Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “Killer Caregiver” Pt. 2 - Beverley Allitt

Episode Date: November 12, 2018

Can detective Stuart Clifton find enough evidence to lock up the serial killer known as the, “Angel of Death” away for life? Or will Beverley Allitt’s mental illness affect the verdict in the UK?  Sponsors! Calming Comfort - Go to CalmingComfortBlanket.com and use Promo Code “KILLERS” at checkout to receive 15% off the displayed price. Ring - Save up to $150 off a Ring of Security Kit when you go to Ring.com/SERIALKILLERS. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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This episode includes discussions of murder and assault that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. Detective Superintendent Stuart Clifton's blood ran cold when he realized he would have to let a child killer go free. The unflappable Yorkshire-born detective thought surely this 22-year-old nurse would crumble under police interrogation. But Beverly Allett seemed almost bored by police efforts. to force a confession. She asserted her innocence so fervently that one investigator had to leave the room to clear his head. Allot was present for every suspicious death at the hospital. She had access to insulin, which Clifton suspected was the murder weapon. The deaths on Ward

IV started when Allot began work, but Detective Clifton had no hard evidence. And so, the police released Beverly Allot on bail. As Beverly walked back into a world full of potential victims, Clifton's hopes now rested on a single vial of blood. Could it give him the proof he needed to put Beverly away before she killed another child? Hi, I'm Greg Poulson, and this is serial killers. Today we finish our deep dive into the life of Nurse Beverly Allott, who murdered at least four children and attacked at least nine others during a 59-day killing spree. The callousness of her crimes horrified the world and led to what was then the harshest prison sentence ever given to a woman in the United Kingdom.

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 podcasts, other podcasts. A new episode comes out every month. Day. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram at Parcast, and on Twitter at Parcast Network, or in our website, parcast.com. On October 4th, 1990, Beverly Allett turned 22. On December 30th of the same year, Liam Taylor was born to proud parents Chris and Joanne Taylor. Liam entered the world

at Grantham and Kesteven Hospital, after a short and uncomplicated labor. Chris and Joanne felt they were in good hands at the small rural hospital, where two of Liam's grandparents had worked. But in fact, Grantham and Castiffan Hospital was already well on its way to infamy by the time Liam Taylor went home on New Year's Eve, 1990. The hospital's pediatric ward, Ward 4, was badly understaffed. Often there was only one children's nurse on duty for an entire night. On February 21st, 1991, Liam returned to the hospital with a bad guy. cold. This time there was a new nurse on Ward 4, Beverly Allot. Desperate for help, Ward 4 overlooked Beverly's lack of a key qualification for the job, as well as their own staff's concerns about

her suitability for nursing. As a nursing student, Allot faked illnesses, ranging from pregnancy to brain tumors, blamed a poltergeist for setting fires in her apartment, and was suspected of storing human feces in a nursing home refrigerator. Her lying and malingering were a subject of gossip. Some co-workers believed she needed psychological help, but sadly, no one took action to prevent Allot from becoming a certified nurse. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. Please note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but she has done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg. In retrospect, it's clear that Beverly exhibited signs of a severe fictitious disorder. Sometimes it's called Munchausen syndrome.

This rare and controversial disorder is said to stem from a desire to gain attention by playing a sick role. Patients with Munchausen syndrome, either fake illness or cause their own illnesses and injuries. We discussed this disorder in greater depth in part one of our deep dive on Beverly Alley, but it's important to recall that most people with fictitious disorders only hurt themselves. The rarer proxy form, which involves harming another person, is most often found in mothers who make their own children ill. Beverly Allott was a rare case indeed. In December of 1990, Beverly was the only student nurse in her class not to be offered a job. State-enrolled nurses were in high demand due to a severe nursing shortage across the United Kingdom. Yet nobody

wanted Beverly. In fact, Beverly barely graduated at all. after spending 126 days of her two-year training period out sick with faked illnesses. Ultimately, Beverly did graduate with her state-enrolled nurse qualification. But after graduating, Beverly was forced to make up some of the time she missed by spending 10 extra weeks as a trainee at Grantham and Kasteven Hospital, where she also did much of her previous on-the-job training. As a state-enrolled nurse, Beverly could only do work similar to that done by certified nursing assistants,

in the United States. To call herself a fully qualified, registered sick children's nurse, Beverly needed on-the-job training. To get on-the-job training, she needed a job. Like all student nurses trained at Grantham and Casteven Hospital, Allet received a permanent interview at the end of her formal schooling. Beverly was one of the worst candidates her interviewers had ever seen. She appeared confused and vacant, showing up in an unkempt uniform with holes in her tights. Beverly was rejected even for fill-in duties. Spurned and unemployed, Beverly applied to a new three-year training program for children's nurses at Pilgrim Hospital in Boston. Pilgrim Hospital quickly declined her application. Beverly had been talking passionately about a career in children's nursing since her early teens when she was known by neighbors as a devoted and kind babysitter.

