Harold Shipman: Doctor Death: The Shocking Case of the Harold Shipman Murders As a society, we are conditioned to believe that doctors will do their utmost to nurture our well-being, and protect our lives. We implicitly trust that people only go into such professions to care for their patients in a loving and attentive manner. Very few of us would suspect that someone claiming to promote our health would not do everything in their power to ensure our survival; and even fewer of us would suspect that someone whose job it is to keep us safe, would actively want to harm us. That blind trust is exactly the mentality that led to over 200 people being murdered at the hands of Britains most prolific serial killer, Doctor Harold Fredrick Shipman. Shipman used the trust of his patients as a weapon against them. He managed to avoid detection as a murderer for almost 30 years by putting on a convincing performance as a conscientious care giver. He would persuade a victims family that he had his patients best interests at heart, even after he had injected their loved one with a lethal opiate overdose, and had watched them die.