[imagesource: NJ Advance Media / SL]

Charles Cullen, a nurse at a New Jersey hospital, proved to be a ruthless serial killer.

Nobody could have guessed the crimes that were about to be uncovered after two patients suddenly died under his care, aside from perhaps Amy Loughren, a colleague of Cullen’s.

Born in 1960, he had a miserable childhood – ding ding – as the youngest of eight siblings who had lost their parents pretty early on.

Their father was a bus driver who died before Cullen turned one and their mother, a homemaker, died in a car accident when he was a teenager, notes Sky News.

After that, he had a brief stint in the Navy, allegedly tried to commit suicide on numerous occasions, and eventually became a nurse, graduating from nursing school in 1987.

Cullen was also married with two daughters but divorced in 1993.

During those years, the “Angel of Death” started developing a rather warped life:

Cullen would go on to work in several hospitals and nursing homes. Some jobs he quit after being investigated over allegations of misconduct – on one occasion because an elderly woman complained he kept coming into her room and giving her injections when he wasn’t the nurse assigned to her.

He was fired from one hospital for hiding heart medicine in a bin meant for disposing of needles. He would bounce from different medical centres in New Jersey, and even worked for a time in Pennsylvania after getting a licence to practice there.

It is believed that he killed a number of people during his jobs in hospitals, with his weapon of choice being a drug called digoxin.

The medication is routinely used to treat people with an irregular heartbeat or heart failure, but in large doses it is lethal.

The nasty nurse would also sometimes inject patients’ saline pouches with lethal doses of insulin and other drugs to off them on the spot.

It was much only later, in 2003 while working at Somerset Medical Centre in Somerville, New Jersey, that he was caught and arrested:

Florian Gall was a reverend being treated at the hospital. After showing signs of improvement during his stay, Gall had a massive heart attack and died. It was later determined that he had a lethal level of digoxin, and his death was caused by an unauthorised dose of the drug.

Cullen reasoned with investigators that he gave “very sick” patients drug overdoses to put them out of their misery, and admitted to between 30 and 40 murders.

However, the true number is far more shocking and is thought to be closer to 400. This makes him the most prolific serial killer in US history, the publication noted.

Loughren had formed a friendship with him while he was working at what would become his last hospital, thinking of him fondly and keen to be around him:

The single mother and cardiomyopathy sufferer was coping with night shifts in a New Jersey hospital in order to qualify for health insurance when the apparently highly-qualified Cullen was hired to help manage the workload.

The two quickly formed a close bond – Cullen even helping Loughren to cover up her illness and care for her two young daughters.

When detectives became suspicious of Cullen, Loughren suddenly “knew he was murdering people”:

“There were so many withdrawals of lethal medications” that you wouldn’t order unless you wanted to kill someone,” she had told CBS at the time.

She began collecting evidence at the hospital and wore a wire at a meeting with him. She also admits to manipulating him to try to get him to confess.

Loughren is at the centre of Netflix’s new movie about this twisted tale, called The Good Nurse, in which Loughren is played by Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne picks up the role of Cullen:

The Good Nurse is on Netflix from today.

Cullen is currently incarcerated at the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton.

[source:skynews]