Harold Shipman (Part 1)

Hey weirdos, I'm Ash. And I'm Alayna. And this is Mobbed. This is Mobbed, everybody. If you're listening to this, I think it's Monday. So Halloween has happened. That's the thing I was gonna say, I hope you had a happy Halloween. I hope it was spooky and ooky. But that means it's November. I know. And I know that it's even right now one to two days away, but it makes me so sad. October went by too fast. I wasn't, I wasn't spooky enough. No, I don't think I spookied to my fullest potential. I didn't spooky to my fullest potential. It was a great month. Yeah. Awesome. Like really cool month. Sorry, I was really just burping through my life right there. Awesome month. Lots of fun shit that we did and like cool people. That we met and like, yeah, but, but damn, not enough spooky. I know we didn't go to one fucking haunted house this year. No, it just ended up being, can we even qualify as spooky people anymore? I know. I feel like really, I feel, I feel remiss here, but I did watch it like a lot of spooky stuff. I did too. I watched my Halloween baking championship. So there you go. And the girl that I wanted to win one. There you go. Spoiler alert. If you haven't seen it, the girl wins. There's two girls at the end. So you're fine. The girl. The girl. That's how your, your youngest would say it. It's true. So Halloween was awesome. And in the future it was awesome. Yeah. But you know what? We'll look forward to the holidays and Thanksgiving and still, it's still fall. I'm going to get so fucked up at your Thanksgiving and I mean on food alone. Hell yeah. On food alone. So I'm getting fucked up on the turkey. On the turkey. Oh my God. And the streus. The streus. And the stuff. The sweet potato streus. And the regular potatoes. What are you guys doing for Thanksgiving? Tell me about it. I can't wait. Tell me about it. Thanksgiving might be up there in my favorite holiday. I think it might be tied with Christmas and Halloween at this point. Wow. I mean, I love Thanksgiving as well. I love it. I don't know how you do it. I just love the food. It's a lot of work. It is a lot. I never want to do it. And afterwards I always say, glad that's done. Yeah. But I like to do it as well. Yeah. No, I get that. There's, there's like a, there's a fun feeling of satisfaction when you've like fed your whole family and like, also hosted a party, like when you've done it all. And then afterwards you're just like, okay, I could wait a year to do that again. You know what I mean? It's like a sense of like Ina Garten, Martha Stewart realness. Exactly. Yeah. That's exactly it. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I'm trying to think if there's anything else to update. You're just going to tell us a horrible story. I am. I'm going to tell you a British story today. British. Taking us out of the U.S. for a little while. Thanks. A little vacation for us. Make sure you're registered to vote. Oh, yes. Make sure you're registered to vote and go out and vote. Yeah. Don't, don't be dumb. Yeah. And not vote. Yep. You better go vote. Okay. If you are eligible to vote. If you are eligible, get out there and vote. Go vote. Please. For the love of Jod. Appreciate it. Serious. Now, today we're going to talk about Harold Shipman. I've heard of this name. It's going to be a two pata. Oh, a two pata. The man, the man did a lot. He's yucky. He's known as England's most prolific serial killer. Oh, damn. But it's not. It's a different kind of situation, I would say. Different kind of prolificy. Exactly. So let's talk about who Harold was. Period. Harold Frederick Fred Shipman. Damn. Was born January 14th, 1946. Capricorn. Capricorn. Oh, no. He was born in Nottingham, England. The second of two boys. His parents were Vera and Harold. Harold Shipman Sr. Vera's a pretty name. Mom, Vera was a homemaker and dad, Harold, was a truck driver. We love a truck driver. Yeah. When, you know, young Shipman was born, England had just started its long recovery from the destruction that came on from the Second World War. So that was a situation. Yeah. Which, again, it was a time where even like people who were super wealthy were affected by what was going on. Mm-hmm. But the Shipmans were a solidly wealthy people. Middle class family who managed to avoid a lot of the harsh, like the really harsh, like hardships faced by other British people at the time. And they had very high standards for their children. Okay. Now, Fred, I'm going to call him Fred because that's what they used to call him. Okay. Fred, and it's his mom, his dad is Harold too. So that's confusing. Fred Shipman's early life was mostly unremarkable. And that's not just me saying it. That's like people around him also saying he was pretty unremarkable. Damn. Pretty old. Ordinary. But there was one unexpected tragedy in his late teens that definitely like set him on a different path. In 1963, when he was just 17 years old, his mother, Vera, died from cancer at the age of 42. Oh, that's awful. While the death of a parent is traumatic at any age, it doesn't matter. Yeah. 17. Some have speculated that this period had a pretty profound influence on Fred, especially with regard to his later criminal activities. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. And other things as Vera's cancer advanced, she became more reliant on injections of various pain management medications. Yeah, that makes sense. Which gave the impression that she was improving until she ultimately died in the summer of 1963, just weeks after Fred graduated from high school. Oh, that's really awful. Now, what we're going to find out, that is significant. Okay. Because later, Fred is going to become a doctor. Oh, okay. And he is going to kill people by injecting them. So that's just, I'm not saying that's the reason he did it. I'm just saying. It's just interesting. It's an interesting thing that happened. It's things that people have researched and speculated into as possibly having an impact on him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, in the fall of that year, Fred enrolled at a university in Nottingham, and he studied his general courses there for two years and then transferred to Leeds University in 1965. Much like his earlier life. Again, very unremarkable. Unremarkable. Yeah. Decades later, when asked about any memories of Fred during this period, Peter Costin, a former classmate, told a reporter, and I quote, What I remember about Fred was that he was just so ordinary. The thing I remember as remarkable about Fred was that he was unremarkable. Wow. That's rough. If that was my legacy, I'd be upset. That would be a bummer. Yeah. I'd be like, okay. In fact, what most people remembered of Fred at this time was that just the fact that he was one year into his medical studies at Leeds, he married his then-girlfriend. Her name was Primrose. Oh, Primrose. I think that's the prettiest name. Like Primrose Evadine. Yeah. And she gave birth to a baby not long after because she was pregnant at the time of the wedding. That's what most people remember. That's what I mean. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fred being married made him an outlier among his peers, who were almost entirely focused on their studies and couldn't imagine being married at this point in their lives. I feel like, damn, that's a lot. One of his friends said, most of us were single at that stage, so we didn't really mix. Although I don't know him very well, he certainly did not stand out in any way. He was just an average person. Fuck. Everybody is reading him to filth without even meaning to, it seems. He's honestly remarkable for being so unremarkable. Like, it's remarkable how ordinary he was. Yeah. That people noticed how ordinary he was. He's just like white bread. So he graduated in 1970, and he took a position at Pontefract General Infirmary. Where he spent two years doing his residency before finally receiving his degree in child health. No, thank you. Which later, finding out who he is, I'm like, I'm sorry, what? Fuck that. Despite his initial plan to focus on children, his residency had convinced him that he was actually interested in becoming a general practitioner, a GP. So he found work as a GP at the Abraham Ormerod Medical Center and started building a pretty good reputation there, actually. Finally, not unremarkable. Not so ordinary. One of the receptionists later recalled, He was a smashing fella and a very good doctor. Smashing. He was smashing. That makes me think of fucking Nigel Thornberry, Tim Curry. Oh, RIP Tim Curry. Smashing. Smashing. Now, after being super unremarkable his whole life, he was really coming into his own, finally. Finally. And it wasn't just his personality that his coworkers and patients appreciated. He was also a very skilled and reliable doctor. Dr. Michael Greve said he was very good technically and very good clinically. He was brilliant. And put a lot of work into the practice. Mothers thought the world of him. But he was good with everyone. There were chaps who thought he was absolutely fantastic. Okay. We love a chap. So it's like at this point, you're just like, why didn't you just continue doing that? Stay on that path, dog. Like being great and good at your job and helping people. Yeah. That would have got you a very good life. I would think. If you stayed on that track, I feel. Because again, so far everything has been so unremarkable and ordinary that I'm like, what? Breaks. Yeah. Like what breaks in his brain that he starts killing people? Yeah. I don't get it. Now, the Shipmans also seem to be thriving in their personal life. Once he was established at the medical practice, they were able to afford to buy a home in the Pennines, which is a region of Northern England. And they fit in there perfectly. Okay. Now settled for what they planned to be a long stretch there. Fred and Primrose joined the local conservative party and the local church where Primrose became a member. Okay. Of the choir. Gorge. As further evidence of their intent to like really get themselves in this community. Fred even helped dig out the massive piles of silt to help restore the, I think it's pronounced Raunchdale canals. Raunchdale? Raunchdale. It seems entirely likely that they genuinely intended to settle into their new community and build their lives there. That's what it sounds like. But things didn't turn out that way. I guess not. Because we're talking about a mob morbid. Yeah, it's not great. So in 1975, just one year after moving there, Fred was arrested and charged with three counts of obtaining a controlled drug by deception, three counts of unlawful possession of a controlled drug, and two counts of forging prescriptions. Oh, well, that happened pretty quickly. It seems that despite his upstanding and highly professional demeanor, he had become addicted to Demerol. Oh. Which is a powerful synthetic opioid. And when he couldn't get it legally, he started writing prescriptions for his patients for large amounts and then keeping the extra for himself. Oh, no. When the case went to court in February 1976, Fred told the judge he'd begun taking the drug to stave off, quote, depression caused by opposition to his ideas for improving the medical practice. Okay. So I started taking the drug because I got depressed because people wouldn't listen to my ideas. Yeah. Miraculously, Shipman managed to avoid serious consequences for his crimes and was ordered only to pay a pretty modest fine. And the General Medical Council declined to impose any punishment. Hello? Yeah. Although he'd gotten off with an incredibly light punishment for the drug charges, the arrest and court hearing were embarrassing, obviously. Yeah. And reputation damage. I was just going to say that. Prior to the hearing, he resigned from his position with the medical practice. And that winter, he began seeing a psychiatrist for treatment for his addiction. Okay. Dr. Grieve recalled he said in court that he did not get on with the drug. He said he had done well with the partners at the practice, but I think he felt like we had let him down by not standing by him after his addiction came to light. Now, out of work and no longer possessing the same reputation he had when they first arrived in the area, Fred and Primrose decided to move the family two hours south to Durham to start over. Despite his documented charges of drug abuse and writing fraudulent prescriptions, he eventually was able to find another