An AntiPolygraph.org reader has brought to my attention the following
article, published 18 November 2004 in the Allentown, Pennsylvania
Morning Call regarding the case of Charles Cullen, the serial-killer nurse who passed a polygraph "test," enabling him to continue his killing spree:
Quote:Cullen pleads guilty in Lehigh
Families attend court as he admits 6 murders, 3 attempts.
By Debbie Garlicki
Of The Morning Call
November 18, 2004
Grieving relatives got their first look at Charles Cullen since he admitted killing their loved ones, as the former nurse pleaded guilty Wednesday to six first-degree murders and three attempted homicides in Lehigh County.
It was Cullen's first appearance in a Lehigh County courtroom since his admission 11 months ago that he killed dozens of his patients during his 16 years as a critical care nurse in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
For many family members, it was their first chance to see the man who decided who under his care should die, when and how. Others recalled seeing him in a loved one's hospital room more than three years ago. Some relatives cried before the hearing even started and pointed at Cullen as he sat alone at the defense table while his lawyers and the prosecutor met in chambers with the judge.
Cullen, 44, formerly of Bethlehem, shuffled in leg shackles to the front of the judge's bench where he stood for the 45-minute proceeding that held no surprises.
While collective in their grief, the families had different reactions to Cullen's pleas. For some, it was a step closer to closure. For others, hearing a loved one's name in the cavernous courtroom was like reliving the death.
For most of the hearing, the relatives saw only Cullen's back as he was flanked by his lawyers, Johnnie Mask and Gary Asteak.
But family members and friends heard him admit in a soft voice that he intended to kill their loved ones and tried to kill others when he administered lethal medicines in the coronary care unit of St. Luke's Hospital, Fountain Hill, and the burn unit at Lehigh Valley Hospital, Salisbury Township.
Walter Henne of Slatington had hoped to lock eyes with the man who killed his mother-in-law, Irene Krapf, 79, who died on June 22, 2001, less than an hour after her admission to St. Luke's.
If Cullen had looked at Henne's family, ''he would have seen our hurt and pain,'' Henne said.
He hopes to come face to face with Cullen at a future sentencing hearing. ''We carry this anger and this grief and hatred,'' Henne said. ''There is no one to release that to but Cullen.''
A Jan. 7 sentencing could be postponed until after Cullen is sentenced in New Jersey, where he has pleaded guilty to three deaths in Warren Hospital and 13 murders and two attempted homicides at Somerset Medical Center in Somerville, N.J.
John Shanagher of Bridgewater, N.J., sympathized with the families. In April, he heard Cullen plead guilty to killing his 83-year-old father, Jack Shanagher, in New Jersey in 2003.
John Shanagher hopes the Lehigh County families will be able to do what he might not — tell Cullen what they think. Mask has said that a plea agreement gives Cullen the ability to waive his right to be at sentencings in both states.
''Talking to an empty chair just isn't the same thing,'' Shanagher said.
In exchange for helping authorities to identify his victims, Cullen will be spared the death penalty. He will get seven concurrent life sentences for the Lehigh County deaths and for the death of Ottomar Schramm in Northampton County.
It's still unclear whether Cullen will be at his Lehigh County sentencing.
Mask earlier had said that Cullen wanted to waive his presence, but President Judge William H. Platt said he wouldn't agree to that.
On Wednesday, Mask again told Platt that Cullen wants to waive his right to appear. Platt denied the waiver request.
Asteak asked the judge if he would entertain a motion for permission to appeal to the state Superior Court.
Without a moment's hesitation, Platt said, ''I will entertain that and deny it.''
After the hearing, Asteak said the defense still has the option of an appeal. ''There is a substantial chance that he may not show'' at his sentencing, he said.
Referring to possible ramifications, Asteak posed the question: ''What are you gonna do? Lock him up?''
District Attorney James B. Martin said he believes the court can compel Cullen to appear.
Cullen said little at the hearing and gave ''yes'' and ''no, your honor'' responses to standard questions at plea hearings. One question took on added meaning.
