Most murders by a doctor

General Practitioner Harold Shipman (UK) murdered 250 of his patients between 1971 and 1998. Shipman killed his elderly victims, mainly women, with high doses of diamorphine injections. An inquiry concluded that Shipman began ending the lives of terminally ill patients and then moved on to patients that he found annoying or uncooperative. He was sentenced to a life term in prison for the 15 murders of which he was found guilty in January 2000. 

The Greater Manchester police declared that Shipman would not be prosecuted for any further murders because of the virtual impossibility of finding a jury unaware of his previous history.

 

High Court Judge Dame Janet Smith examined 887 cases of dead patients and dismissed 394 of those cases as death from natural causes. Of the remaining cases, Smith found 200 were intentionally killed by Shipman, on top of the 15 for which he has already been convicted and another 45 deaths were regarded as 'highly suspicious'. 

 

Shipman hanged himself in his prison cell on 13 January 2004.

 

Prior to January 2005, it was believed his first victim was Eva Lyons (UK), who he murdered at her home in Todmorden.