Showing posts with label beliau. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beliau. Show all posts
October 15, 2010
November 24, 2008
Ted Bundy
Artikel ni wa cilok dari internet. Ted Bundy adalah salah seorang dari ramai-ramai serial killer di america syarikat. USA selalu claim negara mereka selamat dan tidak freak. selamat ke? kat malaysia ada Mona Fendi.
Ted Bundy (Killings between 1974 and 1978)
He proved that even the devil can be attractive. Ted was one of the most infamous serial killers in American history. He was very handsome, charming and cultured. He has raped and murdered numerous young women. He engaged in necrophilia, which is being sexually attracted to corpses.
Modus Operandi
He had unique techniques of luring his victims. He would drink alcohol before approaching potential victims, even in a crowd or broad daylight, and gain their trust by faking an injury with his arm in a fake cast or a sling. He would at times act as a policeman or fire department personnel. After luring victims to his car, he would hit them on their head with a crowbar. He then raped and assaulted them sexually before strangling and mutilating them.
This good looking maniac used to visit the corpses several times at the Taylor Mountain body dump site, apply makeup to them and sleep with them till they putrefied.
Background
One of the theories says that he started killing people as early as 14 years of age.
However, later, many of his victims are said to have a physical resemblance to his first girlfriend.
Theodore Robert Cowell was born in 1946 in Burlington, Vermont to an unmarried mother of 22 and gets his name from his stepfather, Bundy. He was made to believe by his grandparents that he was their son and his mother was his sister.
He was a good student who was devastated when his first love left him. He spent years trying to get her back and finally when he did, he started killing innocent people and then dumped his girlfriend just as she dumped him.
Killings and Sentence
He was executed in 1989 and confessed to 40 murders.
Before his execution, he revealed that his addiction to pornography led him to do what he did. He said that there are many people out there who were addicted and nothing is being done about them.
One of Bundy’s famous quotes - “We serial killers are your sons, we are your husbands, we are everywhere. And there will be more of your children dead tomorrow.”
November 13, 2007
Henry Lee Lucas
Profile:
Born 1936 Died 2001
Henry Lee Lucas began his life in the same way as most serial killers begin. He was horribly abused as a child along with his fetish for bestiality and torturing animals in his teens. He even engaged in incest with his half brother. All these terrible acts committed only in his early teenage years to say the least.
Henry claims that his first murder was at the age of fourteen where he kidnapped a seventeen year old girl from a bus stop. He says that he beat her heavily in the head then dragged her into a secluded area where he continued with his urges to rape her. The girl began to scream and fight him off as best she could. Henry Lee Lucas became infuriated and just strangled her at this point. This story has never been confirmed as Henry tends to lie a lot.
After a breaking and entering arrest, Henry spent a short time in Beaumont training school for boys located in Virginia. He was considered highly disruptive during his stay. He claims that on the next day after his release that he raped his twelve year old niece. Lucas was in and out of jail until his release in 1959 where he then moved to Tecumseh, Michigan to start over with the help of his half sister.
Lucas killed his mother that year in a blind rage after a family dispute. She died fifty hours later of the wounds that she received. He was found and arrested in Toledo, Ohio where he was sentenced to 20-40 years in Southern Michigan State Prison for second degree murder.
Over crowding of the jail forced his release in 1970. Henry claims he killed two women soon after and even left one of the women close to the prison so someone could find it. Still unproven. He was then arrested again for attempted kidnapping of a young girl and served another four years to be released in 1975.
Henry became a traveler at this point where he went from Wilmington, Delaware to Hurst, Texas. He married for a period of time but was forced to leave because he was accused of molesting the woman's children. He then moved back after some more time of roaming in with his other sister Almeda. Almeda offered Henry Lee Lucas work at her husbands wrecking yard. However, he was quickly accused of molesting her granddaughter. He then ran away the next day after asking Almeda if he can borrow the truck to pick up some materials to take to the junk yard. They never saw him again but the truck ended up in Jacksonville, Florida.
Henry Lee Lucas met the man named Ottis Toole here. Lucas slept with Ottis and his daughter. All until Ottis became sick one day on a trip to Delaware and was hospitalized. Lucas took Ottis's children and headed for Maryland. He was caught however and spent about two months in jail. Lucas went back to Jacksonville when he was released and Ottis joined him later when he was well again.
Together, Henry Lee Lucas and Otis Toole began stealing anything they could get their hands on and on occasions robbing banks. Lucas confessed to shooting a store clerk and watching Toole molest the corpse. Lucas and Toole committed more crimes on day when they noticed a young guy and girl walking down the Texas Interstate one day. Ottis jumped out of the vehicle and shot the guy nine times while Lucas forced the girl in the car. Ottis jumped in the drivers seat and sped off while Lucas repeatedly raped the girl until Ottis dragged the girl out and shot her six times, leaving her on the interstate.
They continued murdering for cars, sex and fun. Lucas was credited for 20 murders in California, Michigan, Texas and Maryland. He confessed to 600 "free lunches"? though.
The two were then approached by a man that offered them a contract killing but on the terms that they must join a satanic cult. They met the guy and the cult in Miami and the guy introduced himself as Don Meteric. In order to join the cult they had to kill. Toole lured a man to a beach where Henry Lee Lucas ripped his throat. They met back up with the cult and cooked the man in a "Black Mass"? ritual. They then began kidnapping babies to sell as slaves. They kidnapped and drugged children and teenagers to star in porno movies that the cult distributed. However, not a trace of this cult is to be found.
Henry then took some time off from the cult and returned to Jacksonville where he met back up with Ottis's daughter, Becky, where they moved to California. They stayed together until when Becky wanted to become his real wife and not just a fake wife. Lucas refused and Becky called him a homosexual. Henry was so pissed that he raped and killed a woman later that night while Becky slept.
Meteric then contacted Lucas and offered him the job of killing a lawyer in Beaumont, Texas. Lucas befriended the man then persuaded him to take a couple drinks while the man tilted his head back to drink Lucas slit his throat. Later going to Oregon, and Washington, Lucas raped and killed continually.
Lucas and Becky continued side by side until a couple converted Becky to Christianity and Lucas got really upset. He stabbed her to death, raped the corpse, chopped her up and Stuffed the remains into three pillowcases and left her in a field. He buried her two days later.
Kate Rich sheltered the couple but became suspicious of Becky leaving abruptly. Rich met Lucas and questioned him to get the response that Becky ran off with a truck driver. Rich didn't believe and Henry Lee Lucas murdered again. He stabbed her, carved an inverted cross into her chest only to proceed minutes later with having sex with the corpse then through the body in a ditch. He came back later and chopped her up and threw the parts in garbage bags. Then he burned her in a wood burning stove. The family of Kate Rich contacted the authorities and said that Lucas was the last to see her alive. The sheriff pulled his records and found all the rapes and murders on there but by that time, Lucas was long gone.
He started stealing again o survive while moving from Oklahoma to Amarillo to Texas. He returned to California to continue his previous job there working for Jack Smart. Smart had put the disappearance of Kate Rich and Henry Lee Lucas and quickly devised a plan to trap Lucas. He phoned the police while Lucas was unawares. The police came and took him into custody. Lucas was released again this time on the lack of evidence. Lucas was out again to run wild.
