cover of episode EP. 59 NEW JERSEY - The Angel Of Death: Charles Cullen

EP. 59 NEW JERSEY - The Angel Of Death: Charles Cullen

2022/3/30
logo of podcast Murder In America

Murder In America

AI Deep Dive AI Chapters Transcript
People
旁白
知名游戏《文明VII》的开场动画预告片旁白。
Topics
旁白:本集讲述了新泽西州护士查尔斯·库伦的系列谋杀案,他利用职务之便,在16年间杀害了数百名病人,被称为“死亡天使”。库伦的童年经历了父母双亡和贫困,这对他后来的行为有一定的影响。他曾多次试图自杀,并对医疗体系怀有怨恨。库伦在多家医院工作期间,多次被怀疑杀害病人,但由于缺乏证据,未能被定罪。他的妻子最终发现了他杀害宠物和试图毒害女儿的证据,并最终选择离婚。库伦的作案手法是利用职务之便,在病人的静脉注射中加入过量的药物,导致病人死亡。他的作案动机复杂,既有对自身不满和生活压力的宣泄,也有所谓的“怜悯杀人”的动机。库伦最终被捕,并承认杀害了多名病人,但实际受害者数量可能远超他的供述。他的案件暴露了医疗行业的漏洞,并促使了新泽西州护士库伦法案的通过。 Courtney Browen和Colin Browen:作为节目的主持人,他们介绍了本集的主题和故事背景,并对库伦的罪行进行了总结和评论。 艾米·洛伦:作为库伦的朋友和同事,她最终协助警方抓捕了库伦,并提供了关键的证词。 查尔斯·库伦:在被捕后,库伦承认了自己的罪行,并对自己的行为进行了解释,但其解释并未被调查人员完全接受。

Deep Dive

Chapters
Charles Cullen's troubled childhood, marked by loss and early attempts at harming others, set the stage for his future as a serial killer.

Shownotes Transcript

Translations:
中文

He's the most terrifying serial killer you've never heard of. Haddon Clark has confessed to several murders, but investigators say he could have over 100 victims. At the center of the mayhem, a cellmate of Haddon's that was able to get key evidence into Haddon's murder spree across America,

because hadn't thought he was Jesus Christ. Born Evil, the Serial Killer and the Savior, an ID true crime event. Premieres Monday, September 2nd at 9. Watch on ID or stream on Max. Set your DVR. Warning, the following podcast is not suitable for all audiences. We go into great detail with every case that we cover and do our best to bring viewers even deeper into the stories by utilizing disturbing audio and sound effects. Trigger warnings from the stories we cover may include violence, rape,

murder, and offenses against children. This podcast is not for everyone. You have been warned. All doctors to the ER.

It's the summer of 1988 in Livingston, New Jersey, and a retired municipal court judge named John Yango lies in his hospital bed recovering from an allergic reaction. Over the last few days, the 72-year-old father of four was getting better, and his doctors expected him to make a full recovery. During his stay at the St. Barnabas Medical Center, many nurses entered his hospital room and administered drugs to aid in his recovery.

Mr. Yango? Hi, I'm here to give you your medication for the day. Mr. Yango was barely awake when the friendly male nurse entered his room. And he didn't think twice when he walked up to his bedside and pushed a syringe of fluid into his IV. But over the next few hours, as the fluid entered his bloodstream, Mr. Yango's health would take a turn for the worst.

Little did he know, the medicine that he was given was slowly killing him. And before the day ended, Mr. Yango was dead.

The death of John Iango wasn't caused by a mix-up in medication. In fact, it wasn't an accident at all. The nurse who had given him the IV was a man named Charles Cohen. And as he watched from down the hall, as his co-workers attended to the dying retired judge, he felt a rush of power and excitement, knowing that he was responsible.

Healthcare workers are some of the most valuable and respected people in society. When we go to a hospital, we put our trust in complete strangers, knowing that they took an oath to protect us. When nurses enter our room and give us medication, we don't question them because we trust that they have our best interest at heart.

But unfortunately, that wasn't the case for Charles Cullen's patients. Because instead of improving their lives, he took great pleasure in ending them. Healthcare workers who commit these heinous acts

are often referred to as angels of death. Mr. Yango was Charles Cullen's first murder, but he certainly wouldn't be his last. In fact, throughout his 16 years as a nurse, investigators believe that Charles may have murdered up to 400 patients.

He is one of America's most prolific serial killers, disguised as a nurse. And his weapon of choice was the very thing designed to help people, medicine. This is the story of Charles Cullen. I'm Courtney Browen. And I'm Colin Browen. And you're listening to Murder in America.

Before we get into Charles Cullen and his life as an angel of death, it's important that we walk you through his childhood, which definitely had a part in the decisions he would go on to make. Unlike with a lot of serial killers we've covered, Charles' childhood wasn't ridden with abuse and neglect.

Instead, he faced a lot of loss as a child. He was born on February 22, 1960, in an Irish Catholic home in West Orange, New Jersey. He had a big family and was the youngest of seven siblings, all who were much older than he was. When Charles was just seven months old, his father died, leaving his mother to raise eight children all by herself. She had part-time jobs as a seamstress in the city, but after the death of her husband, their family struggled.

When Charles thought back to his childhood, he didn't have very fond memories. Their mother was usually gone supporting the family, so the kids were often left to do as they pleased. Like we mentioned earlier, Charles' siblings were a lot older than he was, and as a child, he remembers them bringing home questionable characters when their mom wasn't around. In one instance, his sister started dating a guy who was abusive, and the two eventually got pregnant.

But Charles hated him. And one day, while the boyfriend was visiting, Charles grabbed a container of lighter fluid and put it into the boyfriend's drink when he wasn't looking. He tried to poison him. This act alone is concerning. But even more so when you consider Charles' method of killing later in life. This seems to be the first instance where Charles got a thrill out of harming someone using lethal fluids. The next time Charles would use chemicals for harm would be when he was just nine years old.

He loved science. In one year, he found a chemistry set in his church's charity box. So he decided to take the box home and he mixed the various chemicals into a glass of milk and drank it in an attempt to end his life. That's right, Charles was just nine years old when he attempted suicide for the first time. But the chemicals he drank weren't strong enough to kill him. So he ended up just getting really sick.

Charles was unhappy at the hand he was dealt. Growing up poor, without a father, in a home where he didn't really connect with his siblings was overwhelming. The person he connected to the most in life was his mother. But even that relationship would end short. One day, when Charles was a teenager, he was sitting at home playing hooky when the phone rang.

Hi, is this the Cullen residence? I'm calling from the Mountainside Hospital in town. Your mother was in a car accident today. You and your family may want to make your way over here.

