What is Harold Shipman?
{{refimprove|date=March 2011}} '''Harold Frederick Shipman''' (14 January 1946 – 13 January 2004) was a [[British people|British]] [[general practitioner]] (a type of [[physician|doctor]]) and [[serial killer]]. He is thought to have killed 250+ of his [[wikt:patient|patients]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3391897.stm|title=Harold Shipman: The killer doctor|date=13 January 2004}}</ref> He was a [[psychopath]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://pmj.bmj.com/content/80/944/308.full.pdf|title=PMJ|publisher=}}</ref> He committed suicide on 13 January 2004 one day short of his 58th birthday. ==Early life and career== Shipman was born on 14 January 1946, in Bestwood council estate in [[Nottingham]]. He studied Medicine at the Leeds School of Medicine on scholarship. He graduated in 1970. In 1974, he became a GP in [[Todmorden]]. In 1993 he started his own doctors' surgery in [[Hyde]]. ==Crimes== In 1975, he was convicted of [[Forgery|forging]] [[prescription]]s for [[pethidine]], to which he was [[addicted]]. Shipman was arrested on 4 September 1998. ==Trial and conviction== On 5 October 1999, he was put on [[trial]] and found [[guilty]] of 15 [[murder]]s. On 31 January 2000, he was sentenced to [[life imprisonment]] for each murder. On 10 February 2000, exactly 10 days after his conviction, he was struck off from the General Medical Council Register. An [[investigation]] identified another 235 suspicious deaths. His usual way of killing was using [[morphine]]. Most of the patients he killed were old women. His other offence was the forged will of Kathleen Grundy by a typewriter. ==Death and suicide== While he was an inmate in [[Wakefield (HM Prison)|Wakefield prison]], [[West Yorkshire]], he committed [[suicide]] with bedsheets on the day before his 58th birthday on 13 January 2004. He was discovered hanged at 6.20am (0620 GMT), prison staff tried to revive him but he was pronounced dead at 8.10am (0810 GMT). It is not known why. At the time of his death he was still married to Primrose Shipman.