He stayed mostly in the central states and continued his murders. In Illinois he kidnapped a woman, slashed her to death then raped the corpse. Cleaned all the possessions from the corpse then dumped the corpse in a grove. He then drove to Texas and dumped the car then started to hitchhike back north. Lucas was desperate for money and called another ex-employer named Ruben Moore who lured Lucas with $100.00 to work on the Moore Ranch. The police arrived the next morning. They could only hold him for left of a vehicle in Maryland. He released again but later came back into the authorities hands to be captured for the final time.
Henry Lee Lucas Died in his cell in 2001.
Born 1936 Died 2001
Henry Lee Lucas began his life in the same way as most serial killers begin. He was horribly abused as a child along with his fetish for bestiality and torturing animals in his teens. He even engaged in incest with his half brother. All these terrible acts committed only in his early teenage years to say the least.
Henry claims that his first murder was at the age of fourteen where he kidnapped a seventeen year old girl from a bus stop. He says that he beat her heavily in the head then dragged her into a secluded area where he continued with his urges to rape her. The girl began to scream and fight him off as best she could. Henry Lee Lucas became infuriated and just strangled her at this point. This story has never been confirmed as Henry tends to lie a lot.
After a breaking and entering arrest, Henry spent a short time in Beaumont training school for boys located in Virginia. He was considered highly disruptive during his stay. He claims that on the next day after his release that he raped his twelve year old niece. Lucas was in and out of jail until his release in 1959 where he then moved to Tecumseh, Michigan to start over with the help of his half sister.
Lucas killed his mother that year in a blind rage after a family dispute. She died fifty hours later of the wounds that she received. He was found and arrested in Toledo, Ohio where he was sentenced to 20-40 years in Southern Michigan State Prison for second degree murder.
Over crowding of the jail forced his release in 1970. Henry claims he killed two women soon after and even left one of the women close to the prison so someone could find it. Still unproven. He was then arrested again for attempted kidnapping of a young girl and served another four years to be released in 1975.
Henry became a traveler at this point where he went from Wilmington, Delaware to Hurst, Texas. He married for a period of time but was forced to leave because he was accused of molesting the woman's children. He then moved back after some more time of roaming in with his other sister Almeda. Almeda offered Henry Lee Lucas work at her husbands wrecking yard. However, he was quickly accused of molesting her granddaughter. He then ran away the next day after asking Almeda if he can borrow the truck to pick up some materials to take to the junk yard. They never saw him again but the truck ended up in Jacksonville, Florida.
Henry Lee Lucas met the man named Ottis Toole here. Lucas slept with Ottis and his daughter. All until Ottis became sick one day on a trip to Delaware and was hospitalized. Lucas took Ottis's children and headed for Maryland. He was caught however and spent about two months in jail. Lucas went back to Jacksonville when he was released and Ottis joined him later when he was well again.
Together, Henry Lee Lucas and Otis Toole began stealing anything they could get their hands on and on occasions robbing banks. Lucas confessed to shooting a store clerk and watching Toole molest the corpse. Lucas and Toole committed more crimes on day when they noticed a young guy and girl walking down the Texas Interstate one day. Ottis jumped out of the vehicle and shot the guy nine times while Lucas forced the girl in the car. Ottis jumped in the drivers seat and sped off while Lucas repeatedly raped the girl until Ottis dragged the girl out and shot her six times, leaving her on the interstate.
They continued murdering for cars, sex and fun. Lucas was credited for 20 murders in California, Michigan, Texas and Maryland. He confessed to 600 "free lunches"? though.
The two were then approached by a man that offered them a contract killing but on the terms that they must join a satanic cult. They met the guy and the cult in Miami and the guy introduced himself as Don Meteric. In order to join the cult they had to kill. Toole lured a man to a beach where Henry Lee Lucas ripped his throat. They met back up with the cult and cooked the man in a "Black Mass"? ritual. They then began kidnapping babies to sell as slaves. They kidnapped and drugged children and teenagers to star in porno movies that the cult distributed. However, not a trace of this cult is to be found.
Henry then took some time off from the cult and returned to Jacksonville where he met back up with Ottis's daughter, Becky, where they moved to California. They stayed together until when Becky wanted to become his real wife and not just a fake wife. Lucas refused and Becky called him a homosexual. Henry was so pissed that he raped and killed a woman later that night while Becky slept.
Meteric then contacted Lucas and offered him the job of killing a lawyer in Beaumont, Texas. Lucas befriended the man then persuaded him to take a couple drinks while the man tilted his head back to drink Lucas slit his throat. Later going to Oregon, and Washington, Lucas raped and killed continually.
Lucas and Becky continued side by side until a couple converted Becky to Christianity and Lucas got really upset. He stabbed her to death, raped the corpse, chopped her up and Stuffed the remains into three pillowcases and left her in a field. He buried her two days later.
Kate Rich sheltered the couple but became suspicious of Becky leaving abruptly. Rich met Lucas and questioned him to get the response that Becky ran off with a truck driver. Rich didn't believe and Henry Lee Lucas murdered again. He stabbed her, carved an inverted cross into her chest only to proceed minutes later with having sex with the corpse then through the body in a ditch. He came back later and chopped her up and threw the parts in garbage bags. Then he burned her in a wood burning stove. The family of Kate Rich contacted the authorities and said that Lucas was the last to see her alive. The sheriff pulled his records and found all the rapes and murders on there but by that time, Lucas was long gone.
He started stealing again o survive while moving from Oklahoma to Amarillo to Texas. He returned to California to continue his previous job there working for Jack Smart. Smart had put the disappearance of Kate Rich and Henry Lee Lucas and quickly devised a plan to trap Lucas. He phoned the police while Lucas was unawares. The police came and took him into custody. Lucas was released again this time on the lack of evidence. Lucas was out again to run wild.
He stayed mostly in the central states and continued his murders. In Illinois he kidnapped a woman, slashed her to death then raped the corpse. Cleaned all the possessions from the corpse then dumped the corpse in a grove. He then drove to Texas and dumped the car then started to hitchhike back north. Lucas was desperate for money and called another ex-employer named Ruben Moore who lured Lucas with $100.00 to work on the Moore Ranch. The police arrived the next morning. They could only hold him for left of a vehicle in Maryland. He released again but later came back into the authorities hands to be captured for the final time.
Henry Lee Lucas Died in his cell in 2001.
July 7, 2007
Jack The Ripper
Profile:
One day men will look back and say that I gave birth to the Twentieth Century.
Jack the Ripper - 1888
Jack the Ripper is a true story about what seems to be a demon from Hell coming out and then poof!!...vanish into thin air, never to be seen or heard from again. Many speculations arise on this crafty old (or young) Jack the Ripper. I will do my best to present all the facts on this page. Along with some speculations as to whom he may have done these foul deeds. Was he mad, well educated, royalty, poor, sport, fun, or just an average Joe who just flipped out one day to become the world's most infamous serial killer and left the world asking “Who did it?â€
There is one important fact that will be mentioned here first. Jack the Ripper was the first sex killer in the modern sense of the word. This is also pointed towards the rise in pornography in the early nineteenth century. However, Jack wasn't simply just an everyday killer, he was well calculated. That is what produced such panic and fear in the Whitechapel area of East London in the autumn of 1888.
It was dark on the morning of September 1, 1888 when a cart driver named George Cross walked down Bucks Row on his way to work. In the dim light Cross saw what seemed to be a bundle of tarpaulin. It was in fact a woman lying on her back with her skirt over her waist. Cross then decided that the woman may have been raped and left for dead. Cross left to call a policeman. The local patrol policeman, Police Constable John Neil, walked through the same alley way a few minutes after Cross had left. Mr. Neil had a lantern which revealed that the woman's throat had been cut so deeply that the vertebrae were exposed.