position in Greater Manchester as a GP. That's surprising. With the Donnybrook Medical Center. The Donnybrook Medical Center, where he would remain for the next 15 years. Wow. Dr. Jeff Bills told a reporter, he was a very hard worker. Medicine was his whole life. All of it. No, literally all of it. Now, in the years that followed, Fred and Primrose settled into family life in Greater Manchester. By the mid-1980s, Primrose had given birth to two more boys, and Fred went on to join the PTA at their school. When he wasn't home at work or at home, he filled his time as a volunteer with the St. John's Ambulance. The St. John's Ambulance Brigade, serving as a divisional surgeon. Like, he's. He's, like, in the community, like, enmeshed. And, like, and the thing is, it's like, you made a mistake. Yeah. It was a big mistake. Yeah, of course. I'm not discounting that or, like, don't from it. But, like, you should be able to move on from it. You were dealing with your addiction. Yep. You were trying to move on. Yeah. Why didn't you. How'd you stay on that path? Why did you keep damaging your own shit? Like, it's just crazy to me. Because I'm like, yeah, that was a big deal. What you did. Of course. And it's like, yeah, you should have consequences for it. But you were going to a psychiatrist to try to deal with the addiction. Right. You were admitting that, like, there was a problem here. You were taking all the right steps. Taking the steps, doing the things that we ask people to do in these situations. And also enmeshing yourself in the community, like, during recovery. And getting yourselves involved with things that, like, would better the community. I'm like, I just. It's a conundrum to me. It is a conundrum. Because, again, I'm like, what broke? Yeah. And you said, sorry, you said he was in the PTA or she was? I think he was, actually. Yeah, that's what you said. Yeah. That's why I was clarifying. That's crazy. Yeah, he went on to join the PTA. I'm like, where do you find the time to do all this shit? That's the thing. He was, like, very involved. It's like in Hamilton during the Reynolds pamphlet where they say, you ever seen somebody ruin their own life? This is the third time you've brought up Hamilton today. Hamilton has been, like, a big deal in my life today. It has. I don't know. It's just, like, it's working. I like the Reynolds pamphlet. But they literally say, you ever seen somebody ruin their own life? Many people. Thank you for asking. Like, and also. And hello, right here. This is literally him. Prime example. Like, you're literally just ruining your own life. The Reynolds pamphlet. Exactly. I love when they say it like that. Yeah. Have you read this shit? Now, during this period, Fred Shipman built a large practice full of devoted patients who adored him. But being behind the scenes. Things at Donnybrook Medical Center were becoming increasingly tense between him and his co-workers. Sounds like he had trouble getting along. Doesn't work well with others. Senior partner Ian Napier said, on the one hand, he was charming, urbane, and pleasant with patients. But he had another side to him. And if crossed, he was capable of making people's lives miserable. Capricorns don't fuck with being crossed. I literally said that today. Yes. Yes. When I. When I. And I. In that same sentence, I was referencing Hamilton. Yeah. This is. This is a weird topical day. Like, full circle moment. Literally saying, I'm slow to anger, but I toe the line. Yeah. That's such Capricorn vibes. And when you cross that line, I'll ruin your entire fucking life. Yeah. But I won't do that initially. No. It takes a lot. I've seen it. But cross that line. But you're not. You're not that bad at a group project. I was just. I was just saying Capricorns don't love group projects. Oh, I fucking hate a group project. But you're not bad at it. This entire show is a group project between me and you. But it's more just. I. See, I. It is, in a way. Yeah. But I think it's just because I, like, can work with you. If I find somebody I can work with. Yeah. that's okay. I don't like a group project. I honestly. I don't want to work with people. I personally hate a group project as well. Yeah. I'd much rather isolate and just work by myself. Yeah. Like, I. As soon as they're like, okay, you're on. I'm going to figure this out. I'm like, no, I'm going to figure this out. Mm-hmm. Like, that's. Everybody go home. Yeah. I'll figure it out. Everybody go home. Like, I don't want to do this. I just don't really. Yeah. Yeah. That's not my vibe. It's no. Now, according to the same source, Fred had a volatile personality and was capable of holding grudges long after whatever slight, real or perceived, had passed. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But that's also a Capricorn trade-off. I know. You guys. I'm realizing this right now. You know that woman who's like, I will literally open a professional grudgery and take on your grudges? Not a doubt in my mind. She's either a Capricorn or a Virgo. Yeah. Absolutely. That's funny, though. I love it. I will hold a grudge against anybody. Yeah. I'm sorry to all my non-astrology people. I'm really on an astrology kick. It's okay. But it makes sense. Yeah. I'll move on, though. No, because it's actually. As I'm reading this, I'm like, oh, shit. You're like, ugh. I'm like, well, we do deviate at some point, so there's that. It says, when he became angry with the practice manager, he stopped talking to her entirely. It would only. He would only communicate with her in writing, and she was expected to do the same. I hate that that's iconic. Even though they worked in the same building, and he would see her every day. I love cutting people off. It's literally one of my specialties. So when I see other people cut people off, I'm like, do it. Yeah. And it's like. And right now, you're like, dude, you just didn't have to go where you're at. Yeah. Right now, I'm not mad at you yet. Yeah. And the same source said, I remember on one occasion, he reduced a drug company representative who had only been in the job for two weeks to tears. Okay. Yeah. That's not nice. But I've seen you do the same thing. I was. I, too, have made somebody cry. They deserved it. They