Now her career goals seem to be slipping out of reach. On Valentine's Day of 1991, Allett loudly announced her displeasure to her co-workers on Ward 4, the pediatric ward where she was about to complete her extra 10 weeks of training. Despite her failed interview during her extended training, Allad endeared herself to the Ward 4 sisters, senior nurses who helped to manage the hospital. But when a permanent job came open, they had no interest in offering it to Beverly. The position was intended for a fully qualified, RSCN. However, when no RSCNs applied, Ward 4 supervisor Moira Unions reluctantly agreed to hire

Beverly on a six-month contract as a holdover until a fully qualified nurse could be hired. That week on Valentine's Day of 1991, the key to a locked refrigerator containing insulin went missing, but nobody on the ward thought much of it. The very next day, Beverly began her contract as a temporary nurse on Ward 4. Meanwhile, across town, Chris and Joanne Taylor were comforting a sick baby boy. When Liam came down with a bad cold at seven weeks old, the family doctor advised hospitalization. The Taylor's brought their son to the hospital where he was born. When Liam was admitted on Thursday, February 21st, he immediately began getting stronger.

Treatment with oxygen in an incubator was just the ticket for Liam's phleg-filled lungs. In fact, he was doing so well. that nurses sent the tired parents home to rest. Senior nurses introduced Chris and Joanne to young Beverly Allot, promising that she would watch over Liam and give him a feeding by tube while Chris and Joanne were out. The tailors learned that Beverly had only qualified as an S-E-N the week before, but something about her demeanor made them comfortable.

Chris and Joanne were gone just long enough for a meal, a change of clothes, and to pick up Jamie, their two-year-old from a babysitter. But when they returned to Ward 4, they discovered a horrific change in their baby boy's condition. Liam had stopped breathing for several minutes. The young nurse, Beverly, explained that the baby had choked on his own vomit. It was unclear how damaged Liam's brain was from the period without oxygen. Chris considered transferring Liam to the larger and more advanced Queen's Med Hospital in Nottingham. Beverly Allot explained to Chris and Joanne that Nottingham was too busy to have a nurse dedicated to Liam.

overnight. Bev offered to special the baby boy herself, meaning she would stay by his bedside. This drive to bond with the parents of her victims was one of the most disturbing features of Allot's killing spree. Beverly had plenty of practice as a liar, but this new behavior took her manipulations to a whole new level. As soon as Chris and Joanne left the hospital to get some sleep, again leaving their son alone with Beverly, Liam suffered a second cardiac arrest. By the time his parents returned, the baby boy's prognosis was dire. Heart attacks are exceedingly rare in newborns. Little Liam, diagnosed only with a bad cold and a touch of pneumonia, had two in two days.

According to Murder on Ward 4, a book by Nick Davies, doctors advised the tailors that Liam had suffered catastrophic brain damage because of oxygen deprivation. Chris and Joanne decided against further invasive. treatment, there was nothing to be done. Liam died in his mother's arms on February 22nd, 1991. His parents were grateful to the young nurse, Beverly Allott, who showed so much tenderness and concern toward Liam in the last days of his short life. Doctors, puzzled by Liam's mysterious death, performed an autopsy, which confirmed the baby

boy's heart muscle was entirely destroyed. Fellow nurse Mary Wreath, who was senior to Beverly Allot on Ward 4, recall sadness and confusion among hospital staff after Liam's death. Riet told the Birmingham male that at the time, she suspected the boy had an undetectable infection of some sort. Reit writes, There was no way it should have happened, and we're all at a loss to know why.

Nobody paused to wonder how it was that Liam had both his heart attacks while he was alone with the ward's newest nurse. Beverly, for her part, had a miraculous renaissance while working on Ward 4. Gone were her constant illnesses and injuries. Not only did she come to work regularly, she even picked up extra shifts. Looking back, it seems likely that Beverly's apparent recovery was actually a progression into factitious disorder by proxy, also known as Munchausen's syndrome by proxy. She no longer needed to make herself sick to get attention. By attacking a child, Beverly could make doctors leap into action within seconds.

While other nurses on Ward 4 grieved baby Liam, Beverly was enjoying this newfound power, and with it, the best health of her life. After a period of morning following Liam's death, things began returning to normal on Ward 4. Nurses and doctors tried their best to put Liam out of their minds. There were always new patients who needed them. Beverly needed the medical staff, too, in her own way.