An hour later the body of the middle-aged woman lay in the yard of a local mortuary. Two paupers from a workhouse next door were given the job of stripping the remains while a police inspector observed and took notes. After pulling off the petticoats, the inspector saw the most unusual...the woman's abdomen had been slashed open with a jagged incision that ran from the bottom of the ribs to the pelvis.
The woman was later identified as Mary Ann Nicholls. She was a prostitute who had been living at a common lodging house in Thrawl Street - one of the worst slums even in that poverty stricken area. A few hours before her death she had went back to the lodging, drunk, and lacking the money needed for a bed. The keeper turned her away. She went looking for a man who would grant the money needed for the bed in exchange for the uncomfortable act of intercourse on the pavement of some back alley. The police surgeon inferred that the customer had strangled her into unconsciousness. Bruises on her neck supported this hypothesis. Next, Jack the Ripper had cut her throat with two extremely powerful slashes that had almost severed the head from the body (this is difficult to do and requires a very thorough cutting apparatus). Then he raised her skirt to stab and slash at her stomach region in a kind of frenzy.
The murdering of prostitutes was nothing of surprise. Numerous murders were committed right before this case. For that reason, there was little alarm to another prostitute being killed. This case wasn't published in any newspaper. But, this all changed when after eight days another woman was found murdered in the backyard of a barber's shop in Hanbury Street, Whitechapel. Prostitutes often frequented this place with their customers. However, at about 5:30 am on the morning of Saturday, September 8, 1888; a neighbor saw Annie Chapman talking to a dark-looking man of "foreign appearance", dressed in shabby genteel clothes and wearing a deerstalker hat. Half an hour later, John Davis saw the body of a woman lying against the fence with her above her waist and her legs bent at the knees. The stomach was cut open and some of the intestines were pulled out. The same as Mary Ann Nicholls, the cause of death was due to a deep gash in the throat. Jack the Ripper placed the woman's rings and some pennies at her feet along with a torn envelope near her head. Further medical examinations revealed that the killer removed the uterus and the upper part of the vagina.
On September 29, 1888, the Central News Agency received a letter which started: "Dear Boss, I keep on hearing the police have caught me but they won't fix me just yet". It also stated: "I am down on whores and I shan't quit ripping them till I do get buckled" and promised: "You will soon hear of me with my funny little games". Signed "Jack the Ripper" - the first that this now well known name was to be used. The writer also requested: "Keep this letter back till I do a bit more work, then give it out straight". The Central News Agency granted his request.
On that Saturday night, Jack the Ripper killed again - this time killing two prostitutes in a single night. At 1:00 am on Sunday morning Louis Diemschutz drove his pony and cart into the backyard of a club in Berner Street. Diemschutz found the body of a woman. The woman's throat had been cut. There had been an attempt to cut off her ear. After further investigation, she was identified as an alcoholic Swedish prostitute named Elizabeth Stride.
Jack the Ripper hadn't had the time to finish disemboweling Elizabeth. He ran up Berner Street in time to find Catherine Eddowes and lead her into Mitre Square, a small square surrounded by warehouses. The square was patrolled every fifteen minutes. When he passed at 1:30 am everything was normal. At 1:45 am he found the body of a woman lying on her back with her dress pushed up around her waist along with her face being slashed. She was gashed open from the base of the ribs to the pubic region, and the throat was cut. Further examination revealed that a kidney was missing and half of an ear was cut off.
The letter was finally released to the public. Early on Monday morning, Jack the Ripper sent another message to the Central News Agency - this time a postcard. It read: "I was not codding [joking] dear old boss when I gave you the tip. You'll hear about Saucy Jack's work tomorrow. Double event this time. Number one squealed a bit. Couldn't finish straight off. Had not time to get ears for police. Thanks for keeping last letter back till I got to work again".
Jack the Ripper took a break until the early hours of November 9th; this was to be his best. Mary Jeanette Kelly, a twenty-four year old Irish-woman living in a cheap room in Miller's Court, off Dorset Street. At about two o'clock that morning she was reportedly seen talking to a man with a heavy mustache, well dressed and had a gold watch chain. They entered the narrow alleyway that led to her room: room 13.
At 10:45 the next morning the rent collector came to collect rent but found something more gruesome. The body lay on the bed, with mutilations so time consuming they must have taken an hour or more. One of her hands was found in her stomach. The head and left arm had been virtually removed to the point where they dangled on by a peace of skin. The breasts and nose had been removed while the skin from the legs were stripped off. The heart was laying on a pillow beside the victim and the intestines were draped around a picture. Further analysis concluded that Jack the Ripper had not taken away any of the organs from the victim unlike previous occurrences.
One day men will look back and say that I gave birth to the Twentieth Century.
Jack the Ripper - 1888
Jack the Ripper is a true story about what seems to be a demon from Hell coming out and then poof!!...vanish into thin air, never to be seen or heard from again. Many speculations arise on this crafty old (or young) Jack the Ripper. I will do my best to present all the facts on this page. Along with some speculations as to whom he may have done these foul deeds. Was he mad, well educated, royalty, poor, sport, fun, or just an average Joe who just flipped out one day to become the world's most infamous serial killer and left the world asking “Who did it?â€
There is one important fact that will be mentioned here first. Jack the Ripper was the first sex killer in the modern sense of the word. This is also pointed towards the rise in pornography in the early nineteenth century. However, Jack wasn't simply just an everyday killer, he was well calculated. That is what produced such panic and fear in the Whitechapel area of East London in the autumn of 1888.
It was dark on the morning of September 1, 1888 when a cart driver named George Cross walked down Bucks Row on his way to work. In the dim light Cross saw what seemed to be a bundle of tarpaulin. It was in fact a woman lying on her back with her skirt over her waist. Cross then decided that the woman may have been raped and left for dead. Cross left to call a policeman. The local patrol policeman, Police Constable John Neil, walked through the same alley way a few minutes after Cross had left. Mr. Neil had a lantern which revealed that the woman's throat had been cut so deeply that the vertebrae were exposed.
An hour later the body of the middle-aged woman lay in the yard of a local mortuary. Two paupers from a workhouse next door were given the job of stripping the remains while a police inspector observed and took notes. After pulling off the petticoats, the inspector saw the most unusual...the woman's abdomen had been slashed open with a jagged incision that ran from the bottom of the ribs to the pelvis.
The woman was later identified as Mary Ann Nicholls. She was a prostitute who had been living at a common lodging house in Thrawl Street - one of the worst slums even in that poverty stricken area. A few hours before her death she had went back to the lodging, drunk, and lacking the money needed for a bed. The keeper turned her away. She went looking for a man who would grant the money needed for the bed in exchange for the uncomfortable act of intercourse on the pavement of some back alley. The police surgeon inferred that the customer had strangled her into unconsciousness. Bruises on her neck supported this hypothesis. Next, Jack the Ripper had cut her throat with two extremely powerful slashes that had almost severed the head from the body (this is difficult to do and requires a very thorough cutting apparatus). Then he raised her skirt to stab and slash at her stomach region in a kind of frenzy.
