Aw, come on…numbers alone don’t tell the whole tale. For my money, the worst serial killer ever may be Pakistan’s own Javed Iqbal. Granted, he may have “only” killed 100+, but keep in mind that was during the course of one single year. All kids, too:
The has been a statistical analysis of his patients comparing his caseload with similar ones and it appears that there were at least 250 very likely candidates, but with no actual cases defined, of patients over 65 years old.
We have not yet had the studies across his whole practice from newborns upwards, lord alone knows where this will end.
It is easy to comment but the fact is that until the last five or ten years medical practitioners have had such a hold on their own disciplinary procedures that they have been virtually untouchable in the UK.
This IMHO is the natural result of a lack of independance in the medical system licensing board in the UK and it is changing for the better and very fast.
It is a last remnant of our class sytem whereby certain occupations had a ‘smoke and mirrors’ authority over those not in the privelidged circle.
I just read “Blind Eye,” the book about Swango’s killings/poisonings and how they were all needlessly overlooked and covered up by his bosses. Needless to say, I’ll never root for Ohio State ever again.
According to FBI profiling techniques (that I’ve read about) organized serial killers tend to be intelligent,and often white men as well.
Taking for granted that since doctors have to go through so much schooling, most of them are smart (and a large number of them are white males).
So, if you were into power trips (and killing is often described as the ultimate trip by SKs), and doctors are often seen as authority figures, (again, another power trip), I think the profession would be attractive to SKs. Add to this that medicine (such as emergency medicine) can be a life/death situation, and I can easily see how that type of person would desire to enter the profession.
I believe, however, that a med student’s character is looked at by admissions as well as his/her academic ability…presumably to screen out those with obvious-ah-shortcomings. However, as “Blind Eye” pointed out, once a person makes it into med school, the teaching doctors will forgive quite a bit to keep the student from failing.
Don’t forget “Uncle” Joe Stalin, except for the outright genocide of the nazis, he made Adolph look like a crude beginner.
As to the doctor and his pals, kinda reminds me of how William Burroughs always called doctors “Croakers”. They didn’t want to cure you, au contraire, they wanted you to be sick so that they were assured more business.