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55-year-old Kristen Gilbert, a former nurse, was accused of killing several patients at a hospital while she was working there. Gilbert was also jokingly known as the "Angel of Death" among her colleagues due to the high number of deaths that always occured during her shift.
During her trial, prosecutors argued that she did this in a bid to win the heart of James Perrault, who also worked in the same hospital. The two had reportedly dated for some time.
Gilbert was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001. She narrowly escaped the death penalty.
The story of Kristen Gilbert was detailed in the latest episode of Oxygen's Snapped, titled Notorious: Kristen Gilbert. The official synopsis of the episode read:
"Police believe nurse Kristen Gilbert may have committed up to 60 murders at a hospital in Massachusetts; some say an affair drove Gilbert to murder while others think her narcissism caused the death of these innocent patients."
Before you tune into the episode, here are some must-know facts about Kristen Gilbert.
What exactly did Kristen Gilbert do? Five facts summing up her crime
The backstory
Kristen Gilbert worked as a nurse at the VA Medical Center in Northampton, Massachusetts. As dedicated and dutiful as she was, she was sometimes referred to as "The Angel of Death" by her fellow colleagues.
This was because a number of inexplicable deaths started occurring during her shift hours. Initially, everyone thought it was just a coincidence and decided not to pay much heed. It was only later when her co-workers started realizing that she had a history and a habit of manipulating and lying that the authorities started to take things seriously.
Patients without heart problems started to suffer cardiac arrests
Other nurses started to get suspicious when hospital patients with no history of heart disease began to die from cardiac arrests. What was even stranger was that all this was happening when Gilbert was on duty.
Another thing that caught the attention of the nurses was a shortage of epinephrine, a drug that needs to be optimally used as it can both save and kill lives.
Co-workers decided to complain
In February 1996, three of her co-workers complained about the recent death of two of Kristen's patients and the shortage in the supply of epinephrine. This resulted in Gilbert quitting her job. The move, however, affected her relationship with James Perrault.
Shortly after she quit her job, she reportedly dropped in and out of the psychiatric ward a couple of times. On one such day, she called up Perrault and told him:
"You know I did it. I did it. You wanted to know. I killed those guys."
Perrault complained to the authorities about Gilbert's confession
Perrault proceeded to complain to authorities after Gilbert confessed to him that she was the one killing those hospital patients. An investigation in the case was launched. However, in an attempt to derail the investigation, Gilbert made a hoax call at the same hospital about a bomb being planted there. After the bomb threat, Gilbert was arrested.
Gilbert narrowly escaped a death sentence
Gilbert was convicted on grounds of murder and attempted murder and was given life imprisonment. She somehow escaped a death sentence.
Gilbert admitted to having carried out the killings just to show off to Perrault.
