Harold Shipman (Part 2)

In the winter of 1998, a general practitioner in Manchester, England, noticed that one of her colleagues, Dr. Harold Shipman, appeared to have an unusually high death rate among his elderly female patients. An inquiry was opened into the matter, but it went nowhere and was quickly closed with no finding of wrongdoing. Then, in August, another accusation was leveled at Shipman: he was responsible for killing more than twenty of his patients. This time, the inquiry was taken more seriously and the reality was far worse than anyone could have imagined. The arrest and prosecution of Harold Shipman rocked England’s medical community and shocked people around the world. Although he was ultimately charged with and convicted of fifteen murders, investigators suspect Shipman of having killed as many as two hundred and fifty people over the course of his career, making him the most prolific killer in the nation’s history. References BBC News. 2003. 'I feel guilty over Shipman killings'. September 30. Accessed September 1, 2026. news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/manchester. Beal, Peter, and Harriet Tolputt. 1999. "Shipman 'bullied relatives not to ask for autopsy'." The Independent , December 7: 4. Carter, Helen. 1999. "Doctor enjoyed killing, court told." The Guardian , October 12: 3. —. 2000. "Harold Shipman, guilty of 15 murders. But did he kill 150?" The Guardian , February 1: 1. Carter, Helen, and Paddy Heaney. 2000. "Put aside emotions, judge tells Shipman trial jurors." The Guardian , January 11: 7. Clark, Jim. 2005. North West: Shipman inquiry. January 28. Accessed August 31, 2026. news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/politics_show/. Duffin, Christian. 2002. "Shipman inquiry nurses were afraid to speak out." Nursing Standard , December 18: 9. Herbert, Ian. 2000. "A hard-working and popular GP." The Independent , February 1: 3. —. 1999. "Doctor murdered elderly woman while her friend waited outside in the kitchen." The Independent , October 13: 5. —. 2000. "Shipman 'duped and bullied the grieving reltives'." The Independent , January 6: 7. —. 2004. "The GP who betrayed his calling." The Independent , January 14: 1. Jenkins, Russell. 1998. "Police examine 19 deaths after widow changes will for doctor." The Times , August 20. —. 1998. "Priest tells of anguish at patient exhumations." The Times , October 15. Kelso, Paul. 1999. "Women had heart disease, says murder case doctor." The Guardian , November 27: 6. Morris, Nigel. 2004. "Ombudsman to lead inquiry into 'suicide'." The Independent , January 14: 7. Peters, Carole. 2005. Harold Shipman: Mind Set on Murder. London, UK: Carlton. Queiro, Alicia. 2014. Shipman effect: How a serial killer changed medical practice forever. December 1. Accessed August 30, 2026. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-30192721. The Guardian. 2004. "Life sentence: A loner, a drug addict and a mass murderer." The Guardian , January 14: G3. Ward, David. 2004. "Behind a mask of ordinariness." The Guardian , January 13: 3. —. 1999. "Doctor 'killed 15 for pleasure and power'." The Guardian , October 12: 1. —. 1998. "Doctor on three further murder charges after bodies exhumed." The Guardian , October 8. —. 1999. "GP faces 15 murder charges." The Guardian , February 23. Ward, David, and Helen Carter. 2000. "The doctor Jekyll of Hyde." The Guardian , February 1: 3. Cowritten by Alaina Urquhart, Ash Kelley & Dave White (Since 10/2022) Produced & Edited by Mikie Sirois (Since 2023) Research by Dave White (Since 10/2022), Alaina Urquhart & Ash Kelley Listener Correspondence & Collaboration by Debra Lally Listener Tale Video Edited by Aidan McElman (Since 6/2025) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Résumé de l'épisode

This episode details the eventual discovery and prosecution of Dr. Fred Shipman, a prolific serial killer in Hyde. It covers the initial ignored warnings from Dr. Linda Reynolds, the independent list compiled by cab driver John Shaw, and the critical mistakes Shipman made regarding Kathleen Grundy's will that finally led to his arrest and conviction for fifteen murders.

À retenir 1Dr. Linda Reynolds first raised suspicions in 1997 after noticing a higher-than-expected death rate at Shipman's neighboring practice.

À retenir 2An initial police investigation in early 1998 was superficial and dismissed the concerns, partially due to the high respect Shipman commanded in Hyde.

À retenir 3Cab driver John Shaw independently tracked twenty unexpected deaths among his elderly clients, all of whom shared Shipman as their doctor.

À retenir 4The death of former mayor Kathleen Grundy was the catalyst for capture after Shipman forged her will to leave his name as the sole heir.

À retenir 5Forensic evidence revealed Shipman killed victims with morphine and manually backdated electronic medical records to fake histories of heart disease.

The subsequent Shipman inquiry concluded he likely killed over 250 patients, making him England's most prolific serial killer.

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Transcribed from “Harold Shipman (Part 2)” by Ash Kelley & Alaina Urquhart, who holds all rights to the original and has not licensed or reviewed this page. Rights holders can request removal.