According to a 2017 analysis by Saskia Ryan et al, published in the European Journal of Current Legal Issues, quote, recent developments in understanding of Munchausen syndrome by proxy highlight that it is the psychological reward for behavior as opposed to external personal gain that can be considered as the primary motivator, end quote. In other words, Beverly wasn't setting herself up to play the hero with an eye towards receiving a promotion or formal action. accolades, it was the experience itself she craved. 11-year-old Timothy Hardwick arrived at Ward 4 on March 5, 1991. Although older than most of Beverly's victims, Timothy was physically weakened by a cerebral palsy and was cognitively impaired. He came to Grantham in Casteven Hospital after suffering a string of seizures. Mary Reit instructed Beverly Allott to watch over Timothy Hardwick. She wrote,

quote, as there was no family member accompanying Tim, and he was in a ward with an IV on his own, he needed someone with him at all times, end quote. Just like Liam, Timothy was expected to make a full recovery. But again like Liam, shortly after Beverly was assigned to look after him, Timothy made an unexplained turn for the worse. Nurse Allett called Nurse Reed into Timothy's room toward the end of Reitz rounds for the day. Timothy was cold and barely breathing. The two nurses turned him onto his side, and his breathing improved.

45 minutes later, he wasn't breathing at all. Again, Beverly Allot raised the alarm. Beverly remained by her patient's side, and watched the crash team apply defibrillator paddles to Timothy's chest. Timothy Hardwick couldn't be revived. He died the same day he was admitted. Again, just like with Liam, a post-mortem stumped the examiner. According to Davies, the medical examiner eventually settled on epilepsy as the cause of death,

noting that Timothy had several seizures in his last days of life. However, Timothy was seizure-free for several hours before he died. A second unexplained pediatric death in such a short time sent a shockwave through Ward 4. Mary Reatt couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. She discussed her troubled conscience with her husband, Paul. The couple were deeply religious, and that night they both prayed for the truth to show itself. But there would still be months of terror and confusion to go before the truth about Beverly Allot was revealed. We'll continue the horrors Allot unleashed after a quick break.

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and at an incredible pace, she didn't kill children who were strong enough to fight back or might tell tales if they survived. Timothy, unable to speak and award of the state, was the perfect target. After Timothy Hardwick's death, Allett had two days off. On March 8th, when Beverly returned to work, she met a new patient, Kaylee Desmond. Fifteen-month-old Kaylee was chronically ill almost from birth. When she first met Beverly Allot, Kaylee had a chest infection and a rash. Unlike Liam and Timothy, Kaylee wasn't left alone in Beverly's care. Her mother, Maggie, slept by her side the entire time she was in the hospital. We may never

know exactly when or how Beverly crept into Kaylee's room, or what exactly she did to the baby girl under the nose of her sleeping mother. What we do know is that around one in the morning on Sunday, March 10, Bevalid called fellow S.E.N. Lynn Vowles into Kaylee's room with her. Beverly asked for Lynn's help changing a monitor on Kaylee's IV. As the two nurses worked, Beverly pointed out that Kaylee wasn't breathing. While Lynn started CPR, Beverly sounded the alarm and brought the crash team running. Kaylee was revived and moved to the treatment room for intensive care and observation. Two nurses received strict instructions to watch Kaylee's every breath.

One of them was Beverly Allot. SIDS, or a sudden infant death syndrome, is colloquially referred to as cot death in Britain. It seemed at the time that Beverly Allett interrupted a case of it. Doctors said Kaylee would have died had Beverly not been there. Unfortunately, those same doctors failed to notice evidence on Kaylee's x-ray that suggested Beverly actually tried to murder Kaylee. Maggie was grateful to know that Beverly, the hero nurse,

would watch over her sleeping daughter in the treatment room. Maggie was forced to remain outside. Kaylee quickly began to recover after being resuscitated. Yet exactly like baby Liam, just as she seemed to be coming around, she stopped breathing. At about four in the morning, the crash team was called again. After Kaylee was again revived, the doctor ordered her transferred to Queen's Medical Center in Nottingham. This was, of course, the same hospital Chris and Joanne considered, but decided against for Liam. Always eager to help, Beverly Allott volunteered to ride over with the doctors

to make sure Kaylee's transfer went well. By 6 a.m., Kaylee and Maggie were safely ensconced in the intensive care unit of Queen's Med. Doctors there couldn't find any cause for Kaylee's heart attacks. They, too, missed the clue buried in an x-ray taken after Kaylee's first resuscitation. Hidden away in an image of Kaylee's ribs was the tiny shadow of an almost microscopic air bubble. It was the first hard evidence of Beverly's crimes, but nobody saw it until far too late. Kaylee suffered brain damage as a result of oxygen deprivation during her respiratory arrests. Already living with an altered appearance, cognitive impairments, and physical weakness

due to a then-und diagnosed genetic disorder called Kabuki Syndrome, Kaylee would now have yet another lifelong disability. Queen's Med wasn't yet on the lookout for a serial killer, but at least one person became suspicious. Chris Taylor refused to accept that his son Liam had two spontaneous heart attacks and a matter of hours. He spoke to experts and even called a helpline he saw on a TV show, but nobody could explain why this happened to a son.

One doctor said simply, babies don't have heart attacks. By mid-March of 1991, rumors about Ward 4 were spreading in the small village of Grantham. experienced nurses were unsettled. Tensions between rival doctors escalated as the entire hospital coped with confusion. Mary Reet, who was on leave during Kaylee's stay and Ward 4, says,

When I walked back into the ward a week later, I felt a dark, heavy cloud looming, and I said a silent prayer for strength. If gossip around the village and on the ward bothered Beverly, she didn't let on, nor did she think to pause her attacks until the rumor mill settled down. On the 23rd of March,

almost exactly two weeks after Kaylee left Ward 4 for the relative safety of Nottingham, five-month-old Paul Crampton entered Beverly's orbit. Paul was recovering from bronchitis and scheduled to go home the next day. That is, until Beverly volunteered to give Paul a feeding. Why attack another child so soon when another suspicious death

would surely raise the alarm sky high? A manager at the facility where Beverly Allett was interviewed after her arrest, speculated that, quote, although Allot began offending simply to be noticed, the need for theatrics developed to such a point that killing became necessary so that she could ensure she had the attention she craved, end quote. Paul Crampton was slow to respond and didn't want to wake from his nap. Beverly Allett and a staff nurse named Kate Locke,

noticed that Paul looked grayish and felt clammy to the touch. Beverly Allott, a newly qualified S-E-N with only weeks of experience on the job, had a diagnosis ready. She told Nurse Locke that Paul must be having a hypoglycemic attack and insisted on testing his blood sugar. Indeed, Paul Crampton's blood sugar was low. This confirmation of Beverly's diagnosis shocked Nurse Locke. Paul was being fed regularly by nurses, so his blood sugar should be stable. There was no reason for him to have a potential. fatal hypoglycemic attack. But the evidence was right there on the test strip.

Doctors administered dextrose to raise Paul's blood sugar. The baby boy soon came around and began to behave like a normal infant again. Paul was out of the woods, and his father, David Crampton, couldn't have been more relieved. That is until Paul's second attack. On March 24th, Paul's blood sugar crashed again, this time while he was being held by his father, again to the treatment room. Again, the dextrose. And now, more questions. Davies writes that the suspicious Crampton's interrogated hospital staff, certain the medical team had made a mistake in Paul's care. However, even the Cramptons weren't mistrustful enough to suspect a murderer was on the loose in the hospital. It looked for a few hopeful days, as if Paul might finally be past the worst of his illness.

Because Paul was recovering well, David and Cath Crampton ignored the recommendation. of a ward four nurse that they move him to another hospital. The next day, March 28, 1991, Paul had another much worse attack. If it weren't for the IV of glucose already in his veins, Paul would have died. Another blood sample was taken. Doctors promised to test it right away. Meanwhile, Dr. Porter called up Queen's Med and arranged a transfer. Beverly Allitt rode to Nottingham in the ambulance with Paul and his mother, Cath. Back at Grantham Hospital, part-time nurse Wendy Sorrell quit.

The deaths and near-misses were just too much for her to bear. Also back at Grantham, Paul's blood sample missed the afternoon mail deadline. It remained in the pathology lab freezer, untested. It was the proverbial smoking gun. But for weeks it sat, literally on ice. The overworked staff at Grantham and Kasteven Hospital often gave in to bad habits, making errors in menial work like blood sample labeling and storage. Unable to do everything, staff did less than they could.

The very next day, on Good Friday, five-year-old Brad Gibson entered the hospital with pneumonia. For his family, this meant missing an Easter holiday trip. But of course, Brad's health was more important. He certainly seemed all right when Judith reluctantly left him for the night, but she and her husband, Steve, were called back to the hospital at three in the morning. Brad had an unexplained heart attack in the middle of the night. By now, even the doctors were deeply troubled by the rash of cardiac and respiratory arrests on Ward 4. Transferring critically ill patients to Nottingham had become not only a routine, but a sort of magic potion.

