The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder

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Overview

After his December 2003 arrest, registered nurse Charlie Cullen was quickly dubbed "The Angel of Death" by the media. But Cullen was no mercy killer, nor was he a simple monster. He was a favorite son, husband, beloved father, best friend, and celebrated caregiver. Implicated in the deaths of as many as 300 patients, he was also perhaps the most prolific serial killer in American history.

Cullen's murderous career in the world's most trusted profession spanned sixteen years and ...

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The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder

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More About This Book

Overview

After his December 2003 arrest, registered nurse Charlie Cullen was quickly dubbed "The Angel of Death" by the media. But Cullen was no mercy killer, nor was he a simple monster. He was a favorite son, husband, beloved father, best friend, and celebrated caregiver. Implicated in the deaths of as many as 300 patients, he was also perhaps the most prolific serial killer in American history.

Cullen's murderous career in the world's most trusted profession spanned sixteen years and nine hospitals across New Jersey and Pennsylvania. When, in March of 2006, Charles Cullen was marched from his final sentencing in an Allentown, Pennsylvania, courthouse into a waiting police van, it seemed certain that the chilling secrets of his life, career, and capture would disappear with him. Now, in a riveting piece of investigative journalism nearly ten years in the making, journalist Charles Graeber presents the whole story for the first time. Based on hundreds of pages of previously unseen police records, interviews, wire-tap recordings and videotapes, as well as exclusive jailhouse conversations with Cullen himself and the confidential informant who helped bring him down, THE GOOD NURSE weaves an urgent, terrifying tale of murder, friendship, and betrayal.

Graeber's portrait of Cullen depicts a surprisingly intelligent and complicated young man whose promising career was overwhelmed by his compulsion to kill, and whose shy demeanor masked a twisted interior life hidden even to his family and friends. Were it not for the hardboiled, unrelenting work of two former Newark homicide detectives racing to put together the pieces of Cullen's professional past, and a fellow nurse willing to put everything at risk, including her job and the safety of her children, there's no telling how many more lives could have been lost.

In the tradition of In Cold Blood, THE GOOD NURSE does more than chronicle Cullen's deadly career and the breathless efforts to stop him; it paints an incredibly vivid portrait of madness and offers a penetrating look inside America's medical system. Harrowing and irresistibly paced, this book will make you look at medicine, hospitals, and the people who work in them, in an entirely different way.

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Editorial Reviews

The New York Times - Janet Maslin
…a stunning book with a flat, uninflected title that should and does bring to mind In Cold Blood…Both [Mr. Graeber] and Mr. Cullen know that the story appeals to prurient interests, as does any graphic tale of true crime. But The Good Nurse succeeds in being about much more than Mr. Cullen's murderous kinks. The causes of his pathology are not interesting. But the eagerness of ambitious hospital administrators to cover up his misdeeds is revelatory. And the police investigation that brought him down is a thriller in every sense of that word.
Publishers Weekly
Taking advantage of his exclusive access to serial killer Charles Cullen, journalist Graeber makes the most of the dramatic story of a nurse who began killing patients in 1991, and who eluded prosecution for over a decade. Experts estimate that he may have murdered up to 300 people before his arrest in 2003. Without excusing or condoning Cullen’s crimes, the author presents a picture of the killer’s horrific childhood, which may provide an explanation for his descent into violence—a journey that began with animal cruelty and emotional withdrawal from his increasingly frightened wife. Cullen began tampering with IV bags at St. Barnabas Hospital in New Jersey, and patients on the road to recovery, or who were at least stable, started dropping like flies. Incredibly, Cullen was able to move from one nursing job to another even after being forced out of employment because of suspicions that he was responsible for the deaths. Graeber doesn’t pull punches—his description of the effects of insulin poisoning are chilling, and he needn’t resort to hyperbole to damn the hospital administrators who failed to take it upon themselves to stop Cullen from claiming more lives. A deeply unsettling addition to the true crime genre. Agent: Susan Golumb, the Susan Golomb Literary Agency. (Apr.)
Kirkus Reviews
The terrifying, true tale of nurse Charles Cullen, a man who worked with the most vulnerable of patients for 16 years, delivering life or death on a whim. A whodunit where the culprit is identified on page one is as strange as a thriller with no surprise ending, but journalist Graeber presents these facts right from the beginning, never doubting the strength of the story. It works. Even without an uncertain finale, this true-crime tale delivers mystery and intrigue. The author begins with the satisfaction Cullen felt in his work, the good money he made and the doors open to him despite the litany of problems littering his professional and personal record. The author describes how Cullen came to nursing, how he felt a sense of belonging and distinction in his role, and the dysfunction of his personal life. Soon, Cullen was exerting control over his world by taking the lives of patients. Graeber does a particularly good job of showing the mounting evidence against Cullen as his misdeeds were originally discovered, following the nurse from accusation to accusation. The author imbues the story with an intense level of anticipation, with one question constantly in the background: Who will stop this man and when? Graeber describes the administrators who refused to report Cullen in the same way as the whistle-blowers who insisted on involving the police. The author's cut-and-dried delivery serves to make the many paradoxes more poignant and lend some humor to a dark subject. A thrilling and suspenseful page-turner that is sure to be loved by the majority of readers, who will be both horrified and fascinated.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780446505291
  • Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
  • Publication date: 4/15/2013
  • Pages: 307
  • Sales rank: 138
  • Product dimensions: 6.20 (w) x 9.00 (h) x 1.20 (d)

