Dr. Harold Shipman Research Paper

The “Dr. Death” Murders – Unit 3 Essay.

Abstract This essay is about the case of Dr. Harold Shipman, a serial killer who was involved in 236 patient deaths. The essay will go through Shipman's modus operandi, meaning his “pattern of operation” (Saferstein & Roy, 2020, page 433), including his use of morphine, and the lengths he went to go unnoticed for so many years. This essay will then cover the possible mens rea that Shipman had to commit these murders. We also go over the problems that the original investigation had and how that may have impacted the case. My essay then concludes with talking about the importance of thorough investigations, written from my personal experience as a detective. Keywords: Dr. Harold Shipman, Dr. Death, serial

Harold Shipman, later known as Dr Death, was born in Nottingham, England in 1946. He began his medical career in 1970 and was a respected doctor, even though he had a battle with addiction and some run-ins with the criminal justice system (Jackson & Savage, 2004). His killing spree is believed to have started in the early 1970s, soon after beginning his career, and the evil continued until his ultimate arrest in 1998 (Jackson & Savage, 2004; Sharma, 2022). He was finally caught in 1998 following the sudden death of one of his patients, Kathleen Grundy. According to her daughter, Angela Woodruff, Kathleen was supposedly healthy and there were no reasons to believe her to be nearing death. It didn’t make sense and Angela had questions. Mrs. Grundy died while under Shipman's care. She was found deceased at her home shortly after Shipman paid her a visit. When questions began to mount against him, Shipman tried his best to avoid an autopsy being done on Kathleen. Then, it all came crashing down around him when the family learned that Kathleen’s estate had been left to Shipman. This suspicion led to Mrs. Grundy's remains being dug up and sent for an autopsy, despite Shipman’s efforts. The autopsy showed that Kathleen died from a morphine overdose, which led investigators to find out Shipman's method of murder (Saferstein & Roy, 2020). Then Deborah Massey, a local undertaker, caught on to an increase in the number of cremation forms for elderly

It’s easy to speculate and take stabs at it, but considering he never admitted it and killed himself before stating it publicly, we may never know for sure. Shipman died in 2004 by hanging himself in his prison cell using bedsheets (Sharma, 2022). Some think that he enjoyed the power and control over life and death, and others suggest that it could have come from his mother’s death, who died of cancer when Shipman was 17. She received morphine for pain relief, and it’s said that this childhood trauma could have influenced her use of morphine (Beech & Fisher, 2002). Psychologically, Dr. Death had traits of narcissism. He kept up the facade of a caring doctor, which helped him garner trust and avoid suspicion, all the while having murderous intentions. This is certainly in line with the mentality of a narcissist. But what was his motive? Not all narcissists are killers, so surely something had to make him an evil man. Looking through the evidence, some people think that the forged will of Kathleen is a financial motive (Gove, 2002). But this theory is odd considering that this was not a pattern across all of his victims (Jackson & Savage,