The murdering of prostitutes was nothing of surprise. Numerous murders were committed right before this case. For that reason, there was little alarm to another prostitute being killed. This case wasn't published in any newspaper. But, this all changed when after eight days another woman was found murdered in the backyard of a barber's shop in Hanbury Street, Whitechapel. Prostitutes often frequented this place with their customers. However, at about 5:30 am on the morning of Saturday, September 8, 1888; a neighbor saw Annie Chapman talking to a dark-looking man of "foreign appearance", dressed in shabby genteel clothes and wearing a deerstalker hat. Half an hour later, John Davis saw the body of a woman lying against the fence with her above her waist and her legs bent at the knees. The stomach was cut open and some of the intestines were pulled out. The same as Mary Ann Nicholls, the cause of death was due to a deep gash in the throat. Jack the Ripper placed the woman's rings and some pennies at her feet along with a torn envelope near her head. Further medical examinations revealed that the killer removed the uterus and the upper part of the vagina.
On September 29, 1888, the Central News Agency received a letter which started: "Dear Boss, I keep on hearing the police have caught me but they won't fix me just yet". It also stated: "I am down on whores and I shan't quit ripping them till I do get buckled" and promised: "You will soon hear of me with my funny little games". Signed "Jack the Ripper" - the first that this now well known name was to be used. The writer also requested: "Keep this letter back till I do a bit more work, then give it out straight". The Central News Agency granted his request.
On that Saturday night, Jack the Ripper killed again - this time killing two prostitutes in a single night. At 1:00 am on Sunday morning Louis Diemschutz drove his pony and cart into the backyard of a club in Berner Street. Diemschutz found the body of a woman. The woman's throat had been cut. There had been an attempt to cut off her ear. After further investigation, she was identified as an alcoholic Swedish prostitute named Elizabeth Stride.
Jack the Ripper hadn't had the time to finish disemboweling Elizabeth. He ran up Berner Street in time to find Catherine Eddowes and lead her into Mitre Square, a small square surrounded by warehouses. The square was patrolled every fifteen minutes. When he passed at 1:30 am everything was normal. At 1:45 am he found the body of a woman lying on her back with her dress pushed up around her waist along with her face being slashed. She was gashed open from the base of the ribs to the pubic region, and the throat was cut. Further examination revealed that a kidney was missing and half of an ear was cut off.
The letter was finally released to the public. Early on Monday morning, Jack the Ripper sent another message to the Central News Agency - this time a postcard. It read: "I was not codding [joking] dear old boss when I gave you the tip. You'll hear about Saucy Jack's work tomorrow. Double event this time. Number one squealed a bit. Couldn't finish straight off. Had not time to get ears for police. Thanks for keeping last letter back till I got to work again".
Jack the Ripper took a break until the early hours of November 9th; this was to be his best. Mary Jeanette Kelly, a twenty-four year old Irish-woman living in a cheap room in Miller's Court, off Dorset Street. At about two o'clock that morning she was reportedly seen talking to a man with a heavy mustache, well dressed and had a gold watch chain. They entered the narrow alleyway that led to her room: room 13.
At 10:45 the next morning the rent collector came to collect rent but found something more gruesome. The body lay on the bed, with mutilations so time consuming they must have taken an hour or more. One of her hands was found in her stomach. The head and left arm had been virtually removed to the point where they dangled on by a peace of skin. The breasts and nose had been removed while the skin from the legs were stripped off. The heart was laying on a pillow beside the victim and the intestines were draped around a picture. Further analysis concluded that Jack the Ripper had not taken away any of the organs from the victim unlike previous occurrences.
June 11, 2007
Discovery Channel Serial Killers
Prety sick people. Two men construct a sound proof bunker and kidnap people to torture and kill them. 1 commits suicide, the other is on death row.
May 8, 2007
H H Holmes: The Tragedy of the World's Fair Fiend
History Fair project on one of the most influential and curiously overlooked serial killers in America's history. Holmes did much of his criminal work in Chicago during the 1893 World's Fair. This fascinating true story will give you chills! Produced by Stephen Beemsterboer and Megan Daniels. The project advanced thru the school, city, city/suburbs, and finalists of city/suburbs levels of history fair but didn't advance to the state history fair, a definite injustice!
March 13, 2007
Luis Alfredo Garavito Cubillos
Luis Garavito (Wikipedia)
Luis Alfredo Garavito Cubillos, aka "La Bestia" ("The Beast") or "Tribilin" (born 25 January 1957 in Génova, Quindío, Colombia) is a Colombian rapist and serial killer. In 1999, he admitted to murder and rape of 140 young boys. The number of his victims, based on the locations of skeletons listed on maps that Garavito drew in prison, could eventually exceed 300. He has been described by local media as "the world's worst serial killer" because of the high number of victims.
Once captured, Garavito was subject to the maximum penalty available in Colombia, which was 30 years. However, as he confessed the crimes and helped authorities locate bodies, Colombian law allowed him to apply for special benefits, including a reduction of his sentence to 22 years and possibly an even earlier release for further cooperation and good behavior.
In subsequent years, Colombians have increasingly felt that due to Garavito's approaching early release, his sentence is not sufficient punishment for his crimes. Colombian law originally had no way to extend the sentence, as cases of serial killers like Garavito had no legal precedent in the country and thus the legal system could not properly address this case.
In late 2006, however, a judicial review of the cases against Garavito in different local jurisdictions found that his sentence could be extended and his release delayed, due to the existence of crimes he did not admit to and for which he was not previously condemned.
Upbringing
Luis Alfredo Garavito was born on January 25, 1957 in Génova, Quindío, Colombia. He is the oldest of seven brothers, and apparently suffered physical and emotional abuse by his father. In his testimony, he expressed being a victim of sexual abuse when young.
Murders
The victims were poor children, peasant children, or street children, between the ages of 6 and 16. Garavito approached them on the street or countryside and offered them gifts or small amounts of money. After gaining their trust, he took the children for a walk and when they got tired, he would take advantage of them. He then raped them, cut their throats, and usually dismembered their corpses. Most corpses showed signs of torture.
Garavito was captured on 22 April 1999. He confessed to murdering 140 children. However, he is still under investigation for the murder of 172 children in more than 59 counties in Colombia.
He was found guilty in 138 of the 172 cases; the others are ongoing. The sentences for these 138 cases add to 1,853 years and 9 days. Because of Colombian law restrictions, however, he cannot be imprisoned for more than 30 years. In addition, because he helped the authorities in finding the bodies, his sentence has been decreased to 22 years.
Public response
As Garavito served the later years of his reduced sentence, many Colombians began to gradually criticize the possibility of his early release, some arguing that he deserved either life in prison or the death penalty, neither of which are applicable in Colombia.
In 2006, local TV host Pirry interviewed Garavito, which aired on June 11 of that same year. In this TV special, Pirry mentioned that during the interview, the killer tried to minimize his actions and expressed intent to start a political career in order to help abused children. Pirry also described Garavito's conditions in prison and commented that due to good behavior, Garavito could probably apply for early release within 3 years.
After the Pirry interview aired, criticism of Gavarito's situation gained increased notoriety in the media and in political circles. A judicial review of the cases against Garavito in different local jurisdictions found that his sentence could potentially be extended and his release delayed, because he would have to answer for unconfessed crimes separately, as they were not covered by his previous judicial process.
Luis Alfredo Garavito Cubillos, aka "La Bestia" ("The Beast") or "Tribilin" (born 25 January 1957 in Génova, Quindío, Colombia) is a Colombian rapist and serial killer. In 1999, he admitted to murder and rape of 140 young boys. The number of his victims, based on the locations of skeletons listed on maps that Garavito drew in prison, could eventually exceed 300. He has been described by local media as "the world's worst serial killer" because of the high number of victims.