This transcript was generated by speech recognition and the summary and chapters by AI, so they can contain errors. BestPodcast is not affiliated with the creator.

Hey weirdos, I'm Ash. And I'm Alina. And this is Morbid. This is Morbid. And we're in November, folks. We are in November. Halloween happened. It was great. Yeah. And here we are. It really it really happened this time cuz last time it was November but Halloween hadn't happened yet. Exactly. I hope you guys all had a good Halloween like we really actually did. Yeah, it was actually a nice Halloween. And I hope today everybody went out and voted. Yes. And it's I know it'll be after that that this comes in.

We'll find out if you voted or not. You know what, everybody, we did great. Yeah. Good job. We did great. I'm wearing blue to manifest. We're manifesting. We're doing great. And that's that. Use your your your right to vote wisely. that. Thank you. And thank you for being here today. Thank you. And with that, I we can probably just get right into it cuz it's part two and I want to know what the fuck is up. Part two and this is a kooky kooky case. Yeah.

It's crazy and when we last left you, a Dr. Linda Reynolds had started to be like mhm huh. What's going on over there? I love a bad bitch stepping in and taking taking survey. Just taking survey. So she and you can clock it. We're starting the story. Ey. Oh, honey. That's a quick clock. That's a quick one. Yeah. So let's talk about Linda Reynolds. She moved to the area in late 1996, the year of Ash. There you go. Taking a position as one of the partners at Brood Surgery, not far from where Shipman was practicing.

Prior to that, she'd spent 20 years treating patients in another part of England. And that meant that, while she might not have been familiar with the patients in her new practice, she was very familiar with the patterns of declining health and death among a population. And it wasn't long before she got the feeling that something wasn't adding up here. Okay. Not wanting to cause any problems, so early on at a new practice, she didn't voice her concerns right away, which is understandable. Then, near the end of 1997, she decided it was time.

She was going to start sharing her thoughts with the other partners. She Mariah carried it. She said, "It's time." She did. Dr. Jeremy Dirks, I think his name is, she told us that it became very apparent to her that there was certainly more deaths than she would expect. Hmm. And Dr. Jeremy there was one of the partners at Brood Surgery at the time. I don't trust a single man named Jeremy and it's your fault. I love that. I've ruined all Jeremys. I love that. That's my job.

Sorry, Jeremys. Sorry, good Jeremys. Sorry, me sorry, good sorry, me sorry, sorry, me sorry, all that to say sorry, me sorry, me if you're out there. Yeah. You know I don't know. Have we seen him? I don't I don't know. Well, Dr. Jeremy here said she wasn't particularly aware at the time of the circumstances of each death, but it was the numbers and that raised definite suspicions in her mind. That makes sense. Now, the other partners at the center listened to these concerns, but they simply couldn't fathom that Shipman was doing something to actually cause the death of his patients.

Yeah. Which why would you think that a doctor would do that? Yeah. So, the same our Dr. Jeremy there said, "Dr. Reynolds was quite sure there was something more sinister to it. The rest of us didn't dare think that." Now, instead, they did their best to kind of just like deal like kind of like pet her concerns a little bit, trying to rationalize things, kind of coming up with reasonable explanations like there's got to be some reason that the deaths are this high. It can't be that he's doing something.

People love to try to to try to pet a woman. Yeah. It's like pull the wool over your eyes. It's okay, girl. You're wrong. Yeah, you're wrong on this. Stop it. But the despite their resistance, Reynolds' fellow partners wanted to be supportive though. Okay. So they all agreed that it would be best to take their concerns to the coroner who would be most knowledgeable about this matter and would know what, if anything, should or could be done. Okay. Not surprisingly, the coroner was shocked by what Reynolds told him and agreed this was a very serious matter.

But he explained that the only way he could investigate the situation would be to report it to the police who would act on his behalf. That in itself seemed a little risky since you could immediately alert Shipman to their suspicions. There was also a question of libel. Yeah. If Reynolds and the others made a you know serious allegations and turned out to be wrong, there could be serious personal and professional consequences here. Yeah. Dr. Jeremy said, "Dr. Shipman was the most well-respected doctor in Hyde and calling into question any colleagues' practices and behavior is a major step.

It could have backfired." That's tough. They were up against a lot here. But still the matter was serious enough that they felt obligated to go forward with their complaint. Wow, okay. Yeah. And so the Greater Manchester Police opened up their investigation. I did not expect this. Badass. Very. They real they put it all on the line here. Like in every sense of the phrase. Yeah. Years later when the Crown launched an inquiry into the systems that allowed Shipman I love the Crown. The Crown. Just like the Crown like I literally picture a Crown launching an investigation.

