Name of Chosen Criminal: Charles Cullen (The Angel of Death)
Background
 Born in Orange County, New Jersey, in 1960
 Youngest of eight children; father died when
he was born
 Attempted suicide at age nine, swallowing
chemicals from a chemistry set
 Mother died when he was 17; was
devastated and joined the navy soon after
 Attempted suicide 7 more times before
receiving a medical discharge from the
navy, becoming a nurse soon after
 Allegedly murdered his first victim, soon
after joining St. Barnabas Medical Center, by overdosing him
with intravenous medication
 St. Barnabas suspected Cullen to be behind the mysterious
deaths and medication tampering, who murdered several more
victims before leaving St. Barnabas and moving on to Warren
Hospital in New Jersey.
 He murdered 3 more victims there, and his wife filed for divorce
in 1993.
 He broke into a coworker’s home and began to stalk her. She
filed a police report and he pleaded guilty to trespassing,
receiving a year of probation.
 He was treated at 2 psychiatric institutes for depression, but
attempted suicide 2 more times.
 This became a routine, working as a nurse at numerous
hospitals, murdering several patients, moving on, being treated
at a psychiatric institute, attempting suicide, and repeating.
 He applied for bankruptcy in 1998.
 Several of the hospitals he worked at suspected or figured out
that he was murdering patients, but did not contact the police
and did not warn other hospitals, for fear of lawsuit.
 He was finally was caught in Somerville, New Jersey, after
murdering 13 more patients at the Somerset Medical Center.
 He was arrested on
December 12, 2003, being
charged
with one count of murder and one count of attempted murder.
Crimes Accused of Committing:
First convicted crime (33) – broke into his coworker’s home; pleaded
guilty to trespassing (to enter the owner's land or property without
permission)

Received 1 year of probation
Arrested in December of 2003 (43) – Arrested for one count of 1st
degree murder (the unlawful premeditated killing of one human
being by another) and one count of attempted murder (deliberately,
intentionally or recklessly with extreme disregard for human life,
attempted to kill someone)

Pleaded guilty to 13 counts of murder and two
counts of attempted murder in a New Jersey court in
April of 2004

Pleaded guilty to 3 more counts of murder a month
later

Pleaded guilty to 6 more counts of murder and 3
counts of attempted murder

Claims to have killed 40 patients during his 16 years
of nursing

Potentially killed 400+ patients across the various
hospitals he worked at due to his tampering with
medications
Most recent crime – 1st degree murder and attempted murder
Evidence Brought Against Criminal:
There are reports of him requesting drugs that were not prescribed
to the patients he was administering them to. The same patients
would later be found having an overdose of those same drugs. He
admitted his own guilt in court, and pleaded guilty against numerous
counts of murder and attempted murder.
Sentence:


Sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of
parole for 397 years
Serving time at a state prison in New Jersey
QUOTE: “My goal is not to justify what I did; there is no
justification. I just think that…I felt overwhelmed at the time.”
Nickname: The Angel of Death
Theory that explains his deviant behavior:
– The theory that would explain Charles Cullens’ behavior would
be the labeling theory because of his interactions in the navy and
throughout his life. People that he lived with and worked with
would constantly put him down, and cast him out. He was put
down so much and looked at as a failure, it was basically setting
him up for more disappointment in failure.
He was set back in life by failure after failure after failure, and
felt a lack of control. He felt that the only area of life that he did
have control in was in the hospital, where he had the ultimate
decision of life or death for his patients. He could
control the outcome, whereas he couldn’t control
anything in his own life.
Popular Culture
Books: Angel of Death: The Charles Cullen Story, The Good
Nurse
TV Shows: 60 Minutes (Interviewed)
Movies: None