An infographic recently hit our inbox which highlighted the disturbing truth behind serial killers.
YourLawyer.com have produced the following, which takes a look at some of the most high-profile serial killers that have come from a medical background:
Granted, some of the killers outlined this graphic are from centuries ago.
Something a little more disturbing came to light for us though; there are a surprisingly high number that can be classed as “recent”.
There’s no official definition of recent but in relation to the criminal world, we would suggest that anything happening in the past two decades falls into such a category.
Bearing this in mind, out of the 35 medical professionals that went onto become serial killers and be featured in the infographic, twelve of them were from the 2000s. In other words, one third of the worst medical serial killers of all time are from this millennium.
Now, there can be a whole host of reasons for this. Perhaps the biggest comes in the form of police detection. After all, advancements in technology means that it is easier than ever before to track and convict criminals. Particularly in the case of Harold Shipman, bodies were exhumed, post-mortems could be carried out years later and the results could be scrutinized. This may not have been the case some years ago.
A lot of the recent killers use more “masked” methods on their victims. Decades ago, a stereotypical medical killer may have used the standard equipment that is found in hospitals around the world. More recently, overdoses have become the main method, and this has made the art of convicting doctors and nurses a lot more difficult.
Should the nation be concerned over the recent spate of killings? Probably not.
While twelve of the serial killers have been caught this decade, let’s drill down into the statistics a little more.
The most recent killer was Elizabeth Wettlaufer who was a nurse in Canada. She killed eight people (although there were 14 attempted in total) and was active up until four years ago in 2016.
Before then, Ludivine Chambet was active for just one year up until 2013. During this time, she killed ten people – again targeting the elderly with various drugs.
In other words, the cases are few and far between. The infographic does do a fantastic job of highlighting that serial killers shouldn’t be stereotyped like many people do – they aren’t the traditional type of criminal that performs their deeds in the depths of the night. Instead, they can come from all walks of life, including some which are more recent than many of us might have imagined.
Resources
YourLawyer.com – The source of the original infographic.
TheEMSStore – Examples of the traditional medical equipment the article alluded to.
Elizabeth Wettlaufer – A profile of the Canadian serial killer who was convicted in 2016. Worryingly, she wouldn’t have been caught had it not been for a confession.
Ludivine Chambet – A profile of the French serial killer active between 2012-13.
