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Kristen Gilbert

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Kristen Gilbert
File:Kristen Gilbert.jpg
Born (1967-11-13) November 13, 1967 (age 56)
Fall River, Massachusetts, USA
Other names"The Angel of Death"
OccupationFormer nurse
Criminal statusImprisoned
Children2
Conviction(s)
Criminal chargeFirst-degree murder
PenaltyLife in prison without parole
Details
Victims
  • Stanley Jagodowski (age 65)
  • Henry Hudon (age 35)
  • Kenneth Cutting (age 41)
  • Edward Skwira (age 69)
CountryUnited States
State(s)Massachusetts
Date apprehended
1996

Kristen Heather Gilbert (born Kristen Heather Strickland, November 13, 1967[1] is an American serial killer who was convicted for three first-degree murders, one second-degree murder and two attempted murders of patients admitted for care at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in Northampton, Massachusetts.[2] She induced cardiac arrest in patients by injecting their intravenous therapy bags with massive doses of epinephrine, an untraceable heart stimulant. She would then respond to the coded emergency, often resuscitating the patients herself.

Gilbert's known victims are Stanley Jagodowski, age 65,[3] Henry Hudon, 35, Kenneth Cutting, 41, and Edward Skwira, 69.[4][5][6][7]

Early life and education

Gilbert was born on November 13, 1967, in Fall River, Massachusetts. She was the elder of Richard and Claudia Strickland's two daughters. Richard Strickland was an electronics executive; Claudia was a homemaker and part-time teacher.[1][8]

As Gilbert entered her teenage years, friends and family noticed that she was a habitual liar. She had a history of faking suicide attempts to manipulate people.[1][9] Gilbert has made violent threats against others since she was a teenager, according to court records.[10][11]

She graduated from Groton-Dunstable Regional High School in Groton, Massachusetts.[1] In 1986, she enrolled at Bridgewater State College in Bridgewater, Massachusetts.[12] Bridgewater State College officials ordered Gilbert to receive psychiatric treatment after she made a fake suicide attempt.[10] Because of this, in 1987, she transferred to Mount Wachusett Community College in Gardner, Massachusetts and then to Greenfield Community College in Greenfield, Massachusetts.[1][12] She graduated from Greenfield Community College with a nursing diploma and became a registered nurse in 1988. Later that year, she married Glenn Gilbert.

Career and murders

In 1989, she joined the staff of the VAMC in Northampton. She was featured in the magazine VA Practitioner in April 1990. Although other nurses noticed a high number of deaths on Gilbert's watch, they passed it off and jokingly called her the "Angel of Death". In 1996, three nurses reported their concern about an increase in cardiac arrest deaths[13] and a decrease in the supply of epinephrine; an investigation ensued. Gilbert telephoned in a bomb threat to attempt to derail the investigation.[14]

Gilbert left the hospital in 1996 amid a hospital investigation into many suspicious patient deaths that occurred during her shifts. That fall, Gilbert checked herself into psychiatric hospitals seven times, staying between one and 10 days each time.[10] In January 1998, Gilbert stood trial for calling in a bomb threat to the Northampton VAMC to retaliate against co-workers and former boyfriend James Perrault who worked at the hospital for their participation in the investigation. In April 1998, Gilbert was convicted of that crime.[15]

Some [who?] claim that Gilbert was using these emergency situations to gain the attention of James Perrault, a VA police officer who had an affair with the married Gilbert. VA hospital rules required that hospital police be present at any medical emergency. VA hospital staff members speculate that Gilbert may have been responsible for eighty or more deaths and over three hundred medical emergencies. The prosecutor in her case, Assistant U.S. Attorney William M. Welch II, asserted that Gilbert was having an affair with VA police officer Perrault at the hospital. Perrault testified against Gilbert, saying that she confessed at least one murder to him by phone while she was hospitalized in a psychiatric ward of a hospital.[16] Defense attorney David P. Hoose claimed reasonable doubt based on a lack of direct evidence.

Dr. William Boutelle, a psychiatrist who served as chief of staff at the Northampton VAMC, has theorized that she created emergency medical crisis situations to display her proficiency as a nurse.