''What kind of work experience have you had?'' Platt asked.
As the more-than 50 people in the courtroom strained to hear, Cullen replied, ''Nursing.''
Cullen worked for 16 years in 10 medical facilities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Martin, state Trooper Robert Egan and state police Sgt. Andrew Ashmar summarized how Cullen used digoxin, vecuronium, nitroprusside and norepinephrine to kill or try to kill patients.
At St. Luke's, Cullen killed Krapf of Tamaqua; William M. Park, 72, of Franklin Township; Sam Spangler, 80, of East Allen Township; Daniel George, 82, of Bethlehem; and Edward O'Toole, 76, of Whitehall Township, all between June 2001 and June 2002.
Cullen admitted killing Matthew L. Mattern, 22, of Shamokin, Northumberland County, at Lehigh Valley Hospital in 1999.
He tried to kill John P. Gallagher, 90, of Bethlehem; Paul Galgon, 72, of Bethlehem; and Stella Danielczyk, 73, of Larksville, Luzerne County. A forensic pathologist could not establish a direct link between their deaths and medications.
The plea leaves unanswered questions. Connie Keeler of Bethlehem Township still wonders why Cullen was charged only with attempted homicide in the case of Galgon, her father, who died Dec. 29, 2001, nine hours after Cullen gave him digoxin.
Michele Greening, Krapf's granddaughter, wants to know, ''Why? How did he choose her?''
While angry that Cullen targeted Gallagher, her friend, Julie Sanders of Bethlehem finds comfort in having something that Cullen does not: memories and Gallagher's stories, those that only someone who has lived and loved for nine decades could tell.
''He,'' she said of Cullen, ''did not know these people. And he certainly did not know John.''
debbie.garlicki@mcall.com
610-820-6764
Reporter Ann Wlazelek contributed to this story.
Copyright © 2004, The Morning Call
In addition, the transcript of an interview with Cullen was
published by the New Jersey
Star-Ledger on 12 September 2004. The text of that interview is reproduced here, with the section on polygraphs highlighted:
Quote:Charles Cullen: In his own words
Sunday, September 12, 2004
Two days after being arrested Dec. 12, 2003, for the murder and attempted murder of two Somerset Medical Center patients, nurse Charles Cullen agreed to be interviewed by Somerset County detectives Timothy Braun and Daniel Baldwin, who were investigating the case.
The interview, in which Cullen admitted to killing as many as 40 patients, lasted seven hours. Toward the end, Braun asked Cullen why he did it. Cullen spent the next 45 minutes answering. Here is a transcript of that portion of their conversation, obtained exclusively by The Star-Ledger. The transcript has been edited for clarity and to reduce redundancies:
Detective Sgt. Timothy Braun: Okay. Earlier you had indicated ... you had estimated anywhere between 30 and 40 deaths had occurred at these various medical institutions and facilities over your 15 or 16-year career , is that correct?
Charles Cullen: Yes.
Braun: And for each of these occurrences had it been your intention to cause the death of the various patients?
Cullen: Yes, it was.
Braun: And the question that arises out of all of this, Charles, is 'the why.' Could you please explain 'the why' behind all the deaths caused by yourself throughout the years?
Cullen: My, my intent was to decrease suffering in people I saw throughout my career. I didn't intend for these patients, these people to suffer, to go through unusual things, you know. I know codes aren't pretty, but believed that my actions would not cause them pain and suffering. That I would just cause them to pass away and not to suffer or linger and, the terminal, or a high pain situation, or in the case of a couple of the burn patients ... just slowly being chopped away and so it was very dehumanizing process.
I wanted very much to quit being a nurse after Warren Hospital. I, my counselor ... thought I should step away from nursing just because I wasn't dealing with my depression and stress in my life very well. That wasn't an option for me, at that time, because I think that I would have gladly walked away from nursing at that point in my life just because I had done these things and did not want to do these things anymore. And I knew that I was placed in these situations that I would feel the need ... to end suffering.
