Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “Killer Caregiver” - Beverley Allitt

Episode Date: November 5, 2018

A sweet and loving pediatric nurse was secretly torturing and murdering children at a England hospital in in the early 1990s. We’ll explore Beverley Allitt’s turbulent childhood, mental illness and what caused her turn into such a violent monster.  Sponsors! Caffé Monster - Available in Mocha, Vanilla, and Salted Caramel. Chill it down, Shake it up, Enjoy! Upstart - Hurry to Upstart.com/SERIALKILLERS to find out how low your Upstart rate is! Checking your rate only takes 2 minutes—and won’t affect your credit! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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And now you can try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash killers. That's ziprecruiter.com slash killers. Meet your match on ZipRecruiter. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book-to-screen favorites you've already read twice. Off-campus, L. Every year after, The Love Hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more.

Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of murder and assault that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. When a child is hospitalized, her parents should be worried about getting her better, not whether she's safe when left alone with her nurse.

But at Grantham and Castiffin Hospital, nurse Beverly Allitt prayed mercilessly on the patients admitted to the hospital's pediatric unit, Ward 4. Beverly's first victim was only seven weeks old. His death left a dark cloud over the hospital. Doctors couldn't understand how a baby boy recovering from bronchitis suffered a heart attack and died shortly after being left under the care of Nurse Allett. It would be months before authorities learned the gruesome truth that the newly hired nurse, who begged for a job in the pediatric ward,

treated the hospital as her private hunting ground. I'm Greg Poulson, and this is serial killers. Today we're going to take a deep dive into the life of Nurse Beverly Allott, a serial killer so shameless that she killed vulnerable children, then sought sympathy for herself from their bereaved parents. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. Many of you have been asking us how you can support serial killers. If you enjoy the show, one of the best ways to help us is to leave a five-star review

wherever you listen to podcasts. While you're there, you can listen to previous episodes of serial killers as well as Parcast's other podcasts. A new episode comes out every Monday. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram at Parcast and on Twitter at Parcast Network or in our website, parkast.com. Beverly Allett is known as Britain's most prolific hospital killer, accused of attacking as many as 19 children. She was later convicted of four murders. Not only is Allott Britain's most prolific hospital killer, she also holds a second record. In 1993, she received what was then the longest prison sentence ever given to a British woman, 13 life sentences.

The tender age of the victims and Beverly Allot's astoundingly callous behavior captivated Great Britain and the world. Allot began killing patients just weeks after she was hired as a staff nurse on Ward 4, injecting her young victims with insulin or potassium to stop their hearts. She would then sound the alarm, bringing doctors and nurses running to resuscitate the victim. But even if the child received successful CPR, their troubles weren't over. Some of Beverly Allot's victims were revived, only to be left alone again with the sweet young nurse who seemed so concerned about their well-being. She even went out of her way to befriend their parents.

Allot was remarkably manipulative and would often comfort the bereaved parents of her child victims. These schemes were so successful that some victims' family members continued to defend Allett, even during her murder trial. Allot was even named godmother to the surviving member of a pair of twin girls whom Allot had tried to kill. In this episode, we'll take you through Beverly Allot's early life and the emergence of her manipulative and violent behavior, which she later took to its extreme in her 1991 killing spree. We'll also talk about how she exploited, abused, lied to, and manipulated those around her, all in service of her ultimate goal,

a job in pediatric nursing. Next week, we'll talk about what Beverly did with that dream job when she got it. In the two months she worked in Ward 4, Beverly Allen attacked at least 13 children and infants. Born on October 4, 1968, in Corby Glen, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom, Beverly Allett had an unremarkable early childhood. According to UK newspaper The Independent, Beverly's father, Richard, worked at a liquor store, and her mother, Lillian, cleaned schools for a living.