Charles was devastated over the news of his mother's accident, and he quickly drove over to the hospital. When he arrived, however, the doctors gave him some earth-shattering news. His mother wasn't even there, at the hospital. She had died in the head-on collision, and they had already taken her body away. Charles wasn't just sad to hear of his mother's passing. He was angry. He was under the impression that his mom was just injured in the accident.

That's what they made it seem like over the phone call. And if she had been dead the whole time, Charles wondered, then why didn't they just tell him that over the phone? He felt as if the hospital lied to him and a deep resentment started to form. This resentment towards the healthcare system would stick with Charles over the years and is most likely the reason he would go on to target his victims in hospitals years later. I

After losing his mother, Charles fell into a deep depression. With both of his parents dead, he felt like life wasn't worth living and he attempted suicide again. This attempt, although unsuccessful, did land him in the hospital. He even met with psychiatrists to help him through his loss, but they weren't much help.

Charles eventually dropped out of high school. Not knowing what he wanted to do with his life, he decided to join the Navy as an electronics technician on the USS Woodrow Wilson. It was here where Charles developed an alcohol addiction. He didn't really like the Navy, and the only thing that seemed to get him through it was booze, and he even attempted suicide again while on duty.

Charles was lost, trying to find his place in the world. He knew he didn't want to be in the Navy forever, so he started considering other occupations. One that came to mind was a nurse. Shortly after making his decision to leave the Navy and become a healthcare worker, Charles found himself in nursing school, at the same hospital where his mother died years earlier.

It was now 1984, and for the first time in his life, Charles felt good about the direction his life was going. He was the only male nursing student in his class, and he excelled at what he did. He paid for his education by working various jobs, mainly shift work that consisted of shoveling shaved meat, selling powdered donuts, refilling condiment bars, and mopping the floors.

He worked hard, and the difficult long hours of nursing actually suited him pretty well. The only thing that seemed to be missing from his life was a woman, and one would come sooner than expected. Charles met Adrienne at one of his side jobs. She was actually his manager, and when he saw her for the first time, he was immediately interested.

Adrian was different from the other women he was used to. She was beautiful, ambitious, and college-educated. Charles would watch her by sneaking glances over his mop handle as they worked.

casually flirting any chance he got. And once Adrian decided to give him a chance, their relationship would move pretty quickly. He would shower her with gifts, compliments, and would act like the perfect gentleman for friends and family. If Adrian mentioned liking something, Charles would get it for her. And the two were engaged just six months after their first date.

They got married the week after he graduated from nursing school. And immediately following their honeymoon from Niagara Falls, Charles started his new job in the burn unit at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, New Jersey.

When it comes to my daily routine, shaving has to be a part of it. And our friends at Manscaped, the global leaders in below-the-waist hygiene, are turning men's shower dreams into their favorite routine with the all-new Ultra Premium Collection. We love Manscaped. Courtney loves what Manscaped has done to me, so let me tell you about it. This all-in-one hygiene skin and hair bundle is designed to upgrade the everyday man's shower routine from head to toe. Your skin, hair, and even those private regions deserve this.

Save big by going to manscaped.com for 20% off plus free shipping with the code MIA. So I've been using all of the Manscaped products for a while now. I use the razor every single day. I've been using their shampoo and body wash. They are amazing products. Let me walk you through the Manscaped shower routine.

Step one, you lather on the clone-infused ultra-premium body wash with aloe vera and sea salt to keep your skin feeling clean. Step two, it's hair care time. Apply the two-in-one shampoo and conditioner that cleanses and nourishes in one step. It's super fast, super easy, and it smells so good. Step three, once you hop out of the shower, you can protect yourself from body odors by applying on the Manscaped Aluminum Franchise.

Step four, if you have tattoos or dry skin, you can hit your skin with the hydrating body moisturizer spray. For step five, all you have to do is lather on that Manscaped lip balm. It's saved my dry lips many times, even while filming out in dry locations. And last but not least, we're using the Lawn Mower 4.0 electric trimmer to clean off any unwanted body hair. If you want to upgrade your personal hygiene and body grooming, you can get 20% off and free shipping with the code MIA at manscaped.com.

That's 20% off plus free shipping with the code MIA at manscaped.com. Now let's get back to today's story. The hospital that hired Charles was very impressed with his resume. Not only was he a respected veteran, but he was also the top of his class at his nursing school. Once he started his job, he was considered a model employee. He had perfect attendance, he came in early for every shift, and his uniform was always in pristine condition. Life outside of work was really good too.

Charles and Adrian were happily married, and in October of 1987, they purchased a small one-story home in the suburbs of Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania, where Adrian got a new job as an entry-level computer programmer. But this new job would place a strain on the couple's relationship.

Adrian worked during the day and Charles worked the long nights. Some days, the couple would barely even get in a hello before one of them had to run off to their next shift. Charles also had to start working longer shifts, which left Adrian lonely. This strain in the marriage was evident to the both of them.

By February of 1988, Adrian was pregnant, but instead of being a loving husband and an excited expectant father,

Charles becomes increasingly cold towards Adrian. It only worsens after their daughter is born. Charles directed any and all affection towards their baby, and almost none to his wife. But shortly after the novelty of becoming a new parent had faded, so did his attention to his baby. Charles was known to become overly

over anything new in his life. Relationships, careers, houses, kids, and even pets. Initially, he was ecstatic about the new puppy they had adopted. But one day after Adrian left work,

the puppy seemingly disappeared. Charles told her that he assumed it ran away while he was out on a walk while their baby was napping. Confused, Adrienne had to pause and think about what her husband just said. Did he really just say he went on a walk without taking the baby?

Indeed, he had, but he assured her, "Don't worry, I know she stayed asleep the entire time." This was definitely a red flag for Adrian, and it wouldn't be the last red flag either. Adrian had her suspicions that while Charles would watch their daughter, he would give her cold medicine to keep her asleep. He knew that in doing so, he wouldn't have to play the role of a parent and actually watch her. When Adrian would confront him about it, he always denied it.

After every time she would voice her concerns, he would immediately shut it down. But something deep inside of Adrienne told her that something was very wrong. Some call it a mother's intuition. After confiding in friends and family that their marriage was on the rocks, they told her to stick with it. Marriage isn't easy after all. You gotta work on it. Afterwards, Adrienne decided that her loved ones were right. Maybe Charles is just stressed and going through a lot right now.

She tried to make their marriage better, but when Charles wasn't working, he would come home and immediately go to their basement, a place where Adrian wasn't allowed. And it was there in the basement where Charles would sit and drink all night, barely seeing his wife and daughter. When he did see them, he was cold and distant. It was around this time when Adrian decided she was going to put all of her focus on working and raising Shawna.

