred in all that he did. She would continue to support him, even when he was caught for drug abuse and forgery. A clerk at the Todd Morden practice first discovered the infraction when glancing at a drug ledger. It listed shipment's name over and over, prescribing pethadine to patients for everyday uses. Strange, considering the drugs prescribed use, was primarily during childbirth. Dr. John Dacre, one of the partners at the practice, said he was horrified when he learned of shipments in discretions. Not only that shipment would forged documents in this way, but that he was stealing this much pethidine.

The partners confronted Shipman with their new knowledge of his actions, asking for an explanation. Shipman never denied his actions. He only asked for forgiveness, a second chance. They did not grant it to him. Dr. Shipman's normally calm demeanor transformed in an instant to a raging, angry man. Reports from his coworkers would say that he shoved paper off the desk before yelling at all of them. Dr. John Dacre would later account, quote, we were astounded, amazed to find out what was going on. It was shattering.

It was the first time I had seen him lose his cool, end quote. The practice would go on to dismiss Shipman, but he had bigger problems looming on his horizon. Following the reveal of ongoing pharmaceutical fraud, Shipman was visited by the Home Office Drugs Inspectorate. Shipman confessed to his crimes right away, at least to the crime of being a habitual pethidine user. In the Shipman inquiry, it's hypothesized that Shipman confessed to taking more pethidine than he actually used on himself so that he could hide the fact that he was using it as a killing tool.

By being a cooperative criminal, Shipman earned the trust of these policemen, who might have otherwise been willing to dig deeper into his history, discovering the much darker secret Shipman had hidden away. We'll return to our story in just a moment from the podcast network. You tell yourself, no one wants your college error. band teas, but on Deepop, people are searching for exactly what you've got. You once paid a small fortune for them at merch stands. Now, a teenager who calls them vintage will offer that same small fortune back. Sell them easily on Deepop. Just snap a few photos and we'll take care of the rest. Who knew your questionable music taste will be a money-making machine? Your style can make you cash. Start selling on Deepop, where Taste recognizes taste. And now back to the

story. Following the disaster at the Todd Morden practice, a 29-year-old Fred Shipman went to a rehab center to cure himself of his addiction. After six months spent in this clinic, he was required to appear in front of the Halifax Magistrates Court for his crimes of forgery and prescription abuse. Fred was charged a fine of 600 pounds for his crimes, hardly even a slap on the wrist, considering the malpractice he had committed while at Todd Morden. Once again, Fred Shipman had managed to alter his personality to conform to the line of best fit, but only in public. At home, his depression worsened and put strain on his relationship with Primrose. Primrose would stand by her husband's side, though. It was clear that she needed him as much as he needed her. But his need for her

diminished once his professional life was up and running again. Despite being a drug abuser and a forger, Shipman was able to land another job. The courts ruled that although Shipman had as indiscrimin He had only been a harm to himself, opening the door for him to practice medicine again. If the court or police officers had exercised even slightly more due diligence, they could have seen the untrustworthy clues shipment left behind. Allowing shipment to keep up his clinical practice would directly lead him to more acts of clinicide. And his new hunting grounds would be the town of Hyde. Hyde is an unassuming suburb of Manchester.

Not particularly wealthy, not the high-brow locale young shipment, would have dreamed of, but it did represent his last chance to make it as a respectable GP. Shipman joined the Donnybrook practice in Hyde in 1977, one of seven doctors there. The court had warned the Donnybrook practice of Shipman's drug troubles, but without knowing this, Shipman volunteered the information to his employers anyway. In their eyes, this is a real sign of integrity. Shipman had a knack for playing his hand at the right time, knowing just how much information to reveal and when. And this display of so-called honesty impressed his employers enough to give him the second chance he was asking for, though some were still weary of him. You may have noticed

a pattern here with Shipman. He was a divisive figure. It seems that every turn of his life, there were people who were in Shipman's camp, and there were those who didn't trust him. Fred was a popular doctor, known as a hard worker and someone who would do a good job, but he could also be rather abrasive, as we've seen with his rugby history. As we've seen with his rugby history, and his outburst at Todd Morton, as a Donnybrook coworker later recounted, quote, I am always frightened of people who turn white, not red, with temper. He would be very calm, not raise his voice. That was even more scary, end quote.

While his co-workers and community members often felt conflicted about Shipman, they couldn't begin to imagine what was going on inside the doctor's head. Shipman was extremely depressed. He was humiliated by his junior practitioner position, and his dismissal from Todd Morton. Despite his claim that he was clean, he would still sometimes return to Pethadine to dull away his humiliation and lurking depression.

Shipman wouldn't immediately return to killing again at Donnybrook, waiting nearly a year. But it would be throughout these years of the institution where he would develop his modus operandi. Authorities used three primary factors when determining which of Shipman's patients died at his hand. Clear signs of a classic shipment murder, included a visit from the doctor shortly before the patient's death,

general good health of the patient, and the placement of their bodies at the time of death. Shipman victims would often be found sitting up straight in a chair or on the couch, as if they had just fallen asleep. This odd pattern didn't go unnoticed at the time of the victim's deaths either. Pam Turner, the daughter of one of Shipman's victims, had this to say on the matter. Quote, he said it was a possible heart attack that she'd had that morning, but I find it very strange because she'd driven down that day.