Once captured, Garavito was subject to the maximum penalty available in Colombia, which was 30 years. However, as he confessed the crimes and helped authorities locate bodies, Colombian law allowed him to apply for special benefits, including a reduction of his sentence to 22 years and possibly an even earlier release for further cooperation and good behavior.
In subsequent years, Colombians have increasingly felt that due to Garavito's approaching early release, his sentence is not sufficient punishment for his crimes. Colombian law originally had no way to extend the sentence, as cases of serial killers like Garavito had no legal precedent in the country and thus the legal system could not properly address this case.
In late 2006, however, a judicial review of the cases against Garavito in different local jurisdictions found that his sentence could be extended and his release delayed, due to the existence of crimes he did not admit to and for which he was not previously condemned.
Upbringing
Luis Alfredo Garavito was born on January 25, 1957 in Génova, Quindío, Colombia. He is the oldest of seven brothers, and apparently suffered physical and emotional abuse by his father. In his testimony, he expressed being a victim of sexual abuse when young.
Murders
The victims were poor children, peasant children, or street children, between the ages of 6 and 16. Garavito approached them on the street or countryside and offered them gifts or small amounts of money. After gaining their trust, he took the children for a walk and when they got tired, he would take advantage of them. He then raped them, cut their throats, and usually dismembered their corpses. Most corpses showed signs of torture.
Garavito was captured on 22 April 1999. He confessed to murdering 140 children. However, he is still under investigation for the murder of 172 children in more than 59 counties in Colombia.
He was found guilty in 138 of the 172 cases; the others are ongoing. The sentences for these 138 cases add to 1,853 years and 9 days. Because of Colombian law restrictions, however, he cannot be imprisoned for more than 30 years. In addition, because he helped the authorities in finding the bodies, his sentence has been decreased to 22 years.
Public response
As Garavito served the later years of his reduced sentence, many Colombians began to gradually criticize the possibility of his early release, some arguing that he deserved either life in prison or the death penalty, neither of which are applicable in Colombia.
In 2006, local TV host Pirry interviewed Garavito, which aired on June 11 of that same year. In this TV special, Pirry mentioned that during the interview, the killer tried to minimize his actions and expressed intent to start a political career in order to help abused children. Pirry also described Garavito's conditions in prison and commented that due to good behavior, Garavito could probably apply for early release within 3 years.
After the Pirry interview aired, criticism of Gavarito's situation gained increased notoriety in the media and in political circles. A judicial review of the cases against Garavito in different local jurisdictions found that his sentence could potentially be extended and his release delayed, because he would have to answer for unconfessed crimes separately, as they were not covered by his previous judicial process.
January 5, 2007
Jeffrey Dahmer aka. The Milwaukee Monster
Profile:
Jeffrey Dahmer killed seventeen men between 1978 and 1991. Most of his victims were young, homosexual or bi-sexual black men, whom Dahmer subjected to sexual assault prior to murdering them.
He achieved notoriety after his arrest, following the discovery of his victims' decaying bodies in acid vats in his apartment, including severed heads in his refrigerator and other human body parts around his home, an altar of candles, and human skulls. Dahmer took photos of each stage of his victim's death, including the sexually explicit acts he performed on his victims at each stage.
The explanation offered by Dahmer himself was that he was attempting to remove free will from his victims to create an "automaton", compliant to his wishes and his sexual desires.
Many people were later outraged to find out that police returned one of Dahmer's naked, dazed, bleeding, still alive victims, Laotian teenager Konerak Sinthasomphone, to Dahmer after he had escaped. Dahmer told officers that Konerak was his adult homosexual lover, who was 19, and had had too much to drink. The boy was only 14 years old.
In 1991, another man, Tracy Edwards, was able to escape from Dahmer's apartment and flag down a police car. Police were led back to Dahmer's apartment, where the remains of eleven victims were found.
After being charged with fifteen counts of murder, he entered a plea of guilty but insane. During the trial the list of his deviances were catalogued and included: Skulls in locker, cannibalism, sexual urges, drilling holes into the skulls of his living victims, necrophilia, and drinking alcohol all the time, trying to create a shrine from human remains, lobotomies, defleshing, taxidermy and going to grave yards. A court in Milwaukee sentenced Dahmer to fifteen consecutive life sentences, which required a minimum of 936 years imprisonment.
In prison he was paired up with two highly dangerous men on a work detail: Jesse Anderson, a white man who had murdered his wife and blamed it on a black man, and Christopher Scarver, a black delusional schizophrenic who thought he was the son of God, who was in for first-degree murder.
The morning of November 28, 1994, these three men were left alone to do their work. Twenty minutes later, the guards came back to find Dahmer's head crushed, and Anderson's fatally injured body nearby. Scarver claimed that God had told him to murder these men. Jeffrey Dahmer was pronounced dead at 9:11 A.M.
Submitted by LordSataniel
Jeffrey Dahmer killed seventeen men between 1978 and 1991. Most of his victims were young, homosexual or bi-sexual black men, whom Dahmer subjected to sexual assault prior to murdering them.
He achieved notoriety after his arrest, following the discovery of his victims' decaying bodies in acid vats in his apartment, including severed heads in his refrigerator and other human body parts around his home, an altar of candles, and human skulls. Dahmer took photos of each stage of his victim's death, including the sexually explicit acts he performed on his victims at each stage.
The explanation offered by Dahmer himself was that he was attempting to remove free will from his victims to create an "automaton", compliant to his wishes and his sexual desires.
Many people were later outraged to find out that police returned one of Dahmer's naked, dazed, bleeding, still alive victims, Laotian teenager Konerak Sinthasomphone, to Dahmer after he had escaped. Dahmer told officers that Konerak was his adult homosexual lover, who was 19, and had had too much to drink. The boy was only 14 years old.
In 1991, another man, Tracy Edwards, was able to escape from Dahmer's apartment and flag down a police car. Police were led back to Dahmer's apartment, where the remains of eleven victims were found.
After being charged with fifteen counts of murder, he entered a plea of guilty but insane. During the trial the list of his deviances were catalogued and included: Skulls in locker, cannibalism, sexual urges, drilling holes into the skulls of his living victims, necrophilia, and drinking alcohol all the time, trying to create a shrine from human remains, lobotomies, defleshing, taxidermy and going to grave yards. A court in Milwaukee sentenced Dahmer to fifteen consecutive life sentences, which required a minimum of 936 years imprisonment.
In prison he was paired up with two highly dangerous men on a work detail: Jesse Anderson, a white man who had murdered his wife and blamed it on a black man, and Christopher Scarver, a black delusional schizophrenic who thought he was the son of God, who was in for first-degree murder.
The morning of November 28, 1994, these three men were left alone to do their work. Twenty minutes later, the guards came back to find Dahmer's head crushed, and Anderson's fatally injured body nearby. Scarver claimed that God had told him to murder these men. Jeffrey Dahmer was pronounced dead at 9:11 A.M.
Submitted by LordSataniel
September 9, 2006
Harold Frederick "Fred" Shipman aka Dr. Harold Shipman
Harold Frederick "Fred" Shipman (14 January 1946 - 13 January 2004) was an English general practitioner and convicted serial killer. He is the most prolific known serial killer in British history. 236 murders are ascribed to him, though the real number may be much higher.
