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

Episode Date: March 30, 2022

In today's brutal story, we take a look at the case of notorious serial killer nurse Charles Cullen, who quite possibly may have killed over 400 people during the years he spent working as a nurse. Many regarded Charles to be a good man... but they had no idea of the dark secret he was hiding. Buckle up, this is one wild ride, and you're listening to MURDER IN AMERICA! - Are you ready to upgrade YOUR grooming routine? Just head to https://manscaped.com and use our promo code "MIA" to get 20% off your order plus FREE SHIPPING! - Download "JUNE'S JOURNEY" today on the Apple App store and Google Play store! - Download the FitOn app today for FREE and begin your fitness journey! It's super easy to use, and like we said, completely free! Just text "AMERICA" to the number 64-000 to download the app and start working out for free today! - Additional audio editing performed by Joe Pietz, and research done by Ganae Vigil. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Life is a journey. I know this. I think we all know this. Some days feel good and other days feel absolutely overwhelming. Whatever's keeping you up at night, it's easy sometimes to feel like you have to figure it all out on your own. But the truth is, nobody has all the answers. And no journey should be taken alone.

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I've personally used BetterHelp in the past, and I think that if you're on the edge, if you're thinking maybe it's time to start therapy, I say just go ahead and do it. There's literally no downside because you don't have to be on this journey alone. Find support and have someone with you in therapy. Sign up and get 10% off at BetterHelp.com slash MIA. That's BetterHELP.com slash MIA. 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. 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 Yango wasn't caused by a mix-up and medication. In fact, it wasn't an accident at all. The nurse who had given him the IV was a man named Charles Cullen, and as he watched from down the hall, as his co-workers attended to the dying retired judge, he felt the 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 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 Browne. And you're listening to Murder in America. 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 decision. he would go on to make. Unlike with a lot of serial killers we've covered, Charles's childhood wasn't ridden with abuse and neglect. Instead, he faced a lot of loss as a child. He was born on February 22nd, 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 seamstreet

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's 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. 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 drink 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, and 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. Residents, 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. 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 health care 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 Adrian 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 moved pretty quickly. 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. routine, shaving has to be a part of it. And our friends at Manscape, the global leaders and below the waste hygiene are turning men's shower dreams into their favorite routine with the all-new

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code MIA at manscape.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, and before long, Charles started to pick up his drinking habits again. He drank to get drunk and he liked it all. Red wine, cocktails, even Listerine, if it came down to it, and he was really desperate. 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 enthusiastic 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 puppies seemingly disappeared. Charles told her that he assumed it ran away while he was out on a walk, while their baby was napping.

Confused, Adrian 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, and after every time she would voice her concerns, he would immediately shut it down. But something deep inside of Adrian 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've got to work on it.

Afterwards, Adrian decided that her loved ones were right. 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 Shauna. 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 Cullins 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 Cullen's home. Sobbing, the owner asks Adrian if she had any idea about what happened, but Adrian 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's 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 Yenai. Yengo. Charles's 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 surprised 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 Collin got a taste of murder, there would be no turning back. Another suspicious incident that

occurred at St. Barnabas was on February 11, 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 hoax 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 Belf, a patient-dial, the hall for buyers 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 nurse's 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 Cullen. 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 and the act. They even set up CCTV security cameras in the medical storage room. But Charles is smart, and he knows that they're onto 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, Adrian 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 coworkers and patients. This injection of positivity bled over into their relationship, temporarily 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 Adrian 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. 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. 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 quote. 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.

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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. One of the best things about June's Journey is that it's free to download. I literally cannot put it down. The game almost relaxes me in a weird way when I'm solving these mysteries. There's a detective in all of us. So today, find your inner detective and download June's Journey for free today on the Apple App Store or Google Play. That's June's Journey on the Apple App Store or Google Play. Trust us, y'all, you will love this game. 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, recall 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. 10 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 pen prick 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 a 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 washed 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 Hunterton 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 Echin. Like many others, Jesse was supposed to make a full recovery, but they suddenly died from an overdose of digoxin. Nurse supervisor Marjorie Wayland 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. In 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 6, 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, colon 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 mass. 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.

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 Otomar 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, Otomar Schram'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. Soberman 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. Quote, 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 a 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 Madden, 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 happened 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 31, 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 21st, 2001, Kim Wolf, 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. Kemp 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 files of medication, they find 40 boxes of pronstil, 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, oxycotton, and morphine, 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 p.m., 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 Wolf, 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's 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 Raider 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' colon, 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

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Like Charles, she was a new hire that worked nights, and in less than a week they had begun dating. A few months passed 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, 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 and 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 killing started in mid-January 2002 with a digoxin overdose that killed 60-year-old Eleanor Soaker. Two weeks later, on Cullen's 43rd birthday, he decided to treat himself with another kill, this time using the drug, Pavolian, to kill Gia Camino Toto and Joyce Mangini.