Charles was different now, and she felt like she was married to a stranger. It was in these tense moments where she truly wondered if something was seriously wrong with him. A few short weeks later, she would have her answer. One day, Adrian would answer their front door to find their neighbor crying and distraught. Their beagle, Queenie, had gotten out again. It was a common occurrence, and the Cullens often found Queenie sniffing around in their yard.

It was even an ongoing joke that the Cullens had to routinely bring her back home. But this time was no laughing matter. The neighbor's dog was found poisoned to death in the alley behind the Cullens' home. Sobbing, the owner asks Adrienne if she had any idea about what happened, but Adrienne is stunned to silence, only managing to form a weak shrug in response.

Once Adrian stepped back inside, a wave of anxiety rushed over her as she started to connect the dots. She remembered their missing puppy, the sleeping medication he had given their daughter, and even how Charles tried to poison his sister's boyfriend when he was a child. To Adrian, there was no doubt in her mind that he was the one who poisoned the neighbor's dog, and she couldn't help but question if he was capable of hurting her and her daughter as well.

After coming to this realization, Adrian and Charles' relationship became more strained than ever, and it was here during this stressful time when Charles would commit his first murder, the murder we mentioned at the beginning of our story with the retired judge, John Yingo.

Charles' life wasn't going the way he wanted it to, and he decided to regain some of that power and control by stealing medication from the hospital and injecting it into a helpless patient. When Mr. Yengo died, Charles felt a rush of excitement, a feeling that he had never experienced before. But Mr. Yengo's death was a shock to the hospital because he was supposed to make a full recovery. So they decided to run a toxicology report to find out exactly what had happened.

and to their surprise they found an alarming amount of insulin in his body. The doctors were shocked. Why was this elderly patient given insulin for an allergic reaction?

It just didn't make sense. And unfortunately, this wouldn't be the only suspicious death in the future at St. Barnabas Hospital. Because once Charles Cullen got a taste of murder, there would be no turning back. Another suspicious incident that occurred at St. Barnabas was on February 11th, 1991.

A pharmacy nurse named Pam Allen brought a suspicious-looking IV bag to the St. Barnabas Risk Manager, Karen Seiden. The bag's opening looked tampered with and used, but the bag itself was so full it started to leak. Seeing this, the Risk Manager agrees that something is indeed suspicious.

So they get in touch with a man named Thomas Arnold, the hospital's assistant director of security and former police officer. He decides to send the bag off to get tested. It was only supposed to contain heparin and saline, but they also found large amounts of insulin, enough to kill someone.

Three days later, on Valentine's Day of 1991, a patient named Anna Byers was put on a heparin drip. And within half an hour, she gets the shakes, cold sweats, and starts to become increasingly confused, nauseated, and weak. Her blood work showed her insulin levels were off the charts. So her doctors attempted to give her some orange juice in hopes of elevating her blood sugar.

but it didn't work. Within a short amount of time, Anna's life was slipping away, so they rushed to give her an injection, dextrose, which delivers glucose directly into the bloodstream. But even after that injection, she continues to crash. Her doctor finally decides to unplug the drip, which stabilizes her insulin levels almost immediately. Once she's fully stabilized, they put her back

on the heparin drip, and she starts crashing again. Rushing her to the ICU, the nurses unhook her from the IV while she's being moved, and again, within 20 minutes of being taken off the drip, she starts feeling better. And I just want to take a second and say that I'm actually a type 1 diabetic myself, and I have been since I was 12 years old, so I've got quite a bit of experience dealing with hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar.

It's one of the worst feelings in the world. When your blood sugar drops, your body starts to shake. Your hands get clammy, your mind starts to fog, you can't think straight, and you just feel anxious. I tell Courtney all the time that when I go low, it just feels so weird. It's like for a moment, I'm not even in my own skin. So I can't imagine how this would feel to be in a situation like the one Anna Byers found herself in. Especially when she isn't even a diabetic and can't recognize the feeling of being low.

And to make matters even more chaotic, Fred Belff, a patient down the hall for Byers, was having the same hellish experience. Luckily, they made the connection between the tainted bags of heparin and the crazy downward spiral of side effects, and they immediately unhooked him from the IV.

Once he began to stabilize, they sent the bag to the pathology lab and again, it tested positive for insulin. Afterwards, a microscopic analysis of the bag's exterior showed it had been punctured several times with a tiny needle and that it wasn't done by accident. When they looked at the patient's charts, neither of them had ever been prescribed insulin in their life, which could only mean one of two things: that it was a double mistake or that it was intentional.

And both options meant that the hospital had a major problem on its hands. Once they ruled out other patients and visitors, the only suspects left to investigate were the hospital staff, which was a terrifying realization. They began their investigation by looking at the nurses' schedules

and comparing them with the dates and times that each patient crashed. After hours of scouring through the paperwork, they discovered that there were only three nurses present during all of the insulin crashes.

one being Charles Cohen. Now, it was time to interrogate these nurses in question. Two of them were very cooperative, and they seemed genuinely concerned that patients' lives were in danger. But the lone male nurse, Charles Cohen, didn't seem phased at all. In fact, he was outright aggressive, claiming he didn't have time to answer their questions because he was, quote, too busy saving lives.

They all knew Charles was being deceptive, and they even told him, quote, I know you're putting something in those bags. But Charles responds by saying, you can't prove anything, and I don't need to talk to you. Then he walks out of the interview. Knowing they had found their culprit, the team tries every trick in the book, hoping to catch Charles in the act.

They even set up CCTV security cameras in the medical storage room. But Charles is smart, and he knows that they're on to him. So he leaves St. Barnabas and finds a new job at St. Luke's Warren Hospital in New Jersey. After St. Barnabas let Charles go, law enforcement didn't properly intervene on the matter.

According to The Good Nurse by Charles Graber, the investigative team at the hospital did go to the authorities with what they had, but they were told that they couldn't make a case out of it because they didn't have any proof that Charles was guilty. To move forward with the case, they would need something like fingerprints or video footage, but now that Charles was no longer working there, there was no way for them to get that proof.

So they let it go and Charles moves on to his new job at Warren Hospital where no one suspects him. After starting the job, Adrienne couldn't help but notice how the change rejuvenated her husband. Like we mentioned earlier, Charles loved novelty. His new job paid better than the last. It was 20 minutes closer to their house and he was excited to meet his new group of co-workers and patients. This injection of positivity bled over into their relationship. Temporarily,

early breathing new life into the dying marriage of Charles and Adrian, if only for a short period of time. After the birth of their second daughter in December of 1991, Charles' drinking reached an all-time high. He acknowledged that he was drinking a lot, but he denied it was a problem. He claimed he was depressed, but refused to seek help or go on antidepressants.

