Kristen Gilbert showed neurotic tendencies and a penchant for lying as young as adolescence, but it wasn't until she became a nurse that these habits grew dangerous. In 1989, after joining the staff at Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Massachusetts, her colleagues began to notice a rise in cardiac arrest deaths.
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Nov 2022
Thanksgiving Special: Just Add Arsenic
Over the ages, arsenic has had many lives — beauty fad, household product, medical prescription… and weapon of choice wielded by killers everywhere from Alabama to ancient Rome. Brine your turkey, knead your dough, and listen to our Thanksgiving Special on the regime-changing, as ... Show More
42m 41s
Apr 2024
“Killer Nurse” Kristen Gilbert
In 1989, Kristen Gilbert started her nursing career at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Northampton, Massachusetts. She impressed medical staff for her quick and skilled reactions to emergencies on her ward and in the ICU. But over the following seven years, so much death o ... Show More
45m 12s
Oct 2020
"The American Beauty Murder" Pt. 1: Kristin Rossum
After a childhood spent striving for perfection in the early '90s, a devastating ballet injury turned Kristin Rossum to drugs. She married the man who helped her get clean, but after a series of marital rifts, she used her knowledge as a toxicologist to plan the perfect murder. L ... Show More
48m 27s
Aug 2021
Princess Diana Look-alike Mom Shoots Her Three Little Children Point Blank
On May 19, 1983, Diane Downs drives her three children to McKenzie-Willamette Hospital in a blood-spattered car. She tells police that a man trying to carjack the vehicle opened fire, striking everyone inside. Cheryl,7, was killed. Danny, 3, ended up paralyzed from the waist down ... Show More
36m 50s
Jan 2018
“Jolly Jane” - Jane Toppan
After a childhood filled with abuse, poverty, and shame, Jane Toppan (born Honora Kelley), left her foster home and pursued nursing. To many, she seemed like a loving nurse who cared deeply for her patients. But for years, she used her nursing skills to experiment with medicines. ... Show More
50m 31s
Oct 2020
“The Starvation Doctor” Linda Hazzard Pt. 1
In the early 1900s, Linda Hazzard marketed herself as a doctor, and claimed that she could cure any ailment with her special starvation regimens. Except, instead of curing her patients, she was killing them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
43m 16s
Aug 2020
E212: Catherine Anne Cesnik Pt. 1
On January 3, 1970, the body of a young teaching nun was found in a Baltimore suburb. Cathy Cesnik was a devout Catholic and beloved by her students… But in the months before her murder, she’d left her teaching job and hung up her habit. Was her strange behavior just a coincidenc ... Show More
45m 23s