Unlike many serial killers, Beverly is believed to have had a positive relationship with her family, including two younger siblings, Darren and Allison. The latter even shared a bedroom with Beverly. Neighbors remember Beverly as an eager babysitter who hugged and kissed children and babies at every opportunity. According to interviews by Cal McChrystal in The Independent, Beverly spoke with enthusiasm about her plans for a career in pediatric nursing. Years later, her babysitting employers would be mystified

as to how this seemingly kind girl could have become a killer only a few years after she was hugging and playing with their children. In retrospect, the young Beverly Allot was, in fact, already showing symptoms of a serious mental health condition. Peers remember that throughout her childhood, Beverly was always injured, wearing bandages, slings, or casts. Some childhood pals became suspicious when Beverly refused to show them her injuries. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here. A reminder, she's not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but she has done a lot of research for the show. Thanks, Greg.

Hindsight now tells us that Beverly was showing signs of Munchausen syndrome, a condition first described in 1951, just 17 years before Beverly was born. This illness, according to the Cleveland Clinic, is now known as factitious disorder, and is characterized by sick role behavior in which a person invents or inflicts illnesses and injuries to obtain attention from others. According to a biography written by Nick Davies, Beverly Allitt's behavior got pretty serious. She even convinced a surgeon to remove her healthy appendix, then prevented her surgical incision from healing by meddling with the wound.

She also sought hospital care for headaches, gallbladder trouble, back problems, and a variety of other ailments. Several doctors eventually caught wind of her shenanigans, knowing the majority of her injuries were either self-inflicted or completely made up. She found herself unwelcome in offices where she was a free, frequent flyer. Although Munchausen syndrome is not currently recognized as separate from factitious disorder in the DSM, it has been described by physicians Mark D. Feldman and Stuart J. Eisenrath as a much more serious form of factitious disorder. According to their book, the spectrum of factitious disorders, only about 10% of people with factitious disorder suffer

from the more severe Munchausen syndrome. From the onset, Beverly's case was extremely dream. If people with this disorder are seeking attention, it worked out well for Beverly. Her childhood friends remember admiring her fortitude in the face of what seemed like an incredible string of bad luck, from falls off her bicycle to burns and gashes. Even school teachers doted on the frequently injured Beverly. Some reports from childhood friends suggest that Beverly's personality changed for the worse around age 13, as reported in the book, a plague of murder, but there's been no explanation offered for why that might have happened. Other childhood friends remember Beverly as consistently pleasant throughout her teens,

with no abrupt change in demeanor. Her frequent illnesses and injuries were her only unusual trait. In spite of her best efforts, there was one form of attention Beverly couldn't seem to attract with her injuries alone. By 1984, when 16-year-old Beverly decided to leave school, she'd never had a boyfriend. After passing enough standardized tests to qualify as a trainee nurse, Beverly moved on from secondary school without ever experiencing schoolyard romance. Sweet 16 and never been kissed, so to speak.

It must have been difficult for Beverly to watch your peers start dating and pair off for dances while she was left on the sidelines. According to medical news today, at the root of Munchausen syndrome is a want to feel seen. If boys were taking notice of everyone but Beverly, she could have felt singled out and not in a good way. It was the first time her injuries had failed to bring her the type of attention she wanted. She saw the way boys doted on her friends and craved that attention.

Yet Beverly did little to attract romantic interest. Classmates remember her as unstylish and even physically intimidating. She seemed more comfortable beating boys at sports than talking with them after school. Boys refused her attention while simultaneously stealing away the attention of her friends. This could have contributed to Beverly's burgeoning Munchausen syndrome. The disorder was originally named after an 18th century baron, Karl Friedrich Hieronymus Friher von or Baron of, Munchausen, who was notorious for relating fictitious tales of his own valor and resultant injuries.