It became painstakingly obvious to Adrienne that her husband was caught in a vicious cycle of drinking and depression. Regrettably, whenever she would confront him during his fleeting moments of sobriety, he would run and hide in the basement. By the time November of 1992 rolled around, she was ready to leave. But out of fear and safety for her children, she didn't tell him she was filing for divorce, and

Instead, she tells her lawyer. The only issue was that Adrian was scheduled for gallbladder surgery in January, at the very hospital where Charles worked. And this was terrifying to her. She refused to go into his hospital without first having divorce papers written up. She didn't want him having any rights over her body while she was unconscious. And she even claimed, quote, if Charlie's working, something might happen to me, end

Taking one more precautionary step, she has her own father escort her and stay by her side throughout her entire hospital stay, telling him not to allow any visitors, especially Charles. While Adrian was recovering in her hospital bed, Charles' divorce papers were delivered to him, right in front of his new co-workers. He was humiliated, and the divorce would cause him to spiral. Unlike we've seen before, any time Charles has stressors in his life, more patients of his start to die.

The Warren Hospital had no reason to suspect that Charles was dangerous. After all, since St. Barnabas wasn't able to prove he was the one killing their patients, his record was completely clean. But it wouldn't be long until they too started to have suspicions. It turns out, right after Adrian filed for divorce, the hospital would experience two suspicious deaths involving some of their elderly patients.

So obviously, since you're listening to Murder in America, you are a true crime fan and probably a mystery fan. Well, if you never get tired of a good whodunit, then you'll love June's Journey. June's Journey is an amazing game that Courtney and I both love. It's so enthralling. It's beautifully designed. And once you start playing, I'm sure you won't be able to stop.

In June's Journey, you play as June Parker, an amateur detective investigating a series of mysteries full of twists and turns around every corner. You'll put your powers of observation to the test, sharpen your sleuthing skills, and relish the thrill of solving the case.

Courtney and I are way past Chapter 2 now. We are close to completing the game, and we cannot stop playing. I'm telling you, it is literally such a fun game. Whether you're craving good mystery or just need to get away for a while, June's Journey is the perfect game for you. Sit back, relax, and just let your inner Sherlock escape to the glamorous, roaring 20s.

You'll search for hidden clues to solve mystery after mystery across thousands of vivid scenes. And with new chapters added every week, there's always a new case waiting to be cracked. Like I said, we love June's Journey. I love a good mystery game. I love a game that pulls you in and keeps you enthralled. And June's Journey is that game for Courtney and I.

And now let's get back to today's story.

One of the deaths was on September 1st, 1993. 91-year-old Helen Dean is scheduled to be discharged from the hospital the following afternoon. She was making a great recovery following her breast cancer surgery. Her son, Larry Dean, recalls sitting by his mother's bedside when a male nurse entered the room.

Something immediately seemed off about him. Larry had been at the hospital every day and he never remembered seeing a male nurse care for his mother until then. He also notices he was dressed like an ice cream man, wearing entirely white when every other nurse was dressed in blue. But before he could put much thought into it, the nurse told him, without making any eye contact,

that he had to leave the room. So Larry does what he's told and he goes to grab some coffee. Ten minutes later, when he comes back into the room, the male nurse is gone and his mom is agitated. "He stuck me," she says, while pointing to a small red dot on her inner thigh. With Larry's Swiss Army knife magnifying lens, he can clearly see a pinprick on his mother.

So he calls for the doctor. The doctor can't explain it, but he suggests that it could be a bug bite before leaving to check on his next patient. In less than 24 hours, Helen Dean would become violently ill and die. Larry knew her death was due to some sort of malpractice, so he decided to do some investigating on his own.

When he talked to her oncologist, he confirmed that Helen wasn't scheduled for any injections. So why did that male nurse inject her with something the day before? Larry asked the other nurses and discovered his identity, Charles Cullen.

Once he had a name, he contacted the Warren County Prosecutor, informing them that his mother had been murdered by nurse Charles Cullen. Charles is eventually questioned by two lawyers from the Warren County Prosecutor's Office, a major crime investigation unit, his supervisors, and Helen Dean's doctor. They even gave him a polygraph, which he passed. Charles denied everything as they searched his locker and tested the injection site on Helen's leg for lethal chemicals.

However, they failed to check for digoxin, the very thing he injected her with. So her death is ruled as a natural cause. Charles decided to switch his lethal medicine from insulin. Maybe digoxin was harder to detect. But either way, the hospital still knew that Charles was somehow responsible. So instead of opening an investigation, which would look poorly on the hospital, they decided to just put Charles on an indefinite paid leave of absence and wash their hands of him for good.

But again, since Warren Hospital fired Charles without doing a proper investigation, these suspicious deaths weren't on his record. So he was able to quickly find another job at the Hunterdon Hospital's ICU. And by October of 1995, he began dating a nurse there named Kathy, who had three kids and was unhappily married. After about nine months of dating, she calls it off and goes back to her husband.

leaving Charles devastated and alone. It's also around this time when Charles decides to kill another patient, named Jesse Eachen. Like many others, Jesse was supposed to make a full recovery, but they suddenly died from an overdose of digoxin. Nurse Supervisor Marjorie Whalen suspects Charles

because he had been caught several times administering unprescribed drugs to patients before. And she warns him, if there's one more incident, he will be fired. In response, Charles resigns and he starts looking for work at another hospital. At this point, Charles has gotten away with it so many times

he's beginning to think he's invincible. Now, usually people in the healthcare industry don't switch hospitals every couple of years, and seeing this on his resume should have raised some red flags. But just three months later, he's hired by Morristown Memorial Hospital, and despite his past employment discrepancies, they hire him because the hospital is short-staffed and they desperately needed the help.

Now, Charles usually was respected by his coworkers, and before he would start killing his patients, many people thought he was a great and competent nurse, but things were different for Charles at this hospital. Sadly, Charles didn't take good care of his patients here. They were often found dirty, covered in blood, with trash strewn all over the sterile counters.

and he was constantly giving patients the wrong medication. In less than a year, he would be fired from the Morristown Memorial Hospital for poor performance. It was later revealed that he did indeed kill several patients here, but it's unclear whether or not the hospital knew of these murders. After being fired, Charles was in a bad place. This particular bout of unemployment lasted months, which put a huge financial strain on him.

He was now nearly $70,000 in debt and was behind on both his alimony and his child support payments. He needed to find a job and fast, but most of the hospitals in New Jersey were aware of his reputation by now. Luckily for Charles, the Pennsylvania border was close to where he lived, and Pennsylvania required a different nursing license, which meant he would have a clean start.

with the help of a staffing agency called Health Force. His application is sent to the Liberty Nursing and Rehabilitation Center of Allentown, Pennsylvania. No one from Health Force or Liberty ever questioned why someone with 10 years of experience

would drive farther away to take a $5 an hour pay cut. But at the end of the day, Charles needed a job and they were desperate for help. But they too, like every employer before, would go on to regret hiring Charles Cullen. Unfortunately for patients at the nursing home, Charles had just filed for bankruptcy. And of course, this stressful life event meant that more patients were going to die.