A Crown being like time to investigate. Do it. Go forth. Well, years later when the Crown did launch an inquiry into the systems that honestly allowed Shipman to avoid detection for so long, an investigation committee would conclude that the great Greater Manchester Police had never taken the initial reports very seriously. Oh. Yeah. Dr. Jeremy said, "I believe it was generally held by the police that the concerns were purely those expressed by Dr. Reynolds and not the rest of the practice. That certainly wasn't the case." Damn.

Now, the investigators assigned to look into the matter never bothered to interview the other doctors at Brood Surgery. In fact, it seems that they had more of an investigative interest in Dr. Reynolds than they did in Dr. Shipman. Of course. Among other things, they questioned her about why she'd left her previous practice, implying that she had been resentful of a male doctor in a more senior position and that she must have left due to repeated conflicts with him. You ever just want to punch a punch a head?

And Dr. Jeremy said they were almost hinting that she had a similar problem with Dr. Shipman. Fuck off. Fuck these fuck off with that. The male ego. Exactly. So sexist investigators weren't only the problem here. They were not the only problem. Okay. There was also the fact that they never bothered to collect all the documentation on recent deaths and the fact that in a small town like Hyde, many of the investigators knew and revered Fred Shipman. Uh-huh. And Alexander, who was a solicitor for one of the families, said, "The most significant thing for me was that I had always believed it was a policeman's job to ask questions.

And in this particular case, the lead investigators didn't ask questions. He sat and waited for information to be given to him." That's not how investigating works. Yeah, that's the laziest shit I've ever heard. After just a few weeks, the cursory investigation came to nothing and was just quickly closed without any determination. Of course it came to nothing because they did nothing. They didn't investigate. The local police might not have taken Dr. Reynolds' concerns seriously, but as it turned out, the doctors at Brood Surgery weren't the only ones who had started becoming suspicious.

It's like too bad nobody talked to them. Exactly. After retiring from the police force in 1988, John Shaw opened up K Cabs, a one-man cab company that consisted of Shaw and his blue Volvo. Volvo. I'm obsessed with the fact that he was like retiring, not for me. No, I'm just going to drive a cab. Drive a cab, just one cab. It's my cab. Almost immediately, Shaw saw a gap in the local market and he seized on it to great success. Very smart. And he said, "I found that there was a niche in the market of elderly people who wanted just short journeys and who wanted to be able to afford to do it in a taxi."

Nice. So, he framed the situation as purely opportunistic, but whether because of his personality or the fact that he was a retired police officer, elderly clients were immediately at ease at with him and he quickly gained a very good reputation and a very large clientele. He's like, "Oh, it was just cuz people needed it." And it's like, no, you were just really good at that. Yeah. He said, "All my customers I classed as friends." Aw. I love it. That's really sweet. Before long, John Shaw became more than just a cab driver for the elderly.

He would help them inside, listen to them when others wouldn't, and even fix little problems around their houses whenever he could. He's a straight-up caretaker. This motherfucker is an empath. As a result, he became very familiar with their lives and as their driver, he knew their patterns and routines. Yep. It was because of these things that Shaw began to notice when customers of his began dying in surprising numbers. He said, "I noticed that various ladies were dying suddenly, ladies that I'd seen possibly days before their death when they seemed in good health."

Oh. Now, after years of losing clients one after the other, Shaw grew suspicious that something was going on here. He's also a police officer. Yeah, he's got that nose. When John when Joan Harding died suddenly in January 1994, he decided to start keeping a list of the deaths. He said, cuz again, he's organized. He's a police officer. "The thing that made me suspicious," he said, "was my customers had all been in good health prior to their deaths." So, by 1998, he comprised a list of 20 names of elderly customers who died unexpectedly.

Wow. Because he'd been driving for many you know driving the same people for many years, including to their appointments, when he looked over the list, he noticed that they all shared one thing in common. They had the same doctor. Dr. Fred Shipman. And that was likely the last place he ever drove them. Yep. Wow. John Shaw suspected that the city's most well-respected doctor might be hiding a very dark, very nefarious secret. Wow. But the problem was, no matter how confident he was, he realized the theory was quote unquote fantastic and even coming from a former police officer, they were still unlikely to be believed.

mhm He said, "They were so fantastic, I couldn't grasp what my mind was telling me. I was equally frightened of being right as I was of being wrong." Yeah, I can see that absolutely. Like Linda Reynolds before him, John Shaw was conflicted about what he should do. Then came the death of Kathleen Grundy. By all accounts, Kathleen was a lively and relatively healthy woman in the spring of 1998. Shaw said, "She was a 25-year-old in an 80-year-old body." Despite her age as the former mayor of Hyde, Wow.

Grundy kept a fairly full social calendar and regularly went out on Saturday nights. Obsessed. When the evening events had come to an end, Grundy would always call John Shaw for a ride home and when he dropped her off, Kathleen would always flash the light on the front porch to let him know she'd gotten in the house safely. That is the sweetest. Right? Yeah. Given how spry and just full of life and independent Kathleen had been, it came to a big shock to everyone when in June 1998, Kathleen died unexpectedly.

