Imagine being a veteran of a war. Korea, WWII, Vietnam just to name a few and you're entrusting your healthcare to the local VA hospital in North Hampton, Massachusetts. You're trusting the doctors and nurses (often called "Angels of Mercy") to get you better and get you on your way. But you end up dead. Perfectly healthy going in, a touch of the flu, young, just in need of fluids and care. However, your nurse is an attention whore who has borderline personality disorder. You're not the only one that will die from her hand. You survived fighting the enemy, but you lost your life to a nurse who swore an oath to protect and save you. This is the Kristen Gilbert story.
Kristen was born on November 13th, 1967. The oldest daughter of Claudia and Richard Strickland, she began to lie at an early age. In her teenage years, she would threaten suicide to keep boyfriends who would try and break up with her. In 1986, she enrolled in Bridgewater State College. While there, she faked a suicide attempt and was hospitalized. Afterwards she decided to transfer to Mount Wachusett Community College and Greenfield Community College. She graduated with a nursing degree (RN) in 1988. Later that year she would marry her boyfriend, Glenn Gilbert.
Kristen married and had two young children and seemed to be living the idyllic life. She began working for the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in 1989. According to her fellow coworkers, she was a fantastic nurse and team player. One of Kristen's coworkers was a Persian Gulf War veteran named James Perrault. He was a security guard there at the hospital and Kristen set her sights on him. Kristen and James flirted and began to have a fill blown extra marital affair in 1995. During times of emergencies, their coworkers were taken aback by the sight of the public affection such as the couple playing "footsies" under a patient's bed. Kristen lied and told James that her husband abused her, which was never proven, and Glenn denies to this day. Glenn also stated that he believes Kristen tried to kill him by poisoning his food and injecting him with a clear liquid that rendered him unconscious. Shockingly, Glenn did not leave Kristen, but Kristen divorced him due to James demanding her chose which man she wanted.
Around this time, the VA hospital noticed that they were having an increase in deaths due to fatal heart attacks. Ironically, they were all on C Ward, Kristen's ward. Nurses began to notice that Kristen was always working and in the middle of the code red's being called for all of these deaths. Kristen's boyfriend James was almost always in the room assisting with CPR, and Kristen would often jump into action even jumping on top of a patient at one time showing off her garters under her skirt.
Nurses on other floors began to notice a shortage of Epinephrine. Epinephrine is a drug administered to someone in the middle of a heart attack but can be seriously fatal if given improperly or if a patient is given too much. Conveniently, it is also almost untraceable. In February of 1996, several nurses that worked with Gilbert suspected her and began to watch her movements as they suspected she had something to do with the increasing number of deaths. An inquiry began after the nurses went to hospital administration with their suspicions that she was involved in the deaths of Kenneth Cutting, 41 and Edward Skwira, 69.
As the investigation began to heat up, Kristen quit her job and was collecting Workers Compensation pay for an alleged shoulder injury. She and James were nearing the end of their relationship at this point because he was believing the investigators and the hospital officials and wanted nothing more to do with her. She then was institutionalized in July 1996 after a suicide attempt. She called James from the hospital at that time and said " You know I did it. I killed those guys. You wanted to know." When she was released and realized that her former boyfriend was working with the investigation to help convict her, she went to a payphone and called in a bomb threat to the hospital in hopes to have the heat deterred from her. Little did she know, the cops had been following her and actually were sitting close by watching her make the call.
In November of 2002, Kristen Gilbert went on trial for the murders of Cutting, Skwira, and two other veterans as well. She was also charged with three counts of attempted murder. Massachusetts had abolished the death penalty in the 1980s, but the prosecutor was allowed to seek the death penalty in this case, due to the crimes being on federal property. During the trial, it came out that when Cutting died, she had asked " If this guy dies by 8pm, can I get off early?". In March 2001, Kristen was found guilty on 2 counts of attempted murder, 1 count of second-degree murder, and 3 charges of 1st degree murder. On March 26th, the jury decided on life in prison. The families were quite divided on the outcome. Some wanted her to die for her crimes, others wanted her to rot in jail for her lifetime.
Stanley Jagodowski, Henry Hudon, Kenneth Cutting, and Edward Skwira, were the only victims they could prove she killed. However, the police and hospital officials believe that she killed over 60 veterans. These men lost their lives to a nurse that they trusted. In a hospital, that was supposed to make them better. At least in the war, they knew who their enemy was....
Kristen is currently serving 4 life sentences. If you ask me, justice was served for those 4 men, but what about the 60 others? And why allow her to sit in jail every day. Why not fry her? She murdered the men who gave their lives to give her the freedom to get married, have children, cheat on her husband, and kill them. She is pathetic. May those brave veterans rest in peace.
Sources:
Snapped: Notorious Kristen Gilbert
Wikipedia: Kristen Gilbert
Murderpedia
I love this! This woman was sick!!