Like the Baron, Beverly was always ready with an intriguing story to explain, in her latest bandage. But as her friends became preoccupied with boys, she might have felt the need to seek attention more frequently. All of this could have exacerbated her desire to play what psychologists call the sick role. Yet young Beverly Allent was hardly moping around waiting for a date. She was vocal about her future ambitions,

specifically a career in nursing. In standardized exams taken by all British secondary students, Beverly obtained O-levels or ordinary achievement levels in food and nutrition. Beverly also received certificates of competency, or CSEs, in English, French, biology, and arithmetic. Beverly's parents supported her choice to leave secondary school after the tests and pursue her dream of becoming a qualified pediatric nurse. Beverly Allet soon entered a two-year pre-nursing study program at Grantham College, a school close to Grantham and Kesteven Hospital, where she would eventually become a killer.

For our listeners in the United States, England permits 16-year-old students to leave high school permanently on the last Friday in June. These school leavers must either remain in a full-time educational program, start a professional traineeship, or work part-time and study part-time. It's also helpful to know that in Beverly's native England, college is generally a term for a school-focused more. on vocational training, while only a university may grant degrees. Teens who leave school at 16 often attend a college to obtain a vocational certificate in a trade they intend to pursue. Teens who intend to apply to universities mostly remain in school and will take A-level or advanced-level tests at age 18.

During the period of her pre-nursing studies, Beverly was regularly seen at the Fighting Cox, a local pub. It was there in 1987 that the then-18-year-old Beverly finally met a boyfriend, Stephen Biggs, a 17-year-old six-foot-tall road construction worker who was new in town. The young man was besotted, even though Beverly still made no particular effort with her appearance. Beverly was by now a graduate of her pre-nursing program, collecting state benefits while she waited for an interview at the local hospital. Under the English vocational training system, Beverly needed a training program.

Beverly needed a trainee nursing position in order to proceed with her studies and qualify to work as a full-fledged nurse. She was sure a job would come along, and in the meantime spent her evenings drinking beer with her girlfriends and beating boys at pool. True to form, when Stephen Biggs first challenged Beverly to a game, she triumphed. She also won Stevens' full attention. They soon began meeting regularly at the pub, and not long after that became boyfriend and girlfriend. The first romantic relationship should have been a happy time for Beverly, and perhaps had she been mentally well, it would have been. Sadly, the relationship quickly turned emotionally, physically, and sexually abusive. What started out as young love would soon turn into a gross struggle for power.

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Now let's get back to the story. In 1987, when Beverly Allet was 18, the socially awkward girl, already showing signs of severe Munchausen syndrome, had just met her first and only serious boyfriend, Stephen Biggs. In the 2014 book, Angel of Death, Stephen remembered his relationship with Beverly as confusing and frustrating from the start, despite the positive qualities that first attracted him to her. Stephen recalled that teenage Beverly, quote, hated not having much money, but for all that, she seemed happy, and she used to laugh a lot.

I thought she was a nice girl, very friendly and chirpy. She was good company, end quote. However, from the start, Beverly seemed reluctant to move the relationship forward. She wouldn't allow Stephen to walk her to her front door and made him wait a full three months before he met her parents, even though Beverly was still living at home. Wanting to take a relationship slowly is one thing, but Beverly's new habit of compulsive lying damaged the relationship early on.

While walking home from the Fighting Cox Pub one night, Beverly recounted a story about one of Stephen's former classmates, Kevin Fowler. According to Beverly, after a night out in a group of friends that included Fowler, he followed Beverly home. She claimed Kevin slipped behind a tree, pulled out a knife, and attempted to rape Beverly, forcing her to physically fight him off. Kevin's recollection of that evening is very different. He remembers that he and Beverly were set up by friends, but didn't hit it off. never kissing or even embracing. Kevin says he never walked home with Beverly, preferring to leave the pub earlier than Beverly and her female friend. It's important to note that false rape accusations are exceedingly rare.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, only about 2% of rape claims are found to be false, about the same as other reported felonies. Up to 4 in 10 rapes are never reported at all, making unreported rape about 20 times more common than falsely reported rape. Of course, it's clear that Beverly Allitt was far from psychologically typical. Her lie about Kevin was one of what would become a pattern of lies designed to assert power over her younger boyfriend.

