Medical Murders - 11/07/16

Seagate Rotary’s theme on Monday evening was ‘Medical Murders’.  Retired GP Barry Adams Strump gave a long presentation on doctors who had been found guilty of murder, over the past two centuries, and the methods and motives behind them. 

The golden age of medical murder was believed to be the second half of the nineteenth century, when forensic science was at an early stage of development.  The vast majority of medical murderers were men, and despite the notoriety of mass killers such as Shipman, most of their victims were their wives. 

It was apparent that those found guilty had committed their crimes in detectable ways and with obvious motives, and the outstanding question was how many have not been suspected.  Such was the fascination with this subject that the talk and questions ran well beyond the usual time.  A Vote of Thanks was proposed by Alex McConnell.