Harold Shipman

Dr Harold Frederick Shipman, known as Fred Shipman to his family (January 14, 1946 – January 13, 2004) was a British general practitioner who was the most prolific known serial killer in British history (and possibly the world).

Early life

Shipman was born in 1946 in Nottingham, the middle of three children, and was known as 'Fred' or 'Freddy' to his family. His mother, Vera, who he was close to, died in 1963 from lung cancer, when he was 17. He went to University of Leeds medical school in 1965, around this time meeting his to-be-wife, Primrose (who was three years his junior). They married in 1966, and Primrose gave birth to her first child, Sarah, four months later. In total they had four children. In 1970 he graduated from Leeds and started work at Pontefract General Infirmary in Pontefract, a small town south-east of Leeds. It was apparently here that he started murdering people.

Related Topics:
1946 - Nottingham - 1963 - Lung cancer - University of Leeds - 1965 - 1970 - Pontefract General Infirmary - Pontefract - Leeds

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1974 Shipman took his first GP position in Todmorden, north-west of Halifax, West Yorkshire. Soon after this, in 1975 he was caught forging prescriptions of pethidine for his own use. Sent briefly to a drug rehabilition clinic in York, he was pronounced clean, and became a GP at the Donneybrook Medical Centre in Hyde, Tameside, Greater Manchester in 1977.

Related Topics:
1974 - Todmorden - Halifax, West Yorkshire - 1975 - Pethidine - York - Hyde - Tameside - Greater Manchester - 1977

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Shipman continued working as a GP and killing people in Hyde throughought the 1980s, founding a clinic of his own in 1993, on Market Street (it is suggested in order to escape supervision of other doctors, enabling him to kill more people). He became a respected member of the community.

Related Topics:
1980s - 1993

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~