Charles Cullen
H. H. Holmes (The Devil In The White City) killed nine. Jeffrey Dahmer killed seventeen. Ted Bundy killed as many as 35, John Wayne Gacy 33. Ever heard of Charles Cullen? No? Charles Cullen murdered at least 45 between 1988 and 2003. Cullen was one of those self-righteous, self-proclaimed “angels of mercy”, a nurse with an eye for those who needed to die.
From his childhood, Charles Cullen was surrounded by death. His dad died while driving a bus when Cullen was seven months old. Four of his eight siblings died in their childhood. When he was seventeen, his mom died in a car accident.
A miserable child, Cullen attempted to commit suicide twenty times in the course of twenty years. Nothing like an annual tradition. The first occurred at the age of nine, when Cullen drank chemicals from his chemistry set. From there, the attempts got more creative, ranging from stealing drugs from the hospital in which he worked, to plunging a pair of scissors through his sick, twisted skull.
Charles Cullen was discharged from the Navy after trying to kill himself. Cullen was discharged from several hospitals for trying to kill himself (and others, as it would turn out later). He was discharged from his family for, once again, trying to kill himself. Cullen was overall a suicidal maniac who wished for others to feel the pain that he felt, but also be free.
Here’s a direct quote from Cullen’s (accurate. I checked) Wikipedia entry: In March 1993, [Cullen] broke into a co-worker’s home while she and her young son slept, but left without waking them. Cullen then started phoning her frequently, leaving numerous messages and following her at work and around town. The woman filed a complaint, and Cullen pleaded guilty to trespassing and was placed on a year’s probation. The day after his arrest, Cullen attempted suicide. He took two months off work, and was treated for depression in two psychiatric facilities. He attempted suicide two more times before the end of the year.
Insanity-pleading worthy? Yes, I think so. But that won’t save Charles Cullen from eternal death in the fiery pits of hell when he dies, now, will it? No, I think not.
Digoxin was Cullen’s weapon of choice. He used it to effectively murder five patients in 1996, and then the hospital bouncing began.
Warren Hospital in New Jersey from 1992 to 1993. Hunterdon Medical Center from 1993 to 1996. Morris Memorial Hospital in 1997. Liberty Nursing and Rehabilitation Center (ironic?) in Pennsylvania from 1997 to 1998. Easton Hospital from 1998 to 1999. Lehigh Valley Hospital in Pennsylvania in 1999. St. Luke’s Hospital from 1999 to 2000. Somerset Medical Center from 2002 to 2003.
In every one of those places, deaths occurred. At all of those job placement instances, Cullen tried to kill himself. And at every one of those occupations, Cullen was present in the room during a good 75% of the deaths. Odd, isn’t it?
Cullen was arrested on one count of murder and one count of attempted murder at a restaurant December 14, 2003. On December 14, 2003, Cullen admitted to the murder of Rev. Florian Gall and the attempted murder of Tin Kyushu Han, both patients at Somerset.
In April of 2004, Cullen pleaded guilty to murdering thirteen patients and attempting to kill two others by his own crude form of “lethal injection”. As part of a plea bargain, Charles Cullen promised to cooperate with the authorities if they were willing to not give him the death penalty. Twenty suicides attempts later, could Cullen be a changed man? Or does he wish to die at his own hand?
In May of that same year, Cullen pleaded guilty to the silent murders of three more patients. In November, Cullen pleaded guilty as the responsible party in the deaths of six patients and attempting to kill three more.
As of July 2005, Cullen remains in the Somerset County Jail as local and federal authorities continue to investigate the definite possibility of his responsibility for numerous other deaths.
As per the news, Cullen is serving a sentence of life in prison without parole for 30 years, to be served consecutively with his other sentences in Pennsylvania. On March 2, 2006, Cullen was sentenced to 11 consecutive life sentences in New Jersey, to be ineligible for parole for 397 years. Charles Cullen is held at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton.
36 Comments »
I’m suspicious of people who make so many unsuccessful suicide attempts. Did he really want to die, or was he just an attention whore? I woudl think — I don’t know — that anyone who wanted to die badly enough, would find a way. Twenty tries? Hm.
You just described EMO’s. I see em all the time at shows stannding in the middle of the pit getting the snot kicked out of them and crying.
One I talked to one. She had many scars across her wrist up to her elbow. I asked her why she does that and she said she wantes to die. So I pulled out my knife, grabbed her arm and was going to show her how to do it right. She screamed and called me a crazy person.
