New Jersey’s Most Prolific Serial Killer

Charles Cullen, who confessed to as many as 40 murders over 16 years, was arrested without incident on December 12th, 2003.

While working as a nurse at hospitals in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Cullen murdered patients by injecting various drugs into IVs. These were not mercy killings, nor had the patients asked him to end their lives; he was just a cold-blooded killer.

According to CNN, Cullen told authorities he might have killed as many as 40 patients, but police believe the actual number could go over 300 which would make him the most prolific serial killer in history. He pleaded guilty to 29 murders (22 in New Jersey and 7 in Pennsylvania) and was sentenced in a Somerville courtroom to 11 life sentences; the earliest he could get out is June, 2388.

The first murder he confessed to was at St. Barnabas Hospital in Livingston on June 11, 1988. He confessed to killing 13 patients (and attempting two more) at the Somerset Medical Center. According to Murderpedia.org, Cullen claimed to have killed his victims to end their suffering, but several of the patients weren’t even terminal and none has asked for his help. From 1988-2003 he worked at ten hospitals/nursing facilities. He is housed at the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton.