Kristen Heather Gilbert (néeStrickland; November 13, 1967) is an American serial killer andformer nurse who was convicted of four murders and two attemptedmurders of patients admitted to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center(VAMC) in Northampton, Massachusetts. She induced cardiac arrest inpatients by injecting their intravenous therapy bags with massivedoses of epinephrine, an untraceable heart stimulant. She would thenrespond to the coded emergency, often resuscitating the patientsherself. Although it is believed that she may have been responsiblefor 350 or more deaths, her only confirmed victims were StanleyJagodowski, Henry Hudon, Kenneth Cutting, and Edward Skwira.
Early life
Gilbert was born Kristen HeatherStrickland in Fall River, Massachusetts, on November 13, 1967, theelder of Richard and Claudia Strickland's two daughters. Richard wasan electronics executive, while Claudia was a homemaker and part-timeteacher. As she entered her teenage years, friends and familynoticed that she had a habit for lying. She had a history of fakingsuicide attempts to manipulate people. According to court records,she had made violent threats against others since she was a teenager.
Gilbert graduated from Groton-DunstableRegional High School in Groton, Massachusetts. In 1986, she enrolledat Bridgewater State College in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. After afake suicide attempt, she was ordered psychiatric treatment byBridgewater State College officials. Because of this, in 1987, shetransferred to Mount Wachusett Community College in Gardner,Massachusetts and then to Greenfield Community College in Greenfield,Massachusetts. She graduated from the latter with a nursing diploma,becoming a registered nurse in 1988. Later that year, she marriedGlenn Gilbert.
Career and murders
In 1989, she joined the staff of theVeterans Affairs Medical Center in Northampton. She was featured inthe magazine VA Practitioner in April 1990. Although other nursesnoticed a high number of deaths on Gilbert's watch, they passed itoff and jokingly called her the "Angel of Death." In1996, however, three nurses reported their concern about an increasein cardiac arrest deaths and a decrease in the supply of epinephrine,and an investigation ensued. Gilbert telephoned in a bomb threat toattempt to derail the investigation.
Gilbert left the hospital in 1996 amida hospital investigation into the many suspicious patient deaths thatoccurred during her shifts. That fall, Gilbert checked herself intopsychiatric hospitals seven times, staying between one and ten dayseach time. In January 1998, Gilbert stood trial for calling in abomb threat to the Northampton VAMC to retaliate against coworkersand former boyfriend James Perrault (who also worked at the hospital)for their participation in the investigation. In April 1998, Gilbertwas convicted of that crime.
VA hospital staff members speculatedthat Gilbert may have been responsible for 350 or more deaths andmore than 300 medical emergencies. The prosecutor in her case,Assistant US Attorney William M. Welch II, asserted that Gilbert usedthese emergency situations to gain the attention of then-boyfriendPerrault, a VA police officer—hospital rules required that hospitalpolice be present at any medical emergency. Perrault testifiedagainst her, saying that she confessed at least one murder to him byphone while she was hospitalized in a psychiatric ward. Defenseattorney David P. Hoose claimed reasonable doubt based on a lack ofdirect evidence.
William Boutelle, a psychiatrist whoserved as chief of staff at the Northampton VAMC, has theorized thatshe created emergency medical crisis situations to display herproficiency as a nurse. According to court records, she had madeviolent threats against others since she was a teenager. At thetrial, prosecutors said she used a large kitchen knife in an assaultin Greenfield, Massachusetts in January or February 1988. Prosecutorssaid she tried twice to murder a person by poison in November 1995.Prosecutors said that Gilbert tried to poison a patient at the VAhospital on Jan. 28, 1996, and that she caused a medical emergency byremoving a patient's breathing tube at the VA hospital on Jan. 30,1994.
Prosecutors said that Gilbert abandoneda patient undergoing cardiac arrest on Nov. 9, 1995, and then askedanother nurse to accompany her on a check of patients. Prosecutorssaid she waited until her colleague independently spotted thepatient's difficulty before raising an alarm. Gilbert forced anuntrained colleague to use cardiac defibrillation paddles on apatient during a medical emergency on Nov. 17, 1995, by refusing touse the equipment herself. Prosecutors said Gilbert threatened thelife of at least one person verbally and physically in July 1996. While working as a home health aide before becoming a registerednurse and about eight years before her VAMC crimes, Gilbert purposelyscalded a mentally handicapped child with hot bath water.
On March 14, 2001, a federal juryconvicted Gilbert on three counts of first-degree murder, one countof second-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder. ThoughMassachusetts does not have capital punishment, her crimes werecommitted on federal property and thus subject to the death penalty.Prosecutors, in an attempt to secure a penalty of death, sought toadmit evidence of aggravating factors during the penalty phase,including Gilbert's 1998 conviction for the bomb threat; the defenseintroduced evidence of mitigating factors, including the well-beingof Gilbert's two children.
On March 26, 2001, the jury recommendeda sentence of life imprisonment. On March 27, the judge formallysentenced Gilbert to four consecutive life terms without thepossibility of parole, plus 20 years. She was transferred from aprison for women in Framingham, Massachusetts to FMC Carswell in FortWorth, Texas, where she has remained ever since.
In July 2003, Gilbert dropped herfederal appeal for a new trial after a new US Supreme Court rulingthat would have allowed prosecutors to pursue the death penalty uponretrial.
Personal life
Gilbert had two sons with Glenn Gilbertbefore they divorced in 1998. At the time of her arrest, she livedin Setauket, New York.
In pop culture
Podcasts
Murderous States Of Mind- Episode #8:Kristen Gilbert https://msomindpod.buzzsprout.com/
Book
Gilbert is the subject of the bookPerfect Poison by M. William Phelps.
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