did deserve it. Was it uncomfortable for everybody involved? Yes. Yes. Not for me. Did they do it other than Elena? I was the only one that wasn't comfortable. But was it worth it? Absolutely. Yeah. It was at a place we used to work. Yeah. I'm sure you can figure it out. I'd do it again. I'd sit through it. Honestly, as much as I hated it, I'd sit through it again. Did I want the earth to swallow me? Yeah, I sure fucking did. But I also was like, you deserved that. You had that coming. One thing I'm going to do is stand on business. Yeah. So put me in that situation again. I will do the same exact thing. I saw it coming, too. I saw it coming down the pike. To be honest, they should have seen it coming as well. She very much should have. But, you know, they can't anymore. Well, it was kind of a pussy move to cry. Exactly. Now, despite the outstanding reaction. to the reputation that Shipman had with his patients and somewhat begrudging respect, at least he learned from his peers. Like, they didn't really like hanging out with him. But they were like, he's a good doctor. They said he was good at what he was doing. It seems that his achievements were never enough for him, which is also very capricious. I'm trying not to, like, continue saying it. It's honestly, you can't help it. He didn't just want to be a well-respected general practitioner and reliable provider, which is a very great thing to be. Yeah. And, like, very. Very successful. He didn't want to be a doctor. He wanted to be the doctor. He wanted to be at the top of the pile in the medical world. Yeah. A role that was not typically associated with general practitioners. Okay. Like, usually, like, top of the. If you're, like, you know. Neurosurgeons. I'm saying, like, the achievements that a lot of people in medical professions are looking to get, a lot of times those are going to be found in, like, different specialties instead of general. Yeah. You know, of course, there's, like, very high-ranking general doctors. Yeah, you're a fucking doctor. But forensic psychologist Paul Britton later told a court shipman is hugely arrogant he believes that he has struggled and is struggling against the odds he believes the main obstacle is all of those foolish people out there and around him the people who really ultimately only have one value and that is to provide fuel for the fire that he is burning i mean it's scary yeah it's really scary to be honest it's scary it's really scary now previously when the pressure of life and his anxieties related to fears of like inadequacies would pop up uh he would turn to narcotics yeah to dull the pain that he felt but once that strategy had been discovered he'd been reprimanded pretty lightly and allowed to carry on his practice you know he wanted to move on yeah but if he turned to opioids for relief again and his use was discovered it was pretty likely that he'd lose everything at that point like you're not going to get that twice you're not going to get that twice you're not going to get that twice absolutely not what he needed in his mind was a new way to relieve the stress and frustration he was experiencing seemingly at all times and by the early 18 1980s he felt like he found it now my uh suggestion would be hang a punching bag in your garage or outside yeah hit it take a boxing class go for a run eat a moon pie eat a moon pie murder and take a seven out quit murdering because here's my question too like obviously he is not a rational thing he's not a rational thinker because he goes to murder for relief yeah but also how are you going to get to the top of your field when your patients are dying that's a great question that doesn't really make a lot of sense to me as it shouldn't i don't think you're going to get the accolades you're looking for when they're when they're dying under your watch yeah i don't think they're like the top ranking medical officials are like this one lost 700 patients last year like i don't think that's the the barometer that they're going with so my brother i think you lost the plot now years later when fred won the lottery i don't think he's going to win the lottery i don't think he's like past the 1980s when he was arrested in the 90s uh he'd be charged with a total of 15 murders committed between 1995 and 1998 but investigators very much believe that the number of victims is far greater than what they could prove and stretched back as far as the early 80s okay when he was working as a gp at donnybrook according to author carol peters who wrote a to as early as 1981 okay when he was treating two elderly women diagnosed with terminal cancer it would not have been uncommon for cancer patients to be treated with morphine for pain management it also would you know it also wouldn't have been uncommon or entirely inappropriate for their physicians to reclaim a small amount of the unused drug when they died okay um but according to peters shipman would often over prescribe and when a patient died he would replace the he would reclaim whatever morphine remained regardless of the amount and he would like stockpile it so he had a morphine surplus like he himself had it yeah um and because he was over prescribing instead of just using the amount that wasn't used which they could document yeah it was kind of untraceable yeah so that year shipman was called to bradley green and this is the real name of the place bradley green old people's center that's rude which is you put me bradley listen future children yeah don't you put me in an old people's center that is literally a hot your ass old people's center yeah that's fucked like an old folks home like literally called that so that year he was called there to tend to 84 year old mary may slater excuse me it was the practice of the center that whenever a physician came to see a patient they would be accompanied to the patient's room by the warden doreen lathe weight on this occasion lathe weight did exactly that but when she reached the room she said dr ship man specifically asked the or this is what she told someone later that they uh told to this author dr shipman specifically asked the warden to go and meet may slater's son james who had also been called to see his sick mother and prevent him