Harold Shipman - Doctor Death

 

Doctor Death - The Patient Killer

 

Who would believe that a GP that was exposed as a serial killer and serious fraudster could possibly still be loved and supported by his former patients

Doctor Harold Shipman is one of the most prolific killers in British history, yet he has also been pretty understated. He has been linked to no less than 250 deaths that all happened in and around a small area of North West England.

Shipman worked in the town of Hyde in Greater Manchester. He was highly respected by his patients and their families, none of them ever suspecting that there was a secret web of deceit and murder going on right under their noses. Those horrendous crimes were being committed by a definite 'wolf in sheep's clothing, as he readily seemed to fit in with everyday community life. 

The doctor became a member of various small-town committees, helped to organise events for local charities. He was really well thought of and honoured by many locals as their friend as well as their doctor. He was reported as having a fantastic bedside manner, was kind, thoughtful and attentive to all his patients and friends, yet beneath all of that lay a devious, cold and calculating killer, an absolute monster.

But on 7th September 1998, (a little over 22 years ago) news broke in Hyde and indeed across the UK, news which was to rock not only local people but the world over. The empathic and caring doctor was arrested on suspicion of multiple murders, the evil silent serial killer was at last exposed to the world. 

News came in of the arrests and as the police pursued more investigations, so more heinous crimes came to light, More and more cases of suspicious deaths were investigated, some that had been reported before but nothing suspicious or untoward had been found during previous enquiries. 

Cracks start to appear 

Alarm bells began to ring, so to speak in August 1998 when complaints were made about the death of Kathleen Grundy and 81-year-old widow from Hyde. She had been one of Harold Shipman's patients that he had 'cared for' right to the end of her life, As suspicions grew a late-night exhumation was ordered and a team of gravediggers and police officers began the gruesome task of exhuming the body from its grave. The epitaph on the headstone read "Died unexpectedly, after a lifetime of helping others".

Despite the fact it was the middle of the night, local people disturbed by the noise of vehicles and strange lights in the graveyard and quite a crowd gathered to witness proceedings. Little did they know that they were witnessing the exhumation of the body of the latest victim of Hyde's very own "Doctor Death". 

The officer leading the investigation, Detective Inspector Egerton knew that it's not every day that the police obtain an exhumation order and despite knowing all too well that himself and his team had other evidence to back up their actions, mistakes were possible. It must have been a very daunting prospect for the detective, knowing that if his hypothesis turned out wrong he would have to explain his decisions to a judge and Kathleen Grundy's family. 

DI Egerton was very much aware that accusing the local doctor, a well-respected pillar of the community of murder was a massive step and there was no room for error. Fortunately for the Detective and his team, the hypothesis was right and the events in the graveyard behind the chapel in Hyde that night put an end to Harold Shipman's killing spree. 

Kathleen Grundy

81-year-old Kathleen had been a widow for some 20 years after her late husband died suddenly from a heart attack and lived alone in one of the oldest areas of Hyde. She was described as a very fit and agile lady, despite her age and still regularly attended events, volunteered in a local charity shop and had recently registered to go on a coach trip to Derbyshire. Even the day before her death Kathleen had been out with her friends, chatting about current world affairs and sporting events from television. 

Suddenly on June 24th 1998, Kathleen had not shown up at one of the regular events that she always attended and so two members called at her home to see if she was alright, The widow, having been the married to the former mayor of Hyde, had a lot of local friends so obviously her absence was noticed. 

Having got into Kathleen's home her friends found her curled in a sleeping position on her sofa, fully dressed but she had clearly passed away. Obviously, the friends knew that Doctor Shipman was Kathleen's doctor and so their instinct was to send for him. 

When shipman arrived he told the friends that he had seen Kathleen earlier that morning for 'a chat' and that she had been clearly well enough to dress herself. The doctor carried out the initial examination and pronounced the cause of death as a heart attack (Cardiac arrest). 

Acting upon Shipman's advice the two friends contacted Kathleen's solicitors, who instantly advised them to contact her next of kin. No one thought it odd at the time that the GP knew the name and address of his patient's solicitors, the friends were consumed by the shock of having found their dear friend dead. 

The police had to be called in order to locate next of kin and as a result, they also spoke to the doctor, who was a little less confident on stating the cause of death, saying that it was "natural causes". The police located the next of kin, Kathleen's daughter Angela Woodruff and arrangements began to be made as is usual after a death.

Then Angela was sent copies of her mother's latest will and testament which had been sent by post to the solicitors, by a person calling themself Smith, which was badly typed. That is when things really didn't add up. Angela knew all too well just how meticulous her mother had been about things such as spelling and grammar and the solicitors were not about to release a large estate of more than four hundred thousand pounds on the word of a typewritten, misspelt and grammatically incorrect testament.

Angela began to make some enquiries of her own, firstly trying to locate the person calling themself 'Smith', but she failed there. Next, she located the two people that were named as witnesses to her late mother's will Claire Hutchinson and Paul Spencer. It turned out that both were lead into signing the life-changing testament under false pretences due to trusting the local doctor. 

The story revealed that both Claire and Paul had been sitting in the doctor's waiting room when Shipman popped his out of his consulting room and asked them if they would both mind "just quickly witnessing a signature". Neither really thought much of it as after all this was their doctor and a trusted man of the community, so they signed the double-folded form where Shipman indicated, asking them to sign, print and date the form, neither of them even considered questioning the doctor as to what the documents were. 

