Assume Nothing: A Deadly Diagnosis
Crime Writers On...27 Tammi 2025

Assume Nothing: A Deadly Diagnosis

In the 1940s and 50s, Dr. John Bodkin Adams grew a large practice in East Sussex caring for the elderly. But few knew that Adams was administering heroin to his wealthy patients before they slipped into comas. Many listed the doctor as executor of their estates or left him a sizable inheritance in their wills. Officials later determined the deaths of over 160 of Adams’s patients were suspicious. His 1957 prosecution for murder was dubbed the “Trial of the Century.” But was Adams killing his elderly patients for money or was he simply easing the pain of their dying days?

Broadcast on BBC Radio Ulster and distributed by BBC Sounds, “Assume Nothing: A Deadly Diagnosis” is the latest installment in the investigative podcast series. Host Vinny Hurrell revisits the historical true crime case of the Northern Irish GP suspected of being a serial killer. Was Adams an angel of mercy or an angel of death?

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "ASSUME NOTHING: A DEADLY DIAGNOSIS" BEGIN IN THE FINAL ELEVEN MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

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This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more.


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