from coming to mrs slater's bungalow so he asked that the son be stopped from coming up okay this left shipman alone with the patient in her room for a significant amount of time and no one thought that was weird and when he emerged sometime later he reported to the family and said that he was sick and that he was sick and that he was sick and that the warden that may had died that would be sus as fuck immediately now according to the death certificate which was prepared by shipman slater's death was the result of congestive heart failure at the time the records of the deceased were destroyed not long after their death like that was a thing like standard practice so there's no way to confirm whether may slater had been suffering from heart problems prior to her death that's why that's a really stupid practice but a little later found evidence that suggested she had been so there wouldn't have been any reason for them to suspect foul play okay which may be the reason he chose that because like if there's already that then they're not going to question it yep now the scene repeated itself in august of that year when another of shipman's cancer patients died and he took whatever morphine remained after the death the next day elizabeth ashworth another of his patients became ill and shipman was called to the house at the time this next day i was just at the time ashworth was living independently in her own home and was generally believed to be in good health she'd even been seen gardening on the day she was visited by shipman but just a few days after he visited the home and gave her an injection she died what the fuck between 1981 and 1984 there were a number of patients under fred shipman's care who died of what would in retrospect be deemed suspicious circumstances they just can't prove or those deaths were at the very least coincidental in the context of other deaths but probably not that shipman was so that shipman was able to kill on detective is at least in part due to the victims he was choosing and the vast majority of the murders his victims were elderly they were in poor health if not terminal yeah at that point so despite the relatively high number of deaths among his patients their death seems kind of ordinary or inevitable yep uh and didn't really cause anyone to suspect anything other than just unfortunately nature taking its course also in many of these cases it would have been normal if not expected for the victim to have been administered pain medication right so if anyone had conducted an autopsy finding drugs like morphine in the person's body wouldn't set off any alarm bells and if you're terminal but those amounts can be pretty exactly while shipman managed to kill undetected during this period there were limits to what he could accomplish given that his preferred method of murder was to give the victim an overdose of morphine he could only achieve his ends so long as he had an untraceable supply of the drug and he could only obtain that if he had cancer patients who left behind unused quantities of the drug although it's unknown how many people he killed between 81 and 84 it seems as though he'd run out of morphine by 85 oh having had only one patient that year with terminal cancer okay nevertheless according to the guardian there was one patient death in the past year of his death and he was killed in the past year of his death and he was that was reported to the local police as a suspected murder oh it appears investigators interviewed shipman and conducted a cursory investigation but according to the guardian quote no further action was taken because again like you said it's hard to it's hard to trace yeah but they but you can only get away with that for so long that's the thing here that's and they suspected him obviously i mean it is pretty crazy he wasn't caught until what yeah 90s but he's doing it in a way that is like he's not really doing it slowly no i think he's doing it because he doesn't really have to yeah yeah it's a it's a perfect set of unfortunately yeah circumstances exactly now that shipman managed to run out of morphine at various points throughout the 80s and you know had to stop killing for some time has become a subject of some debate as well those familiar with the case have suggested that if he needed more morphine he would have simply stolen whatever necessary morphine his patients had on hand leading them to suffer okay like just why would he care yeah this certainly seems like the kind of thing that a sociopathic killer would be capable of yeah and it would have allowed for a larger body count that is already than is already suspected but paul britain who was that psychologist he dismisses that argument as too simplistic okay he said this is a very complex human being yeah we tend to think of shipman the serial killer as ruthless emotionless and all the rest of it this is true to an extent but this is also a man who believes that he is a great savior yeah bringing health and community benefit he's also likely at a very important fundamental level to try to hold away the meaning of his killing so he's trying to he's he's not looking at this as like yes i kill people he's playing god he thinks he's playing god he is the person who gets to decide these things yeah and that wouldn't fulfill his god complex to let people suffer and to simply steal medication from his patients he would have to confront the cruel and criminal nature of his behavior yeah like upfront like that would completely undermine what he believes about himself right if he had to sit there and go well now i'm stealing and leaving them to suffer right that makes sense that's just not who he sees himself like he is that person yes but he doesn't see himself right i feel like that was like a mind hunter moment it was i'm re-watching mind hunter right now it's so good oh my god give us a third season whoever didn't like redo that fuck you seriously fuck you you Rather than risk any blow to his ego by recognizing the complete callous wickedness of what he was doing, he turned to a strategy that had worked for him in the past when he was in need of controlled drugs that couldn't be traced back to him. According to Detective John Ashley, there was