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Kristen Gilbert

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Kristen Gilbert, a.k.a. The Angel of Death, is a sociopathic, "angel of death"-type serial killer responsible for several murders and attempted murders of patients at the Veteran Affairs Medical Center in Northampton, Massachusetts, from 1988 to 1996. Gilbert is suspected of hundreds of murders at the facility, which has never been conclusively proven.

Background[]

Little is revealed about Gilbert's early life. She was born Kristen heather Strickland to electronics executive Richard and homemaker and teacher Claudia. As a teenager, Gilbert was remembered for being a pathological liar, faking suicide attempts, and threatening people around her. She was institutionalized by Bridgewater State College between 1986 and 1987 for one faked suicide attempt. She graduated from Greenfield Community College, later being licensed for nursing and marrying Glenn Gilbert, both in 1988, eventually having two children. In 1989, she was employed at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Northampton, garnering a feature in the VA Practitioner published the next year. Gilbert had an affair with VA officer James Perrault, who she's believed to have wanted to impress through her response to her own assaults and murders at the hospital. Gilbert racked up a record of particularly violent assaults as well before her VAMC employment, scalding a handicapped child with bath water while she was a home health aide, as well as assaulting someone with a kitchen knife a year before she was hired.

Murders, Trial, and Aftermath[]

Gilbert is believed to have killed as many as 350 patients and attempted to kill over 30 more patients throughout her time at the VAMC. Gilbert was jokingly called the "Angel of Death" by colleagues due to increasing deaths on her shift, but three nurses reported their legitimate concerns in 1996. Gilbert had been stealing epinephrine to poison patients with, which saw a spike in cardiac arrests, and even Perrault gave his accounts. Gilbert resigned to avoid repercussions, attempting to secure her impunity by calling a bomb threat on the hospital as a distraction. She was also institutionalized multiple times in the next two years, stays lasting as short as a day and a long as more than a week. Gilbert confessed to at least one murder to Perrault during those stays. In April 1998, Gilbert was convicted of the bomb threat. Once Gilbert was tried for the murders and assaults, evidence against included her actions, specifically delaying responses to medical crises, gathering untrained staff to be in crash teams, and threatening lives verbally in the office. On March 14, 2001, Gilbert was found guilty in federal court of three first-degree murders, one second-degree murder, and two attempted murders. The prosecution worked for the death penalty, but the jury recommended life imprisonment, to which the presiding judge sentenced Gilbert to four consecutive terms of, plus 20 years. she remains incarcerated at the FMC Carswell women's prison Fort Worth, Texas. Gilbert filed an appeal, but dropped it with the risk of her being sentenced to death from a retrial.

Modus Operandi[]

Gilbert targeted the patients at the Veterans Affair Medical Center. She typically killed or attempted to kill them with fatal and critical doses of epinephrine in their IV lines. Gilbert would at most abandon the patient for some time for the poisoning to take effect, having herself or her colleagues respond either when the patient was coding or she pretended to or one of the staff would soon notice the patient's worsening condition. She also at least once pulled a patient's breathing tube in an attempt on their life. Gilbert would make everyone respond to the scene even if they didn't have the medical training. As investigations would close in, she would threaten and accost people around her in retribution. After she was fired, she called in a bomb threat on the hospital as retaliation. Gilbert also had a history of threatening and physically assaulting staff, patients, and other victims before her confirmed murders, including with a kitchen knife and scalding water.

Known Victims[]

  • 1970s-1980s: Unnamed handicapped child (assaulted; scalded with bath water)
  • January-February 1988: Unnamed victim (assaulted with a kitchen knife)
  • Veteran Affairs Medical Center, Northampton, Massachusets:
    • 1994:
      • January 30: Unnamed victim (attempted; pulled their breathing tube)
    • 1995
      • Unknown date: Henry Hudson
      • August 21: Stanley Jagadowski
      • November: Unnamed victim (attempted; poisoned twice)
      • December
        • Unknown date: Edward Skwira
        • December 20: Francis Marier (attempted; poisoned)
    • 1996:
      • January 28: Unnamed victim (attempted to poison)
      • February 20: Kenneth Cutting
  • Note: Gilbert has long been suspected of 350 murders and more than 300 medical emergencies at the VAMC while working there.

On Suspect Behavior[]

  • Season One
    • "See No Evil" - While never directly mentioned or referenced in the franchise, Gilbert appears to be the primary inspiration for the episode's unsub, Margaret McKenna - Both are female "angel of death"-type serial killers with factitious disorder by proxy who poisoned patients at the hospitals where they worked as nurses, resulting in at least one murder, to get attention for recognizing the crisis, were fired from their places of employment once caught, their crimes were covered up by the respective hospitals, and they committed additional crimes to create scandals at the respective hospitals as retaliation for being fired (McKenna killed and attacked patients and staff at the hospital, Gilbert called in bomb threats at the hospital).

Sources[]

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