Meet the Author

Charles Graeber is an award winning journalist and contributor to numerous publications including Wired, GQ, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Vogue, Outside Magazine, Men's Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, Travel + Leisure, and The New York Times, and an occasional guest on CNN, NPR, and other radio programs. As a former medical student and researcher, his co-authored papers appeared in scientific journals including Kidney International. His work has been honored with prizes including the Overseas Press Club award for outstanding international journalism, the New York Press Club prize for the year's best magazine spot news reportage, several National Magazine Award-nominations, and inclusion in numerous anthologies including The Best American Crime Writing, The Best American Science Writing, The Best American Business Writing and The Best of National Geographic Adventure. Born in Iowa, he now lives in Nantucket, MA and Brooklyn, NY. For more information, you can visit www.CharlesGraeber.com.
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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4.5
( 9 )
Rating Distribution

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Tue Apr 16 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    Really worth the read. A perfect story of good triumphing over e

    Really worth the read. A perfect story of good triumphing over evil. The 'evil' being the hospitals who tried to cover it up. The dynamic between the investigators and the CI was interesting. Brave girl.

    5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Thu Apr 18 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    I Also Recommend:

    Confessions of the Oak Beach Drifter

    Finished this book wondering, how corrupt is todays hospital sys

    Finished this book wondering, how corrupt is todays hospital system? Scary thought if you or your loved ones are ever in the hospital.

    3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Wed May 01 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    I've never read any serial killer novels until now; however, I a

    I've never read any serial killer novels until now; however, I always was curious what their mindset was like such as how they got this way, do they have plans, do they pick their victims at random or not.  I decided to pick up the book because I'm in the medical field and was so surprised that there are evil people out there especially who take the oathe to care for the sick and harm innocent people.  Patients expect the medical team to do their work by making sure they are well taken care of and there will be no harm to them.  It is an unfortunate that a man like Charlie Cullen, a Navy Vet, a nurses aid, then returned to school to receive his Bachelors degree in Registered Nursing.  A reputable career choice in Registered Nursing when women were predominantly in the work field during the last 80's.  Back in the midcentury of medieval times, men were considered nurses during war time.
    I think it's a norm where there are lots of Nurses that have so many employers.  Nurses have so much better opportunities for them other than working in acute hospital, hospice, and now they can work at corporate companies as on-site nurses, or pharmaceutical companies now.
    Charlie was very intelligent, but lacked social skills.  He appeared to be a very good worker like being employee of the month and was the face of  the hospital's advertisement recruitment pamphlet for nurses.  Charles Cullen had issues and acted out his rage on his patients out while caring for his patients even for the ones that were not assigned to him.  

    What a shame!!  The health care system that hired Charlie Cullen suspected there was something going on with him in particular; however, they rather terminated him or let him quietly leave so the hospital's reputation would not be tarnished with the publicity  The health care system should be a shame that they would save their reputation than try to save their patients all because of numbers.  

    I think this book is worth reading, you always wandered what type of drug he would use next to harm his patients.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Tue Apr 23 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    Equal parts medical primer and murder mystery, "The Good Nu

    Equal parts medical primer and murder mystery, "The Good Nurse" by Charles Graeber is a romp of a read. Chronicling the 16-year killing spree of male nurse Charlie Cullen, the level of research, detail, and recollection required to write this book is astounding. Part two of the saga could have been written by David Simon for an episode of The Wire. With its code-speak, cop talk dialog, the homicide police are finally called in to solve this stone cold whodunnit. I read until my eyes hurt.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Sun Apr 21 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    Being a nurse myself, I found the book a compelling read; howeve

    Being a nurse myself, I found the book a compelling read; however I found the length to be a little too long. It also makes me wonder how corrupt our health systems are that this carried on. It makes me think twice now before having co-workers help with meds . I don't understand how Charles was allowed to practice across multiple states with so many allegations and charges against him. I would have condensed some of the book because I did feel lost or strung on for a few chapters. The ending kind of left you wondering why and I had a few questions. 

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Wed Apr 17 00:00:00 EDT 2013

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Fri Apr 26 00:00:00 EDT 2013

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    Posted Wed Apr 17 00:00:00 EDT 2013

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    Posted Wed Apr 03 00:00:00 EDT 2013

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