very little in the medical records that recorded diamorphine being actually administered to anyone who had a legitimate need. And the amounts on the prescriptions he submitted to the pharmacies did not match what he was administering. So it's believed that when he ran out of the stockpile of morphine he'd been collecting over the years, he just fell back on the tactic he'd used in the past to get drugs for himself. He would just over prescribe. Okay. Because before he started doing the whole, I'll just take what they don't use, like not give them as much as they need, take what they use. Well, because he was so much closer to that previous charge, he was probably nervous to order, but now he's farther away from it. Exactly. So now he just falls right back into that, like, I'll just write prescriptions. Yeah. Which gave them, he would give them a small amount, or in some cases he wouldn't give them the morphine because sometimes they didn't need it. Okay. But he would just, and that's how he kind of like, you know, like explained it away in his own mind. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he would just keep the rest. Now, while no one at Donnybrook seemed to notice the large amounts of patients dying under his care, they did notice his increased irritability and stress as the years went on. Well, they probably did notice the large amount, but again, these are terminally ill people. Yeah. That you're expecting to pass away. So I guess notice isn't the, isn't the word more like didn't suspect anything. Didn't suspect anything nefarious going on. It's horrible, but it's unfortunately just. It's kind of the perfect crime for him. Yeah, exactly. Like it's awful. Now, one former staff member said no one else was up to his standard. You could not tell him anything and he was never wrong. Which is again, very Capricorn. It's also very, I feel like he's like INTJ. Yeah. Like personality type. Yes. Which is also my personality type. So there's that. Well, it appears he saved the worst of his anxieties and frustrations for his unfortunate patients. Those who worked around him weren't exactly spared his wrath either. Dr. Napier said he was not violent in any physical sense. It was almost like a childlike temper tantrum. He would go completely over the top and it was as if he had no control over it. He didn't do it with any of the partners. He would only talk like that to his subordinates. Yeah. Now by January 1992, his personality and poor interpersonal skills had become something of a problem at work. I would think so. At the time, new policies related to the hospital and healthcare system in the UK were changing how patients could receive care from their providers, directly impacting which services the government would cover. The changes prompted many of the partners at Donnybrook to leave the facility for private practices. Shipman later said in court, the other doctors were not as committed as I would have thought. I would have said, I would have said, I would have said, I would have said, I would have been to make the changes work. So that tells you that they just weren't committed. Yeah. Instead of continuing on at the center, he started operating his own practice because there was like no one left on the premises of Donnybrook. So he stayed just operating his own practice. Okay. But within four months, he abandoned that plan and set up a completely new private practice, taking 300 of the center's patients with him and refusing to pay his share of the annual taxes. Fantastic. Now- It's so interesting. He had to have had interpersonal skills on some degree- Oh, he did. To have that many patients follow him. Because again, patients loved him. Right. Like patients loved him because they had no idea what he was doing to them when they were, you know what I mean? Like he could charm them. I do. I find it so fascinating when people like can't work with other people, but like on a, on a smaller scale, like I've worked with people in the past, like in the hair world where you're like, you have so many clients that love you, but like you're a fucking demon. You're a nightmare to work with. Exactly. Like on a coworker level, I always find that so fascinating. It's like two sides of how people work. It's so strange. Now his new one-man operation was located in an old insurance office on Market Street in Greater Manchester's shopping district. Eventually he bought the shop next door and expanded the size of the practice, enthusiastically involving himself in the renovation process. He was excited about this. Yeah. Well, and of course he's got his hands on everything. Yeah. He also inserted himself into the local community, chairing the local medical committee that oversaw GP practices in the region. And he joined the board of the small practices association, which was responsible for reporting complaints about local providers, which was smart to do because now he's there. He can keep an eye on what's happening and he can potentially put up a roadblock if something needs to be blocked. It's very like how serial killers will talk to the police. Exactly. You got to get information. You want to be in the know. You want to be able to like get in front of stuff due to the new regulations around healthcare. Patient bills were not always paid by the government in a timely manner and money was often tight in the early days of the practice. So unable to afford a proper full-time assistant or nurse to help with the workload, Primrose would regularly step in to help with the operation of the business. That's his wife in case you forgot. Despite the hardship, Fred was determined to ingratiate himself with the new community and went out of his way to get to know his patients and their lives outside of the practice. He just really wanted to be a part of it. Local counselor, John Bell said he was revered for his attention to detail, the way he talked to people and remembered things. Well, he also has to remember certain things about like their family. Of course he does. Who's going to miss them when they're gone and who's going to be sus. He's got to know everything that's going on. And it's like, he has all these qualities that you're like, you could have made a great career