Um her daughter, Angela, said, "I was very shocked because I had spoken to her a few days before on the phone and she was always very well." So, Angela called Dr. Shipman to find out what the fuck had happened to her mom. But he was vague, saying he hadn't seen her the day before she died and mentioned something about or excuse me, saying he'd seen her the day before she died and had mentioned something about chest pains. mm It was only later that Angela learned from her mother's friend that Shipman had actually called on Grundy because he wanted her to sign some papers.

Interesting. So, he was now like it sounds like he was now like bringing them bringing the lambs to the slaughter essentially. He was bringing them in. It's not like they were coming in for an appointment. Right. He was actually like reaching out to get them. And like choosing who he was going to do this to ahead of time. Now, in the days that followed, the story from Shipman became even more opaque. He said she died of cardiac arrest arrest, but she had no history of heart disease.

Okay. Even more concerning was the fact that on Grundy's death certificate, the registers office the registers office had listed the cause of death as simply old age. A decision they'd arrived at with significant input from Shipman. Hmm. Angela recalled later, "It was all very strange. I couldn't understand how she died. It just didn't make any sense to me." Right. Like which one is it? Yeah, old age or heart attack? Those are two very different things. A few days after her mother's death, Angela and her husband arrived at her mother's house to you know start dealing with her affairs.

And what they found there made even less sense. Looking around the house, there was no signs that a chronically ill person resided there. No. The garden was perfectly tended to, something Kathleen always did herself. mhm The lawn was perfectly mowed and there was no medications. She's on no medications. Wow. Angela pushed her suspicions aside, you know she's going through grief. Of course. But and she she set about making plans for the funeral, but a few weeks later, things got even more confusing. One afternoon, Angela was at home when she got a call from a solicitor in Hyde that she didn' didn't know.

Okay. The man said that he didn't know her mother, but he had been tasked with executing her mother's will, which she had filed on June 9th, 1998, just a few days before she died. Okay. It had arrived at their office with a typewritten letter asking that they be her executors. And it was simply signed K. Grundy. Weird. When Angela was finally able to review this will and the accompanying letter a few days later, she knew immediately this was not written by her mother. Really?

Kathleen Grundy had been known among other things for having beautiful handwriting. She's also the mayor, so there had been Yeah. Right? Her signature was probably gorgeous. And not only that, there's probably so many accounts of her handwriting. Yeah. Like and this letter was typewritten and quite badly at that. Something Angela knew her mother never would have done. Yeah. Even more surprising was the fact that in her final days, Angela's mother had changed her will and was now leaving everything to her doctor, Fred Shipman. In what world?

That is an incredibly bold thing to do. I'm also like are you completely dumb at this point? I'm like you lost your mind to that level that you thought you were going to get away with that? She has a daughter. She has friends. She has family. And she's going to leave everything to her doctor? And you already know people are suspicious of you, babe. Yeah, that's I'm like are you serious? Yeah. That's not walking a fine line. That's That's stomping around town in your big boots, brother.

Exactly. Now, among the things that allowed him to go on killing undetected for so long was the fact that he would sign he would often sign off on cremation of his victims before anyone in the family could say otherwise. This time, however, Grundy's daughter, Angela, had arranged for a burial. Good. After all the odd interactions with Shipman and especially this discovery of a new will naming Shipman as the sole fucking heir, Angela had started to wonder whether her mother's doctor might actually be responsible for her death.

I'm also like, dude, did you not realize she had a daughter? Yeah. And like that was going to look sus? I have no idea. But it's it's hubris. It's just they think they're above everything. Yeah. Well, and he's been getting away with it for so long. Well, so she did something really bold. She made an appointment. She asked that her mother's body be exhumed and subjected to a post-mortem examination. Okay. She said, "Let's go." And you have to point out too like the the heartbreak that would come along with already having buried your parent and now you're digging them back up.

And then have them go through an autopsy when you don't that isn't necessarily what you wanted. That is so traumatic to have to to have to even do that. I'm like, oh. Yeah. For more than a decade, Fred Shipman had managed to avoid questions from suspicious family members by just feigning outrage at their disbelief and shaming them for "How could you not trust my expertise?" I guess. By exploiting some of the most difficult human emotions to navigate, he was easily able to manipulate anyone who questioned his authority and make them feel like the guilty ones, like bad people.

Yep. One of the keys to his survival as a serial killer was the fact that his victims' families knew next to nothing about medicine and lacked the confidence necessary to really like confront someone with any serious accusations. I mean, what are you going to say? have the knowledge and the background in something especially medicine is so complex. Yep. And it's like they you do feel stupid sometimes like questioning a doctor. We've been in positions where we've questioned doctors before. For sure. And you end up like feeling silly sometimes.

