Medical Murder: Disturbing Cases of Doctors Who Kill

In January 2000, news headlines declared that Dr. Harold Shipman had been found guilty of murdering 15 of his patients. Before the trial, many assumed Shipman was an over-zealous doctor who went too far in providing comfort to dying patients. This was not the case. Shipman had deliberately and coldly murdered not 15, but 218 of his patients, though the real number may be even higher still. Medical Murder is a fascinating volume that explores some of the most famous cases of doctors who kill—such as Dr. Harry Bailey, a psychiatrist who dispatched more than 20 patients using the discredited Deep Sleep Therapy; Dr. Radovan Karadizic, the psychiatrist who led the genocide during the Bosnian War; and, Dr. William Palmer, who poisoned his victims for insurance money. It offers an intelligent look at the chilling paradox of why these healers spent years learning how to preserve life, only to turn their focus on how to end it.