She was conditioning, Stephen, so he'd later tolerate her abuse and humiliation of him. One of the biggest mysteries about Beverly Allott's case, even today, is the apparent lack of any traumatic event or, abuse that could help explain her behavior. As our listeners know, many serial killers were grievously abused in childhood, or even in young adulthood. But Beverly seems to have been a perpetrator rather than a victim. Even following her trial and conviction, childhood neighbors expressed their befuddlement as to how a girl with such an unremarkable childhood could have become a brutal child killer. Although it is common for serial killers to have suffered abuse and trauma in childhood,

even in their early romantic relationships, some, like Beverly, have no apparent triggering event. Just as there are far more abuse survivors who go on to treat others kindly than those who become violent, there are certain serial killers who never experienced abuse. Beverly consistently behaved as an abuser and manipulator, not a victim. Her treatment of her first romantic partner exemplified her tendency to use others for her own gain. During one of their walks together, Ali-a-ad proposed to Stephen abruptly after only four months of dating. He was pleased and surprised by the suggestion of marriage, especially given that she had seemed ambivalent about their physical relationship. They only had sex occasionally, averaging once a month. Stephen remembers

Beverly showing no enthusiasm for the act of love, even at the beginning of their relationship. So Stephen said yes. Despite their romantic difficulties, Stephen and Beverly moved forward with planning a wedding. They bought household items for their future life together, but all the while, Beverly's behavior towards Stephen began to exhibit many of the key signs of domestic violence, according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline. Beverly made all the decisions in the relationship. She humiliated Stephen by harshly criticizing him in front of others and refusing to hold his hand in public. She ignored his efforts at pleasing her. Once, when Stephen proudly presented Beverly with a birthday gift, she turned away without a word.

The couple quarreled often, and it sometimes became physical. Stephen recalls Beverly beating him with her fists and kneeing him in the groin, leaving him crumpled on the floor. She even exerted control over her partner's appearance, insisting that Stephen grow a mustache and telling him he looked gormless, a British term for stupid, without one. But Stephen couldn't stand the facial hair. When he shaved the hated mustache after several months,

Beverly was furious. Beverly's lying got worse over the course of their relationship. When she crashed her boyfriend's car after driving it without a license, Beverly forced Stephen to take the blame and confess his supposed mistake to her father.

Stephen recalls this incident as one of the first times he realized his relationship was out of control. He couldn't understand why Beverly wanted him to lie to her parents, even though Stephen forgave Beverly instantly for totaling the car. Abusive relationship

are, sadly, very common for both women and men. According to the National Coalition against Domestic Violence, one in three women and one in four men have experienced domestic abuse, while one in four women and one in seven men have experienced severe violence from a partner. Men abused by women often experience mockery and derision from their peers. Stephen told the authors of Angel of Death that he once complained about a black eye inflicted by Beverly and was laughed at by his male friends. They couldn't believe the tall and physically fit Stephen had been beaten by a woman. There's relatively little research on women who abuse their

male partners, but a study conducted by Northwestern University's Dr. Robert Hanlon suggests that killers who murder people they know tend to have a history of violence towards those close to them. According to Dr. Hanlon, someone likely to kill their partner would be violent and might suffer from severe mental illness, cognitive impairment, a low IQ score, emotional instability, or poor impulse control. That said, most people living with mental illness are more likely to experience a violent crime than to commit one. But when an untreated severe mental illness is combined with a tendency towards violence, Dr. Hanlon's research indicates that murder can be the result. Perhaps fortunately for Stephen in 1988, 19-year-old Beverly,

finally obtained the trainee nursing job she'd waited so long for. She announced to a broken-hearted Stephen that she would move to Grantham and live in a nurse's residence, rather than making the 16-mile commute from Corby Glenn every day. Despite Stephen's best efforts to keep the relationship lively, Beverly's move seemed to coincide with a loss of interest in Stephen. They spent weekends together, but often quarreled the whole time. When Stephen gave Beverly money to phone him during the week, she failed to call. She escalated her criticism of Stephen's appearance, sometimes ordering him to do 100 sit-ups when she thought he was gaining weight. In keeping with her pattern of disregard for and humiliation of her partner,