It was May 6th, 1998, and elderly resident Francis Henry lies in a nursing home bed with a broken vertebrae. His nurse, Charles Cullen, thinks he should be in a hospital for his injuries instead of a nursing home. Taking this into consideration, Cullen loads up a syringe with insulin and injects a huge dose into Henry's IV.

It wouldn't be long until it sends him into intense seizures and diabetic shock. And by nightfall, Mr. Henry was in a coma. The nursing center immediately knows that something isn't right.

So they initiate an internal investigation surrounding the death of Mr. Henry. They discover massive amounts of insulin in his blood, despite it not being on his chart or list of medications. While there is no record of a staff member administering the insulin, they knew it was highly unlikely that the elderly and immobilized patient could have done it himself. And the person they suspect

is none other than Charles Cullen. But instead of pointing the finger at Charles, Liberty Nursing just fires their senior nurse, Kimberly Pepe, and they decide not to launch a criminal investigation. Five months later, on October 1st, 1998, Charles was spotted entering the room of an elderly woman who wasn't his patient.

and he was carrying a handful of syringes. During his attempt to load her up with unprescribed drugs, the elderly woman fought Charles off, which left her with a broken wrist. Charles is fired for failing to follow drug protocol, but again, he doesn't remain unemployed for too long.

Two days later, a staffing agency finds him more nursing work a couple miles away at Easton Hospital. For the first few months here, Charles was on his best behavior. But after a while, the urge to kill became too strong to ignore, and his next victim was just around the corner. It was December 28, 1998, when Charles stepped inside of Audemars Schramm's hospital room to give him a syringe of fluid. He had been admitted for a stroke.

The patient's daughter, Christina Toth, recalls the male nurse giving her an uneasy feeling as he stood there vacantly staring at her father from the corner of the room. Charles then tells Christina that her father needs this medication in case his heart stops. Fairly certain her father didn't have anything wrong with his heart, she thought the statement was strange, but she trusted that the nurse knew best.

The following morning, however, when Christina saw her father, she noticed that his health had declined and that he had a waxy look to his skin. This was concerning because, according to the doctors, Audemars Schramm's rapid deterioration seemed to be unrelated to the stroke he was admitted for. Eventually, they were able to get him stabilized enough to the point he began showing improvement.

By the third day, Christina received a call from her father's trusted and lifelong general practitioner, Dr. Robert Silberman. He told her that someone at Easton ordered a number of unauthorized blood tests, and the results were alarming.

His blood contained four times the legal limit of digoxin, which was odd because he didn't need it and he never had a prescription for it. Dr. Silberman tells her that they were going to run another test and he would call her back with those results. But the next call she would receive would only leave her with more questions.

At 1.25 a.m., Christina got the call that her father had died. When the family gets to the hospital the next morning, a male nurse comes in and leads them down the hall to the room where Otto Schramm's body was being held. Charles leaves.

giving the family a few minutes alone with him, as Christina remembers something from last night. Before she hung up with Dr. Silberman, he strongly encouraged her to request an autopsy, but before she can even request one, Charles returns to the room and strongly discourages it.

"Why would you want an autopsy?" he asks her. Charles then, in a rude tone, claims that her father would have never wanted that. Allegedly, he was against the use of extreme life-saving measures like life support. And since an autopsy is even more intrusive, Charles said that she was violating her father's wishes.

Without answering, Christina snaps at Charles, telling him to leave the room. After two more nurses come in and ask if they intend to do an autopsy, Christina screams, "Yes, we want an autopsy. Of course we do. Someone here gave my father an overdose."

The county coroner who presided over Schramm's autopsy ruled it as an accidental death, but before they could start asking questions about what happened, Charles had already quit and was working full-time at the Lehigh Valley Hospital burn unit. In most burn wards, the majority of patients are younger people that have burned themselves in freak accidents.

For 22-year-old Matthew Maddern, over 70% of his body was charred after being trapped under a burning car, and things weren't looking so good. Many of the nurses caring for him felt horribly that someone so young could have something so tragic happen to him, but not Charles.

He saw this as an opportunity to kill. In his mind, the patient was basically already dead. And so that night, on October 31st, 1999, Charles sneaks into his room and injects a massive dose of digoxin into Matthew's IV before casually walking to the parking garage and driving home. Even though this murder doesn't raise any red flags, Charles knows his time at Lehigh Valley Hospital would eventually run its course. It was no secret that the burn unit staff were not fans of Charles Cullen.

And knowing this, Charles tried transferring to the cardiac unit, but they weren't interested. He continued working there for three more months, only finding relief in killing patients and calling out of work to look for employment at other hospitals.

After updating and sending out his resume to a list of potentials, he finally scores a new job at St. Luke's Hospital in Fountain Hill, Pennsylvania. On June 21, 2001, Kim Wolfe, a 31-year-old nurse at St. Luke's Hospital, steps into the medical storage room to draw some IVs. As always, she tosses the used needle into the sharps box.

But as she starts to walk away, she notices something. Usually, when she tosses a needle inside, it makes a clinking noise when it hits the bottom of the container. But this time, it didn't make that noise. So she decides to go inspect it. When Kim peers inside of the container, she can see that the trash is nearly full.

which was very unusual. She also sees a bunch of white cardboard boxes, but she can't physically open the box herself because only the environmental science workers have a key. Kem leaves the closet to find the veteran nurse, Gary Kimball, in Candy Walmart. Together, they call Hazmat and have the box unlocked.

Jerry overturns its contents into a large metal bedpan. Among the various vials of medication, they find 40 boxes of Pronstill, which was the very drug that had been going missing from their storage over the last few months. And while it's common to have addictive drugs go missing, drugs like Vicodin, Ketamine, Percocets,

it's extremely uncommon to have blood pressure or heart rhythm medication go missing. Moreover, not one of the patients on their floor had been prescribed that medication. So why were there so many boxes of it going missing? The nurses knew that something was very wrong, so they start taking shifts, making sure someone was monitoring the medical storage room at all times.

At 6:20 PM, Charles Cullen strolls into work. As always, he begins organizing and rearranging the nursing station to his liking before he stops at the medical storage room. Charles stays inside of the room for about five minutes before exiting. Kim Wolfe, who actually likes Charles, sees this and runs inside to check it out. To her surprise, inside of the sharps box, she finds several white cardboard boxes. She couldn't believe it.

Charlie was the medicine thief? Kim knows that she has to alert the ICU floor manager right away, and she tells her that they know who's been stealing the deadly vials. But unfortunately, they found out too late. They were already given to patient Edward O'Toole, who would die a few short hours later. You see, earlier that year, Charles' brother had died of brain cancer, so Charles decided to take his frustrations out on his patients like he always did.