The children who lived long enough to be transferred all seemed to get better there. Why would Beverly accelerate her attacks just when those around her became suspicious enough to automatically transfer critically ill children out of Ward 4. Ryan theorizes that Beverly Allit was altering the presentation of her own psychological condition through operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is the theory, first described by B.F. Skinner, that the frequency of any behavior can be altered by either positive reinforcement or punishment. Whenever Beverly killed a child, she received positive reinforcement in the form of an enormous

influx of attention. Therefore, according to the theory of operant conditioning, she was conditioning herself to kill more and more frequently. After Brad's heart was shocked back to life, he was bundled into an ambulance to Queen's Med. Beverly All had offered to ride in the ambulance again, but she was told to stay with her patients. Patients, including two-year-old Henry Chon, who had accidentally fractured his skull leaping out of first floor window. Before doctors had finished resuscitating Brad, Beverly Allott complained to another nurse, Catherine Morris, that Henry Chon wouldn't stop crying. When Catherine and a second nurse Margaret Geeson next past Henry's bed, they saw he wasn't breathing. For the second time in less than 24 hours,

the crash team headed for Ward 4. After resuscitation, it was best that Henry Godinottingham too. This time, Beverly was allowed to ride in the ambulance. It was Saturday, March 3rd, 30th, 1991. The next day was Easter Sunday. By now, even the ward's two doctors, Dr. Porter and Dr. Nanyakara, were suspicious about the string of emergencies and the two unexplained deaths. Paul Crampton was still in the Nottingham Hospital. Brad's parents, the Gipsons, befriended the Cramptons. Together, they waited anxiously to see if Brad would wake from his coma. On Monday, April Fool's Day, he did. Brad's recovery became a local news highlight.

He died on Good Friday and woke three days later the day after Easter. He was Grantham's miracle boy. Brad might be awake and talking, but he was incontinent and had little feeling in his legs. He was tormented by nightmares, no longer sleeping through the night. But at least he was alive, and he slowly recovered his ability to walk. Nottingham's doctors couldn't quite believe that Brad's heart attack was caused by asthma. 33-year-old Dr. Terence Stevenson raised the theory that Brad had somehow been given the wrong drug. Stevenson's concerns were taken seriously enough that a senior consultant,

Derek Johnston, interviewed the Kramtons about Paul's case. But there wasn't enough evidence yet to warrant involving police. Beverly Allott, it would seem, was free to continue hurting the children of Ward 4. We'll hear how police were finally able to apprehend Beverly after this break. Now back to the story. Brad Gibson had miraculously recovered at Queens Med Hospital the day after Easter Sunday, 1991. But four days after Brad's recovery on April 5th, three-month-old premature twins, Katie and Becky Phillips, were discharged from the hospital after being cared for by Beverly Alley.

That night, Becky stopped breathing. Her parents rushed her back to Ward 4, but she couldn't be revived. Becky's death was attributed to sudden infant death syndrome, or caught death. The same label pinned on Kaylee's respiratory arrest. Mary Wreath recalls that doctors said it might have been an infection, and advised bringing Katie in too. The twins' mother, Sue, went home and returned with little Katie. Beverly Allard paid special attention to Sue and to the twins' father, Peter.

She reassured them that she would personally make sure Katie was all right. By this time, other nurses had begun to talk about Beverly's odd mannerisms. She cozied up to some parents of the babies who had died or nearly died, but wouldn't give other parents the time of day. Additionally, there were growing rumors that Beverly was moonlighting at a nursing home, working on her off days instead of resting. Administrator Moira Onions looked into it, concerned about fatigue, but couldn't find enough proof to confront Beverly.

Beverly's desire to be in a hospital environment all day, every day, almost sounds like an addiction. Again, according to BF Skinner, operant conditioning might have played a role. Variable reinforcement, or a large reward received only some of the time, is involved in many addictive behaviors, such as gambling. Beverly's hospital job functioned like her personal slot machine. She went to work every day, but only sometimes did she get rewarded with a big flurry of attention. Beverly lived with a fellow nurse, Tracy Johnson, in a semi-detached house on the eastern edge of Grantham. Tracy remembers Beverly is very happy during this time.

Beverly took a special pride in how many medical crises she coped with. Ryan theorizes that Beverly's behavior likely began with observing the attention medical staff members received when charges in their care were seriously ill or died. She then must have started to make her own patients ill in hopes of receiving the same reward. The variable nature of this reinforcement would have had the same effect on Beverly that an occasional win has on a gambler.

The very same night Becky died. Beverly raised the alarm for Becky's twin, Katie. She too had stopped breathing. Katie, unlike Becky, was resuscitated. Sister Jean Seville insisted on sitting with her all night, both on that Friday night and again on the next night, Saturday, March 6th. Katie was given an emergency baptism just in case. All day, Saturday, and most of Sunday, Katie seemed to be getting stronger.

