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Article: THE CAUTIONARY TALE OF DR. SHIPMAN.
- Article from:
- Contemporary Review
- Article date:
- June 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Contemporary Review Company Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THE rogue doctor, the Hippocratic saviour turned hypocritic slayer, is a mercifully rare medical phenomenon in this country. Of doctors who commit murder within the context and confines of their private lives, and for personal reasons, there has never been any shortage, uxoricides mostly, from Dr. Pritchard (Glasgow, 1865) through Dr. Crippen (1910) to Dr. Ruxton (1936) and Dr. Clements (1947).
To bring the matter closer in time, there was in the mid-1980s the case of the consultant surgeon whose invalid wife stood in the way of his preferential alliance with a distinctly more glamorous partner, and who conceived a plan to eliminate his wife with the help of a ...