Capturing the Killer Nurse (2022) on Netflix
NR20221h 35mCrimeDocumentary
Charles Cullen works as an ICU nurse at Somerset Medical Center in New Jersey, where patients die unexpectedly. A fellow nurse, Amy Loughren, and detectives look into the toxicology results.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.4/104,291 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes71%
Trailer
Plot summary
Charles Cullen spent sixteen years working as a nurse in hospitals across New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Investigators came to link him to the deaths of patients in his care, and the documentary follows the toxicology results behind a series of deaths at Somerset Medical Center. It draws on interviews with Cullen's co-workers, with Somerset County detectives, with Amy Loughren, a fellow nurse who helped them, and with families of the victims, alongside recordings of Cullen. Dr. Steven Marcus, who directed the New Jersey Poison Control Center, had urged the hospital to call the police. The documentary also examines how the profit motives of private healthcare helped Cullen keep working.
Cast
- Amy Loughrenas Self - Nurse, Somerset Medical Center, 2001-2004
- Donna Hargreavesas Self - Nurse, Somerset Medical Center, 2000-2014
- Dr. Bruce Ruckas Self - Toxicologist
- Tim Braunas Self - Commander, Somerset Major Crimes Unit, 2002-2005
- Danny Baldwinas Self - Lead Detective, Somerset Major Crimes Unit, 2003-2006
- Charles Graeberas Self - Author, 'The Good Nurse'
- Dr. Steven Marcusas Self - Medical Director, Poison Control Center, 1983-2016
- Pat Medellinas Self - Nurse, St. Luke's Hospital, 2002-2004
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Capturing the Killer Nurse (2022)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Charles Cullen, the serial killer the documentary is about, was given 11 life sentences in March 2006 for killing 29 patients and six more a week later; he is not eligible for parole until June 2388.
- Charles Cullen, the subject of the film, confessed to killing up to 40 people in nine hospitals and one nursing home during the 16 years he worked as a nurse in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
- Nearly all the hospitals where Cullen worked suspected he was endangering patients, but none of them told his future employers about their concerns.
- New Jersey signed the Health Care Professional Responsibility and Reporting Enhancement Act into law in 2005; the law is also referred to as the "Cullen" Law.