But I felt like I was given no choice at the time and I know people always have choices, but they were telling me that I was a deadbeat dad, that I had to continue to support the children that, you know, that they believed that me even being unemployed for depression was me trying to avoid my child support obligations.
They made it quite clear to me that I was still going to have to pay the same amount of money and I didn't know what I was going to do at $22 to $25 dollars an hour even back then in '91. What else I was going to do that I could make that sort of money? I felt very trapped. I went back into nursing, totally, totally depressed, totally not wanting to do this job any more and I felt extremely trapped like there was no way I could just say, 'I, I can't, I can't do this job.' From the very beginning of it. And I know this seems stupid but I ...
Braun: No, you're honest.
Cullen: Thirteen thousand dollars in child support a year and that was based upon the overtime that I was working along with my regular hours because I was trying to avoid my ex-wife ... both of us were going through a very difficult time so I wanted to spend as much time as I could at work. To be away from that situation and they took into account saying that was my potential earnings and I was making I think $50,000 back in '91, with a few exceptions. You know I've made over $40,000 since then and I've made as high as almost $70,000 but I, I felt very trapped. I felt even, even with me working extra hours which I tried to do for the most part, I, I felt very trapped in, in my social situation which I, I, I lived in a basement apartment. I did without things you know, I tried to provide for my kids. I tried to, I tried to get them what they wanted, what they needed.
There were times during the divorce my ex-wife told them that I didn't care about them, that I was trying to get out of paying my support and my kids would tell me this. I, I, I didn't. I didn't want to be this nurse, I didn't want to continue, but it was the only thing I thought I could do, and felt that I was competent enough to do and earn the type of money ... in order to not continually to fall behind because every time I fell behind or, or there were times when I would miss payments because of depression or suicide attempts you know I, I was painted as the father who didn't care about his kids not only from my ex-wife to my kids, but from the court system to me, and I, and again I was told several times that I would go to jail and, you know I would be this deadbeat dad and I decided I had to continue working as a nurse. I would of rather not have been.
Braun: Why is that?
Cullen: Because I felt guilty for what I had done, even though I was trying to reduce people's sufferings. I would go long periods of time with nothing but then I would find myself getting back, feeling overwhelmed, feeling like I couldn't watch people hurt, and die and be treated like non-humans and at times the only thing that I could feel like I could do was to try and end their suffering and I don't believe I had that right but I did it any way.
I have destroyed not only those people's -- God -- destiny, and caused probably a lot of suffering for those families, but I have also hurt people that I loved very much, and didn't for the world want to do that. I love my children very much and very much wanted to be a part of their lives but I just couldn't stop myself. I didn't know how to say it, what was happening, what I was feeling, what I was doing and not lose everything and got involved with people I thought that would help me this some how stop.
I didn't mean to put my girlfriend in this situation. I thought that I would be able to stop. I thought I could change, but I don't think I was capable of doing that. I couldn't seem to stop trying to do this. I know that I felt depressed, I know that I never told any of my co-workers anything that was happening. I didn't tell me ex-wife or my girlfriend or the people that I was seeing or dating.
This is something that I kept inside of me, something that I kept on telling myself that I could stop if I had someone in my life ... I'm not saying that my children weren't my life but there was the disconnected relationship, it was being a hell of a lot less of a father then I thought I was supposed to be. And even early on in the marriage (to his ex-wife) we had a lot of problems that, we weren't getting along, and I saw the end of the marriage way before it came and I was ... very depressed then.
And I tried to kill myself throughout my life because I never really liked being who I was, because I didn't think I was worthy of anything. So at times for the guilt ... that was building up inside me, when those things were happening, but I never could do it.
And I do think that the best thing not only just for me but for other people in my life if I was not, or, am not, around in the future. I believe eventually they will be able to go on, but I just don't think I could ever be healthy, I don't think.
I honestly wish I was something other than a nurse. I wish that I never was in this situation. I thought, I thought it would be a good thing for me. I ... had gotten love, happiness out of helping people. I, I won't say it was happiness why I did this.
