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Forensics Final Exam

Kristen Gilbert: "Angel Of Death"

BY: Lena Pelleteri

Origins

Origins

Where everything began . . .

Gilbert's Background

Background

Kristen Gilbert was born Kristen Heather Strickland on November 13th, 1967, in Fall River Massachusetts, which just so happens to be the former home of the infamous Lizzie Borden. She was known for being a gifted student, and eventually studied her way into nursing. But despite this, she was known by many people to be quite strange. It's noted that her friends and former boyfriends would say that she was manipulative and a constant liar.

In 1988, she went on to get her nursing dregree in Greenfield Community College. During this time, she married her husband, Glenn Gilbert, and began working Northampton's Veteran Affairs Medical Center. For Kristen, this was all new an exciting, and her cowokers very much liked her.

Events

Events

What happened within the duration of the murders . . . ?

The Affair

When Kristen had been assigned for the night shift at the hospital, she began meeting with a man named James G. Perrault, who was a security guard at the hospital, as well as an army veteran from the Persian Gulf War. Their romance stirred up drama within the workplace. James had also been aware that Kristen had always been oddly present during the most miserable times at the hospital.

The Affair

Motivations to Kill

Motivation To Kill

Kristen's main motivations to kill are unclear, but it theorized that she wanted to impress James Perrault. Another theory states that quote, "If Kristen was anything like Jane Toppan, she was aroused by watching life slipping away." Others think that she had loved the attention this situation was giving her, therefore giving her more of a motivation to kill.

"Angel of Death"

"Angel of Death"

Kristen gained the nickname "Angel of Death" jokingly by her colleages because she had been on numerous shifts for various deaths. Although the nickname started to become true to it's meaning. It was estimated that she had been on duty within half of the hospital's 350 deaths, as well as 300 more medical emergencies just within a seven year span.

Pieces of Evidence

Pieces of Evidence

Who was killed and how . . . ?

Victims

Kristen Gilbert killed her patients by injecting them with epinephrine, which caused them to be in a state of cardiac arrest. She was known to have killed four identified people, that being former soldiers Herny Hudon, Kenneth Cutting, Edward Skwira, and Stanely Jagodowski, although prosecutors suspect that there are countless other unidentifiable victims.

Victims

Victim's families mourning, Henry Hudon's on the left, Kenneth Cutting's on the right.

Murdered victim Edward Skwira

Attempted Murder

Attempted Murder

During the midst of events, Glenn and Kristen's marriage was falling apart. Kristen would prepare home cooked meals that would be allegedly laced with drugs to get Glenn sick. After a week later to no avail of getting Glenn better, Kristen allegedly tried to poision him while under another doctor's care. She had brought a syringe with her and told him it was just saline solution, but as soon as she inserted the needle, her husband had said his arm grew cold. When he tried to escape her, she reportedly pinned him against a wall with her hip.

Luckily, Glenn has survived the incidnet, but soon after he had been released from the hosipital, Kristen left him and their kids for James G. Perrault, her affair.

Why she was so unsuspecting

Why she was unsuspecting

Kristen was pretty unsuspecting, because nobody at the hosiptal really suspected that a simple nurse could do anything regarding a murderous nature. The other doctors of the hosiptal reportedly noticed that Kristen had been there during numerous deaths, but never really thought too much of it.

Techniques?

Techniques?

No major forensic techniques were reported to have found Kristen Gilbert, however there was clear evidence to back the case up. After the series of death started to take place under Kristen's shifts started taking place, which everyone else decided to ignore under coincidence, three nurses noticed the unusual shortage of epinephrine. Epinephrine is known to be used either to save someone's life, or to end it. The nurses linked the deaths of the veterans to the drug itself, and informed authorities that the coincidence was rather odd. The disappearence of epinephrine, along with the fake bomb threat in an attempt to derail the situation, is what lead police to have their suspicions about Kristen, which eventually lead to her arrest and later her conviction.

Conviction

What happened to Kristen Gilbert?

Conviction

Witnesses Suspicions

Witnesses Suspicions

After all the allegations of abuse, threats, the deaths of the veterans, and manipulation started circling from the hospital to Kristen's own home, police started their investigation. Nurses from the hospital started filing a formal inquiry based on what they've seen and heard from Kristen's involvement in the deaths of two of her patients.

Found by Police

It was reported that James Perrault had been talking to authorities on what Kristen had revealed to him: that she called him from the psychiatric ward for being insitutionalized for a suicide attempt, to have confessed about her murders. Perrault went on to report that Kristen made a bomb threat to the hospital to derail the whole situation. It was also reported that she had been known to have killed three other patients, however their identities remain unknown.

Found by Police

Current State: Where is she now?

Current State

Kristen Gilbert was finally convicted on March 14th, 2001 of first-degree murder of the three veterans she killed, and was also convicted of second-degree murder regarding the death of another veteran. She had been sentanced to four consecutive life sentances without parole, and 20 years. As of right now, she is currently behind bars in Texas. Ironically, she escaped the death penalty by lethal injection .

Sources

Sources

Milne, Andrew. “Kristen Gilbert: Soccer Mom, Registered Nurse, and Serial Killer.” All That’s Interesting, Dec. 2021, allthatsinteresting.com/kristen-gilbert.

Blanco, Juan Ignacio. Kristen Gilbert | Murderpedia, the Encyclopedia of Murderers. murderpedia.org/female.G/g/gilbert-kristen.htm#:~:text=She%20killed%20her%20patients%20by,was%20prone%20to%20neurotic%20behavior.

Pallas, George. “Kristen Gilbert: V.A. Nurse Makes for a Rare Killer.” George Pallas, May 2022, georgepallas.com/blog/2022/04/kristen-gilbert.

Deutschmann, Jennifer. “How the Serial Killer Nurse Kristen Gilbert Killed Her Patients.” Grunge, Nov. 2021, www.grunge.com/661285/how-the-serial-killer-nurse-kristen-gilbert-killed-her-patients.

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