Beverly wouldn't even give Stephen her phone number at the hospital, forcing him to wait by the phone in Corby Glenn for calls that often didn't come. It may seem shocking that Stephen tolerated this unrewarding relationship for so long. But like many survivors of domestic violence, his self-confidence had been affected by the abuse he experienced. Many victims of domestic violence cite embarrassment as a reason for remaining in an abusive relationship. Beverly was definitely adept at embarrassing Stephen. During her nursing training, she went on vacation with a girlfriend, leaving Stephen at home. She also left her car behind. Stephen recalls that she ordered him not to drive it.

leaving chalk marks on the tires to ensure he didn't move it. In what seems like a deliberate provocation, Stephen drove the car a few miles and carefully reparked it with the chalk marks in precisely the same place. Victims of domestic violence do sometimes provoke their abusers. The theory of the cycle of violence holds that, following a violent incident, abusers usually enter a honeymoon period

in which they treat their partners well. As the honeymoon period ends, the victim finds herself or himself walking on eggshells as the abuser becomes more and more tense. Ultimately, the victim may choose to prod their abuser into an attack, simply to start the cycle over with the honeymoon period. That does fit with Stephen's memories, which include plenty of good times with Beverly, especially early on in the relationship. Even knowing about her later crimes, he expressed an angel of death, that he remembers her fondly, in some respects. Even on vacations where Beverly made a point of embarrassing Stephen in front of her friends, he remembers seemingly normal activities, like tossing his fiancé in the pool. But romantic vacations together were prime opportunities for Beverly to remind Stephen of his

lowly place in her life. In 1988, Stephen took Beverly and her nursing school chum on vacation to a seaside chalet near Great Yarmouth. Beverly insisted on sharing her bed with the other woman, leaving Stephen to sleep alone. During the same getaway, Beverly injured her thumb, forcing Stephen to rush her to the hospital. She claimed she caught her thumb on the tap while washing up. The excuse was so flimsy that even the smitten Stephen suspected Beverly of injuring herself on purpose in order to get attention. Also in 1988, while Beverly was training at the hospital's geriatric ward,

she complained to Stephen about old men sexually harassing their nurses. Over the course of the conversation, she let it slip to Stephen that some of the nurses use drugs to help along the aging patients on their way to the hereafter. Stephen expressed his displeasure to Beverly, but it wasn't clear to him whether or not Beverly was implying that she had personally helped the patients die. He chose not to report what Beverly had told him to the authorities. This wasn't a good year for Stephen. Beverly also had begun telling friends in her trainee nursing program that Stephen had AIDS, which was untrue. This helped her explain to her peers why she had such a distaste for the company of her own fiancé, preferring to spend time with the other student nurses. Attacking a partner's public reputation is another characteristic of emotional abuse.

In 1988, with AIDS panic spreading around the globe, a rumor like the one Beverly started would both justify her disgust with Steve. and ensure other women would be unlikely to show him romantic attention. And yet, not only did Stephen remain engaged to Beverly, he was excited when in October of 1989 they planned another trip. This time, they'd spend two weeks together in the Canary Islands with another couple from the hospital. But once again, Stephen's dreams of a romantic holiday were dashed. After the foursome arrived at their shared apartment,

Beverly declared she would sleep with the other woman to keep her company. leaving both boyfriends alone in their beds. Later media coverage around the time of Beverly Allett's trial speculated heavily as to her sexual orientation, with the independent newspaper even going so far as to label Beverly's former friend and housemate, Tracy Jobsen, her lesbian lover. Beverly has not described herself as lesbian or bisexual. In fact, at one point during her incarceration,

she was reportedly engaged to a male inmate. Although we can't be sure of Beverly's sexual-orientation, we do know that there's no reason to believe her sexuality contributed causally to her crimes. Gay and lesbian advocacy organization Glad writes, quote, it is a false cause fallacy to imply, suggest, or allow others to suggest a causal relationship between sexual orientation or gender identity and criminal activity, end quote.