I felt very compelled, very driven to, to end suffering as I saw it, you know, and I, and I kept on going back to that behavior, I couldn't stop myself. I went through counseling, it was nothing that I couldn't bring forward. It was, it was a dirty dark secret, it bothered me, you know. I felt like I was helping people I also knew it was wrong. I did know it was wrong ...
I didn't want people to suffer. I know I have caused suffering not only to family members that, that, that lived through it, but also the patients for whatever time period whether that be a couple of hours, sometimes, you know, cause I believe there were some times where the patient was revived for awhile and then, and then died later for especially with the insulin, it was a very imprecise way to, and causes I think a lot more, and wasn't very assured that it was going to accomplish what I was thinking of when I did it.
And I don't know why I chose that with the people I did, I don't, other than I thought it would do what it was going to do, but I want to make it perfectly clear that no, nobody that I was even very emotionally close to ever knew that, that I, it was not something that I was ever wanting to tell people about.
I honestly thought that I would die from my own hands at some point. That I would find the courage to go all the away. To not chicken out of my suicide attempt and to die and at least not have my life end the way that I feel maybe that it was going to end at some point. But I really thought I could do it. I didn't try to kill myself to, to talk about this to someone, 'cause this is something that I never, ever wanted my family to know about.
My girlfriend ... who had no clue of what I was doing but who may lose her job, who may not be able to stay where she's living. Who is going to have a child, a third child and know, I shouldn't say no support, but not, not to have someone there, you know. Eventually, hopefully she will, but I screwed a lot of lives up a lot. I don't see any advantage in me being alive.
I know on some level I want my death and therefore maybe, you know, lethal injection may not be what they consider the worst punishment, but I don't see any positive outcome. It may help provide closure sooner to my family. Nothing that they would ever forget it but at least if I'm not around, they wouldn't be reminded about it as much. And maybe there would be some closure.
And I think that, I know for me, it's what I want, but I also think that it would be best for other people and I hope that they would do that. If not for me, if at least for the other people in my life, and other people who I think would get some closure from this ...
But I never told (my girlfriend), I never told (another friend) what I had done or my ex-wife. I was deceitful, I was deceptive, I was embarrassed, I didn't know how to say it. I, I, I did not want the people to see me as this, what I am.
Braun: What are you, Charles?
Cullen: A man, person, who was trusted and had responsibility for a lot of people dying. And whether or not they had a couple of days, or weeks, or whether even they sometimes had months, whether that was with pain or without pain, I had no right to do this. I had no right. I just couldn't stop, I couldn't stop it.
And I, I wish I would have taken my own life a long time ago so I wouldn't have done what I did. You know, maybe if I was nine years old and would have to die that day, all these lives, including my family, wouldn't be affected in this way. You know, it would be just some sad tale of someone who killed himself years ago instead of someone who did this.
I hate myself for it cause I don't believe I had the right, but I couldn't stop. I couldn't. I kept on thinking there were long periods of time when I did nothing and I thought, I thought I was working through it. But I've just spent -- I kept on going into these deep depressions and I would say that that was part of it.
But even though there were problems in my current relationship, I loved her, I loved her a lot. I don't want this to be happening to her 'cause out of the people in my life, I'm not saying I don't care about my kids, but she's the least ... person right now that has protection from feeling the brunt of most of this because she, you know, doesn't have another person to depend upon financially, doesn't have that support, she's got three children, she's alone. And I know she's got her family, but she may lose her home because of this. She could very well lose her job. She started crying when she asked me if I really did it or if I was just saying, 'cause I think even to the very last second she still wants to believe that I did not do this ... I wish, I wish I could tell her that I didn't. I wish I could give her that, but I can't. I can't even give her that, but I wish I could.
And every day I live, whatever the decision is, but I don't want to have to live and, for years and years, I know what I did is wrong, I just, I, I don't want to live. I don't want to live and I don't think that I, I, I hope that they don't just decide to lock me in jail.