But at this point, they were starting to catch on. St. Luke's risk manager Janice Rader started to require the charge nurse for every shift to regularly check the sharps box for stolen medication. Again, they see Charles dip into the room and again, they find a cache of drugs in the sharps box. Leaving Janice no choice, they contacted St. Luke's attorney, who questions Charles. He, like always, denies that he had been killing patients.

When they confront him about stealing the medicine, Charles says that he hasn't been sleeping much and it's possible that he took the medication because another nurse asked him to. Realizing they weren't going to get a confession, the hospital settles on giving Charles a neutral reference if he resigned. Like every hospital before, it was easier for them to just make him go away rather than get to the bottom of it, which is horrible because people were dying at the hands of Charles Cullen, something that nobody seemed to want to deal with.

Charles decided to take the deal and again he moved on to another hospital with a completely clean record.

So back at the beginning of COVID, I was trying to figure out ways that I could work out and stay healthy from home. And it was actually really, really hard. I couldn't find the right YouTube video, the right workout plans. Nothing was working. And I wish I would have found FitOn earlier back when I was searching. FitOn is the number one premium free fitness app, and it's redefining the workout experience. Just text AMERICA to 64-000-6404.

to join FitOn for free. Stop paying to work out. FitOn workouts are always free to use, and FitOn is flexible. You can choose from over 1,000 easy-to-follow workouts for all fitness levels or follow a customized workout plan based on your fitness goals. If you're a busy parent or have a chaotic work schedule, FitOn has workouts that are as short as five minutes, so you can always get in your workout. Now, what I love about FitOn is the fact that a lot of the workouts are short to the point, and you can squeeze them in at any time during the day.

When I'm editing videos or episodes of the podcast, I can stop for a couple minutes and use the FitOn app to find a five-minute arm workout or a back workout. And I can do it right here in my apartment. It's completely free. The app is super easy to use. And honestly, I know that I'm going to be using it for a long time, especially since I have a long way to go on my fitness journey. You don't need equipment or a gym membership to use FitOn. It's super easy.

Now, let's get back to today's story.

Just three days after his resignation, on June 8th, he starts working at Sacred Heart Hospital in Allentown, Pennsylvania. There, he meets a young single mother named Kathy Westerfer. Like Charles, she was a new hire that worked nights.

And in less than a week, they had begun dating. A few months pass before Charles gets fired from Sacred Heart Hospital for poor performance. And he's forced to move in with Kathy. But again, it wasn't hard for him to find another job. Since his last employer promised to give him a neutral reference, he was offered a full-time position at Somerset Medical Center's critical care unit.

his eighth and final hospital. Soon after, he meets a nurse named Amy Loren. While Cullen is attracted to her and in a relationship himself, he knows that Amy doesn't feel the same way, so they remain close friends.

Unfortunately, Amy would have an undiagnosed heart issue that forces her to take a leave of absence in time away from Charles, leaving him all alone during the night shift. Charles was never quite sure how many people he killed during his stay at Somerset.

But he does remember that the killings began after Amy got sick, and by then, he couldn't stop. The killings started in mid-January 2002 with a digoxin overdose that killed 60-year-old Eleanor Soker. Two weeks later, on Cullen's 43rd birthday, he decided to treat himself with another kill.

this time using the drug Pavolian to kill Giacomino Toto and Joyce Manghini. On March 11th, he murders John Shanager. On April 6th, Dorothea Hoagland, and on May 5th, Melvin Simcoe. Charles was out of control. His killings were becoming more frequent and more sloppy.

On May 15th, 2002, 21-year-old Seton Hall computer scientist student Michael Stranko, who had a complicated autoimmune disease, was executed by Charles with his favorite go-to drug, digoxin. After Michael is pronounced dead, Charles walks over to his parents and gives them a very technical and overly graphic description about what happened to their son's body. He then tells Mrs. Stranko, "Michael was sick, and sick people, like it or not, eventually die."

Grief-stricken and horrified by his lack of compassion, they demand Charles to leave. Unfortunately, about a month later, Charles would strike again, this time attempting to kill 40-year-old Mrs. Jin Han with some digoxin. Luckily, she was already given the drug, and when her physician notified that it was hurting instead of helping her, he discontinued its use and carefully monitored her heart for the rest of the evening.

but this wasn't good enough for charles to him she needed to die so that night he sneaks into jinhans room and injects her iv with eight times the normal amount of the discontinued heart medication her cardiologist is immediately notified of the changes and orders a rapid blood screening seeing the massive quantities of digoxin in her system the doctor

The doctor gives her an antidote, which ultimately saves her life. The day before, Reverend Florian Gall wasn't so lucky. He was taken to the hospital after contracting a serious bacterial infection thought to be pneumonia.

but he was expected to make a full recovery. Little did he know, Charles Cullen would make sure that never happened. Reverend Gall died at 10:10 a.m. on June 28th after going into cardiac arrest, and his blood work showed his digoxin levels were grossly elevated. Within the short time that Charles had worked there, he had murdered over eight patients. The Somerset Medical Center only caught on to four of those suspicious deaths.

But they were well aware that they had a serious problem. So on July 7, 2003, the Somerset Medical Center's pharmacist, Nancy Daugherty, called into the New Jersey Poison Control Center. She needed help determining the drug dosages that were given to several patients.

She tells the Poison Control Center about each separate instance and how all of the patients were given excessive amounts of the drug digoxin.

This phone call made everyone realize that someone was indeed killing patients at their facility, and it was time to get the police involved.

A troubled Doherty anxiously brainstorms how to break the news to her bosses. This won't look good for the hospital, which was consistently ranked as one of the top 100 hospitals in the U.S. News & World Report. Her boss, Vice President of Quality and Risk Services at Somerset Medical Center, Mary Lund, would be taking over from here. She reported the four known patient deaths to the Department of Health, and they explained that they had taken steps to find out what caused their deaths, but the most likely scenario was a human error.

On July 14th, 2003, the hospital's in-house nurse, Raymond J. Fleming, arrived at the Somerset Medical Center and was briefed by Mary Lund before meeting with Charles Cullen. Fleming already knew Charles had worked at and left many other hospitals in the past and that he had only been at Somerset for less than a year. He also knew that Charles wasn't Reverend Gall's nurse and on the night he died, Charles ordered a syringe of digoxin for the Reverend before quickly canceling it.

It wasn't looking good for Charles, but as Fleming questioned him, Charles couldn't help but think about the two patients he had just killed over the past few days. 83-year-old James Strickland and 70-year-old Krishnakant Apadhyay. They had no idea. By this point, the law was finally starting to catch up to Charles Cullen.