At the time, any speculation about Beverly's sexuality was probably used to undercut the idea that a so-called normal woman could murder children in cold blood. The gay and lesbian community became a scapegoat. The American Academy of Pediatrics has affirmed for nearly two decades that children raised by same-sex parents function just as well in every aspect of their lives as do children raised by opposite sex parents. Yet there's still a pervasive stereotype

that gay or lesbian people are less trustworthy with children than their straight counterparts. Regardless of this sexuality, female serial killers tend to attack children and oftentimes kill or harm their own children. When considering Beverly's behavior, the biggest red flag had nothing to do with her sexual identity. Domestic violence, as we discussed earlier, can often precede murder. And by late 1989, Beverly was not only violent, but rapidly escalating her behavior. During their Canary Islands getaway in October of 1989, Beverly attacked Stephen with her long.

nails, badly scratching his face. After the altercation, Stephen recalled in the book, Angel of Death, that he wept by the pool, overcome with emotion over the awful argument. He worried that he had hurt Beverly by putting his leg out to push her away as she scratched his face. Later, Beverly seemed surprised after learning that Stephen had told the other nurse he was crying because he loved Beverly. She burst into tears and asked, why didn't you tell me you loved me? This was the only time during the unhappy engagement when Beverly appeared moved by Stephen's feelings for her. Stephen remembers being befuddled by her reaction because he often told Beverly he loved her and had done so throughout the relationship. It's hard to say why Beverly would react as if shocked by Stephen's love for her, but one possibility is gaslighting,

a behavior common in abusive relationships. According to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, gaslighting is behavior by an abuser that causes the victim to question their own sanity. One form of gaslighting is forgetting or denying events that the abuser should remember, causing the victim to doubt their own recollection of the past. For once, Beverly's emotional abuse backfired, as Stephen asked her to leave him alone to collect his thoughts, rather than rewarding Beverly with further declarations of love. Back home, after the unromantic getaway,

Beverly went back to her old tricks. She acted like Stephen didn't exist when they went out together to a disco near the hospital where she worked. She danced with her friends instead of paying attention to her fiancé. Beverly had finally pushed her long-suffering victim too far. During a night in together at Beverly's parents' home, Stephen told Beverly he wanted to break off the relationship. She immediately attacked him physically, pulling his hair and pushing him, until Beverly's younger sister Allison, who was living at home, broke up the altercation. She asked Beverly to leave Stephen alone.

One reason a victim may stay in a violent relationship for longer than expected is fear of violence upon leaving. According to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, the most dangerous time in an abusive relationship is when the victim has finally taken steps to leave. Threats of separation or actual separation can trigger an abuser to resort to murder. Fortunately for Stephen Biggs, Beverly didn't go to such extremes. Instead, she talked him out of the breakup, only to break up with him by phone shortly thereafter in the spring of 1990. Beverly had made all the decisions about the progress of her relationship with Stephen from the very beginning, and their breakup was no different. As for Stephen Biggs, he moved on with his life after Beverly broke off their engagement.

The next time he would hear about Beverly would be from police detectives investigating, investigating society. suspicious deaths at Grantham and Casteven Hospital. But there were plenty of other missed red flags between the breakup and Beverly's final arrest. As Beverly began her nursing career, her compulsive lies got more frequent and more bizarre. She began to make up stories about a poltergeist harassing her landlady. Beverly's strange behavior, including placing human feces in a refrigerator used for nurse's lunches, disgusted and frightened her colleagues. Meanwhile, Beverly's fabrication of illnesses and injuries returned with a vengeance.

For the first time, people around Beverly began to suspect that she wasn't fit for a caregiving job and that she might even be dangerous. They had no idea how bad things would get for the helpless children left in her care. Let's take a moment to share something we love at Parkast. Now back to the story. In the spring of 1990, 21-year-old Beverly Allett had just broken things off with her fiancé, Stephen. She seemed completely absorbed in her nursing training, rarely calling Stephen in the months before their breakup.

