Random Serial Killer Nurses Who Murdered Their Patients (17 items)

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  (#13) Kristen Gilbert

  • 55

  Kristen Gilbert's co-workers jokingly referred to her as the "Angel of Death" because so many patients passed during her shifts in 1995 and 1996. Over time, though, those same co-workers began to notice disturbing evidence suggesting Gilbert was actually murdering some of the veterans placed under her care at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Northampton, MA.

  When the medical center's Epinephrine supply began mysteriously and rapidly disappearing, a few nurses alerted the authorities. Gilbert then made her first major mistake when she called in a bomb threat in an attempt to derail the early stages of the investigation into the increase in cardiac arrests.

  During her trial, prosecutors claimed Gilbert killed at least four patients by overdosing them on epinephrine, which caused them to suffer from a heart attack. They also indicated that Gilbert's main motive was to get more attention from a hospital security guard she was dating. She could have received the death penalty, but a jury sentenced Gilbert to life in prison in 2001. 
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  (#15) Beverley Allitt

  • 55

  Beverley Allitt was entrusted with the lives of numerous kids in a British hospital's children's ward in the spring of 1991. Tragically, she managed to attack 13 young patients and kill four over less than a two-month period. Investigators determined that an unneeded insulin injection was the murder weapon in at least some of the cases. 

  Allitt was later diagnosed with Munchausen syndrome by proxy; her need for attention and sympathy may have been the motive for her crimes. At the time of her sentencing in 1993, Allitt was given one of the longest prison terms for a female convict in UK history.

  Since then, she has been receiving treatment for mental health issues at a secured hospital. Allitt received 13 life sentences but will be eligible for parole in 2022.
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  (#16) Elizabeth Tracey Mae Wettlaufer Terminated Patients For Being 'Mean'

  Canadian nurse Elizabeth Tracey Mae Wettlaufer worked with elderly patients from 2007 to 2014 before she was caught and convicted of killing eight people. Tragically, many of these deaths could have been avoided if the four people she had confessed to, including a pastor, had taken her seriously enough to tell the police. 

  Wettlaufer was very forthcoming after her arrest, and she tried to justify her actions by claiming God wanted to use her in this way. She also described feeling a "red surge" before injecting her victims with a lethal dose of insulin. 

  During an interview with a homicide detective, Wettlaufer indicated that she chose at least a few of her victims because she thought they were "mean." In total, Wettlaufer's "red surge" led to eight deaths and six attempted murders. In 2017, she was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
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  (#1) Niels Hoegel May Have Killed More Than 90 Patients

  In February 2015, German nurse Niels Hoegel was jailed for two murders and several attempted murders at Delmenhorst Hospital. He would inject his patients with a cardiovascular drug to create a medical emergency, then step in to resuscitate them at the last moment. Hoegel was active between 1999 and 2005.

  A new indictment was filed against Hoegel in January 2018, charging him with killing an additional 97 patients over the years. His exact number of victims has been difficult to determine due to a lack of concrete evidence connecting him to suspicious deaths in the hospitals where he was employed. 

  On June 6, 2019, Hoegel was convicted of 85 intentional deaths and sentenced to life in prison. He is known to have worked at a hospital in Oldenburg between 1999 and 2002 before moving onto Delmenhorst where he operated until 2005. 

  During his trial Hoegel apologized to the relatives of his victims, expressing remorse and admitting to the shame he feels for the suffering he has caused. 
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  (#6) Jane Toppan

  • Dec. at 81 (1857-1938)

  Known by the nickname "Jolly Jane," the nurse Jane Toppan confessed to 33 murders in 1901. She would inject patients with lethal doses of morphine, then climb into bed with them and hold them until they passed. Toppan was found not guilty by reason of insanity and spent the rest of her life in a mental institution instead of prison.

  Toppan stated that it was sexually thrilling to take people to the brink of death, bring them back, and then kill them. Perhaps even more disturbing was Toppan's stated life's purpose: "to have killed more people - helpless people - than any other man or woman who ever lived."

  She may not have reached her goal, but she was dubbed the "greatest criminal of modern times" by the Clinton Morning Age in 1902. 
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  (#3) Arnfinn Nesset

  • 86

  Arnfinn Nesset's case is unusual: he was caught, convicted, served time in jail, and eventually released. The former Norwegian nurse completed his prison term and subsequent supervision period in 2005. Nesset is now living under a new, unreported name, which makes it impossible for the families of his victims to know his current location. 

  After he was caught in 1982, Nessen admitted to killing 27 patients at a nursing home with a lethal injection of the muscle relaxant drug suxamethonium chloride. However, he later recanted his confession, which extended his murder trial to five months. He was ultimately found guilty of killing 22 people, but it's believed his true body count is closer to 140.

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