Perfect Poison (47 page)

Female serial killers are rare. In the United States, according to the most recent (separate) studies by criminologist Eric Hickey and the Bureau of Justice, females account for only 8 percent of all serial killers. American female serial killers, on the other hand, out of all female serial killers throughout the world, make up 76 percent.

It's a good thing the female serial killer is a rare breed: both studies bear out the fact that although females make up a small percentage of the serial killers roaming the earth, they are—these same experts claim—as much as two times more dangerous than males. The reason for this is, of course, the stealthy, devious methods they use to kill, and how long they can kill before being detected and/or found out.

It's been well over a decade now since I published the book you have just read, my first. Since its publication,
Perfect Poison
has reached people all over the world. I've heard from soldiers stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and all throughout Europe and Asia, who have read the book and been kind enough to thank me for writing it. I am humbled greatly by this. Several told me they had become so engrossed in Kristen Gilbert's mania and madness that for a few hours, every now and then, they were able to lose themselves in my book and forget about the battlefield or missing their family members. I consider this an honor and blessing to be allowed into the lives of these heroic and courageous men and women.

Kristen Gilbert's secrets were exposed to the world with the publication of this book, and her legacy as one of the most prolific female serial killers in the United States was set in stone. This could be what she wanted all along: to be famous. Who knows? To be immortalized in infamy as a legendary, notorious female serial killer, such as Aileen “Monster” Wuornos or Sister Amy Archer-Gilligan, a multiple poisoner-serial killer who ran a nursing home in Connecticut that I wrote about in my book
The Devil's Rooming House
. We don't know yet how Gilbert feels about any of the notoriety she received from the book and subsequent crime shows produced about her cases or any articles written about her. We're not aware, of course, of how she felt about her sentence, victims, or crimes, because Gilbert has never spoken to a reporter or anyone in the media. Gilbert remains in the Federal Medical Center (FMC) Carswell, in Fort Worth, Texas. It's a facility, I'm told, that provides its female inmates with “specialized” medical and mental-health services. She is forty-five years old, as of this writing. From what I've heard, Gilbert has been a good prisoner. She's a lifer, so there is no reason for her to do anything else but settle in and come to terms with the existence she has created for herself behind bars. She is, after all, lucky to still be alive.

On a very sad note, one of the heroic nurses in the Gilbert story, John Wall, died on November 20, 2008, after what his obituary described as “a long illness.” I liked John. We met and spent some time together in the months after the book was released. Not long after the publication of
Perfect Poison,
John Wall, Renee Walsh, Kathy Rix, and I were invited to Washington, DC. The three nurses accepted awards from the Veterans Affairs Administration (VAA). I'll never forget the event, for several reasons. I had been asked to prepare a speech. They had given me a guideline, including how long it should be. I followed my orders to a tee.

I focused my speech on heroes, hero worship, and the DNA, in my opinion, making up a true American hero. I spent weeks writing and rewriting this speech. It was extremely important to me to validate John, Kathy, and Renee's efforts to bring Gilbert to justice. They deserved the best I had in me. My belief was (and still is) that three nurses—who turned in a serial-killing nurse, but were then shunned and ostracized during the entire process, scared the entire time they were thinking about turning Gilbert in—fit into a category we generally designate for sports figures. I believe people like John, Renee, and Kathy, schoolteachers, single mothers raising children, stay-at-home mothers and fathers, men and women who choose to work fulltime and raise a family, civil rights leaders, and many other everyday people we interact with throughout our daily routine are
true
American heroes. Heroes are not the men who can bat .425 as an average, or score forty points in a basketball game, or pass or run the most touchdowns into the end zone.

You see, I prepared this speech showcasing these heroic nurses' work and heroism. I was proud of what I had written. I had captured my feelings on paper—which, any writer can agree, is a hard thing to accomplish. As I began to give the speech to a large, well-dressed, well-fed audience of Washington socialites, folks of all political stripes and politicians at the National Republican Club on Capitol Hill, only a few minutes into it, the director of the program, who had brought me and the nurses to Washington, cut me off. I literally felt as though she had one of those old-school vaudeville hooked canes and was pulling me off the stage. It was humiliating, honestly. I was angry.

And confused.

As she walked up and stood next to me, she and everyone else started clapping.

And that was it.

I felt dissed!

And quite used.

The look on the faces of Kathy, John, and Renee telegraphed:
Now you personally understand how it works here in the VAA!

I recall the Veterans Affairs commissioner coming in with his posse (including a photographer, who obviously traveled with him). The commissioner posed for a few pictures with the group of nurses and then walked out of the room, waving at everyone. It happened all in one, well-choreographed motion.

But, hey, the night was not about me—and politics being what they are in DC, I got it. Nevertheless, Kathy, Renee, and John all received a copy of my speech in the lobby of our hotel the following morning and they were able to read it on their own time in its entirety. I was happy they were recognized—finally.

 

 

As the years pass and my work on
Dark Minds,
the Investigation Discovery channel series about serial killer cold cases I created and star in, takes me into the depths of my serial killer research, I get deeper every day into the psychology behind the mind of the serial killer. I can see today how easily Gilbert fits into the textbook entry of the female serial killer and, equally, how she embodies the psychology many experts agree make up the wiring of the female serial killer. Gilbert's entire world revolved around, well . . . her. If there was a study put together to explain narcissistic personality disorder, a serious disorder I talked a lot about in
Perfect Poison,
Gilbert would be the poster specimen. I realize this today more than ever. Her behavior, as you have seen throughout this book, is as close to a model, archetypal narcissist as you'll find.

