1. Charles Cullen
By: Ji Hwang
Pd: 6

2. Background Name: Charles Edmund Cullen
Birth: February 22, 1960-present
Years killed: 16
Childhood background:
- His father (bus driver) died when he was 7 months old
- He first attempted suicide when he was nine by drinking chemicals from a chemistry set
- Described his childhood as miserable
- His mother died in an automobile accident in 1977
- In April 1978, devastated by his mother's death, Cullen dropped out of high school and enlisted in the U.S. Navy

3. General Serial Killer Profile
Male: ✓
Age 20-30: ✓
Act in a series of 3 or more murders with a cooling-off period between each murder: ✓
Can go for months or years before being caught:✓
Victim is usually chosen from same group: ✓
Stick by modus operandi closely, but may change it with experience: ✓

4. Phases of the Killer Trolling/Common Characteristics:
- All patients from the hospitals he worked at (65+)
Wooing:
- Career as a disguise, nurse = no suspicion
Capture:
- Patients wait to be medicated
Murder Phase:
- Lethal injection (overdose of insulin and digoxin)
Totem:
- No souvenirs taken

5. Death Toll
Pleaded guilty to murdering 22 people in New Jersey (Murderpedia)
 As part of his plea agreement, Cullen has been working with law enforcement officials to identify additional victims (Wikipedia, 2014)
Originally admitted to killing about 40 patients he could recall during the course of his 16-year nursing career (Wikipedia, 2014)

6. Transient or Stable? Stable All killings occur in New Jersey
Seldom travels
All bodies left to die in hospital after overdose

7. Organized or Disorganized?
Mixed
Victim count is high
Suffers from a mental disorder (depression)
Several suicide attempts
Did not move bodies, unconcerned with evidence
No contact prior to murder
No outside tools, mostly all needles

8. Conviction
Cullen was arrested at a restaurant in 2003 and was charged with one count of murder and one count of  attempted murder
In April 2004, Cullen pleaded guilty in a New Jersey court to killing 13 patients and attempting to kill two others by  lethal injection at Somerset
As part of his plea agreement he promised to cooperate with authorities if they did not sentence him to death
A month later, he pleaded guilty to the murder of three more patients in NJ
In November 2004, Cullen pleaded guilty to killing six patients and trying to kill three others
On March 2, 2006, Cullen was sentenced to 11 consecutive life sentences
On March 10, 2006, Cullen was brought into the courtroom of Judge Platt for a sentencing hearing. Cullen, who was upset with the judge, kept repeating "Your honor, you need to step down" for 30 minutes until Platt had Cullen gagged with cloth and duct tape. In this hearing, Platt gave him an additional six life sentences (Wikipedia, 2014)
Cullen is currently serving 127 years in prison without parole

9. Interesting Facts
Prompted by this case, PA, NJ, and 35 other states adopted new laws that encourage employers to give honest appraisals of workers' job performance
He told detectives in December 2003 that he lived most of his life in a fog and that he had blacked out memories of murdering most of his victims (Wikipedia, 2014)
Cullen was only hired time after time because there was a shortage of nurses during this time period

10. Bibliography
Blanco, Juan I. "Charles Edmund Cullen." Charles Cullen | Murderpedia, the Encyclopedia of Murderers. Murderpedia, n.d. Web. 04 May 2014.
"Charles Cullen." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Feb Web. 04 May 2014.