for yourself and you really did fuck up your own life. Yeah. Like, congrats. Yeah. Like you idiot. Good work. Now, the problem was his generosity and respect that he had for his patients wasn't something he tended to extend to those outside of the practice. And before long, he had found himself on the wrong side of the West Pennine Health Authority. Okay. The organization whose job it was to monitor and regulate private practitioners in the region. So that wasn't good for him. Um, the, so apparently the thing that was the, the issue was the frequency with which Shipman prescribed drugs to his patients and how generous he was with the dosage and amounts. Wow. You didn't think anybody was going to catch on to that? It's interesting though. I mean, obviously it's a different country. Like I feel like in America that's been happening like forever. Yeah. And it's only really just become a thing where they're like, hey, stop doing that. They were on it way before. But yeah, they were on it way before us. Yeah. Within just the first year of his practice in 1993, Shipman was among the top five prescribers out of the region. So he was one of the top five prescribers out of the region. Wow. Causing many within the health authority to become a little suspicious. According to the agency's director of primary care, Jan Foster, Fred was quote, always defensive with them, but he had a rational arguments for his prescribing. So had he not been so well liked by his patients and otherwise recognized as a good doctor, it's unlikely that he would have avoided trouble so easily. Yeah. It was on his side that he managed to maintain that. That reputation. Yeah. But as it was, he had 3,100 patients. How do you, is that typical? Far more than the average prescriber. I was like, that can't be typical. And they all appeared to think very like highly of him. 3,000? Yeah. Holy shit. How do you remember like details about that many people? I'm just Googling really quick how many patients a typical GP has. Conventional primary care, 2,000 to 2,500. So he was way above that. Yeah. Still. He was still above it. Yeah. Yeah. He had like, what, like almost 600 more than that. Well, and that's in a standard insurance-based model, it seems. Wow. That's crazy. At a time when healthcare was undergoing obviously major state changes, such as, such a thing of this, like was almost unheard of. So the authorities saw no reason to really shake things up at this time. They were like, he's got way more patients than the average GP and they all fucking love him. And it's like, are we really going to? Then when you have. When you have that many, like that is going to skew the numbers a little bit in your prescriptions. Yeah. And again, especially when he was able to kind of justify his heavy, heavy prescribing methods. Right. So they had no idea that the doctor wasn't just prescribing medication for his patients. He was over prescribing to replenish a stockpile to murder people. Now, within the first two years of private practice, he wrote prescriptions for massive doses of morphine, relying on his tried and true method, you know, terminal. Patients over prescribing. Um, for example, in 1994, he prescribed 10 hundred millimeter milligram vials of morphine for one of his patients just one day before she died. Wow. According to her medical records, the patient had never needed morphine in the past, and it's entirely likely that upon her death, he stole the remaining vials. Yeah, of course. In 1996, he prescribed 2,500 millimeter of milligree. I don't know why I keep saying millimeter milligram vials for another patient. On the day that he died. Wow. 2,500 milligram vials of morphine. That's wild. Over the years, this became such a common practice that in total, he, quote, procured 22,000 milligrams of morphine, the equivalent of 1,466 fatal doses. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. When you put it like that. Incredibly terrifying. Yeah. Yeah. Just a few weeks after his new practice opened, he paid a visit to the home of one of his patients, Monica Sparks. Monica was 72 years old and lived alone. and again pretty good health in recent weeks though monica had started having dizzy spells and had fallen on more than one occasion so she made an appointment with shipman who offered to see her at home this is so scary it's so scary that afternoon monica's sister-in-law phyllis hoyt called sparks and was surprised when dr shipman answered the phone the doctor informed her that during their appointment monica had suffered a stroke he claimed that he tried to call for an ambulance but none were available so he told monica to lie down on her bed and wait for him while he ran to his office to get what he needed to tend to her until an ambulance could arrive that's a whack story but when he returned sparks was dead uh yeah monica sparks would be the only known murder that shipman committed in 1992 okay but the following year once the practice was fully operational it's uh he's believed to have murdered 16 of his patients in 1992 alone yeah wow all elderly in some cases shipman is believed to have killed a patient then written them a prescription for morphine after he killed the patient stop by the time the body was discovered the following day the prescription had already been filled and shipman would simply adjust the death certificate so the timeline would make sense and that's it so nobody asked questions crazy it seems that as the practice became more successful his need to kill grew along with that success yeah at the same time losing so many patients even the elderly and infirm did tend to raise some questions eventually especially in cases where the patient wasn't terminal like monica sparks was in good health and was believed again to be in good health like there was a lot of those yeah in some cases shipman used his position of authority to fend off any questions or suspicions from the family uh with his confidence and arrogance tending to kind of like deter any further questioning while this may have been successful as a means of dealing with the families he knew it wasn't gonna suffice for any authorities who may come around with questions so he began editing his own records to support