Sunday afternoon, she was well enough that her parents left Katie alone with Nurse Beverly while they went for a meal. While alone with Beverly, Katie's heart stopped. She was again resuscitated, but this time she had suffered permanent damage to her. her brain and body. Katie would never be the same. But Sue and Peter were grateful just to have a surviving child. They were so grateful, in fact, that they made Beverly godmother to Katie. Beverly was invited for special family dinners at the Phillips family home. She even took Katie for outings together, just the two of them. This special relationship with a girl she tried to

kill is one of the most unusual features of Beverly Allett's case. Even in other cases of murderous nurses, sometimes called Angels of Death, we don't find the same drive to form relationships with the victims or their families. Here's Jean Hoff, the daughter of a murder victim, confronting another killer nurse, Charles Cullen. Confronting the killer. When I look at you, Mr. Cullen, I don't see somebody's son or somebody's father. I see evil and I see death. And I'm I'm so glad I got that opportunity to tell you this. Gene Haft, whose father was killed by Charles Cullen when Cullen was working as a nurse in New Jersey. He admitted to as many as 40 killings.

A judge sentenced him to 11 consecutive life terms in prison for 22 deaths. You shall remain imprisoned for the rest of your natural life. Cullen sat with his eyes closed as 60 relatives of his victims spoke in court. I'm Steve Knight. That's a far cry from the affectionate bond between Beverly and the parents of some of her young victim. More than a decade after Beverly's conviction in September of 2004, Professor Bod Peckett noted that Beverly's crimes couldn't adequately be described just by her need for attention. Narcissism and sadistic cruelty were inescapable features of her crimes.

According to Peckett, Beverly likely had Munchausen's syndrome by proxy and other abnormalities, possibly including narcissistic personality disorder or borderline personality disorder. The death of Becky Phillips and the near-death of Katie Phillips marked a turning point for the hospital. Sister Jean Seville wrote a sternly worded letter to Moira Anions, stressing the need for additional staff, security measures, and better equipment on Ward 4. The day after Katie's transfer on April 7, 1991, six-year-old Michael Davidson had a heart attack during a routine injection of antibiotics. Dr. Nanya Kara, who resuscitated Michael,

attributed his cardiac arrest to a terrible fear of needles. He was literally almost scared to death. Never mind that Michael had been injected five times in the last 48 hours without showing signs of such intense fear. Dr. Porter, who didn't much care for Dr. Nanyakara, saw things differently. In fact, Dr. Porter was becoming obsessed with a string of crises on Ward 4. Dr. Naniakara privately believed there was some sort of medical problem tearing through the ward, maybe an undetected virus.

Dr. Nanyacara asked Becky's parents to delay her funeral so he could perform a second post-mortem. It wasn't the second autopsy that held the answers. And on the afternoon of Friday, April 12th, it was Dr. Porter, not Dr. Naniakara, who received the phone call that would ultimately bring about the end of Beverly's killing spree. The call came from Robert Henley at the University of Wales in Cardiff.

Finally, Paul Crampton's blood had been tested, more than two weeks after it should have been. Robert Henley explained to Dr. Porter that the insulin level in Paul Crampton's blood was literally off the charts. There was no doubt someone had injected Paul with an enormous dose of insulin. Vincent Marks, who later consulted with police on the role of insulin in Beverly Allott's murders, writes regarding the tests on Paul Crampton's blood, quote, the results were so abnormal as to be outside anyone's experience in Grantham or in Nottingham. Such results are almost always caused by insulin taken with suicidal intent, end quote. But Dr. Porter didn't call the police when he got Paul's results.

Maybe a nurse innocently confused Paul for a diabetic patient. He wanted to be certain. The very next day on April 13th, Chris Peasgood, stopped breathing while his mother Cresswin was outside for a smoke break. another emergency baptism on Ward 4, and when Chris came around, another transfer to Queens Med. When Cresswin hesitated to authorize the transfer, nurse Claire Windsor insisted, saying, move him. If you don't, he'll be dead by morning. It was Tuesday, April 16th, when the next crash happened. This attack hit close to home for the hospital staff. Christopher King, only five weeks old, was the son of a casualty nurse on one of the

the adult wards at Grantham and Custeven Hospital. This Christopher, like Chris Peasgood before him, was resuscitated and transferred. He, too, recovered. Belinda King swore she would never take her son to her own hospital again. Meanwhile, in a stroke of good fate, Dr. Porter was attending a medical conference in town. As luck would have it, one of the presentations given at the conference was on the subject of pediatric respiratory arrests and Munchausen syndrome by proxy. Dr. Porter heard the presenter give evidence of parents suffocating their already hospitalized children.

