In this second installment of Strange Matters Podcast’s series highlighting killers around the world, Sean discusses a pair of  particularly cruel and cold-hearted English serial killers.
Harold Shipman, known as Dr. Death,  was a English General Practitioner and is currently the most prolific serial killer in recorded history.  Using his position as a doctor, Shipman was able to have access to an almost unlimited supply of unsuspecting victims.  His method was to give an overdose of diamorphine, or medical heroin, to his patients.  Harold Shipman was known to forge medical records as well.  Due to his position of power, Shipman was able to go undetected for years, killing hundreds of innocent patients.  Fortunately, a few people around the doctor started to recognize a pattern around his patient’s deaths.  Shipman was finally investigated, and tested done on several of his recently deceased patients proved that they had died of overdoses that he had himself administered.
Mary Ann Cotton was a killer in the 1860’s and 70’s.  Mary was a poisoner, using arsenic to kill off multiple husbands, friends, and over a dozen children.  Her usual trick was to find a suitable man and quickly marry them, often times becoming pregnant right away.  Shortly after marriage, she would convince her husband to take a life insurance policy with her as the benefactor. Mary would then poison the husband, and usually several of the children involved as well.  This sadistic woman would repeat this process several times, until she had poisoned as many as 21 people before the authorities finally caught on to her act.
You can find the first episode of this series Here