whatever cause of death he listed damn for instance in the case of 82 year old amy whitehead a patient with no history of heart disease that according to shipman died from a heart attack he revised his records adding an entry for a visit in which he treated her for quote coronary attack by 1995 he had resorted to just burning or otherwise destroying the patient records following their deaths making it difficult for anyone to argue with his assessments or claims and that would look so suspicious but because of the time it was like yeah considered somewhat standard yeah he's like what holy shit dude this guy is evil it should be said that while fred shipman managed to get away with a staggering number of murders for a surprisingly long time it was not like no one had concerns or suspicions that something nefarious was occurring in this practice yeah you've already said that yeah but it's not like you can just blow up the practice on one one suspicion exactly like you can't just on a hunch unfortunately in fact there were many family members and even members of his own staff eventually who were if not suspicious of murder at least concerned about the number of patients who were dying under his care but during the inquiry conducted following his trial one nurse after another explained that they were concerned that if they spoke out or questioned him they might lose their job or even their ability to work in the field yep um members of the inquiry were told the nurses had not raised the matter with their managers because nhs culture was at the time dictated that doctors should not be challenged i mean it's true still that way and the nurses also believed that those above them were aware of the patient's circumstances and were quote dealing with suspicions about the patient's death so they were like someone else is going to do this also at the time the murders were occurring there was no whistleblower protections in place oh so an employee was a lawyer who spoke out against someone as obviously um like petty or vindictive as fred shipman clearly displayed that he was was risking way more like way more they were gonna lose everything now as for the grieving families of victims they were much easier to dismiss in his mind as the doctor supposedly trusted by their loved ones shipman was in a position of power and would often bully and berate anyone who questioned his treatment and expertise by asking for forgiveness from his family if it was a crime that he was guilty of and that he was guilty of and that he was guilty of anything that he had done he was guilty of anything that he had done he would expect a general practitioner capable of committing multiple murders because also they'd be like why right why did you do this like what is the reason uh prosecutor richard um henryk said he took advantage of their grief and their lesser knowledge of medicine yep as they grieved this piece of shit and they were like why did you do this why did you do this why did you do this why did employed every device to make sure no post-mortem examination would take place. Wow. Yeah. To be in such a position of power like that, like he really is playing God. Yeah, exactly. And he may have been able to put off grieving family members and conserve staff members, but his peers outside of the practice were something else too. Like he's, again, subordinates to him in his own mind are easy to control. He can fade that out. His peers and people above him are where he gets a little shaky. For the most part, the practitioners in the area were familiar with Shipman and thought him arrogant and quirky, often giving him a pass on any peculiar behavior. Yeah, they were just like, he's a fucking weirdo. That's just who he is. In fact, it wasn't until a new provider in the area, Dr. Linda Reynolds, began asking questions that others began to look closer at the number of deaths occurring among Fred Shipman's patients. I also love the correlation. There are Reynolds, Reynolds pamphlet. It was like we foreshadowed. I didn't even mean to do that. I know you didn't, but. But that's poetic. Check that out. And that's where we're going to end for part one. Oh, I'm excited to get to part two because I love. We're going to get him caught. When a woman takes a man down. Yeah, we're going to get this motherfucker caught. Yeah, fuck this guy. We're going to see him pay. Let's do it. But it's a very interesting case just because of how strange it is. And like, you're literally like, why? Yeah, why? Why are you doing this? Like, again. Why did you blow up your whole life and everyone else's? Because he thought he was smarter than everybody else. He never thought he was going to blow up his own life. That God complex will get you every time. Ego will get you. Yep. And he is definitely one of those cases. Well, let's do a fun fact because that is sad that people who were already suffering just died at his hands. Yeah. So I'm going to tell you that, you know how you feel more creative in the shower? Yeah. There's something to that. So it says, this is from Google. Warm water and a quiet distraction. Free. Environment help lower your stress hormones and trigger relaxed alpha wave states in the brain, which make it easier to think laterally. Huh. And then on the same coin, warmth and light routine physical activities can cause modest feel good releases of dopamine, which support positive mood and cognitive flexibility. Oh, shit. So that's why you're more creative in the shower. That makes so much sense. Yeah, I am more creative in the shower. I always come up with ideas. Also, if I've gotten in an argument with anybody recently. I think of the sickest comebacks in the shower. Oh, my God. That happens to me all the time. I'm like, why didn't I say that to their ass? I know it pisses me off. I know. But that's fun that there's actually something to that. Yeah, I love that. It's fun. That is a fun fact. You're welcome. You're welcome. Happy post-Halloween. And we hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird. But not so weird that you're a doctor with a God complex who kills his patients. Yeah, truly get it together. Yeah, just like quit murdering people. Don't be dumb. Thank you. © transcript Emily Beynon