He viewed the presenter's video containing surveillance footage of parents smothering children in their hospital beds. The hairs on the back of Porter's neck stood up. He wondered. After the presentation, Dr. Porter discussed his suspicions about a poisoner on Ward 4 with a well-respected colleague. But still, he didn't contact police. He needed proof, or at least, hospital support. Meanwhile, Sister Jean Seville grew more and more distressed. She wrote another letter, this one specifically addressing the presence of Beverly Allott during more than 20 respiratory or cardiac arrests in less than two months. On April 18, 1991, Beverly Allot told Mary Reatt, her fellow nurse, to come quickly to the bedside of seven-week-old Patrick Elstone, who had stopped breathing.

Mary Reed administered oxygen with Beverly's help. Wreet writes, quote, A few minutes after I left the room, Patrick stopped breathing again. Allot raised the alarm again in her own time, and the doctors took over. Patrick was whisked off to Queen's Medical Center in Nottingham and made a full recovery.

We realized then that someone was causing these incidents, end quote. On Friday, April 19th, Dr. Porter acted on his suspicions. He called Nottingham Hospital and warned them to test Patrick's blood for insulin. Then he called Moira Unions to tell her of his suspicions. Lastly, he called the hospital manager, Martin Gibson, to request that the hospital implement video surveillance. Despite growing fears of a poisoner, police still weren't called. Dr. Nanyakara remained convinced that a mysterious contagion, not a serial killer, was to blame. On April 22nd, 1991, 15-month-old Claire Peck was admitted for an asthma attack.

After being left alone with Beverly Allot, Claire stopped breathing. Claire was often in the hospital with complications of her asthma. Mary Reatt recalls, quote, I adored Claire. We all did. She was bubbly and beautiful, and I'd got to know her well during the times she'd been in for treatment, end quote. Dr. Porter worked feverishly to resuscitate the war. favorite. He kept fighting death for over 90 minutes. Even after Claire's parents, David and Sue, asked him to stop trying to force life back into their daughter. When Claire was finally declared dead, Dr. Porter not only sent blood and tissue samples for pathology, he tore down her

IV bags and confiscated them as possible evidence. That night, Alan Wills of the pathology lab contacted Dr. Porter, his voice shaking with disbelief. Claire has so much potassium in her blood that when the test came back, Will's believed his machine was broken. Only after testing on a second machine was the result confirmed. This could only mean one thing. Murder. Rite recalls that doctors soon began speaking openly about a poisoner in the hospital, but nurses still believed the killer was a parent or a stranger sneaking in. On Friday, April 26th, a mattress in Ward 4 burst into flames.

Nobody was harmed, but it seemed like an omen that things would only keep getting worse if the hospital didn't admit defeat and call in the police. On the following Tuesday, April 30th, hospital manager Martin Gibson did just that. Detective Superintendent Stuart Clifton was assigned to the case. After reviewing the hospital's records, he realized there were at least 14 possible victims and four deaths. It was the biggest case Clifton had ever worked on. Nurses from another ward were brought in and tasked with watching the ward for nurses.

No nurse was to be alone with a child. Detective Clifton was convinced Claire had been murdered, but he wanted to be absolutely certain the other cases couldn't be explained by accident or luck. The strongest evidence of a second murder attempt was Paul Crampton's blood. Detective Clifton drove to Nottingham to visit with Derek Johnston, the consulting physician, and Professor Hull, a renowned pediatric. By the time Clifton left Nottingham, he was certain a serial killer worked on Ward 4. A wall chart was assembled, listing all the personnel in contact with each child,

and Beverly's was the only name that appeared in all 14 cases. Detective Clifton felt this was enough to justify arresting and interrogating the young nurse. Not only that, the hospital's missing allocation book, a notebook showing which nurse was assigned to which patient on any given. given day, was found in Beverly's bedroom on May 21, 1991, when police first arrested her for the attempted murder of Paul Crampton. Beverly stole the book, seemingly in order to hide the evidence that she had been in charge of each of her victims when they died. She apparently didn't realize police might search her home. But Beverly didn't crack under police interrogation as Detective Clifton

had hoped. Clifton was forced to release her. He asked Martin Gibson to suspend Allett from duty while his team collected more evidence. While suspended, Beverly moved in with Eileen Jobson, the mother of her dear friend and rumored romantic partner, Tracy Jobson. As listeners will recall, Beverly lived with Tracy during her early days working at the hospital, a period which Tracy recalled as peaceful and cheery. Also living in Beverly's new home where Eileen's teenage son, and Eileen's elderly mother. Suspended from her nursing job and cut off from victims. Beverly's behavior grew enormously bizarre.

Beverly stole money, moved household items, and just as she had during her nursing training, blamed a poltergeist or a demon. There was a demon in the house, and its name was Beverly Alley. According to Davies, Beverly was suspected of poisoning 14-year-old Jonathan Jobson

with his grandmother's medication, causing him to faint from hypoglycemia. Beverly joked about how similar Jonathan's hypoglycemic attack was to Paul Crampton's. Sadly, while Beverly was busy terrorizing the Dobson household, Sister Gene Seville died by suicide. Sister Seville had done more than most on Ward 4 to stop Beverly, but she still felt she had failed her patience. Nurse Mary Reatt too struggled with feelings of guilt.