Angela's suspicions were now seriously aroused by now and so she decided to check her mother's signature by comparing them against the deposit slips that her mother regularly signed for the Age Concern charity shop where she had volunteered. Things had reached such a point by then that Angela was not surprised to find that the signature on her late mother's "new will" did not match the ones on the bank deposit slips.

As time passed and Angels became ever more suspicious, she remembered Kathleen telling her about an interview that Doctor Shipman had asked her to take part in. He had told Kathleen that he was working on a survey about ageing with Manchester University and he thought that as Kathleen was so well and agile for her age she would be an ideal candidate. 

It became clear to Angela that it was very likely that shipman had made out a bogus form for Kathleen to sign, which of course he would later use as her last will and testament. 

Murder Investigation

On 31st July 1998, Angela Woodruff took her concerns to the police and an investigation lead by Detective Constable Dave O'Brien and his senior officer Detective Inspector Egerton got underway. The officers both thought that they were dealing with a fraud investigation, as  Kathleen Grundy's estate was made up of two houses, bank accounts and a lump sum payout from the sale of a third house, all in all, this amounted to in excess of Four Hundred Thousand Pounds (£400,000).

At the outset of their enquiry, neither of the detectives had any idea that they were, in fact, dealing not only with fraud but a grim case of cold, premeditated murder. As they began to delve ever deeper the detectives uncovered more and more evidence that pointed them to much darker matters. 

There had been a previous enquiry into Shipman that was sparked by another GP who had raised concerns about the unusually high number of deaths from Dr Shipman's patient list but, the investigation had not raised anything particularly suspicious and so it had been shelved with no further action. That was until DI Egerton began to read back into the previous enquiry and came upon a dreadful realisation. 

The detective felt he had no choice and thus took his findings to his superior officers within the police force and in turn, he was given permission to apply for the exhumation of Kathleen's body. It was that application that truly broke the investigation. Harold Shipman had lost his empire by being just a little bit too presumptuous and not considering who he was dealing with.

Kathleen Grundy was a very healthy, fit woman whose daughter who was a solicitor and who was in regular contact. Unlike many of Shipman's other victims, Mrs Grundy's death did not slip quietly away unquestioned quite the way that previous ones had. Her daughter asked questions and did not just see a great doctor that had cared so well for her mother that she left him her entire estate. 

The autopsy that was carried out on Mrs Grundy was certainly not going to be the only one that Doctor John Rutherford would carry out on Shipman's late patients. 

At the same time as the examination of the late Kathleen Grundy was taking place, police exercised a search warrant that they had obtained to search Harold Shipman's surgery. During the search, Shipman confided to one of his colleagues "I'm in trouble". Officers seized documents, files and the typewriter used daily by Shipman, the same one that he had typed up Kathleen Grundy's will on. Police also raided the doctor's home in order to avoid him hiding anything or disposing of any important evidence there. 

There was no hard evidence found during the search of Shipman's home but it was reported that the house was in general disarray with confidential medical records being found in boxes in the garage with bones and more medical records actually in the house. They also found large quantities of very expensive jewellery which they suspected had come from his deceased patient's wills. 

The community really rallied around Harold Shipman and supported him in "his troubled times" saying things like "how can they say such bad things about our doctor". but his glory was to be short-lived.

Just a month after the exhumation of Kathleen Grundy's body toxicologists delivered the actual cause of  Kathleen Grundy's death beyond doubt; A lethal overdose of Morphine. Shipman had made a grave error in his tool fo execution and his dark secrets were out, sending shockwaves through Hyde and its surrounding villages. The toxicologists confirmed that the dose of morphine evil Shipman had injected into Kathleen Grundy that morning would have rendered any human dead and unable to be revived within 2 - 3 hours maximum. 

The doctor that everyone loved, respected and trusted with their lives was, in fact, a cold, calculating killer who had ended the lives of many of his patients without a thought or care for those left behind. Doctor deaths reign of terror was over. He was taken before the courts and remanded into prison custody whilst investigations were conducted into many, many more of his ill-fated patient's deaths. 

During his time in custody, Shipman started acting as a kind of doctor to the 'lags on the wings', befriending them and gaining their trust but as more cases came to light and more evidence revealed he knew he would spend the rest of life in prison, never ever to be released. His life was absolutely destroyed by the media and his so-called "friends" within the prison even started to drift away, 

Doctor Harold Shipman's empire fell to the ground, nothing left, no loving support from his dedicated patients, all the money and worldly goods that he fraudulently persuaded his patients to will over to him in their last days were no longer his, seized by the police as evidence.

Shipman was charged with 15 counts of murder and one of forgery at the original trial at Preston Crown Court he was found guilty of all of those in October 1998. He was found hanged in his prison cell at Wakefield prison on January 13th 2004, he had committed suicide. 

Doctor Death, as Harold Shipman became known was thought to have been responsible for up to 250 murders and obtained unconfirmed amounts of money, property and valuables from his loyal patients that he murdered. The monster's reign was finally over thanks to Angela Woodruff's persistence in her investigations, but no one will ever truly know just how many deaths he was truly responsible for.

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