He excelled as a distance runner, and in his final year at school served as vice-captain of the athletics team. Shipman passed his eleven-plus in 1957, moving to High Pavement Grammar School, Nottingham, which he left in 1964. When growing up, Shipman was an accomplished rugby player in youth leagues. His working-class parents were devout Methodists. Shipman was born on 14 January 1946 on the Bestwood Estate, a council estate, in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, the second of the three children of Harold Frederick Shipman ( – 5 January 1985), a truck driver, and Vera Brittan (23 December 1919 – 21 June 1963). Shipman, who has been nicknamed "Dr Death" and "The Angel of Death", is the only British doctor to date to have been convicted of murdering his patients, although other doctors have been acquitted of similar crimes or convicted on lesser charges. Shipman's youngest confirmed victim was a 41-year-old man, although suspicion arose that he had killed patients as young as four. The inquiry identified 218 victims and estimated his total victim count at 250, about 80 per cent of whom were elderly women. The Shipman Inquiry, a two-year-long investigation of all deaths certified by Shipman, chaired by Dame Janet Smith, examined Shipman's crimes.
Shipman died by suicide, hanging himself in his cell at HM Prison Wakefield, West Yorkshire, on 13 January 2004, a day before his 58th birthday. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with the recommendation that he serve a whole life order. On 31 January 2000, Shipman was found guilty of the murder of fifteen patients under his care.
Harold Frederick Shipman (14 January 1946 – 13 January 2004), known to acquaintances as Fred Shipman, was an English general practitioner who is considered the most prolific serial killer in modern history with an estimated 250 victims.