Gilbert has made violent threats against others since she was a teenager, according to court records.[10][11] At trial, prosecutors said Gilbert assaulted a person with a large kitchen knife in Greenfield, Massachusetts in January or February 1988. Prosecutors said she tried twice to murder a person by poison in November 1995. Prosecutors said that Gilbert tried to poison a patient at the VA hospital on Jan. 28, 1996, and that she caused a medical emergency by removing a patient's breathing tube at the VA hospital on Jan. 30, 1994. Prosecutors said that Gilbert abandoned a patient undergoing cardiac arrest on Nov. 9, 1995, and then asked another nurse to accompany her on a check of patients. Prosecutors said she waited until her colleague independently spotted the patient's difficulty before raising an alarm. Gilbert forced an untrained colleague to use cardiac defibrillation paddles on a patient during a medical emergency on Nov. 17, 1995, by refusing to use the equipment herself. Prosecutors said Gilbert threatened the life of at least one person verbally and physically in July 1996.[11] While working as a home health aide before becoming a registered nurse, Gilbert purposely scalded a mentally handicapped child with hot bath water about eight years before her VAMC crimes.[17]

Gilbert was convicted on March 14, 2001[2] in federal court. Though Massachusetts does not have capital punishment, her crimes were committed on federal property and thus subject to the death penalty. However, upon the jury's recommendation, she was sentenced to life in prison without the chance for parole plus 20 years.

Gilbert was transferred from a prison for women in Framingham, Massachusetts to a special federal prison in Texas, where she has remained ever since. She is serving her sentence at Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas.[18]

Gilbert dropped her federal appeal for a new trial after a recent US Supreme Court ruling that would have allowed prosecutors to pursue the death penalty upon retrial.[citation needed]

Personal life

Gilbert has two sons with Glenn Gilbert.[2][13] She left her husband and children for a lover in the midst of a then-undetected killing spree that resulted in the deaths of four patients at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in 1995 and 1996.[7]

At the time of her arrest, Gilbert lived in Setauket, New York, in Suffolk County.[10][19]

Book

Gilbert is the subject of Perfect Poison, a book by M. William Phelps.[9]

See also

  • Beverley Allitt, another nurse dubbed "The Angel of Death" responsible for killing patients.
  • Charles Cullen, a nurse who admitted to killing at least forty patients and is suspected to be America's most prolific serial killer.
  • Harold Shipman, the British Doctor dubbed "Doctor Death" whose inquiry suggested he was responsible for 250 deaths

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Boston Globe Online / Metro | Region". Cache.boston.com. Retrieved 2013-12-02.
  2. ^ a b c "Killer Nurse Gets Life". CBS News. 11 February 2009.
  3. ^ "Nation and world". CJOnline.com. 2000-11-22. Retrieved 2013-12-02.
  4. ^ "MassLive News - Judge fines Gilbert $1.5 million". Masslive.com. 2001-06-16. Retrieved 2013-12-02.
  5. ^ "Cutting V. U.S." Leagle.com. Retrieved 2013-12-02.
  6. ^ "Death Penalty Sought for Nurse in Patients' Deaths - Los Angeles Times". Articles.latimes.com. 2001-06-07. Retrieved 2013-12-02.
  7. ^ a b "Lawyers Ask Jury To Spare Gilbert's Life, For Sons' Sake - Hartford Courant". Articles.courant.com. 2001-03-23. Retrieved 2013-12-02.
  8. ^ "Cost of Gilbert trial $1". People.umass.edu. Retrieved 2013-12-02.
  9. ^ a b Perfect Poison: A Female Serial Killer's Deadly Medicine - M. William Phelps - Google Books. Books.google.com. Retrieved 2013-12-02.
  10. ^ a b c d e "Document Shows Past of VA Nurse". Apnewsarchive.com. Retrieved 2013-12-02.
  11. ^ a b c Trudy Tynan, Associated Press writer. "Nurse reportedly has history of violence". SouthCoastToday.com. Retrieved 2013-12-02.
  12. ^ a b Molecules of Murder: Criminal Molecules and Classic Cases - John Emsley - Google Books. Books.google.com. Retrieved 2013-12-02.
  13. ^ a b Ramsland, Katherine. "Angels of Death: The Female Nurses". truTV Crime Library. Retrieved 16 April 2012.
  14. ^ Gorlick, Adam (26 March). "Murderous Nurse Escapes Death Penalty". abc News. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ "370 F.3d 95 - Nancy CASCONE, Executrix of the Estate of Michele Cascone, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant, Appellee". Freelawreporter.org. Retrieved 2013-12-02.
  16. ^ http://amarillo.com/stories/010601/usn_botched.shtml
  17. ^ http://lawreview.richmond.edu/an-uninvited-guest/
  18. ^ "Federal Bureau of Prisons". Bop.gov. Retrieved 2013-12-02.
  19. ^ Donn, Jeff. "Nurse On Trial For Patient Deaths - ABC News". Abcnews.go.com. Retrieved 2013-12-02.

External links

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