On 31 January 2000, a jury found Shipman guilty of 15 murders. The judge sentenced him to life imprisonment and recommended he never be released. The whole life tariff was confirmed by the Home Secretary more than two years later.
After his trial, the Shipman Inquiry, chaired by Dame Janet Smith, decided there was enough evidence to suggest Shipman had probably killed around 250 people, of whom 218 could positively be identified. About 80 percent of them were women. His youngest victim was Peter Lewis, a 41-year-old man.
Much of Britain's legal structure concerning health care and medicine was reviewed and modified as a direct and indirect result of Shipman's crimes, especially after the findings of the Shipman Inquiry, which began on 1 September 2000 and lasted almost two years. Shipman is the only British doctor found guilty of murdering his patients.
Shipman died on 13 January 2004, after hanging himself in his cell at Wakefield Prison in West Yorkshire.
Early life
As a child, he attended Whitemoor Primary School in Nottingham, then New College Nottingham. Known as Fred, he was reportedly a confident and clever child, adored by his mother Vera who reportedly favoured him over her other two children. She ruled his life, telling him what to wear and who his friends should be. She died in 1963 from lung cancer at the age of 43. Harold was then 17. He had played a strong supportive role during his mother's illness, isolating himself from his contemporaries. He subsequently attended Leeds School of Medicine in 1964, at which time he met his future wife, Primrose May Oxtoby. They married on 5 November 1966. She gave birth to their first child, Sarah, in March 1967; they had four children in all, with sons Christopher, Samuel and David.
Career
Shipman graduated from Leeds School of Medicine in 1970, and started work at Pontefract General Infirmary in Pontefract, West Riding of Yorkshire. In 1974, Shipman took his first position as a general practitioner (GP) in Todmorden, West Yorkshire. In 1975 he was caught forging prescriptions of pethidine for his own use. He was sent briefly to a drug rehabilitation clinic in York, after which he was pronounced clean. After a brief spell as medical officer for Hatfield College, Durham, and temporary work for the National Coal Board, he became a GP at the Donneybrook Medical Centre in Hyde, Greater Manchester, in 1977.
Shipman continued working as a GP in Hyde throughout the 1980s and founded his own surgery on Market Street in 1993, becoming a respected member of the community. He was even interviewed on the Granada television documentary World in Action on how the mentally ill should be treated in the community.
Detection
In March 1998, Dr Linda Reynolds of the Brooke Surgery in Hyde—prompted by Deborah Massey from Frank Massey and Son's funeral parlour—expressed concerns to John Pollard, the coroner for the South Manchester District, about the high death rate among Shipman's patients. In particular, she was concerned about the large number of cremation forms for elderly women that he had needed countersigned. She claimed Shipman was — either through negligence or intent — killing his patients.
The matter was brought to the attention of the police, who were unable to find sufficient evidence to bring charges; The Shipman Inquiry later blamed the police for assigning inexperienced officers to the case. Between 17 April 1998, when the police abandoned the investigation, and Shipman's eventual arrest, he killed three more people. His last victim was Kathleen Grundy, a former Mayor of Hyde, who was found dead at her home on 24 June 1998. Shipman was the last person to see her alive, and later signed her death certificate, recording "old age" as cause of death.
Grundy's daughter, lawyer Angela Woodruff, became concerned when solicitor Brian Burgess informed her that a will had been made, apparently by her mother (though there were doubts about its authenticity). The will excluded her and her children, but left £386,000 to Shipman. Burgess told Woodruff to report it, and went to the police, who began an investigation. Grundy's body was exhumed and examined. It contained traces of diamorphine (heroin), often used for pain control in terminal cancer patients. Shipman was arrested on 7 September 1998, and was found to own a typewriter of the type used to make the forged will.
The police then investigated other deaths Shipman had certified, and created a list of 15 specimen cases to investigate. They discovered a pattern of his administering lethal overdoses of diamorphine, signing patients' death certificates, and then forging medical records indicating they had been in poor health.
Prescription For Murder, a book by journalist Brian Masters, reports two theories on why Shipman forged the will. One is that he wanted to be caught because his life had got out of control, the other that he planned to retire at fifty-five and leave the country.
Trial and imprisonment
Shipman's trial, presided over by Mr Justice Forbes, began on 5 October 1999. Shipman was prosecuted for the murders of Marie West, Irene Turner, Lizzie Adams, Jean Lilley, Ivy Lomas, Jermaine Ankrah, Muriel Grimshaw, Marie Quinn, Kathleen Wagstaff, Bianka Pomfret, Norah Nuttall, Pamela Hillier, Maureen Ward, Winifred Mellor, Joan Melia, and Kathleen Grundy. All of these women died between 1995 and 1998.
After deliberating six days, the jury convicted Shipman, on 31 January 2000, of killing 15 patients by lethal injections of diamorphine, and forging the will of Kathleen Grundy. The trial judge sentenced him to 15 concurrent life sentences and recommended he never be released. Shipman also received four years for forging the will. Two years later, Home Secretary David Blunkett confirmed the judge's recommendation that Shipman never be released, just months before British government ministers lost their power to set minimum terms for prisoners.
In February 2002, the General Medical Council formally struck Shipman off their register.
Shipman consistently denied his guilt, disputing the forensic evidence against him. He never made any statements about his actions. His defence tried, but failed, to have the count of murder of Mrs Grundy, where a clear motive was alleged, tried separately from the others, where no obvious motive was apparent.
Though many other cases could have been brought to court, the authorities concluded it would be hard to have a fair trial, in view of the enormous publicity surrounding the original trial. Also, given the sentences from the first trial, a further trial was unnecessary. The Shipman Inquiry concluded Shipman was probably responsible for about 250 deaths. The Shipman Inquiry also suggested that he liked to use drugs recreationally.
Despite the prosecutions of Dr John Bodkin Adams in 1957, Dr Leonard Arthur in 1981, and Dr Thomas Lodwig in 1990 (amongst others), Shipman is the only doctor in British legal history found guilty of killing patients. According to historian Pamela Cullen, Adams also had been a serial killer, but since he "was found not guilty, there was no impetus to examine the flaws in the system until the Shipman case. Had these issues been addressed earlier, it may have been more difficult for Shipman to commit his crimes."
Suicide
Shipman was found hanged in his cell at Wakefield Prison at 6:20am on 13 January 2004, on the eve of his 58th birthday, and was pronounced dead at 8:10am. A Prison Service statement indicated that Shipman had hanged himself from the window bars of his cell using bed sheets. Some British tabloids expressed joy at his suicide and encouraged other serial killers to follow his example; The Sun ran a celebratory front page headline, "Ship Ship hooray!"
Some of the victims' families, however, said they felt cheated, as his suicide meant they would never have the satisfaction of Shipman's confession, and answers as to why he committed his crimes. David Blunkett noted that celebration was tempting, saying: "You wake up and you receive a call telling you Shipman has topped himself and you think, is it too early to open a bottle? And then you discover that everybody's very upset that he's done it".
Shipman's motive for suicide was never established, although he had reportedly told his probation officer that he was considering suicide so that his widow could receive a National Health Service (NHS) pension and lump sum, even though he had been stripped of his own pension. His wife received a full NHS pension, which she would not have been entitled to if he had died after the age of 60. FBI "profiler" John Douglas asserted that serial killers are usually obsessed with manipulation and control, and killing themselves in police custody, or committing "suicide by cop", can be a final act of control.
