Fred Shipman by far is one of the most prolific serial killers of all time, with an estimated 250 victims. The British doctor who killed his patients for pleasure. Married with four children he began his career as a general practitioner at a medical center. In March 1998 the medical board expressed concerns about the high death rate among Shipman’s patients. In particular, they were concerned about the large number of cremation forms for elderly women that he had needed countersigned. A few months later, in August, taxi driver John Shaw told the police that he suspected Shipman of murdering 21 patients. Shaw became suspicious as many of the elderly customers he took to the hospital, who seemed to be in good health, died in Shipman’s care.
Shipman would first diagnose his patients with illnesses they didn’t have and then inject them with a lethal dose of diamorphine. Unbeknownst to the alleged 250 people who died by his hand between 1975 and 1998, their visit to the office of Harold Shipman would be the last thing they’d ever do.
According to investigators, Shipman would stop and restart his killing spree many times throughout his decades of terror. But his method of killing always remained the same. He would target the vulnerable, with his oldest victim being 93-year-old Anne Cooper and his youngest 41-year-old Peter Lewis.
After his arrest in 1998, police could only charge him with 15 murders, but its been estimated that his kill count is anywhere between 250 and 450.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment and died by suicide by hanging himself in his cell in 2007, age 57.
Some suggest that the doctor had a God Complex and simply needed to prove that he could take a life as well as save it. Others believed it was a misguided way of offering compassion.