Harold Shipman AKA Dr. Death

Harold Shipman was born on January 14, 1946, the middle child of a working-class family. He went by Fred and was his mother’s favorite child. Vera, his mother, was considered domineering, and she instilled in him a sense of superiority that tainted most of his relationships, leaving him an isolated adolescent.

When Vera was diagnosed with lung cancer, he willingly oversaw her care as she declined until she died on June 21, 1963. He was fascinated by the positive effect that the morphine had on her. Devastated by her death, he wanted to go to medical school and attended Leeds University medical school for two years. He failed the entrance exams the first time, before serving his hospital internship.

He was still very much a loner, but he met his future wife, Primrose, at the age of 19, and they were married when she was 17 and five months pregnant with their child.

By 1974, he had two children and joined a medical practice in Todmorden, Yorkshire, where he thrived as a family doctor before becoming addicted to Pethidine, a painkiller. He would forge prescriptions for large amounts of the drug and be forced out of the practice when he was caught by his medical colleagues in 1975. That’s when he entered a rehab program. At the inquiry, he received a fine and was convicted for forgery.