'There was a darkness to him': Charles Cullen's pal Amy Loughren recalls helping cops catch 'killer nurse'
NEW JERSEY: Amy Loughren, the old friend of Charles Cullen, who helped authorities put behind bars one of the most prolific serial killers in American history recalls her encounter with Cullen. Loughren remembers Cullen as "funny," "very sarcastic," and "always very self-deprecating," reports Fox News. “He would turn everything back on himself and make a joke about it. He was also brilliant and knew more about medications than any pharmacist I had ever met. He really understood policies and procedures. I trusted him more than any other nurse that I worked with,” she added.
Loughren says, "He [Cullen] felt more like somebody who was dealing with depression. He didn’t seem to hide that. I believe what I was drawn to was the fact that he was shy and quiet. He wasn’t as social as the other nurses. He didn’t come and hang out at the nurses' station with us. He would occasionally, but for the most part, it was me seeking him out. We worked together, we would turn patients together. We would talk about our personal lives while we were doing our jobs."
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"When I found out he was fired, I was so upset. I felt he was such a good nurse and if he could be fired, all of us could be fired. It sent a shockwave of fear through everyone. We were a team effort on our floor and he was our strongest teammate. When I called him to talk about it, he kept saying how confused he was… But when I was in that questioning room, the lead investigator took an opportunity when my representative left the room to give me some papers. It showed evidence of Charlie’s activity with specific medications. It was so clear from those entries that something sinister was going on,” she added.
Loughren said then after this she came to the realization that she had to assist the detectives in stopping Cullen in order to prevent other patient's death. She then covertly started working on the case with a group of investigators and a prosecutor's assistant. "I was very sick at the time and there was talk about having to have a heart transplant. I could have decreased my stress and maybe just stay behind the scenes. But I realized that if these were my last days and I did not help put away this serial killer, then I wasn’t who I believed myself to be. And when I became a nurse, I swore to protect those patients. And I had failed in that. I wanted to make it right. That’s what gave me the courage because those patients were at their most vulnerable. It was my job to keep them safe and I didn’t."
Loughren decided to put on a wire and meet Cullen at a nearby eatery. She confronted Cullen about all the hospital deaths that were somehow related to him as cops waited outside. Even more, she volunteered to go with him to the police station so he could turn himself in. "He suddenly became so smug and proud. There was a darkness to him. The confusion I first heard in his voice was gone. This was no longer my friend Charlie. His posture, the way he communicated, his voice - it all changed. Even the color of his eyes seemed to change. Then I realized it was over. It was finally over,” Loughren recalled.
After killing 13 patients in less than a year, Cullen was ultimately apprehended. After being detained, he admitted to killing 29 patients and trying to kill six more. He received a sentence of 18 consecutive life terms in 2006. Cullen claimed that he committed his crimes to ease the suffering of his patients, however, Loughren revealed that many of the victims who Cullen killed had their discharge papers ready.
"I wanted to believe he was a mercy killer. I wanted to believe so badly that my friend Charlie just wanted to put people out of their misery. But the patients he chose were better. Many of them had their discharge papers ready. Many of them were already on the road to recovery. They were going to be transferred out. Some of them were very young and were definitely going to survive,” she remarked. Cullen recently came into the spotlight in the Netflix thriller ‘The Good Nurse’ which is based on his life. Oscar-winning actor Eddie Redmayne is playing the role of the infamous serial killer. The movie also stars Oscar-winner Jessica Chastain, NFL player Nnamdi Asomugha, Kim Dickens, Malik Yoba, Alix West Lefler, Noah Emmerich, and several others.