She writes, Never in a million years would we think that one of us could have done it. What did we miss? What didn't we know about? How could I have let those children die? Detective Clifton, after a prolonged evidence-gathering effort, procured 77 blood and tissue samples from the victims. Based on this evidence, a medical statistician calculated the risk of patients' respiratory or cardiac arrest,

depending on which staff members were at work. According to this analysis, during the two months in which Beverly Allot worked on Ward 4, the risk of respiratory or cardiac arrest when Beverly Allot was not in the hospital was effectively zero. But when Allot was present, the same risk was statistically infinite. Beverly was present for a total of 23 cardiac or respiratory arrests in just 59 days. Superintendent Clifton also found Kaylee Desmond's X-ray. filed away after her respiratory arrest. Finally, Clifton caught the tiny air bubble on Kaylee's x-ray.

It was evidence that Beverly might have injected the little girl with air to stop her breathing. The discovery added a third murder weapon to Beverly's arsenal, along with insulin and potassium. On September 3, 1991, Beverly was again arrested, but once again she was released for lack of evidence. families of some of the victims defended Beverly in the press, believing her to be an unlucky young nurse scapegoated by police. Two months later, on November 20th, Detective Clifton was able to arrest Beverly and filed 20 charges against her,

four counts of murder, eight counts of attempted murder, and eight counts of grievous bodily harm to the same eight children she was accused of attempting to murder. On February 15, 1993, The trial began. Beverly only attended 16 days of her own trial. When she did appear, she looked awful. Cut off from potential victims, Beverly returned to malingering. She developed anorexia and lost so much weight, she was almost unrecognizable. On May 23, 1993, almost two years to the date from her first arrest, Beverly was convicted of four murders, three attempted murders, and six counts of inflicting grievous,

bodily harm. Despite Beverly's drastic weight loss and history of severe self-injury, because Munchausen's syndrome by proxy was not listed in the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, Beverly's legal team couldn't use the diagnosis to argue for diminished criminal responsibility. Significant legal precedent indicated that an insanity defense based on a diagnosis not found in the DSM would be easily refuted by prosecutors. Beverly was sentenced to 13 concurrent terms of life imprisonment. At the time, the harshest sentence ever given to a British woman. Following the conviction and sentencing,

her defense team argued that she should be confined in a hospital rather than a prison. In post-trial hearings, Professor Roy Meadows, on behalf of Beverly's legal team, diagnosed Beverly Allott with Munchausen syndrome by proxy. To have Beverly punished by hospitalization instead of incarceration, Beverly's lawyers only needed to convince a judge of her illness, not a jury. This they were able to do even without the validation of a DSM entry. On June 5, 1993, the court ordered Beverly move to Rampton Secure Hospital. Chris Taylor, father of Liam Taylor, has claimed Rampton is more resort than correctional institution.

With a nearly four-to-one staff to inmate ratio and a $3,000 per week cost to taxpayers, Sick or not, Mr. Taylor believes Beverly belongs in prison. Following her conviction, Beverly eventually confessed to Superintendent Clifton and took responsibility for three murders and six assaults. The authorities have not revealed which crimes Beverly admitted to. Kaylee Desmond remains terrified that Allot will escape and attack her again. Age 28, the young woman can't sleep without checking under the bed for Allot. On July 20th of 2018, newspapers reported that Beverly Allett was critically ill with sepsis and fighting for her life.

Rampton Hospital declined to comment. It's impossible to know if Beverly is really critically ill, but if Beverly really is receiving around the clock intensive care, she's surely enjoying every minute of it. To be confined 24 hours a day, seven days a week in a hospital would be a nightmare for any rational person. But for Beverly Allett, living out the rest of her life in the hospital with a full staff of the best nurses and doctors at her beck and call must feel like the culmination of her life's work. Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers. You can find more episodes of serial killers as well as all the podcasts, other podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, CastBox, tune in or your favorite podcast directory. Several of you have asked how to help the show, and if you enjoy the show, the best way to help is to leave a five-star review.

We'll see you next time. Have a killer week. 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 Paulson and Vanessa Richardson. A beloved 75-year-old man washing up getting ready for bed is brutally beaten and killed. Despite an exhaustive investigation, the killer avoids arrest and then strikes again.

I'm Global News crime reporter Nancy Hicks. You might listen to a lot of true crime podcasts this year, but they're not crime beat. Search for and follow the award-winning podcast Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you find your favorite 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.

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