Detective Tim Braun and Danny Baldwin were the main investigators working the case, and what they discovered was beyond their comprehension. Not only were there several suspicious deaths at Somerset, but they had also been able to link Charles to multiple other deaths

at other hospitals in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. But they still didn't have definitive proof, just strong suspicion. So the detectives worked hard to make a timeline of his work history. And after pulling up some old write-ups from St. Barnabas Hospital back in 1993, they found a half a dozen incident reports for failing to properly sign out a drug.

withholding prescribed medication, writing orders on non-prescribed insulin and IVs, and shutting down critical patients' respiratory vents.

Using state records, they were able to track down every former employee of Charles Cohen, and they weren't surprised to find a long list of incident reports and firings for poor performance. The detectives knew they were onto something. While the investigation continued on Charles, he tried to lay low. He was well aware that the Reverend's murder threw up red flags, so he decided no more digoxin. He vowed to never order or use it at Somerset again, even if a patient needed it.

On October 21st, 2003, Charles only had two patients, one being 73-year-old Edward Zizek.

At 8:30 p.m., Charles gave Edward his 8 mg dose of Xanax, but despite Charles' promise to himself, Edward would die at 2:30 a.m. from a digoxin overdose. The puzzling thing here was digoxin wasn't on his chart nor did it appear to be taken from the supply room by anyone, not even Charles. There wasn't any digoxin taken according to his personal records, but the hospital administrators knew he was still behind the murder.

Once word got back to investigators that Charles had struck again, they knew they needed to intervene, so they came up with a plan. They knew they would never be able to get Charles to confess. He never had no matter how many people had accused him over the years. So they decided to try and get his good friend and coworker, Amy, to turn against him. They do so by pulling her into a room and sitting her down. At this point, Amy had no idea that her friend was suspected of murder.

and when investigators told her, she didn't even believe them. "There's no way Charlie could do that. He's a great nurse," she told them.

But as soon as investigators pulled out the dozens and dozens of pages of paperwork that proved otherwise, Amy couldn't believe what she was seeing. On the papers, they showed the pattern of how any time Charles took out a medicine, a patient of his would later die from an overdose of that very same medication. And all of a sudden, Amy starts to connect the dots. Now that she thought about it, Charles would always make a point to help the pharmacy's drug runner by taking and unloading the tote of drugs to the medical storage room.

which was most likely how he was able to steal drugs without anyone noticing.

Amy was shocked, and she told investigators she would do anything to help bring him to justice. So the investigators come up with a plan, and they convince Amy to wear a wire while she and Charles go out to dinner. They agree to meet at the Office Beer Bar and Grill in Bridgewater, New Jersey, on December 12, 2003. Once wired, Amy and Charles meet inside and order Coronas, and it doesn't take long until Amy gets him talking.

I had a problem when I first started out with, um, the first hospital I worked at was St. Barnabas and there was a patient there who crashed with low blood sugar and there was some question.

Charles takes a swig from his Corona and continues to explain how someone finally checked the IV bags after numerous patients began crashing and dying from low blood sugar. After taking a few seconds to process everything, Amy faintly tells him, "I'm here because I love you. I'm here because I know you killed those people."

Charles sags, slumps further down into his seat, and quietly stares down at the table. And after what seemed like a lifetime, he finally looks up, and there's a flip in his demeanor. He then tells Amy, - Let me go down fighting. - And to investigators, this was as good of a confession as they were going to get. After Charles leaves the restaurant, the officers surround him, placing him under arrest,

for the murder of Reverend Gall, the only murder that they had enough evidence to arrest him for as of now. Charles Cullen is taken to the prosecutor's office where he's taken upstairs into an interview room to wait for Detectives Braun and Baldwin. My name's Detective Sergeant Tim Braun. With me is Detective Bill Baldwin. We're both from East Houston County Major Crime Center. And we're here today for the purpose of obtaining a voluntary change statement from Mr. Cullen

pertaining to the death of Reverend Florian Gow. We are also here to speak to Mr. Cullen in reference to several other deaths that occurred at Somerset Medical Center and other medical and health care facilities. At first, Charles denied killing any patients at the hospitals where he worked. What does this mean? It's about this patient's name.

and the activity column was the constant remove does this that all help your recollection of this event once investigators showed charles that they had proof he was the one who took out the digoxin that killed reverend gall he knew he couldn't lie anymore and it was here when charles broke down and began his confession for the next few hours charles would take the detectives throughout his 16-year journey as a nurse and serial killer

It's okay to talk, but I'm feeling like I have to hold back. Mr. Cullen, had it been your intention to cause the death of the various patients? Yes, it was. How many patients have you held to their death? Possibly 30 to 40 patients. 30 to 40 deaths? I couldn't stop it.

The question that arises out of all of this, Charles, is the why. My intent was to decrease suffering. I saw sufferers, and I kept on coming back to that behavior. I thought I could change. I was capable of doing what I had seen to be a dirty, dark secret. I know I have caused suffering to the family members that's

And lived through it. Let's talk about the matter pertaining to Florian Gell. Are you responsible for his death? And why is that, Charlie? Because I injected a call to Jackson. Any time was Miss Dean your patient? No, she was in the room of my patient. Was it your intent when you injected her? Yes, it was.

Any particular reason why you picked that individual knowing that she was going away home? It was actually doing better? Well, if I remember her general status that she...

Although he admits to killing 30 to 40 people, investigators believe Charles' actual victim count is closer to the 400s. Now, Charles just told investigators that the reason he killed people was because he wanted to end the patient's suffering. These types of angel of deaths are called mercy killers.

And although it may sound better to say you killed people because you didn't want them to suffer, this didn't seem to be the case for Charles Cullen. If he really did want to end people's suffering, then why did he only kill people when he was going through stressful life events?

And why were a lot of his victims killed when they were expected to make a full recovery? Investigators weren't buying his excuses. He killed because he wanted to. Now, in exchange for this confession, the New Jersey prosecutors took the death penalty off the table, even though he's suspected of murdering up to 400 people. Since Charles pled guilty, he avoided a trial. But at his sentencing, the courtroom was filled with people who were affected by his actions,

over his 16 years as a nurse. Charles tried to avoid a sentencing trial, not wanting to face the victim's families, but the judge wanted to give them a chance to confront them. And the entire time they read their victim impact statements, Charles kept his head down, shying away.

At the end of the trial, Charles Cullen was sentenced to 18 life terms for the murder of 29 people and the attempted murder of three. This monster didn't even know us or our son, but he had the audacity to end his life. I'd like to tell you a little bit about my mother, that you murdered her. You don't even have the guts to look this way, do you? Charles, why don't you look up at us? I'd like to show you what you did to our children. This is their dad in his coffin. I'd be like that.