Whatever Gilbert did, she did out of an inherent need to please herself, fulfill the fantasies in her head, and live out what was a deep-seated psychopathy, which not only became her reality, but her daily life. Gilbert needed to kill to feel alive. She needed to be the center of attention, no matter what the situation. If she wasn't, watch out; she'd lash out at you. More than that, though, I've also learned through my work with John Kelly—serial killer profiler, psychotherapist, social worker, certified addiction specialist, good friend, mentor, fellow at the American College of Forensic Examiners, and my mind expert extraordinaire on
Dark Minds
—that Kristen Gilbert was addicted to killing people. She would never have stopped.

About six months after
Perfect Poison
was published in 2003, another serial-killing nurse became a household name: Charles Cullen. Recently, in a new book, the speculation is that Cullen killed more people than any other serial killer in American history. His number of kills, so say these latest claims, could be near or exceed three hundred.

Yes, three hundred human beings murdered by one man.

Startling. Alarming. Amazing.

Other reports aren't as sweeping, going only so far as to say Cullen is the most prolific serial killer in the history of New Jersey (where he did most of his killing)—and that is perhaps quite true.

To claim Cullen is the most prolific killer in American history is a bold statement. The roughest part of stating such a thing is that with medical/nurse serial killers, proving how many they killed in a hospital or convalescent home setting becomes very tricky, to say the least. Medical records are hard to get hold of unless the suspect has been (or is being) tried for the case(s); the cause of death in someone who is already generally severely ill is normally cardiac arrest and there is hardly an autopsy ever conducted; and there is no way to pinpoint exactly when a medical serial killer began his or her killing spree. It's almost impossible to go back and with any accuracy study all of the records from all of the facilities the killer worked at. The way it was explained to me: Medical examiners look at records and try to find that one kernel of evidence leading them to believe the patient might have been murdered—and then make a decision from there to investigate further and, perhaps, under the right circumstances, begin exhuming bodies, after alerting and asking family members. But without exhuming hundreds of bodies, conducting autopsies, reinvestigating, retesting, and reinterviewing people involved in all of the cases, it is impossible to say with certainty that a person was murdered by a particular poison, overdose of medication, smothered, asphyxiated, or even strangled.

These claims of hundreds of murders by nurses and/or hospital workers are generally born out of the possibility that in the often uncontrolled world of hospitals and medical establishments pushing troubled nurses from one facility to another—without as much as sending along a report of previous suspicious behavior—the atmosphere provides the perfect space for a killer to develop his or her skills and become, essentially, an expert at killing without being detected. Charles Cullen went from hospital to hospital, killing and killing and killing. There's no doubt about that. The number, however, is subject to close scrutiny.

Regardless of the numbers, the scariest part of it all is this: I am comfortable saying that this type of crime is taking place somewhere—if not several places—in the world today and is
not being detected,
or there are several coworkers suspicious, but they are not yet saying anything.

A good friend, former detective Tim Braun, president of Braun Consulting & Investigation, LLC,
¹
who helped me out during my investigation into the Atlantic City, New Jersey, prostitute murders I profiled on season one of
Dark Minds
(the “Eastbound Strangler” episode), was part of the team that investigated and arrested Charles Cullen. Tim is one of those topnotch, dedicated, and tenacious investigators who digs in and doesn't let go until he has answers.

I asked Tim, who spent years investigating Cullen, how many Cullen killed, by his estimation. I considered these recent numbers of three hundred-plus to be going out on a limb.

Tim's answer surprised me. “That's not too far-fetched,” he said. “We always thought many more, but we never put a number on it. Just the way that he was doing it would lead you to believe it was more than the forty that he claimed.”

Tim emphasized that arresting and prosecuting Charles Cullen was a team effort. Although Tim and his partner arrested Cullen and interviewed him, there were scores of agencies, investigators, pharmaceutical professionals, prosecutors, and many others involved.

“We worked on the case with a team of people,” Tim clarified. “There were forty-plus people involved, who ultimately worked together to solve this case. My partner and I were in the right place at the right time and got the statement from Cullen. We did a lot of work, but it was not a two-man show, by any means.”

The date he first killed is unknown, but Cullen claims the first murder he can recall dates back to the late 1980s.

“He doesn't even remember how many he killed,” Tim said.

I asked about the criteria they used in going back and looking at medical records to determine how many potential victims Cullen had. Insight into how Cullen killed, how he chose his victims, how long he killed for, is imperative to understanding Kristen Gilbert and what happened to me after
Perfect Poison
was published.

Tim and his team did a lot of the same things investigators in Gilbert's case had done. They made charts of Cullen's shifts, the wards he worked on, and the days he worked. The difference with Cullen, Tim maintained, was that he would “spike” bags of medicine stored for future use. Effectively, Cullen was killing without even being present inside the hospital when the poison was delivered.

I asked Tim if Cullen is the most prolific serial killer this country has ever seen.

“I'm not saying that,” he said, “because I
don't
know. I'm saying that he killed more people than he told us he did. I cannot put a number on it.”

I wanted to know Tim's opinion regarding the biggest differences—besides the most obvious—between serial killers such as Cullen and Gilbert and those serial killers lurking in the shadows of the night. You know, the ones who get all the media attention. We often think of the two as vastly different because of their methods and choice of weapon.

“It's the environment they choose to work in and the victims they choose to kill,” Tim answered. “There's a satisfaction, a gratification they get from doing what they do. I hate to say it's common sense to think that way, but it is.”

Which, for my money, makes the nurse/caretaker serial killer the most dangerous killer out there.

Finally, Tim says, in his opinion, the reason Cullen has talked to the media (he gave an interview to
60 Minutes
and the author of the recent book about him) is shame: “[It's] the shame of getting caught. The shame that it will bring to his family, in his case, his daughters.”