Cuz sometimes if like you know you if you get a good doctor, which a lot of doctors are great, Oh yeah. they're going to be like you know what, I understand that you want to know more about this or that you're confused by this. Like I'm just not sure. you are. But sometimes they can be like real shitty sometimes. So when if you get the wrong one that's like you had a bad day or something. How dare you? Yeah. Yeah. But Angela was a highly respected professional in her own right and a lawyer at that.

And she wasn't easily intimidated by the likes of little Fred Shipman. He done fucked up this time. You fucked with the wrong like you didn't do your research, babe. Which thank goodness. Also, Angela's confidence made John Shaw feel like he might not be alone after all in thinking this. Yeah. And in August, Shaw went to the police to add his concerns to the growing cloud of suspicion on Fred. And good for him too to put his neck out there cuz he said well, you know what?

Angela's out here going through grief and sticking her neck out. She's a professional. She could lose stuff doing this. I'm going to do it too. Yeah. And he cared about, you know, he cared about Kathleen. Yeah. Now, Fred Shipman had already avoided capture once when the investigation prompted by Reynolds and the other doctors at

But for reasons that like are pretty unclear still, when it came to the murder of Kathleen Grundy in the summer of 1998, he did something he'd never done before. He tried to profit from the crime. Yeah. When the coroner examined Kathleen's body after she was exhumed, he found a large quantity of morphine in her muscle tissues. And for years, Shipman had been altering his patient's medical records to support whatever cause of death he put on the certificate. But this time, he made a mistake. He altered Kathleen's medical records to indicate that, quote, "She was overdosing on codeine."

Which might have made sense if the coroner had found codeine in her body. Instead, didn't. They found morphine. The morphine discovered in the body of a woman who is not known to use or need morphine only added to the suspicion that he had killed Kathleen. Not only morphine, but any other. She didn't have any other medicines. No, and it's also it's adding to the suspicion that he not only killed Kathleen, but killed her to inherit the money left to him in this questionable last will. Your motive is right there.

Yeah. A few weeks later, investigators obtained a search warrant for Shipman's house. Stop. where they found, among other things, a large supply of morphine, the typewriter that matched the letter that accompanied the will that when it was sent to the solicitor's office. Dude. They also found evidence that Shipman had forged Grundy's signature on a number of documents, and his fingerprint was found on the letter and the will that was sent to the lawyers. Shut the fuck up. On September 7th, 1998, Fred Shipman was arrested and charged with murdering Kathleen Grundy.

And a few days later, a second charge was added for his attempts to forge her will. Good. Finally. Yeah. Now, the evidence against Fred Shipman in the death and attempted defrauding of Kathleen Grundy was like pretty immense. It was pretty considerable. See so. But after hearing what John Shaw had to say, investigators began to wonder whether uh there might be some more names of other victims. Did investigators begin to investigate? They actually were like, "Hmm." Maybe there could be more to this. Maybe we should have done something back then.

Maybe they did give it a shot. I don't know. But when the news of the arrest broke, investigators were quick to caution the press and the public against reading too much into their actions this early in the investigation. Detective Superintendent Bernard Postle said, "I can confirm an investigation is being undertaken into the circumstances surrounding Mrs. Mrs. Grundy's death. I would like to stress that people should not panic about our investigation." Okay, Bernard. Which like I guess that makes sense cuz it's like this is a prominent doctor.

So it's like Yeah. everyone chill. Now, while investigators made a point of staying tight-lipped about the case with the press, behind the scenes the evidence against Shipman was piling up. Following the exhumation of Kathleen, uh court orders for additional exhumations were being made for patients who died under Shipman's care. Okay. Each one revealing new evidence of foul play. Which again, horrific for the family members. Oh my god, it's awful. In early October, three additional murder charges were added following the exhumation of 73-year-old Joan Malia, 73-year-old Winifred Meller, and and 49-year-old Bianca Pumphret.

49. Following the arraignment, Bernard Postles gave a statement to the press indicating that the Greater Manchester Police expected the quote uh quote "lengthy inquiry with many difficult areas of investigation." Although the investigation appeared to be moving along, it was like relatively slow because of the sensitive nature of the uh accusations and the general difficulty of dealing with such a large number of victims here. Yeah. This was all made exponentially more difficult by the media who had seized on the story. That's crazy. With the less reputable outlets harassing family members for comment or additional information.

Go away. You that's so gross. It's really fucked up. In the days and weeks that followed, investigators worked tirelessly to track down patients and family members. But Shipman had altered or destroyed so many records that it made it so difficult. Yeah. When they would come across a patient who was determined to have died under maybe suspicious circumstances, the remains would need to be exhumed, which was a process they chose to do under cover of night to avoid curious members of the press and public. Yeah. Although they were a necessary part of the investigation, the seriousness of the exhumations was not lost on any of the detectives or the forensic technicians.

