CHARLES Cullen is one of the most infamous serial killers in US history.
Notorious for his heinous crimes, he is thought to have been responsible for the deaths of up to 400 people.
Who is Charles Cullen?
Charles Cullen is a convicted serial killer who was born on February 22, 1960, in West Orange, New Jersey, to Meme and Florence Cullen.
Before entering medicine, Cullen endured a troubled childhood which saw him first attempt suicide when he was just nine years old.
His mother died in a crash while in a car being driven by his sister – Cullen was just 17 at the time.
Heartbroken, he joined the US Navy and he worked in a team in charge of Poseidon missiles aboard submarines.
It was another suicide attempt that led to his discharge from the military in 1984.
He began medical training at the Mountainside School of Nursing and got a job at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, New Jersey, in 1987 – a year before his first murder.
How many people did Charles Cullen kill?
Between 1988 and 2003, it is believed that Cullen took the lives of at least 40 patients while working as a nurse at various medical centers along the East Coast.
However, authorities believe the number could be 10 times that, according to Investigation Discovery.
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Cullen's weapon of choice was a powerful drug cocktail that included the heart medication digoxin.
Despite his claims he killed to end suffering of his patients, police believe he did it for the thrill.
While some of his victims were terminally ill or close to death, many of them would have survived were it not for Cullen.
At one point towards the end of his killing spree, it was revealed he’d killed 13 people in 13 months, and his known victims ranged between the ages of 21 to 91.
When was Charles Cullen arrested?
His killing spree finally came to an end in December 2003, when he was arrested while working at Somerset Medical Center in New Jersey.
A month prior to his arrest, Amy Loughren, a fellow nurse and Cullen's close friend discovered that he was ordering odd drugs that doctors never prescribed for patients that were not even his.
He was also accessing medical records for patients that he never treated and would show up in rooms where he had no reason to be, according to Investigation Discovery.
As a result of his suspicious behavior, Loughren served as a confidential informant and helped authorities capture Cullen, according to the New York Post.
When asked what his motive was, Cullen later claimed they were 'mercy killings', saying in a TV interview: “I thought that people aren’t suffering anymore, so in a sense, I thought I was helping.”
However, this explanation has been widely dismissed.
Where is Charles Cullen now?
Charles was sentenced to 11 consecutive life sentences in March 2006 and is now serving out his time at the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton.
He only avoided the death penalty after he worked out a deal with prosecutors to try and identify all 40 of his victims.
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The chilling tale of Charles Cullen's crimes was later turned into a movie starring Eddie Redmayne, Jessica Chastain, and Nnamdi Asomugha.
The film first debuted in theaters and can be watched exclusively on Netflix starting October 26, 2022, with a valid subscription.
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