February 22, 1960 - Charles Cullen
What distinguished Cullen from many others cataloged here was the duration and setting of his crimes — a hospital nurse whose access to vulnerable patients, medication systems, and institutional trust allowed him to operate largely undetected across sixteen years and multiple facilities. The confirmed death toll runs to dozens, but investigators have long suggested the true number may be considerably higher, a figure that will likely never be fully established. His case prompted significant scrutiny of how healthcare institutions handle suspicions about staff, and how easily a pattern of patient deaths can be attributed to illness rather than intent.
From Wikipedia
Charles Edmund Cullen (born February 22, 1960) is an American serial killer. While working as a nurse, Cullen murdered dozens—possibly hundreds—of patients during a 16-year career spanning several New Jersey and Pennsylvania medical centers until finally being arrested in 2003. He confessed to committing as many as 40 murders at least 29 of which have been confirmed, though interviews with police, psychiatrists and journalists suggest he committed many more. Researchers have suggested that Cullen may have murdered as many as 400 people. However, most murders cannot be confirmed due to lack of records.
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