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

(#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.
(#10) Orville Lynn Majors
- 62
In 1999, Orville Lynn Majors was given the unusual sentence of 360 years in prison for his three-year criminal spree that took the lives of up to 130 patients. He worked in a hospital in Clinton, IN, from 1993 to 1995, and the small-town hospital's fatality rate shot up by a staggering amount after Majors was hired.
It was estimated that 33% of all patients admitted to the hospital passed during this time period, and the odds of expiring when Majors was on the clock were much higher than usual.
Although the prosecutors were never able to put together a concrete motive, it was reported in the Journal of Forensic Sciences that Majors selected his victims based partially on which patients were whiny and the most demanding. Andy Harris, who was once Majors's roommate, testified that Majors believed the elderly "should all be gassed."
(#11) Richard Angelo
- 61
In 1989, Richard Angelo was given a minimum of 50 years in prison after he was convicted of killing four patients and harming four others. Further investigations determined that he had actually poisoned at least 35 people during his seven months working at a hospital on Long Island.

Angelo was finally caught after suspicions were aroused when an unprescribed medication was found in one patient's urine. The motive behind Angelo's medical attacks was to induce respiratory or cardiac arrest so he could step in and save the patients in front of his colleagues at the last minute.
(#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.
(#17) Gwendolyn Graham

Cathy Wood and Gwendolyn Graham were co-workers engaged in a romantic relationship that turned deadly. Dubbed the "Lethal Lovers" by the media, Graham and Wood killed at least five patients together in a Michigan nursing home during a two-month period in 1987.
The first murder, which was not initially deemed a suspicious death, involved an elderly Alzheimer's patient, whom Graham suffocated. The pair apparently believed having a murder pact would keep them together.
Wood later admitted to the killings, and she alleged Graham was the person who physically committed each crime. Graham ended up reneging on their pact after just a few months and began dating someone else. In 1989, the former lovers were arrested and convicted in five patient passings.
(#12) Kimberly Saenz Injected Patients With Bleach

Kimberly Saenz is a convicted medical serial killer who obtained her last job by falsifying information on her application. This led to tragic consequences for at least five people, although there were suspicious circumstances surrounding medical complications that afflicted 16 patients.

During a single 30-day time period in 2008, the dialysis center where Saenz worked called for emergency assistance 30 times. To put this into perspective, only two emergency calls had been placed during the previous 15 months.

Saenz still denies she did anything wrong, but two of her co-workers testified they saw her inject bleach into dialysis lines. Investigators also discovered Saenz had performed web searches to determine whether or not bleach could be detected in a dialysis line. Saenz was able to avoid the death penalty, but she will be behind bars for the rest of her life.