Harold Frederick Shipman (14 January 1946 – 13 January 2004) was a British general practitioner and one of the most prolific serial killers in recorded history. On 31 January 2000, a jury found Shipman guilty of fifteen murders. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with the recommendation that he never be released.

The Shipman Inquiry, a two-year-long investigation of all deaths certified by Shipman chaired by Dame Janet Smith, identified 218 victims and estimated his total victim count at 250, about 80% of whom were women. His youngest confirmed victim was a 41-year-old man, although "significant suspicion" arose concerning patients as young as 4.

Much of Britain's legal structure concerning health care and medicine was reviewed and modified as a result of Shipman's crimes. He is the only British physician to have been found guilty of murdering his patients, although other doctors have been acquitted of similar crimes or convicted on lesser charges.

Shipman hanged himself in his cell at Wakefield Prison at 06:20 on 13 January 2004, on the eve of his 58th birthday, and was pronounced dead at 08:10. 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!"

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