'Good Nurse' fact check: Did Charles Cullen kill 400 patients? That's 'a conservative estimate' (2024)

Spoiler alert! The following post contains important details about the plot and ending of Netflix’s“The Good Nurse.”

If you thought "The Good Nurse" was shocking, wait until you hear the real story.

"The truth is even more dramatic," says author Charles Graeber, whose 2014 book inspired the Netflix true-crime drama (now streaming). The film recounts the case of nurse Charles Cullen (Eddie Redmayne), who was convicted of killing more than two dozen hospital patientsin the 1990s and early 2000s. He was apprehended thanks to his former friend and co-worker Amy Loughren (Jessica Chastain), who worked undercover with authorities to gather evidence.

Real names of victims and hospitals were changed for the movie, but otherwise, "Good Nurse" sticks to the facts. Here's what happened, according to Graeber and screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns:

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Did Cullen reallyshow up at Loughren's house unannounced?

'Good Nurse' fact check: Did Charles Cullen kill 400 patients? That's 'a conservative estimate' (1)

Early in the movie, Amy befriends Charles during a night shift at the fictionalParkfield Memorial Hospital. He helps Amy around the house as she battlescardiomyopathy, a serious heart condition, by cookingdinner and doing homework with the single mom's two young daughters.

"They were incredibly close," Wilson-Cairns says. "They were best friends."

Amy starts to distance herself from Charles when she learns he was let go from several hospitals in New Jersey and Pennsylvania that faced suspicious patient deaths while he was employed there. But Charles continues to call and show up at her door unannounced: In one of the film's most chilling scenes, Amy comes home from work to find him playing in the living room with her kids.

"A lot of that is true," Wilson-Cairns says. "She was very concerned when she started working with the police that Charlie would find out, and that (she) and her daughters would be in danger." Charles often complained that his ex-wife made up "crazy stories" about him, including that he poisoned her dog. As Amy uncovered more information about Charles' sketchy hospital history, "she started to reevaluate those stories, like, 'What if he actually did do that?' "

Did investigators actuallydig up a victim’s grave?

'Good Nurse' fact check: Did Charles Cullen kill 400 patients? That's 'a conservative estimate' (2)

Amy grows more wary of Charles after a young female patient's mysteriousdeaths and agrees to help detectivesDanny Baldwin (Nnamdi Asomugha) and Tim Braun (Noah Emmerich) by sneaking documents out of Parkfield. When they suspect that Charles was stealing insulin and contaminating IV bags with it, the investigators order the woman's casket exhumed so they can test her corpsefor the drug.

"That scene is remarkablebecause I have photographs from that timeand it could not look any more similar (in the film)," Graeber says. "It was horrifying."

"They did disinter at least one of the victims – there might have been two," Wilson-Cairns adds. "Danny and Tim oversaw that."

Did Amyreallywear a wire to get Charles’ confession?

'Good Nurse' fact check: Did Charles Cullen kill 400 patients? That's 'a conservative estimate' (3)

In the film's nail-biting climax, Amy agrees to wear a wire and meet Charles at a diner, where she coaxes a confession out of him as detectives wait outside. Charles had recently been let go from Parkfield but had already found a job at a new hospital, which added urgency to stopping him before he could kill more patients.

Graeber provided Wilson-Cairns with transcripts and audio recordings from the real-lifeconfrontation, whichlasted about two hours.

"That all happened," Wilson-Cairns says. "She wore the wireand (the cops) could hear her heart beating too fast. They didn't know (about her heart disease)because she'd hidden it from them. (Cullen)did leave that diner and head to his new job at a different hospital, and the cops went after him and pulled him over. They were racing against the clock."

Did Charles actually kill as many as 400 patients?

'Good Nurse' fact check: Did Charles Cullen kill 400 patients? That's 'a conservative estimate' (4)

Cullen was convicted of 29 murders and sentenced to 11 consecutive life prison sentencesin 2006. Although he admitted to killing as many as 40 people, experts estimate that he may have been responsible for as many as400 deaths, according to the film.

"That comes from Charles Graeber's book, and the ballpark is between 400 and 1,000," Wilson-Cairns says, which would rank him among the deadliest serial killers. "He was killing for 16 years. And if you look at the rate at which he was killing and you carry that across (to other hospitals), there are a lot more victims out there. Also, the way he killed people by injecting insulin into saline bags– he doesn't pick the victims. It's a random death lottery. And he's doing that to people who are already in intensive care. So I think 400 might be a conservative estimate."

Why was Charles able to get away with murder for so long?

'Good Nurse' fact check: Did Charles Cullen kill 400 patients? That's 'a conservative estimate' (5)

To this day, there have been no criminal proceedings against any of the five hospitals where Cullenworked as a nurse.

"The question was, 'Why wasn't he caught earlier?' " Graeber says. "According to Charlie, the answer is that he was (caught) over and over and over again. And each time, he was allowed to move on with positive or neutral (job) references and find work again. He put the responsibility for his actions on what he saw as the hypocrisy of the medical system."

There was also a shortage of nurses at the time, Wilson-Cairns adds, meaning that most hospitals were so desperate for help that they didn't bother checking Cullen's background.

"These hospitals run as a business," Wilson-Cairns says. "Thefact that none of them really wanted to investigate if Charles had murdered people at their hospital tells you everything you need to know. They wanted to bury their heads in the sand because it meant they had no real liability to the victims. I imagine there would have been huge lawsuits had people known a nurse murdered their mother or father."

Did he ever give a reason why?

'Good Nurse' fact check: Did Charles Cullen kill 400 patients? That's 'a conservative estimate' (6)

Graeber spoke to Cullen extensively while writing his book, through letters and inprison visits. Cullen would often shut down when asked directly about murder, although Graeber was able to deduce his motives.

"There were a couple different versions of 'why' for him," Graeber says. "One of them was 'because he could.' It made him feel special and empowered, and it blew off steam. He didn't understand the human cost or care (about it). The other reason he would give was that he was 'compelled' to intervene. He framed some of the murders as acts of mercy, or that he felt compelled because of the circumstances of the (ailing) individuals.

"But really, that compulsion had everything to do with his needs, and nothing to do with the needs or wishes of the innocent patient."

'Good Nurse' fact check: Did Charles Cullen kill 400 patients? That's 'a conservative estimate' (2024)
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