Uh Father Dennis March told reporters, "There's a finality to a burial. You are saying goodbye and there is a healing in that. Yeah. Now, we have to go back and do that. It's terribly upsetting." It is. And it is. Like there really is like a finality in closing that coffin lid and saying goodbye. There's like a ritual that comes along with death and that's part of it. Yeah. Now, given how many patients Shipman served since opening his practice in the early '90s, it seemed entirely possible to detectives that they were looking at one of the worst cases of serial murder in England's history.

Wow. Yet no one on the case dared even to guess a potential number of victims. How can you even at that point? Yeah. Instead, they continued digging through the evidence, which included years worth of complex medical records and more than 3,000 prescriptions for morphine. Wow. By mid-November, their work was continuing to show results. On November 13th, two more murders were added to the charges. After the bodies of 63-year-old Ivy Lomas and 67-year-old Marie Quinn were found to contain large amounts of morphine. By that time, Shipman had been denied bail and a tentative trial date for the Grundy murder had been set for January 1999.

Um but there were more discoveries that were going to come. Mhm. In January, uh Shipman's trial date came and went with the prosecutors' office asking for additional time to complete the investigation. Because again, new information was surfacing rapidly. Yeah. A judge granted their request and in late February, an additional eight murder charges were added to the following victims: Muriel Grimshaw, age 76, Nora Nuttle, age 65, Laura Wagstaff, age 81, Maureen Alice Ward, age 57, Pamela Hillier, age 68, Marie West, age 81, and Lizzie Adams, age 77.

My god. When asked whether they expected to find additional victims or to continue digging into his patient files, Detective Superintendent Postles said, "We will not enter into speculation about whether there will be any further charges or whether we have drawn a line under the inquiry now." Whether or not there would be additional charges or victims, the prosecution was expected to go to trial against Shipman for 15 murders. 15. That was just what they like definitively connected. So his trial began October 5th, 1999 at Preston Crown Court, where he repeatedly and strenuously denied killing any of his patients, and he definitely didn't forge Kathleen Grundy's will.

She just She did that. Why's your fingerprint on it? No idea. Now, jury selection took more than a week, and once they were finally sworn in, members of the jury were warned that due to the size and scope, the case could potentially last as long as five months. Wow. In fact, opening statements from the prosecutor, Richard Henriques, uh lasted three days as he laid out the evidence in all 15 murders. He said, "All of them died most unexpectedly. All of them had seen Dr. Shipman on the day of their death.

There is no question of euthanasia. The defendant killed these 15 patients because he enjoyed doing so. He was exercising the ultimate power of controlling life and death and repeated the act so often, he must have found the drama of taking life to his taste." That's an over statement. Yeah, for real. Among other things, he walked through the evidence showing how Shipman had forged his medical records to align with whatever circumstances of death he decided. And explained that they would hear testimony from family members who were convinced or bullied into fore going post-mortem examinations.

Mhm. Uh he said, "Of course, from Dr. Shipman's perspective, it was imperative in each case that he avoid a post-mortem." In other cases, he used his position of power and authority to manipulate others. When paramedics arrived at the home of 68-year-old Pamela Hillier, they suggested someone needed to report the death to the police. But Shipman told them, "I don't see there's a need to do that." Why? Now, the evidence against him was persuasive. But his case was made all the more compelling by the testimony from the victims' friends and family regarding his callousness after the deaths.

In the case of Marie West's murder, Shipman wasn't aware that as he was killing Marie, his her friend Marion Hadfield was waiting for her in the next room. What? Mhm. According to Hadfield, when Shipman realized she was there, he said, "She She's collapsed on me. She's gone." What the fuck? Mhm. One room away. Yeah. And he didn't even realize it. And And then he just didn't give a shit. had the gall to just be like, "Yep, it's what it is. Bye." Yeah, whoops. When Hadfield expressed expressed her shock and disbelief, Shipman grabbed West's head and opened her eyes.

And he said, "See, there's no life in there." Oh my god. Then he let the woman's head fall back against her shoulder. Oh my god. Literally opened her eyes. See, there's no life in there. To her friend. That's so fucked up. Callous as fuck. Imagine how traumatizing that must have been for her friend. In each instance, Henriques walked the jury through what he called Shipman's quote "far-fetched explanations for the deaths and the circumstances surrounding his presence." In the case of 67-year-old Marie Quinn, for example, Shipman claimed that she had called him at his office to say she thought she was having a stroke.

Shipman claimed he told her to leave the door unlocked and he would be over immediately. But when he arrived, she was quote "breathing her last." But investigators checked the phone records on both ends, and wouldn't you know, no such call all took place. Dude. How are you like how do you think you're going to get away with that and like nobody's going to check into it? That's what I don't get. And the details provided by Shipman seemed entirely unlikely, if not impossible. He said, "It is um so he the uh prosecutor said, "It is inconceivable that Mrs.

Quinn, partially paralyzed, went from her living room to open the door, then went to the kitchen where Shipman found her." Like let's be real.