And she seemed fine. You know, she'd been on the market, and she'd spoken to a neighbor who said at the time she was okay. But you see, because you trusted him, you believed what he'd say, and I trusted him and my mother did too, end quote. Shipman's position as a doctor and the implicit trust that comes with it is what allowed Shipman to kill for so long undetected. Do you think he longed for a position of power from a young age

so that he could take advantage of that status, to use trust as a camouflage? Well, the thing about Shipman is that although we can learn a lot about him from events in his life and testimony from those who knew him, he never confessed to any of his own crimes. So without Shipman's confession, we can't say for certain what his motives were. And with the volume of patients Shipman dealt with over the years,

there are some cases where it's difficult to say for sure whether or not he dealt the final killing blow. Well, what we can see, though, is that statistically, Schipman mostly killed elderly women who lived alone. Sometimes these women would be in pain or have chronic illnesses. Sometimes they would be closer to death. From his time spent watching his mother suffer, Shipman may have took it upon himself to be the pain relief

that he thought his patients deserved, to dispense relief and end suffering the way his ailing mother's doctor had so many years ago. But then there were the patients that annoyed Shipman, or that he saw as a burden. especially patients with mental health issues. Evidence suggests that Shipman even took out vengeance on patients who wouldn't heed his advice. These were the patients Shipman believed he could not fix, the ones that seemed immune to his authority as the master of his surgical domain.

What's terrifying to think is that Shipman's murders were sporadic, dependent on his mood. Maybe depending on whether he had a nice dinner at home with Primrose and his now four children, whether the patient looked at him funny, or reminded him of his mother. What's clear is that Shipman liked the power that came with playing God. And he could do it easily, too. Shipman knew he was committing murder.

There was never any question about it. Otherwise, he wouldn't have worked so hard to preserve his self-interest, altering the cause of death on death certificates and within the computer system at the Donnybrook practice. Shipman ramped up the pace of his murders and hide after starting work at the Donnybrook practice. In the 14 years that Shipman spent at the Donnybrook practice from 1977 through 1992, authorities can confidently say that he murdered 70 patients.

That figure doesn't even include suspicious deaths. It's fair to say that Shipman's appetite developed at Donnybrook. Shipman was such an effective killer here because he was so beloved by his elderly patients, well known for his bedside manner and the attention he gave them. But having to work at a practice where he wasn't the sole proprietor, began to weigh heavy on him. In Shipman's mind, he deserved better. He deserved to be the center of attention. And he needed to shun the watchful eyes of his coworkers. Though none of them could ever suspect the full extent of his activities, they did find his actions suspicious. He would often

attend the homes of patients without being asked to, even just days after they had already been to the practice and deemed in good health, shunning the need for a nurse, another witness. His colleagues were threat to his murderous side hobby, the same way a co-worker caught him forging pethadine prescriptions at Todd Morden. One particular incident in 1989 may have been the real catalyst for shipment's departure. At noon on November 6th, a nurse intending to a wound on 85-year-old Joseph Wilcoxen's leg found him sitting in his favorite chair, dead. His body was still warm. The bandage on his leg was disturbed. Shipman came over right away, his second visit the day, though he hid this fact from the nurse. Just an hour before, he had been in that room,

delivering a lethal dose of dimorphine to Wilcoxon. Shipman altered the death certificate and his own patient logs to put time between Wilcoxen's death and his own deadly visit, subduing his co-worker's suspicions and confirming his own. It was time for Shipman to start his own practice. The office he would eventually open in 1992 would become a virtual shop shop for shipment as his murders escalated to historic proportions all while playing a dangerous cat and mouse game with the medical community.

Despite the hundreds of murders, shipment would end up committing. Only one of them would eventually lead to his downfall. Thanks again for tuning into serial killers. If you want to listen to any previous episodes of serial killers, you can find them on iTunes, Google Plow. SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Spotify, or in our website, parcast.com, spelled p-A-R-C-A-S-T-T-com. If you like what you hear, please leave a five-star review or tell us what you think on social media.

We're on Facebook and Instagram as at Parcast and Twitter at Parcast Network. It seems simple, but it really helps our show. Join us next week for the conclusion of the Dr. Death Story to find out how his nearly perfect, undetected crimes were revealed and how the... the doctor met his own untimely end. As always, we thank you for listening. Have a killer week. Serial Killers was created by Max Cutler,

is a production of Cutler media and is part of the Parcast Network. It is produced by Max and Ron Cutler, sound design by Ron Shapiro, with production assistance by Carrie Murphy, additional production assistance by Carly Madden and Maggie Admeyer. Serial Killers is written by Kyle Harob

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