I know I'll be afraid of what is going to happen after I die, but I'm more afraid of seeing, feeling what I think my kids will have to go through for the rest of their lives even if they don't get possibly hurt by someone who is angry about what I did. I don't want them to be afraid to walk home from school and think that somebody is going to say those are Cullen's kids and he was a murderer and I'm going to hurt him in a way -- I don't really care what happens to me.
I don't want (my girlfriend) or our unborn child to have to go through that. I wish I could tell them that I didn't do it. I wish -- more than anybody will ever know -- I wish I didn't do it, but I can't even remember all these people. It's like a fog, maybe that's how I've gotten to this point, you know, but I know I did it and I just don't remember details. I don't remember faces and I don't remember. I'm thinking how could I do that and not remember, but I can't.
I tried to kill myself a lot and maybe, maybe a lot, probably way over 20 times, but only serious enough to be hospitalized maybe for seven or eight of them maybe. Cause a lot of time when I thought about taking medication from the hospital and causing my own death, but as bizarre as it sounded I did not want my kids to think that I killed myself with drugs or stole hospital property. I know I threw away a lot of medications, but I didn't want my kids to have that with them. On some level I see what I did as very self destructive, wanting, wanting and thinking that, my God, especially St. Luke's, they knew what I did. Saint Barnabas knew. I'm not as positive about but I'm pretty sure they knew what I did, and I didn't believe that Warren wasn't going to prove that I had done it. When the toxicology screen came back negative, when I passed the lie detector, I thought, I don't know how, I don't know how.
Braun: One quick question on that. In our first meeting with you, when you had discussed the polygraph and you said you did not want to, cause of false positives, is that the reason why? Out of curiosity, because you had passed it before knowing that you had lied to it?
Cullen: I didn't necessarily believe that I would pass it or fail. I, I didn't know whether it would prove or disprove anything. I thought on some level that I didn't want to confirm it and on other parts I didn't want to make you think I didn't do it. I know that doesn't sound too clear, but you know, I really didn't think that Warren Hospital would believe me. I, I really didn't think that the prosecutor's of Warren County would believe me. I thought that for sure they would see me as a person who had all these suicide attempts, that was constantly wanting to end my life and wouldn't believe that I hadn't done it, but I guess they were faced with a positive, or, a polygraphy that cleared me and a toxicology screen that didn't show anything and you know, and then they concluded that I hadn't done anything.
Detective Daniel Baldwin: Did you want to get caught?
Cullen: I think I did, especially with the Pyxis, I knew, I knew ...
Baldwin: Okay, that is why I am asking that question because of the trail you left.
Cullen: I knew, I knew that they kept permanent records and I knew that even if I entered it that they would see those entries, I knew that I had done that a lot, I knew that I had gone into, or gotten medications that patients weren't on and charged it to the patient. Um, you know, and again I'm not trying to decrease my blame, but they let me go on the morning. I don't believe that they decided that morning to discharge, but they suspected me of hurting people. I believe they knew the day before. I don't understand why they would let me work another shift if they thought I was a danger to patients.
Baldwin: Was anybody harmed that last shift?
Cullen: No, no.
Baldwin: Any attempts?
Cullen: No, no but they, my nurse manager came in at 5:30 and said that she wanted to talk to me. I thought it was for my evaluation. When I went in there I was with HR, and they could've made the decision at 5 in the morning that I was guilty and gotten everything together that morning, but I believe that they let me work that night knowing that I was a potential harm to people and I'm not saying I'm not responsible for what I did, but you know, Saint Barnabas to some extent Warren, to a large extent St. Luke's and to a lesser extent, well, except for the end, Somerset.
They suspected me and they didn't do anything. I mean I'm here now, but I don't think that's mainly because of the, your prompting. I mean I don't think they were planning on necessarily terminating me for inaccuracies on my job application. I didn't believe them. I thought it had something to do with what had happened and on some level I thought that I was going to continue, you know, you know, I, I didn't know if I could stop even with this last time. I thought that it would happen again and it probably would have.