The stories about the lives and deaths of Shipman's patients and his behavior before and after their deaths were a large part of the crown's case. But they had the evidence to back their theories up. Mhm. In mid-November, uh Detective Constable Dave O'Brien told the jury that "During the search of Shipman's home, they discovered a massive uh like a ton of morphine and diamorphine stored in a bedroom." When they ran the numbers of each vial, investigators discovered that the drugs had been recorded by Shipman as having been destroyed as far back as 1995.

Dude. Yeah. Meanwhile, you just have a legit stockpile in your home. Yeah. Like Now, the defense put forth by Shipman's lawyer, Ian Winter, was very simple. There was no murder. The women had heart disease or other illnesses and that led to their deaths. But they didn't, babe. That's like the worst defense I've ever heard. Yeah. Winter said, "Bianca Pumphret and and Winifred Meller complained to him of chest pains on the day they died. Joan Malia complained of a severe cough on the day she died. And as for backdating and altering the records, Shipman told the court he did that because quote "It helped him to research effective treatments."

I don't you can't just say don't worry about it. change your records. Don't worry about it. Like you could you can maybe update them with new information. Yeah. But you're acting like that was information that previously existed. Well, and he's also using that whole like don't question me. I'm a doctor. Yeah. Okay. In early December, when he took the stand in his own defense, I How did I know you were going to say that? Shipman had weak or somewhat somewhat implausible explanations for pretty much everything that made him look guilty.

And Richard Henriques had no trouble poking holes in his story. But he just thinks he's so much smarter than everybody else. He thinks he's got it. On several occasions, Shipman was interviewed by police and gave his account of the treatments and his proximity to the patients at or around the time of death. But as Henriques pointed out repeatedly, when Shipman was testifying in court, his story didn't match his early interviews. Mhm. Yeah, Shipman claimed, "I was considerably stressed at the time of the police interviews. I agree the version taken down in the police station was different than what I said today."

Like so did you lie because you were stressed out? Well, once again, he always has an answer for why it is the way it is. Yep. The arguments from both sides finally came to an end in late January 2000, and that's when Justice Forbes began his summation of the case to the jury. He said, "This is a tragic and deeply disturbing case. You will have heard evidence which may have aroused feelings of anger, strong disapproval, disgust, profound dismay, or deep sympathy. You must put all those such feelings or emotions to one side and not allow it to influence your judgment.

You must decide this case only on the evidence you have heard, seen, and read in court." And with his summation and guidance imparted to the jury, they were dismissed for deliberation. Okay. They deliberated for 34 hours before emerging to find Shipman guilty on all 15 murders. Wow. And the forgery of Kathleen Grundy's will. Good. As the foreman read through each verdict, Shipman stared straight ahead. He had no emotion or response. I inside of his head must have just been fuck racing now. Like how do I get out of this?

How did I get myself into this? Like Mhm. You know cuz he just he thought he was going to Oh, yeah. pull the wool over everybody's eyes forever. Oh, yeah. Justice Forbes said, "Each of your victims was your patient, and you killed each and every one of your victims by a calculated and cold-blooded perversion of your medical skills. Yours was not a healing touch. None of them knew that it brought them death, which was disguised as the caring attention of a good doctor." With that said, he sentenced Fred Shipman to 15 life sentences and announced he would be recommending a whole life tariff, meaning that Shipman would spend the rest of his natural life in prison, never to be released.

Bye-bye. As soon as the case ended, the speculation about just how many victims Shipman had killed began. Of course. In addition to the 15 victims for which he had been clearly found guilty of and sentenced, the prosecution had prepared files on 23 other victims Wow. whose cases weren't seen as strong enough to bring to trial. That's always so frustrating. On top of that, sources within the Greater Manchester Police Force told reporters detectives had looked into 141 other deaths. Holy shit. By the time the investigation and inquiry concluded, Fred Shipman would be suspected of killing more than 250 people.

That is insane. Making him England's most prolific serial killer. Yeah. What shocked the press and the public more than the number of victims was the fact that the murders had happened at all and that Shipman had gone on killing out in the open for so fucking long. And he was a doctor. Imagine like people are already afraid of dentists and doctors in general. Just imagine the fear that must have ignited in everybody after this. And especially as like an elderly person. Like yeah, you have to go to the doctor.

You you're supposed to trust that your doctor's going to do the best for you. And it's so like and people take advantage of them so easily. It's so sad. Yeah. Now, just days after the trial ended, the police began reporting that Shipman had in fact been under investigation 18 months earlier when Dr. Reynolds reported her fucking suspicion to the coroner. But nothing had been done. Yikes. You know Linda's sitting there like Told ya. Mhm. That's a real I told you so. In response, the assistant chief constable of the Greater Manchester Police, Vincent Sweeney, released a statement saying essentially dodging responsibility.

That's nice. Decisions were made and conclusions reached about the investigation by the police and the health authority that were based upon information and records which we now know we have been to have been fraudulently altered by Dr. Shipman. He said, "The absence of any evidence to support a concern effectively meant that the investigation could go no further. Without evidence, there can be no criminal investigation." Thank you. You know what's crazy though? There was plenty of evidence. is they had a butt ton of evidence that they found when they actually looked into it.

