Harold Shipman: New Mail podcast explores the 'unusual' early life of Doctor Death and the missed warning signs that foreshadowed his killing spree

Daily Mail​

11-06-2025

On the latest episode of the Mail's 'An Appointment with Murder', forensic psychiatrist Dr. Andrew Johns and police surgeon Dr. Harry Brunjes interrogate the 'unusual' early life of serial killer Harold Shipman.
They also examine how institutions failed to spot Shipman's increasingly erratic and suspicious behaviour, despite the trail of deaths that followed him from practice to practice.
An Appointment with Murder is a brand-new true crime podcast that delves into the minds, methods, and motivations of medical murderers.
Medical murderers are those who pervert their positions of trust, as doctors or nurses, to prey on the public. The season opens with a study of the infamous cases of doctors Harold Shipman and John Bodkin Adams.
Shipman, a GP, is suspected of killing 215-250 patients between the years 1975 and 1998 by injecting them with lethal doses of diamorphine (medical heroin).
Dr Andrew Johns, podcast co-host, was called to give expert testimony during the official inquiry into Shipman's murders.
Adolescence
Harold Shipman was born to a working-class family in Nottingham in 1946. He was the son of a lorry driver and the 'apple of his mother's eye', as Dr. Johns told the podcast.
At 17, Shipman's mother, Vera, was diagnosed with lung cancer. At the time, there was no treatment for the illness apart from using opiates to manage pain.
Dr Johns suspects that exposure to this class of drugs at a young age had a profound effect on the young man.
He said: 'The GP would visit Vera at home and give her regular injections of morphine to relieve her pain.
'It's a highly addictive opiate that, in large doses, kills through respiratory depression. It simply stops you from breathing.
'Shipman witnesses the powerful effect of that drug on his mother and how it ultimately eases her passing. What impression did that doctor and needle have on him? '
When Vera succumbed to her cancer, it was Shipman who discovered her body coming home from school.
To combat his grief, Shipman begins using Sloan's Liniment, a pain killer, recreationally. In high doses, the over-the-counter medication can produce a slight high.
On the eve of moving to medical school, Dr John describes Shipman as an 'odd, reclusive chap'.
Early Medical Career
Shipman studies at Yorkshire's Pontefract General Infirmary and in 1971, is named House Officer of the hospital.
Despite being only a Junior Doctor, Shipman certifies 133 deaths during his time at the hospital.
As Dr Johns explains: 'As a Junior, Shipman is regarded as overconfident. The official inquiry conjectured that he started misusing the drug Pethidine around this time.
'Pethidine is also an opiate painkiller, but it's synthetic – it's prescribed for moderate to strong pain, unlike morphine, which is used for severe pain.
'At Pontefract, Shipman certifies 133 deaths. There's nothing particularly high about that number until you notice he was present at a third of all deaths.
'Junior Doctors are rarely present at the time of the death. Shipman was present at death 20 times more often than any other Junior Doctor.'
After Pontefract, Shipman becomes a qualified GP and moves to Morton, a small town in Leeds, to work in a surgery.
At this time, Shipman's judgment and general demeanour become more erratic with his addiction to opiates escalating.
'Shipman is dogmatic about his medical judgement. He's extremely critical of those he deems intellectually inferior', Dr Johns said.
'After several blackouts, including a collapse in front of patients, Shipman is found slumped over the wheel of his car. He claims he's epileptic.
'Following a routine audit, it is discovered that he has forged prescriptions for 30,000 milligrams of Pethidine. That is 600 normal doses.'
Shipman admits to using the Pethidine recreationally and is fired and sent to a drug rehabilitation program in York.
Despite a Magistrate's Court finding him guilty of forging prescriptions, the General Medical Council let Shipman off with a warning.
He would then move to Hyde in Greater Manchester, again working as a GP, where the majority of his murders would take place.