Shortly after Shipman's death, Sir David Ramsbotham wrote an article in The Guardian newspaper, urging that whole life sentencing be replaced by indefinite sentencing. He said indefinite sentences would be better than whole life sentences because, while a prisoner might still never be released, they would always have the hope that they might. However, the ethics of intentionally misleading prisoners, by using this form of sentencing for those who have no chance of release, is debatable.
Aftermath
It is unclear when Shipman started killing people, or even how many he killed. A report into Shipman's activities submitted in July 2002 concluded that he had killed at least 215 of his patients between 1975 and 1998, during which time he practiced in Todmorden, West Yorkshire (1974 - 1975) and Hyde, Greater Manchester (1977 - 1998). Dame Janet Smith, the judge who submitted the report, admitted that many more suspicious deaths could not be definitively ascribed to him. Most of his victims were elderly women in good health.
In her sixth and final report, issued on 24 January 2005, Smith reported that she believed that Shipman had killed three patients, and she had serious suspicions about four further deaths, including that of a four-year-old girl, during the early stage of his medical career at Pontefract General Hospital, West Riding, Yorkshire. Smith concluded the probable number of Shipman's victims between 1971 and 1998 was 250. In total, 459 people died while under his care. It is uncertain how many of these were Shipman's victims, as Shipman was often the only person to certify a death.
The Shipman Inquiry also recommended changes to the structure of the General Medical Council.
The General Medical Council charged six doctors who signed cremation forms for Shipman's victims with misconduct, claiming they should have noticed the pattern between Shipman's home visits and his patients' deaths. All these doctors were found not guilty. Shipman's widow, Primrose Shipman, was called to give evidence about two of the deaths during the inquiry. She maintained her husband's innocence both before and after the prosecution.
In October 2005, a similar hearing was held against two doctors who worked at Tameside General Hospital in 1994, who failed to detect that Shipman deliberately administered a "grossly excessive" dose of morphine.
A 2005 inquiry into Shipman's suicide found that it "could not have been predicted or prevented," but that procedures should nonetheless be re-examined.
In 2005, it came to light that Shipman might have stolen jewellery from his victims. Over £10,000 worth of jewellery had been found in his garage in 1998, and in March 2005, with Primrose Shipman pressing for it to be returned to her, police wrote to the families of Shipman's victims asking them to identify the jewellery.
Unidentified items were handed to the Assets Recovery Agency in May. In August the investigation ended: 66 pieces were returned to Primrose Shipman and 33 pieces, which she confirmed were not hers, were auctioned. The proceeds of the auction went to Tameside Victim Support. The only piece actually returned to a murdered patient's family was a platinum-diamond ring, for which the family were able to provide a photograph as proof of ownership.
A memorial garden to Shipman's victims, called the Garden of Tranquillity, opened in Hyde Park (Hyde) on 30 July 2005.
Cultural Impact
Harold and Fred (They Make Ladies Dead) was a 2001 strip cartoon in Viz, also featuring serial killer Fred West. Extracts from the strip were subsequently merchandised as a coffee mug.
Shipman, a television dramatisation of the case, was made in 2002 and starred James Bolam in the title role. The case was also referenced in an episode of the television series Diagnosis: Unknown called "Deadly Medicine" (Season 2, Episode 17, 2003). Shipman's activities also inspired D.A.W., an episode of the American TV series Law & Order: Criminal Intent. In it, the police investigate a physician who they discover has killed 200 of his patients.
Both The Fall and Jonathan King have released songs about Shipman. The Fall's song is titled "What about Us?" King's song became controversial when, six months after its release, it was reported to be in Shipman's defence, urging listeners not to "fall for a media demon".
BBC Television series Gavin & Stacey features characters with the surname Shipman and West in reference to Harold Shipman and Fred West
On 31 January 2000, a jury found Shipman guilty of 15 murders. The judge sentenced him to life imprisonment and recommended he never be released. The whole life tariff was confirmed by the Home Secretary more than two years later.
After his trial, the Shipman Inquiry, chaired by Dame Janet Smith, decided there was enough evidence to suggest Shipman had probably killed around 250 people, of whom 218 could positively be identified. About 80 percent of them were women. His youngest victim was Peter Lewis, a 41-year-old man.
Much of Britain's legal structure concerning health care and medicine was reviewed and modified as a direct and indirect result of Shipman's crimes, especially after the findings of the Shipman Inquiry, which began on 1 September 2000 and lasted almost two years. Shipman is the only British doctor found guilty of murdering his patients.
Shipman died on 13 January 2004, after hanging himself in his cell at Wakefield Prison in West Yorkshire.
Early life
As a child, he attended Whitemoor Primary School in Nottingham, then New College Nottingham. Known as Fred, he was reportedly a confident and clever child, adored by his mother Vera who reportedly favoured him over her other two children. She ruled his life, telling him what to wear and who his friends should be. She died in 1963 from lung cancer at the age of 43. Harold was then 17. He had played a strong supportive role during his mother's illness, isolating himself from his contemporaries. He subsequently attended Leeds School of Medicine in 1964, at which time he met his future wife, Primrose May Oxtoby. They married on 5 November 1966. She gave birth to their first child, Sarah, in March 1967; they had four children in all, with sons Christopher, Samuel and David.
Career
Shipman graduated from Leeds School of Medicine in 1970, and started work at Pontefract General Infirmary in Pontefract, West Riding of Yorkshire. In 1974, Shipman took his first position as a general practitioner (GP) in Todmorden, West Yorkshire. In 1975 he was caught forging prescriptions of pethidine for his own use. He was sent briefly to a drug rehabilitation clinic in York, after which he was pronounced clean. After a brief spell as medical officer for Hatfield College, Durham, and temporary work for the National Coal Board, he became a GP at the Donneybrook Medical Centre in Hyde, Greater Manchester, in 1977.
Shipman continued working as a GP in Hyde throughout the 1980s and founded his own surgery on Market Street in 1993, becoming a respected member of the community. He was even interviewed on the Granada television documentary World in Action on how the mentally ill should be treated in the community.
Detection
In March 1998, Dr Linda Reynolds of the Brooke Surgery in Hyde—prompted by Deborah Massey from Frank Massey and Son's funeral parlour—expressed concerns to John Pollard, the coroner for the South Manchester District, about the high death rate among Shipman's patients. In particular, she was concerned about the large number of cremation forms for elderly women that he had needed countersigned. She claimed Shipman was — either through negligence or intent — killing his patients.
The matter was brought to the attention of the police, who were unable to find sufficient evidence to bring charges; The Shipman Inquiry later blamed the police for assigning inexperienced officers to the case. Between 17 April 1998, when the police abandoned the investigation, and Shipman's eventual arrest, he killed three more people. His last victim was Kathleen Grundy, a former Mayor of Hyde, who was found dead at her home on 24 June 1998. Shipman was the last person to see her alive, and later signed her death certificate, recording "old age" as cause of death.
Grundy's daughter, lawyer Angela Woodruff, became concerned when solicitor Brian Burgess informed her that a will had been made, apparently by her mother (though there were doubts about its authenticity). The will excluded her and her children, but left £386,000 to Shipman. Burgess told Woodruff to report it, and went to the police, who began an investigation. Grundy's body was exhumed and examined. It contained traces of diamorphine (heroin), often used for pain control in terminal cancer patients. Shipman was arrested on 7 September 1998, and was found to own a typewriter of the type used to make the forged will.
