In 1998, Cullen was working at a hospital in Elston, Pennsylvania, when he committed another murder. The coroner’s report revealed a lethal amount of digoxin. However, the investigation done into the matter was inconclusive.

His murderous habits continued through 1999 when, while working in a burn unit in Allentown, Pennsylvania, he killed one patient and attempted to kill another. He would resign from that position and go on to work in the cardiac care unit in St. Luke’s Hospital in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Cullen killed five patients there over the course of three years.

Cullen’s final post at a hospital would prove to be the most lethal. He began to work at Somerset Medical Center in September of 2002. Cullen was noted for using the hospital’s computers to access patient’s records for people that he wasn’t caring for; he was also seen by coworkers going into rooms of patients that he was not attending.

He had also mastered the computerized system that the hospital used to administer medication. He worked out not one, but two methods to keep investigators from tracking the medications that he frequently used to overdose his patients.

Related: Angels of Death: Cathy Wood and Gwen Graham

In August of 2003, Somerset Medical Center alerted state authorities to the death of one of Cullen’s patients as a result of low blood sugar. Cullen was fired in October of 2003, and arrested on suspicion of murder in December. In his time at Somerset Medical Center, he murdered at least 13 people, and attempted to murder two others.

When speaking with authorities, he admitted to committing murder, and claimed that he did so to spare patients from going into cardiac or respiratory arrest; he also claimed that he overdosed patients to “end their suffering.” Despite this claim, many of his victims were not terminally ill. Cullen initially denied committing murder at other hospitals, but as detectives showed him records, he confessed to his crimes.

In April of 2004, Charles Cullen pleaded guilty to multiple murders and attempted murders at Somerset Medical Center. He would go on to plead guilty to three additional murders in May. On March 2, 2006, Cullen was sentenced to multiple consecutive life sentences, and deemed eligible for parole in 397 years.

Cullen’s actions led to a New Jersey law that requires healthcare professionals to report any workers who seem like they may pose a threat to patients to licensing boards and consumer affairs. It’s become known as the Cullen law. The Good Nurse, a film about Cullen's life, is set to come out in 2022, with Eddie Redmayne playing the notorious nurse.

Charles Cullen: New Jersey’s Angel of Death

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