Even on days off, she preferred dancing with nurses over dates with her fiancé. But all was not well at Grantham Hospital. Beverly's behavior escalated as she grew closer to meeting her goal of qualifying as a nurse. Primary school peers and classmates could be forgiven for not noticing anything amiss about, an injury-prone and sickly girl who made up stories. At Grantham Hospital, however, Beverly's lying led to more serious consequences. One such incident, of course, was her lie to another nurse about Stephen, claiming he had AIDS.

This is the first time that we know of Beverly projecting her factitious disorder, or a Munchausen syndrome, onto a proxy. Previously, Beverly had only invented or inflicted her own injuries or illnesses, but her false claim about Stephen was the first. time she won attention and sympathy by pretending someone else was ill. But it certainly wouldn't be the last time. Steven's escape from Beverly is all the more chilling when we later realize that her motivation for murder was present even in their relationship.

Factitious disorder by proxy often occurs in people who, like Beverly, also suffer from the more common factitious disorder. The proxy form is most frequently associated with mothers who abuse their own children. In fact, in the book, the spectrum of factitious disorders, factitious disorder by proxy is described almost exclusively as a pathology involving the abuse of children by their mother. Beverly never had children of her own, but this does cast an ominous light on reports of her early love for babysitting. Many people with factitious disorder by proxy are unusually knowledgeable about medical

terminology and may even work in a medical field, as Beverly did. simply crave the attention and sympathy shown to parents of a chronically ill child. Here's Associated Press reporter Denise Collette, describing the suffering of a child whose mother not only subjected her to unnecessary surgery, but used her to obtain media attention by advocating for national health care reform in the United States, going so far as to visit the White House and testify before Congress. Prosecutors say the mother caused the daughter to be hospitalized more than 200 times in subjected to many unnecessary surgeries. She had her gallbladder removed, her appendix removed,

and part of her intestines removed. Unnecessary appendix removal. Sound familiar? 21-year-old Beverly also continued to make herself sick, even as she showed the earliest signs of transferring the same behavior onto others. In two years of nursing training, Beverly Alec took an astonishing 136 days, claiming ailments ranging from pregnancy to a brain tumor, none of which she had. It's unclear how many of these sick days resulted from imaginary illnesses or injuries, and how often Alid was actually injuring herself or abusing her access to medical equipment to make herself sick. According to the spectrum of factitious disorders, some people with Munchausen syndrome are able to admit their disease when it poses a risk

to their lives or careers. In a case study included in the book, a nurse with this condition anonymously called researchers studying Munchausen syndrome and asked for their help. Her disordered behaviors had been noticed at work, and her career was in jeopardy. She was ready to give up the attention she was getting from being sick in order to keep her nursing career and herself alive. If Beverly was aware that her behavior might stem at least in part from a potentially lethal mental illness, she showed no sign of that awareness, according to friends and colleagues from her trainee nursing days. In fact, her compulsive lying got even worse and even stranger.

At one point, she branched into supernatural territory that invented a poltergeist to blame for some of her misbehavior. According to other nurses who trained with Beverly, she claimed the poltergeist had stuck a carving knife into a pillow, set the curtains on fire, and even fed pills to her landlady's dog. That seemed like the kind of a lie a toddler would tell. Oddly, that's not unusual for people with Beverly's psychopathic. Dr. Richard Asher, who first described Munchausen syndrome, noted in the Lancet that,

quote, many of their falsehoods seem to have little point. They lie for the sake of lying, end quote. Notice that last lie about feeding pills to a dog. If Beverly, rather than a ghost, perpetrated this offense against her landlady, this might be the first trial run of what would later be her method of murder, providing unnecessary medication to a victim. Equally disturbing, while working at the geriatric ward and training as a nurse, Beverly was suspected of smearing human feces on the walls. On a separate occasion, police officers responding to a report of fire at the nursing home found human excrement in the staff refrigerator.