On March 11th, he murders John Shanager. On April 6th, Dorothea Hogelin, and on May 5th, Melvin Simcoe. Charles was out of control. His killings were becoming more frequent and more sloppy. On May 15, 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, Di Jocxon. 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 Jinhan's 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 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 conclusion. 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 Doddry, 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, Diioxin. Yeah, hi, I'm calling from Somerset Medical Center. We're trying to investigate a ditch toxicity that occurred in a patient, a critical care unit. This person went into dig toxicity and actually expired.

His ditch jumped from 1.33 to 9.61 in a day, which is kind of unusual. This is a police matter. You have reported to the police. This is a huge issue. 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 and 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 huge. On July 14, 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 Krishnikan Apatiyai. 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. 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 work 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 on to 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 milligram dose of Xanax. But despite Charles' promise to himself, Edward would die at 2.30 a.m. from a. from a.joxin 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 agreed 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 the first hospital I worked out 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 going to 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 two 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 as Detective Bill Baldwin. We're both with me, Seversely County Major Crime Gen. and we're here today for the purpose of obtaining a voluntary tape statement from Mr. Cullen pertaining to the death of Reverend Florian Gow.

We were 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 of the hospitals where he worked. Once investigators showed Charles that they had proof he was the Dijaxon 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.

Um, you do you cause the death various patients. How many patients helped in their death? Probably arrives at a wall in this, Charles. It's the line. I saw

you injected her to ask any particular reason why you If the individual knowing that she was going away home, it was actually doing better. Well, if I remember her general status that she wasn't doing well. 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 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 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 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 it had to get down to end his life. I'd like to tell you a little bit about my mother that you murdered.

You don't even have the guts to look this way to you. Charles, wanted you look up there. I'd like to show you what you did to our children. This is their dad in his coffin. Have you like that? My heart. It aids 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 Charlie

Charles called and coming to the waiting room. He got a reaction. Mr. Colin, I ask you a question. Why is it that you have chosen not to address the floor? Do you hear him, Mr. Cicloin? 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.

There's 40 an arbitrary number. 40 is an estimate. I gave a number between 30 and 40. I think I have identified, you know, most of them. Look, you pled guilty to murder. But 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, you know, it 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 under Dij. 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 Dij 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, you know, what I did if 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 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. Pornibus and I was caught at St. Luke's. There's no reason that I should have been a practice.

in that I should have been a practice of 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. If they pointed out that there was a problem, we're going to be found. found liable for millions of dollars so they in the city just so it is 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 praying on innocent and vulnerable people

People who were sick, people that trusted that Charles would take care of their health. Like one of the victims family members stated, Charles stained the medical profession with his sick and twisted desires, causing people all over America to question their own health care 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-plus murder victims later, he was finally caught. Charles Cullen Nell, 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. Good hair days do more than we give them credit for. When your hair feels healthy, you show up differently. You feel more confident, more relaxed, and you're not constantly checking the mirror. Nutraful supports hair health from within and delivers results over time.

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And something that I love is that you can actually preload the ORA frame with photos before it ships. And you can keep adding to it from anywhere at any time. Each ORAFram also comes packaged in a premium gift box with no price tag, so it's great if you're giving it as a gift. And actually, ORAFrames run off a top-rated app. In fact, the app reached number one on the App Store on Christmas Day, 2025. So make Mother's Day special with ORAFrames, named number one by wirecutter, you can save on the gifts mom's love by visiting

AuraFrames.com. For a limited time, listeners can get $25 off their best-selling Carver Matt Frame with code MIA. That's A-U-R-Aframes.com promo code MIA. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout, terms, and conditions apply. 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 Norvel, Anna Montez, Natasha Watkins,

Crystal McBride, Kat Janisko, Magalie Sid, Sheila, Mom 605, Oksana Gunkul, Patrick Chandler, Michael Benton Jr., Laurie Hedgewood, Bo Alexander, Callie Greenland, Liz Lavalee, Susan Hall, Kat, Kirsten, Caldwell, Alexis, LCD, Ashley, Craig Lister, Dave Headloff, and Lynn Davis. 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 every 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 got to ask yourself, keep on asking.

same old question. The dead don't talk. Or do they? We'll see you next week, everybody. Be prepared for what's coming.