Richard McGown

Richard Gladwell McGown (15 September 1936 – 5 June 2024), also known as Dr. Death, was a Scottish-Zimbabwean anaesthetist, murderer and suspected serial killer. He was found guilty of murdering two children from 1986 to 1992 by injecting large amounts of morphine into their bodies, but is suspected of murdering at least three others as well. He was found guilty of culpable homicide and sentenced to a year in prison, after which he was released and returned to the UK. McGowan died on 5 June 2024, at the age of 87.

Early life and education Richard Gladwell McGown was born on 15 September 1936 in India, but was brought up in Glasgow, later studying at the University of Edinburgh, from which he graduated in 1959. He worked in Sweden and Zambia before moving to Rhodesia (modern day Zimbabwe) in the late 1960s, where he gained a reputation as a consultant anaesthetist.

Experiments McGown eventually developed a deep interest in post operative pain relief, and decided to begin experimenting with new drugs and anaesthetics in 1981 on his predominantly underage black patients. The doctor was charged with five deaths, but only convicted of the murders of Nagindas and Khaminwa. Charles Khaminwa, lawyer and father of the murdered girl, criticised the prosecutors for failing to explain why they dropped the charges against McGown carrying out experiments on black people.