The Psychology of a Serial Killer: Harold Shipman
The Psychology of a Serial Killer is a forensic examination of those who kill. In Series 1, we turn the scalpel inward on doctors who kill: trusted professionals who betrayed their oath to save lives. From the calculated crimes of Dr Harold Shipman to the dark legacy of Dr John Bodkin-Adams, this series delves deep into the minds, methods, and motivations of medical murderers. Hosted by Dr Andrew Johns, a leading forensic psychiatrist who spent years inside Broadmoor Hospital with some of Britain’s most infamous killers, and Dr Harry Brunjes, physician, expert witness, and senior figure in medical ethics, The Ps...
Episodes
Dr Harold Shipman: The Trial
Dr Harold Shipman is the bleak spectre of modern medicine and remains the only doctor in British history convicted of murdering his patients. His many victims were mostly female and elderly, though he was not above killing men and in one in…
Dr John Bodkin Adams: The Trial
It wasn’t hard for the police to find the home of Dr John Bodkin Adams when they went to arrest him; there were two Rolls Royces parked outside. One bequeathed to him by a former patient. Bodkin Adams was charged with the murder of Edith Mo…
The Victims (2)
Dr Harold Shipman remains the only Doctor in British history found guilty of murdering his patients. His victims were elderly, female and numerous – he was eventually convicted of killing fifteen by poisoning with morphine, though the actua…
The Victims (1)
Hullett, Morrell, Whitton and Mawhood, just four of the victims of the hundred that Dr John Bodkin Adams helped propel into another world. It’s likely his victims ran into the hundreds with the good doctor the beneficiary of over a hundred …
The Savage Surgeon and The Bluebeard Murderer
While Shipman and Bodkin Adams made their grisly mark on history as doctors who killed their patients, they weren’t the only men of medicine to murder. Dr Buck Ruxton and Dr Robert George Clements created their own wretched legends. Ruxton …
What’s Your Poison? History’s Bloody Doctors
If Jack the Ripper was a surgeon or not is still a matter of debate, some theories argue that he might have been a butcher, worked in a slaughterhouse, or a doctor given the clinical and professional manner of his mutilations. In total, the…
Hiding in Plain Sight – Who Was Dr Harold Shipman?
Pathogen addict, given to forging prescriptions, a so-called mission-orientated killer and, it’s argued, that he became addicted to killing. Dr Harold Shipman could have been torn from the pages of a particularly bleak crime novel. A loner …
Hiding in Plain Sight - Who was Dr John Bodkin Adams?
Bumptious, bucolic, much admired among the tailored lawns of Eastbourne’s elite, but who was Dr John Bodkin Adams really? Fundamentally, a religious man, devoted to his mother who he called ‘the most religious woman in Ireland’ who manged t…
Hiding in Plain Sight - Who was Dr John Bodkin Adams?
Bumptious, bucolic, much admired among the tailored lawns of Eastbourne’s elite, but who was Dr John Bodkin Adams really? Fundamentally, a religious man, devoted to his mother who he called ‘the most religious woman in Ireland’ who manged t…
The Doctors Will See You Now
The spectre of Dr Harold Shipman hangs over the medical community like a black cloud on the horizon: ominous and bleak. His victims run into the hundreds, probably more than we’ll ever know. History tells us that Shipman would eventually di…
The Doctors Will See You Now
The spectre of Dr Harold Shipman hangs over the medical community like a black cloud on the horizon: ominous and bleak. His victims run into the hundreds, probably more than we’ll ever know. History tells us that Shipman would eventually di…
Launching 21st May... An Appointment With Murder
Launching on 21st May 2025: An Appointment with Murder, a forensic examination of those who kill.In Series 1, we turn the scalpel inward on doctors who kill: trusted professionals who betrayed their oath to save lives. From the calculated c…
Launching 21st May... An Appointment With Murder
Launching on 21st May 2025: An Appointment with Murder, a forensic examination of those who kill. In Series 1, we turn the scalpel inward on doctors who kill: trusted professionals who betrayed their oath to save lives. From the calculated…