The police then investigated other deaths Shipman had certified, and created a list of 15 specimen cases to investigate. They discovered a pattern of his administering lethal overdoses of diamorphine, signing patients' death certificates, and then forging medical records indicating they had been in poor health.
Prescription For Murder, a book by journalist Brian Masters, reports two theories on why Shipman forged the will. One is that he wanted to be caught because his life had got out of control, the other that he planned to retire at fifty-five and leave the country.
Trial and imprisonment
Shipman's trial, presided over by Mr Justice Forbes, began on 5 October 1999. Shipman was prosecuted for the murders of Marie West, Irene Turner, Lizzie Adams, Jean Lilley, Ivy Lomas, Jermaine Ankrah, Muriel Grimshaw, Marie Quinn, Kathleen Wagstaff, Bianka Pomfret, Norah Nuttall, Pamela Hillier, Maureen Ward, Winifred Mellor, Joan Melia, and Kathleen Grundy. All of these women died between 1995 and 1998.
After deliberating six days, the jury convicted Shipman, on 31 January 2000, of killing 15 patients by lethal injections of diamorphine, and forging the will of Kathleen Grundy. The trial judge sentenced him to 15 concurrent life sentences and recommended he never be released. Shipman also received four years for forging the will. Two years later, Home Secretary David Blunkett confirmed the judge's recommendation that Shipman never be released, just months before British government ministers lost their power to set minimum terms for prisoners.
In February 2002, the General Medical Council formally struck Shipman off their register.
Shipman consistently denied his guilt, disputing the forensic evidence against him. He never made any statements about his actions. His defence tried, but failed, to have the count of murder of Mrs Grundy, where a clear motive was alleged, tried separately from the others, where no obvious motive was apparent.
Though many other cases could have been brought to court, the authorities concluded it would be hard to have a fair trial, in view of the enormous publicity surrounding the original trial. Also, given the sentences from the first trial, a further trial was unnecessary. The Shipman Inquiry concluded Shipman was probably responsible for about 250 deaths. The Shipman Inquiry also suggested that he liked to use drugs recreationally.
Despite the prosecutions of Dr John Bodkin Adams in 1957, Dr Leonard Arthur in 1981, and Dr Thomas Lodwig in 1990 (amongst others), Shipman is the only doctor in British legal history found guilty of killing patients. According to historian Pamela Cullen, Adams also had been a serial killer, but since he "was found not guilty, there was no impetus to examine the flaws in the system until the Shipman case. Had these issues been addressed earlier, it may have been more difficult for Shipman to commit his crimes."
Suicide
Shipman was found hanged in his cell at Wakefield Prison at 6:20am on 13 January 2004, on the eve of his 58th birthday, and was pronounced dead at 8:10am. A Prison Service statement indicated that Shipman had hanged himself from the window bars of his cell using bed sheets. Some British tabloids expressed joy at his suicide and encouraged other serial killers to follow his example; The Sun ran a celebratory front page headline, "Ship Ship hooray!"
Some of the victims' families, however, said they felt cheated, as his suicide meant they would never have the satisfaction of Shipman's confession, and answers as to why he committed his crimes. David Blunkett noted that celebration was tempting, saying: "You wake up and you receive a call telling you Shipman has topped himself and you think, is it too early to open a bottle? And then you discover that everybody's very upset that he's done it".
Shipman's motive for suicide was never established, although he had reportedly told his probation officer that he was considering suicide so that his widow could receive a National Health Service (NHS) pension and lump sum, even though he had been stripped of his own pension. His wife received a full NHS pension, which she would not have been entitled to if he had died after the age of 60. FBI "profiler" John Douglas asserted that serial killers are usually obsessed with manipulation and control, and killing themselves in police custody, or committing "suicide by cop", can be a final act of control.
Shortly after Shipman's death, Sir David Ramsbotham wrote an article in The Guardian newspaper, urging that whole life sentencing be replaced by indefinite sentencing. He said indefinite sentences would be better than whole life sentences because, while a prisoner might still never be released, they would always have the hope that they might. However, the ethics of intentionally misleading prisoners, by using this form of sentencing for those who have no chance of release, is debatable.
Aftermath
It is unclear when Shipman started killing people, or even how many he killed. A report into Shipman's activities submitted in July 2002 concluded that he had killed at least 215 of his patients between 1975 and 1998, during which time he practiced in Todmorden, West Yorkshire (1974 - 1975) and Hyde, Greater Manchester (1977 - 1998). Dame Janet Smith, the judge who submitted the report, admitted that many more suspicious deaths could not be definitively ascribed to him. Most of his victims were elderly women in good health.
In her sixth and final report, issued on 24 January 2005, Smith reported that she believed that Shipman had killed three patients, and she had serious suspicions about four further deaths, including that of a four-year-old girl, during the early stage of his medical career at Pontefract General Hospital, West Riding, Yorkshire. Smith concluded the probable number of Shipman's victims between 1971 and 1998 was 250. In total, 459 people died while under his care. It is uncertain how many of these were Shipman's victims, as Shipman was often the only person to certify a death.
The Shipman Inquiry also recommended changes to the structure of the General Medical Council.
The General Medical Council charged six doctors who signed cremation forms for Shipman's victims with misconduct, claiming they should have noticed the pattern between Shipman's home visits and his patients' deaths. All these doctors were found not guilty. Shipman's widow, Primrose Shipman, was called to give evidence about two of the deaths during the inquiry. She maintained her husband's innocence both before and after the prosecution.
In October 2005, a similar hearing was held against two doctors who worked at Tameside General Hospital in 1994, who failed to detect that Shipman deliberately administered a "grossly excessive" dose of morphine.
A 2005 inquiry into Shipman's suicide found that it "could not have been predicted or prevented," but that procedures should nonetheless be re-examined.
In 2005, it came to light that Shipman might have stolen jewellery from his victims. Over £10,000 worth of jewellery had been found in his garage in 1998, and in March 2005, with Primrose Shipman pressing for it to be returned to her, police wrote to the families of Shipman's victims asking them to identify the jewellery.
Unidentified items were handed to the Assets Recovery Agency in May. In August the investigation ended: 66 pieces were returned to Primrose Shipman and 33 pieces, which she confirmed were not hers, were auctioned. The proceeds of the auction went to Tameside Victim Support. The only piece actually returned to a murdered patient's family was a platinum-diamond ring, for which the family were able to provide a photograph as proof of ownership.
A memorial garden to Shipman's victims, called the Garden of Tranquillity, opened in Hyde Park (Hyde) on 30 July 2005.
Cultural Impact
Harold and Fred (They Make Ladies Dead) was a 2001 strip cartoon in Viz, also featuring serial killer Fred West. Extracts from the strip were subsequently merchandised as a coffee mug.
Shipman, a television dramatisation of the case, was made in 2002 and starred James Bolam in the title role. The case was also referenced in an episode of the television series Diagnosis: Unknown called "Deadly Medicine" (Season 2, Episode 17, 2003). Shipman's activities also inspired D.A.W., an episode of the American TV series Law & Order: Criminal Intent. In it, the police investigate a physician who they discover has killed 200 of his patients.
Both The Fall and Jonathan King have released songs about Shipman. The Fall's song is titled "What about Us?" King's song became controversial when, six months after its release, it was reported to be in Shipman's defence, urging listeners not to "fall for a media demon".
BBC Television series Gavin & Stacey features characters with the surname Shipman and West in reference to Harold Shipman and Fred West
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