Dead Bodies Podcast

Harold Frederick Shipman (14 January 1946 – 13 January 2004), known to acquaintances as Fred Shipman, was an English general practitioner who is believed to be one of the most prolific serial killers in modern history. On 31 January 2000, he was found guilty of the murder of 15 patients under his care; his total number of victims was approximately 250. Shipman was sentenced to life imprisonment with the recommendation that he never be released.[4] He died by suicide, hanging himself in his cell at HM Prison Wakefield, West Yorkshire on 13 January 2004, a day before his 58th birthday. Sylvia Marie Likens (January 3, 1949 – October 26, 1965) was an American teenager who was tortured and murdered by her caregiver, Gertrude Baniszewski, many of Baniszewski's children, and several of their neighborhood friends. This abuse incrementally lasted for three months before Likens died from her extensive injuries and malnourishment on October 26 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Likens was increasingly neglected, belittled, sexually humiliated, beaten, starved, lacerated, and dehydrated by her tormentors. Her autopsy showed 150 wounds across her body, including several burns and receded skin. Through intimidation, her younger sister, Jenny, was occasionally forced to participate in her mistreatment. The official cause of her death was determined to be a homicide caused by a combination of subdural hematoma and shock, complicated by severe malnutrition.

With the world in the grip of the coronavirus outbreak, we look back at some of the deadly plagues, epidemics and pandemics that have caused millions of deaths over the centuries. Chrissie Venn was a 13-year-old girl whose brutalised body was found in a giant, hollow tree stump near her home in North Motton near Ulverstone, Tasmania, Australia in 1921.

Having recently been in New Zealand reporting on the White Island volcano, Sharnelle looks at the harvesting of skin from human dead bodies to heal the wounds of the injured. The coal mining village of Aberfan was destroyed in 1966 by the collapse of a waste tip. Children at a school were among the victims of this horrendous accident.

Australia, has been abuzz with discussion about the deaths of three people in Victoria, apparently after eating poison mushrooms. In this episode we look at serial poisoner Velma Barfield, who in 1984 became the first woman to be executed by lethal injection in the United States.

In 2011, 24-year-old Daniel O'Keeffe went missing from his parent's home in Geelong. His family mounted and extraordinary social media campaign,but it was five years before they found out what had happened to him. The Black Dahlia is one of the most famous dead bodies of all time. Hollywood hopeful Elizabeth Short was found in Leimert Park, murdered and mutilated. Her killer has never been found.