My heart, it aches for my son. It bleeds for my son. We vividly remember Charles Cullen walking into the waiting room. He looked at us right in the eye and stated how Michael was greatly ill and people don't make it. And my wife told Cullen, that's enough. You can leave now. We're haunted by the memory of Charles Cullen coming to the waiting room to get our reaction. Cullen, I ask you a question. Why is it that you have chosen not to address the court? Do you hear me, Mr. Cullen?

Now, although Charles kept quiet during his trial and subsequent sentencing, years later, in a 60 Minutes interview from behind bars, he spoke openly about his crimes. Is 40 an arbitrary number? 40 is an estimate. I gave you a number between 30 and 40. I think I have identified, you know, most of them. Look, you pled guilty to murder. You don't use that word. I think that I had a lot of trouble accepting that word for a long time.

I accept that that's what it is. Do you consider yourself a serial killer? I mean, I guess it depends upon a person's definition. If it's more than one and it's a pattern, I guess then, yes. I worked on the burn unit, so, I mean, there was a lot of pain, a lot of suffering.

I didn't cope with that as well as I thought I would. At St. Barnabas, they could have had my license investigated and probably revoked at that point in time. Should they have? Should they have? Yes. Why did you like Ditch? Ditch was a very powerful cardiac medication. What does it do to someone? In small amounts, it slows the heart rate down. In larger amounts, it can cause what's called complete heart block, and then the heart is very irregular.

and you know it can cause death, it does cause death in large amounts. I wouldn't go in for DIG, I would go under Tylenol or another medication that would be in the same drawer. So, you know, there was no record of me going in for DIG other than the fact that, you know, it was in the same drawer. How did you choose who you were going to give this medication to? It's difficult for me to go back in time and think about what

Things were running through my mind at the time. Was it personal? No, no. Did you get pleasure out of it? Satisfaction? No, I mean, I thought that people weren't suffering anymore, so in a sense, I thought I was helping. There were people that you caused to die who were not near death and not suffering that much. You know, again, you know, I mean, my goal here isn't to justify anything,

You know, what I did, there is no justification. I just think that the only thing I can say is that I felt overwhelmed at the time. Can you give the families anything, any explanation for how this happened and why this happened? Like I said, I can't. I just can say that it was more or less, you know, I felt like I needed to do something. And I did. And that's not an answer to anything. I tried.

to kill myself throughout my life because I never really liked me, who I was, because I didn't think I was worthy of anything. Do you think that they knew what you were doing at St. Luke's? I think that they had a strong suspicion. Did you expect to get caught? Well, I think you could say I was caught at St. Barnabas and I was caught at St. Luke's. There's no reason that I should have been a practicing nurse after that. They offered you some kind of a deal? They said if you resign, we'll give you neutral references.

And I decided to go with that. What is it about this system and about hospitals that no one went to the police, no one really wanted to find out what was going on? They gave you an opportunity to leave. I think because it's a matter of worrying about lawsuits. They pointed out that there was a problem. We're going to be found liable for millions of dollars. So the Incasity just saw it as a lot easier to not put themselves in a position of getting sued.

This case was eye-opening for America, and it exposed the flaws in the medical industry. Many Americans wanted to know how this man was able to get away with it for 16 years. Charles Cullen experienced a lot of loss throughout his life, and he decided to take back that power and control by preying on innocent and vulnerable people.

People who were sick, people that trusted that Charles would take care of their health. Like one of the victim's family members stated, "Charles stained the medical profession with his sick and twisted desires, causing people all over America to question their own healthcare workers."

Eight different hospitals failed to notice or take proper action against their own employee, who was murdering their own patients. And 16 years and 400+ murder victims later, he was finally caught. Charles Cullen now sits in a New Jersey state prison, paying for what he did. This story is hard to hear because of the amount of betrayal and loss Charles Cullen caused.

But there was one good thing that came out of it. In 2005, the Healthcare Professional Responsibility and Reporting Act of New Jersey, aka the Nurse Cullen Act, was passed. And it requires all healthcare professionals to report healthcare workers who show signs of incompetency, impairment, or neglect. It also requires background checks on healthcare workers who want to have a license in New Jersey.

And just like all of our other stories that we tell on this show, this time, you can't trust your nurses, your healthcare professionals. There's evil everywhere. In the past, we've talked about killer relatives, killer parents, killer neighbors. But this is the first time we've talked about a killer nurse. Are you really the safest in the hospital? It's a place where you're meant to get better. But unfortunately, for the victims of Charles Cullen, the hospital was the place where they went to die.

Shifting my wardrobe from summer to fall is always a challenge, but luckily, Quince offers timeless and high quality items that I absolutely adore. Online shopping can be a little bit difficult, but Quince makes it so easy. When I was going through and adding items to my cart, there were so many options that I had to choose from and...

I was so obsessed with all of them. Every piece of clothing is so high quality. It will last you forever and everything is so cute.

quince offers so many high quality products for all different types of people like cashmere sweaters from fifty dollars pants for every occasion washable silk tops and so much more the best part all quince items are priced 50 to 80 percent less than similar brands so after ordering from quince i received the 100 european linen blazer the flow knit breeze performance tee and the flow knit breeze performance polo and

I was absolutely stunned by the quality of the clothing and the European linen blazer is perfect. I mean, it fits me so unbelievably well. It's slimming and I can't tell you enough. It's just ridiculously high quality. So if you're having a hard time switching your wardrobe from summer to fall, I highly, highly recommend you shop at Quinn.

It makes switching seasons a breeze with Quince's high-quality closet essentials. Go to quince.com slash america for free shipping on your orders and 365-day returns. That's quince, q-u-i-n-c-e dot com slash america to get free shipping and 365-day returns. quince.com slash america

Hey everybody, as always, it's Colin here again. Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of Murder in America. We have some truly shocking cases coming up in the near future. We've been working really, really hard to get ahead of schedule to post these episodes on time. Thank you all for bearing with us as we figured this whole crazy thing out. I want to give a shout out to our new patrons this week, Gianna Bringsinger and Norval

Wow.

Every week I'm shocked to see how many new names are on that list. But if you want to become a patron, just head to our Patreon, Murder in America. We post ad-free episodes of every or ad-free versions of every episode on the Patreon right when they're posted on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. So if you don't like those ads, go sign up on Patreon. We also got some bonus episodes and content on there.

Anyways, if you don't follow us on Instagram already, please follow Murder in America on Instagram. Same on Twitter. We're trying to boost all of our social numbers up. We got a TikTok too if you want to look us up, but...

Above all, please, guys, go on to our Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you review our review. I can't even talk tonight. Review our podcast and leave us a five-star review. It helps us so much. And, yeah, we have so much going on in our lives, but Murder in America is so exciting, and we are so, so proud and so happy to have so many of you listening. But you've got to ask yourself, keep on asking the same old question. The dead don't talk, or do they?

We'll see you next week, everybody. Be prepared for what's coming.