Emo’s have no guts and only want attention. Thats exactly what punks and skins give them at shows. Fist to the face and a boot to the ass.
Mulch–Let me get this straight. You pulled out a knife “grabbed her arm and was going to show her how to do it right?” How fucking stupid and radical is that? That’s either an absolute bullshit statement, or you are a crazy person.
Gee, Heather, that tactic usually works for most of the “suicidal” whack jobs I deal with. “Go ahead, dude, nobody is gonna miss ya. Make sure you cut along the vein, not across. Here, let me show you…”
I don’t know Heather. I’ve known Mulch for a while now and he strikes me as neither a bullshitter nor a crazy person. If he says it happened that way, I believe him.
Mulch….
I have a very strong feeling that one day Max will be writing about YOU on this site.
Why? Because some fucking brat from suburbia cut themselves the wrong way. Look if she wanted to die she would have done it right the first time. I’ll be damned if the little snotrag even had any real issues.
Are you kidding? I’d like to write about him now :)
Had a friend in high school who claimed to have attempted suicide twelve times.
Once, when she mentioned this, another friend said, “Jenna, for Christmas I’m getting you a gun.”
Exactly. Obviously the Digoxin he was using on patients was lethal. Think he ever shot himself up with the Digoxin? I seriously doubt it.
Reminds me of Kristen Gilbert and Harold Shipman. Ted Bundy likely killed more than 35. It is believed he killed as many as 200 people.
Well duh he couldn’t kill himself. He’s a Cullen. He would have needed to go to the Voltorie for that. *rolls eyes*. Edward and his family must be very ashamed of this guy. I thought Cullen’s didn’t kill humans???…….Forget prison, they need to get Jake to go all wolfy on his ass.
LOL OMG I was thinking the same thing. (this coming from a woman that has a bumper decal on the back of her volvo that says “stupid shiny volvo owner”)
I was wondering the same thing. What do Esme and Carlisle think of this guy..surely he must be written out of the will, for they don’t believe in murdering humans.
LOL.
Human, just let me have him for a few minutes…that’s all I ask. I’ll make sure my FIRST attempt at off’ing him IS successful. ***Evil grin***
BTW…if this guy was my nurse…I may just pull the plug on myself. He is overly creepy and douchey looking.
Make no mistake about it. With very little exception there is no such thing as attempted suicide especially 20 some times. I mean come on. Seems this guy was very good at offing other people just didn’t have the balls to do it to himself, what a shame he wasn’t successful. If someone is going to off their self they”re going to do it and they ususally don’t talk about it alot. Another thought did none of these hospitals do any kind of back ground checks. Red flags had to popping up everywhere. Maybe if “Health Care Reform” passes the government will take care of this also.
I hate the fact that 20 times later he still hasn’t learnt…the gun goes in the mouth….the razor blade goes long ways across the wrists…or from ear to ear if you want to go that way the rope goes around the neck…I think it’s bogus that for whatever reason people didn’t explain this properly to him on every attempt. God this has pissed me of…I hate the ‘woe is me crap fucktards’ who do this.
I agree Janey!! That dumb ass could have done himself in if he really wanted to! To bad he did not get it right at the age of nine!
The thing must of been defective.
Jeez…y’all with the Twilight references! And I thought *I* was sick because when I read this article the first thing I thought of was this song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S50IGVCG_4w
Nice touch dooflotchie!!!!
As a member of the ST Army since 1995 I can never deny ST but reading this ory I was thinking more like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIXZDz2uzyQ
“Charles Cullen was discharged from the Navy after trying to kill himself.” I want to know which dumbass recruiter picked this guy up. I want to speak to that idjit face to face, ask him what the hell he was thinking when he signed Cullen up, and then punch him in the jaw and kick him in the balls. Oh yeah and I want to gouge his eyes out with a ball-point pen.
This is just my thought…
Everyone is saying how he tried committing suicide for attention, along those lines. Maybe it wasn’t attention he was trying to get, maybe it was access to the mental institutions for him to do his killings. What’s an easier way for a psychopath to get access to medical supplies? To be around other people committed for suicide attempts or problems so that it wouldn’t be looked at quite as closely right off bat? He fit right in, therefore, it was his niche, so to speak.
I hope I worded that right. All I’m saying is every serial killer has their pattern, that is his. Maybe attention grabbing and killing go hand in hand, maybe the suicide were attempts to kill in his pattern.
If he knows how to kill people, then he definitely knows how to kill himself. If he really wants to still kill himself, now that he has life terms in prison, lets see if he is successful this time. I sure as hell hope he is. I can’t believe he didn’t get a death sentence.