For the first time in Beverly's life, she was drawing suspicion rather than just sympathy. Casualty nurses working with Allett during her training at Grantham and Casteven Hospital from 1989 to 1990, believed Beverly was mentally ill, but they didn't report their suspicions to supervisors. Of course, Beverly still retained the good qualities people remembered about her from childhood, even as her lies got bigger. She's remembered as having a bright smile and a cheerful disposition, as well as an eagerness to help. That wasn't enough to get Beverly a job in nursing after her 1990 graduation. She was the only nurse in her graduating class not to immediately obtain employment.

Allot failed a job interview at Boston Hospital in Lincolnshire on the grounds of insufficient experience. The humiliating failure left Beverly unemployed again, while the classmates who had become friends scattered and started their first nursing jobs. As 1990 drew to a close, the then-22-year-old Beverly Allet encountered a real opportunity. Grantham and Custeven Hospital's Ward 4, where Beverly had trained as a nurse, was sorely short of nurses qualified. to work with children. At the time Beverly began work, in February of 1991, Ward 4 had only two day-shift nurses and one nurse to work nights. The small rural hospital was desperate for staff members. Despite Beverly lacking some of the necessary training to become a fully qualified children's nurse, Grantham and Casteven Hospital hired Beverly on a six-month contract.

According to other nurses, Beverly was keen to make herself indispensable. And her willingness to help others with their duties seemed like a boon to the understaffed ward. Beverly was hired on a temporary contract, but she didn't even need the full six months to murder four patients and attack at least 11 others. In fact, suspicious events started within weeks of Beverly moving into Ward 4. She was assigned to Liam Taylor, a seven-week-old infant recovering from bronchitis. Beverly Allad had been assigned to sit with baby Liam while his worried parents, went home to rest and change their clothes.

He was doing so well under treatment that doctors advised the baby's mother and father not to worry. Not long after being left alone with the hospital's newest nurse, Liam suffered an unexplained heart attack. Beverly was the one to sound the alarm. Liam was resuscitated after his heart attack, although he could expect to live with permanent brain damage due to oxygen deprivation.

But Liam had a second heart attack on February 22nd, 1991, and died in his mother's heart attack. arms. There was no logical, medical reason why this should happen to a recovering bronchitis patient. A fellow nurse, Mary Reatt, remembers a terrible sadness in the small rural hospital after Liam died. Doctors could not figure out why a baby with bronchitis, who had been improving with oxygen therapy, would have suddenly suffered fatal cardiac arrest. Although the newly hired Nurse Allot had been alone with Liam just before a shocking heart attack, nobody suspected foul play. The child's autopsy report cited his heart attack as natural causes. Beverly

enjoyed free reign, an award full of potential victims. Next week we'll return with the final chapter on Beverly Allett, the killer nurse who was so beloved that even the bereaved parents of her victims defended her through her murder trial. In just 58 days at Grantham and Kasteven Hospital, Allot attacked at least 13 patients. And when doctors managed to resuscitate her victims, Beverly needed only to wait until their backs returned to inject the children and stop their hearts again. Thanks again for tuning into serial killers.

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Serial Killers was created by Max Cutler, is a production of Cutler Media and is part of the Parcast Network. It is produced by Max and Ron Cutler, sound design by Russell Nash, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro and Paul Mahler. Additional production assistance by Carly Madden and Maggie Admeyer. Serial Killers is written by Yelina War. and stars Greg Poulson and Vanessa Richardson. Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving,

the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence. I've seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bag, and there was a full of blood. Somebody somewhere knows something. I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 is out now with new episodes every Thursday.

Listen on the iHart Radio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you want to hear something spooky? Some Monster, it reminded me of Bigfoot. Monsters Among Us is a weekly podcast featuring true stories of the paranormal. One of the boys started to exhibit demonic possession. Stories straight from the witnesses' mouths themselves. Something very snake-like lifted its head out of the water.

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