Charles Cullen: the "Angel of Death"
From 1987 until 2003, nurse Charles Cullen reigned terror at the hospitals he worked at throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Admitting to have killed around 40 patients, 29 have been confirmed. Who exactly is Charles Cullen, and what led him to kill so many of his patients?
Born in West Orange, New Jersey in February 1960, Cullen was the eldest of eight children. Both of his parents died before dropping out of high school. He considered his life to be “miserable” and claims he was constantly bullied by his sister’s boyfriends, schoolmates, and attempted to end his own life multiple times.
After dropping out of high school, he joined the U.S. Navy and was stationed on the USS Woodrow Wilson, a submarine. He eventually rose to the rank of petty officer second class. The Navy made the decision to station him to a less stressful position aboard the USS Canopus. After this transfer he would attempt to take his own life multiple times, being committed to the Navy psychiatric ward on numerous occasions. After these events, Cullen would be given a medical discharge in 1984.
Shortly after his discharge from the Navy, Cullen began attending nursing classes at Mountainside Hospital school of nursing in Montclair, New Jersey. His first position after graduation was at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, New Jersey, in 1987. This is when he would begin deliberately killing the patients he was supposed to be caring for.
As a critical care nurse, Cullen held positions at multiple hospitals. From the time period of 1987 until 2003, he floated from hospital to hospital, quietly killing patients. Cullen had been fired from five nursing jobs, and resigned from two others, but was always able to find work. He was described by coworkers as “gentle, and always willing to come in extra shifts” according to the Stamford Advocate. At the final hospital he worked at, the Somerset Medical Center, his face was even used for promotional materials.
Cullen became well known for using digoxin, a powerful medication meant to treat heart conditions, to kill patients under his care. Other times, he would overdose his victims with insulin from an IV bag, which in turn would starve a patient’s brain and blood from oxygen. During his night shifts, he would deliberately research the charts of the admitted patients, looking for his next victim-a move which would later lead to his arrest.
With the help of a coworker, detectives arrested Cullen on December 12, 2003 on charges of murder, for the killing of Reverend Florian Gall, and the attempted murder of Jin Kyung Han. When with police, he admitted to killing 40 patients. Some investigators believe he may have killed up to 400 patients. His motives for the murders remain murky. He stated that he didn’t want his patients to suffer anymore, but the authorities believe he did it for his own personal thrill.
Cullen agreed to plead guilty to the murders if the possibility for the death penalty were taken off the table. In November 2004, he pleaded guilty to six murders, and three attempted murders in an Allentown, Pennsylvania court. On March 2, 2006, Cullen was sentenced to eleven more consecutive life sentences in New Jersey.
During both sentencing hearings, he made so many outbursts court officials restrained and gagged him. Family members of his victims called him names such as “vermin, garbage, and a monster.” One even called him “Satan’s son” and told him to burn in hell. As part of his plea agreement, Cullen would have to help officials identify potential victims. Cullen currently resides in the New Jersey State Prison, and is not eligible for parole until 2403.