At first I was going to say this guy is such a failure that he fucks up at failing or fails at failing, but I like your theory better.
What other better place is there to kill people than to be with a bunch of people that want to kill themselves? Hide in plain sight!
The wolf in sheep’s clothing!
Um, have you ever been in a mental institution? They don’t exactly leave drugs or any kind of lethal objects lying around for the taking. I’ve been in several and in some places they even take your underwear.
Yes, I have. And while they do not leave things laying around, it is very easy to horde medicines and even get others to help you do it. When family or friends visit, of course they check everything, but still, there are ways. A person who is admitted for suicide will be put on the highest watch, but only for a limited time. During that time, shoelaces will be taken, staff sits with you, etc. After you come off that, you do level up and have more freedom, even day passes (depending on if it is a long term or short term patient). So yes, I do believe it to be very possible. Prisoners are strip searched and cavity searched and still find the means for drugs and making weapons. I wouldn’t put it past him as psychopathic as he is, to come up with ways to do the things he did. Once you know how to manipulate the system, it isn’t hard at all.
Every mental hospital I was in, they gave you one pill at a time and stood and watched you swallow it.
That means you’re honest in following hospital regulations. Where I worked, we had a girl OD on medications. When she was returned to our unit, she said that she had put the pills in the back of her throat. When the RN left her room, she would cough them back up. She had her room mate do the same so that she could double her amount of medication. We had patients who take advantage of the system and learn how to ask their psychiatrists for meds they wanted, like Ritalin, and horde them and get high off of them. Of course staff checks these things but there IS always a way for patients to get over on us. We had a 10 year old boy hang himself, we had a drug addict bring in her own drugs even though all of her things were checked and adolescents who cut themselves with wood they chipped of of furniture. Hospital staff is not as invasive as correctional officers, however, once these incidents happen, we are twice as cautious and the unit is put on lockdown. But until new ways to hurt themselves or others are proven by patients, we follow guidelines to the best of our ability. I hate saying this, but there are staff who take advantage of patients because who would believe some of the patients? These staff were eventually caught, but who’s not say that it’s not possible? Hence, I no longer work in these facilities. But these things DO happen no matter how hard we tried to protect them.
This is just my thought:
Maybe he isn’t only attempting suicide for the attention. Perhaps the mental ward is the place where his serial pattern fits. The hospitals have access to medicine; patients who are committed for their own suicide attempts or problems die so who would take notice right off bat if a suicidal patient died? But maybe his suicide attempts and killing do correlate, I’m not an expert.
It just seems that all his attempts go hand in hand with murder and in hospitals.
If he is really suicidal as he says he is, now that he has life terms in prison, it shouldn’t be a problem for him to successfully murder himself.
I hope I worded that the right way. All I’m saying is that serial killers have a definitive M.O., right? Again, I could be wrong, but attempting suicide and murdering other patients who are in hospitals, add that to his childhood of family getting hurt and probably being in the hospital before they died, it seems to make sense in developing his serial pattern.
Maybe I watch too much CSI, haha! It’s too bad he can’t die as many times as he killed people. Once just doesn’t seem like it would be enough.
Crapppp, how do I delete one? I thought I didn’t send the first one so I had to rewrite it all over again:(
Well ya know what, I hope this man suffers. I hope he gets a TERRIBLE earache/ear infection, no lie. I have had one for the past couple of weeks, and ended up having to go to the ER. In the worst pain I’ve ever been in in my life! On vicodin, and still in unbearable pain :( I hope he suffers like this, and I hope that none of those victims had to endure any type of pain. That’s so terrible, for a hospital worker, someone these people trusted it, probably believed in. Families who probably believed in him too. Well can the families of victims sue? IMHO I believe they should be entitled to some sort of compensation, after all who knows how long they had left to live… freakin punk, trying to act as God. Don’t give him the death penalty PLEASE, let this asshole rott in jail, with plastic utensils, no bedsheets/razors, and on suicide watch for i dunno 20 years min (on suicide watch, I never want him to see outside a cell again).
He attempted to commit suicide twenty times in the course of twenty years, was discharged from the Navy after trying to kill himself, and was discharged from several hospitals for trying to kill himself. How was he ever allowed to become a nurse?????
this man is sick . he was my mothers nurse . she had stints put in she died about 11 weeks after operation. was said that he had nothing to do with it but i think need to keep looking in to it. becuse thier are to many unanswered things.
How fucking hard is it to kill yourself. REALLY.