I kept on thinking that I loved people in my life and I'd, I'd be able to stop for them, but I don't think I could. They didn't know what was going on. I didn't allow anybody to know it and they are also going to suffer because of this. I, I guess I'll never know to what extent, but I am sorry for that too.
Baldwin: Let me ask you one quick question. When you would choose your patients, would you contemplate about this for several days, looking at the patient's illness, or would it be an impulse during that day. You'd just come in one day and say, 'Oh, that patient's very ill I should take them out of their misery.'
Cullen: It was more impulse. I'm not saying that there wasn't some that I hadn't thought about over a period of time, seeing them get worse and worse.
Baldwin: Right.
Cullen: And thinking that person is just going to linger and suffer and that I, I really did not enjoy the codes -- especially ones that were the result of what I had done -- because I saw stuff go on. You know, the chest compressions, the intubation, the shocking, sometimes revival for a short period of time. I didn't want them to go through that. And I know I chose insulin several times and in some way I knew that there wasn't any effective way and I don't know why I chose that. It was just again an impulse thing. I felt compelled.
I did believe that I would stop, and I had stopped for periods of time. Sometimes long periods of time. But it seemed like I went back to it all the time. You know, I have, have this baby coming for seven months and its been a rough relationship, I mean, I'm not saying that I don't love her, but we've come close to breaking up several times and I think that that had something to do with my feelings that I didn't care what happened to me. Um, but I, I can't explain it all.
Braun: Okay. After accomplishing what you had set out to do in the taking of ones life during this time, did you, how did that make you feel afterwards. After you had accomplished what you had set out to do?
Cullen: There was a combination of feelings. There was fear, fear of being caught, there was a feeling that ended suffering, especially when everybody around would say oh my God at least he's dead now. I mean, that happened most of the time. That was a, the consensus of the people around me that the person is better off dead than alive.
I did feel sick. I, and I several times would tell myself never again, thinking that I had no right to do this, that it was wrong and, like I said, whether it be a matter of hours in the case of a terminal patient that was terminally weaned that was dying, or whether it was somebody in last stages of cancer that may have had months left, I have no right to do that.
Whatever time they would have had with their family or even if they weren't aware of the time that the family was around them, the family had them, it was wrong. I know that. I had felt compelled.
I wish I was stopped years ago. I mean, St. Luke's, I literally threw away thousands, thousands of dollars worth of medications. I mean, you know, they, they would stock 30 pronestyl, which they never used, the next day it would be gone. They would replace it with 30, it would be gone the next day. I mean, I mean, you know, maybe 70, 80 bottles of a drug that was never used, you know. I mean, I mean large, large quantities of drugs I threw away. They had my fingerprints. I didn't try and disguise my fingerprints.
I knew something was going on, everybody was acting very weird at St. Luke's. The supervisor would come in and go into the med room and there was something I knew was going on, and I suspected that they thought or was trying to narrow down to me. I went in there that night and threw away a lot of medications the last night. I was the only one, you know, I was the only one. They knew.
How the Pennsylvania investigators didn't feel like there was enough evidence to prove it was me, to take away my license, I don't know. I was the only person on all those nights, every single time it occurred. I know sometimes they may be able, couldn't narrow it down to a specific night, but at least two of those nights they knew I was the only person that was on those two nights specifically.
I don't know, you know the, the legal representative from the hospital implied that he knew it was me. The hospital just didn't want this to get out. But I, I am 100 percent sure that he knew. They knew it was me. And when they tried to get my license revoked maybe thinking that they would stop me, they didn't want to admit that any patient may have been harmed also.
Braun: Right.
Cullen: The hospital denied any potential misuse to the patients, and I think they suspected, they knew I had caused ...
Baldwin: Caused a death?
Cullen: Yeah, yeah.
Baldwin: Let me ask you a question. Are the numbers pertaining to, the attempts on patient's lives, far greater than the actual deaths of the patients?
Cullen: No, I think it's pretty close to the same, that most of the attempts were completions.
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Former Nurse Beats Polygraph (Read 4840 times)