Right. Whether or not the police or the health authority wanted to take any responsibility, Shipman's 15-year killing spree revealed a seemingly endless list of problems within within England's England's health healthcare care system system that that though not responsible for the murders themselves, certainly allowed Shipman to go on killing undetected really. Following his conviction a committee was formed to evaluate the case and make recommendations for changes that could prevent anything like this from happening again. In February 2000, it was announced that the Shipman inquiry would be conducted in in private much to the surprise and much to the great frustration of the victims' families who had lobbied hard for the inquiry to be fucking public.

Public yeah we should all know what's going to happen now. In July of that year the families won a court battle to force the government to hold the hearings and release the findings to the public. The families didn't quit. They did not quit. In July 2002 the first phase of the report was released finding that Fred Shipman had likely caused the death of 200 and 15 patients. 171 women and 44 men. That's crazy. Between the ages of 47 and 93 years old. Imagine first of all 47 is so young and then you make it to 90 3 years old and this motherfucker is what takes you out.

Yeah. Like like so unfair. Like truly so unfair. Now in July of the following year the second and third reports were released containing recommendations for reform and among other things the committee found that the coroner systems in both England and Wales was horribly outdated and in need of radical changes that included better training, multiple sign offs on death certificates which would prevent like any unauthorized revisions and the use of fucking vague ass terms like natural causes. Finally the committee called the major reforms to the oversight of GPs general practitioners arguing that the general medical council was an organization designed to look after the interests of doctors not patients.

In addition to the procedural and systematic changes brought about by the same inquiry, the report and perhaps even the case itself spurred a change in the way doctors and other medical staff were perceived in the UK. Dr. Ian Ian Kerr said there was certainly a more relaxed attitude before Shipman's conviction. There was more respect for the doctor's autonomy whether they deserved it or not. The Shipman case made people more uncomfortable about the control doctors can have over the end of someone's life. The release of the Shipman inquiry reports signaled the kind of like finality to the case a more genuine sense of justice than can be found in a simple conviction I think.

But it turned out that there was one more chapter to the story that was going to unfold in 2004 that truly brought it to a close. On January 13th 2004 just one day before his 58th birthday, Fred Shipman hanged himself with his bed sheets in his cell at Wakefield prison. When the news of his death was reported to the press, it was quote greeted with shock and disgust by relatives of the victims some of whom said he had quote taken the easy way out. And no time did Shipman express any remorse for the lives he'd taken.

And he went to his grave insisting he was innocent. He was not. In speaking with the press lead investigator in the Shipman case Bernard Postle said I'm shocked and surprised by his death. I think there was a real possibility he would confess. There are killers in prison who take 10 to 15 years to admit their part in serial killings. I always thought there was a chance that would happen. Unfortunately that never came to pass. And in fact with so many of his medical files and patient information having been altered or destroyed, any chance of identifying additional Shipman victims may have died with him.

That's awful. I don't know. That is the Shipman case. It's it's hard to imagine that he would have given anybody anything. I know you never know. You know but that there was in a chance now. He just seems like such a jackass. He is but you know prison can break a break a fuck up. It's true. It's a it's a horrifying case and it's I mean they can they definitively think like 215. That's crazy. That's unbelievable. It really is. And he just and why? Just playing God I think.

Just playing God. That's it. And using just like a weird like and using such a position of where you have people in such a vulnerable state. People just surrender to a doctor you know like when you're sick or something's you just surrender to you surrender yourself to a doctor. Well it's just such an I don't know the right word to use but it's somewhat fascinating to me that he killed people by injection yeah and got something out of that. Do you know what I mean? It's almost such a passive way to kill someone.

Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Yeah exactly. It's str- it's strange. There's not a lot of cases that we've heard like this. Yeah. Because even poisoning feels so much different. Yeah. I know it's strange. Yeah. It's a it's a very strange thing. Yeah there's not there's not a lot of cases we've talked about where where it's been injections. I find that. I know. I find that interesting. I hate Fred Shipman. I do too. Rest in distress. Yeah the fact that yeah it pisses me off that he didn't have to rot in jail.

No. Pissed. Yeah. Do you have a fun fact? People believe that a radio station in Russ- Russia is haunted. Shut the station UVB76 broadcasts white static noises but no one knows where it comes from. And it's been broadcasting since 1982. I'm obsessed with this. I would like to look further into that. So that's my fucked weird fact that we will be looking into in an episode on. That is so fun. That's a fucked up fun fact. But also like where is it? A fun fucked fact.

I don't like it but I love it. I want to know more. Oh I can't wait to go down that rabbit hole about that. All right well you guys we love you. We hope you keep on listening. And we hope you keep it weird but not so weird that you don't follow us down the rabbit hole of what the fuck is going on with that radio station. Let's go. Bye.

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