M. William Phelps - Perfect Poison

SERIAL KILLER ON WARD C
In Northampton, Massachusetts, at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Kristen Gilbert was known as a hardworking, dedicated nurse--so why were her patients dying? So many emergencies and sudden deaths occurred while Kristen made her rounds on Ward C that her colleagues jokingly called her the "Angel of Death." Yet most people didn't suspect the horrifying truth behind the nickname: that Gilbert's polished facade concealed a scheming, manipulative liar and narcissistic sociopath. She sabotaged patients to strike back at staffers she didn't like. She engaged in an obsessive adulterous affair with hospital security guard James Perrault. When her husband objected, she tried to kill him with a lethal injection. But nobody turned her in.

LETHAL CURE
From August 1995 through February 1996, Gilbert dealt out wholesale death. Her victims were helpless patients who trusted her as a caregiver, only to learn too late that she was a killer, her weapon a drug capable of causing fatal heart attacks. But she got away with murder until three of her fellow nurses could no longer ignore the proliferation of deadly "coincidences" on Gilbert's watch. Investigators believe Kristen Gilbert may have been responsible for as many as 40 deaths. As the law closed in, she struck back, faking suicide attempts, harassing witnesses, stalking her ex-boyfriend, and terrorizing the hospital with bomb threats. In March 2001, after being found guilty of four counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder, Angel of Death Kristen Gilbert was sentenced to life imprisonment.

LETHAL INJECTION
At five p.m. on February 4, 1996, a Northampton, Massachusetts, Veterans Affairs Medical Center nursing assistant looked up and saw nurse Kristen Gilbert standing by the entrance to patient Angelo Vella's room.

Gilbert was drawing a syringe, but it was unclear what she was filling the syringe with, because it appeared as though she was trying to hide what she was doing.

After the syringe was full, Gilbert entered Vella's room.

Seconds later, Vella's heart monitor alarm went off.

"Ow, it hurts ... it burns!" Vella yelled.

When the other nurses heard Vella scream, one raced into the veteran's room and rushed to his bedside, while the others in the vicinity looked on. Gilbert, frozen in her tracks, just stood there in some sort of daze.

Vella's heart rate began to race uncontrollably -- as much as 300 beats per minute. But he remained conscious.

"Mr. Vella?" a nurse asked. "Mr. Vella?"

"She did it!" Vella lashed out, pointing at Gilbert. "It started when she flushed my line..."

A moment later there was a flatline ... and then ... Vella's pulse stopped.

THE MANY DIFFERENT FACES OF SERIAL KILLER KRISTEN GILBERT The transformation of this woman is remarkable. In 1992, Gilbert looked like a happy, young wife, eager to make friends and rise up through the ranks of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Northampton, Mass., where she worked. Shown here, she's smiling at a baby shower, appearing to be the friendly and warm neighbor next door, the confident soccer mom, right down to the nice sweater she's wearing. Two years later, in 1994, she's smiling for a group photo. Next, in 1996, after she began her affair with Jim Perrault, had killed several veterans and was being investigated by the State Police and IGO, she looks like she's had some sort of makeover. Then, from 1998 to 2001, once she finds herself locked up, her hair grows out into its natural color and she begins to put on weight. Now you see the real Kristen Gilbert. Everything she had done regarding her appearance before that was all part of her narcissistic personality disorder. In prison, she has no one to turn to, no audience to perform in front of. No stage. Why bother with the facade any longer? It is amazing to look at Gilbert from 1992 to 1994, 1996 and 2001. The transformation from soccer mom to single mom to serial killer is complete.
1992	1994	2001
	1996

"A compelling narrative ... entertaining and instructive." - Columbia Daily Tribune

"PERFECT POISON is a horrific tale of nurse Kristen Gilbert's insatiable desire to kill the most helpless of victims-her own patients. A stunner from beginning to end, the story is expertly rendered by Phelps with flawless research and an explosive narrative ... Phelps unravels the devastating case against nurse Kristen Gilbert and shockingly reveals that unimaginable evil sometimes comes in pretty packages ... Phelps is the best new true crime writer to come along in years and the future of the genre." - Gregg Olsen, author of several best-selling true crime books: Bitter Almonds, Starvation Heights, Abandoned Prayers, Mockingbird, and If Loving You is Wrong

"In perfect harmony with a tradition set by the very best of true crime writers, M. William Phelps peels away the news clips, the trial transcripts and what everyone thinks they know about these murders and reveals the case's rotten core ... Phelps isn't content with a retelling of what people think they already know about the Kristen Gilbert case ... [He] is reporting and writing at a level that has become rare in today's true crime genre. The result is the kind of compelling account of terror that only comes when the author dedicates himself to unmasking the psychopath with facts, insight and the other proven methods of journalistic leg work." - Lowell Cauffiel, author of House of Secrets, a New York Times best seller, Eye of the Beholder, and Forever and Five Days

"PERFECT POISON is a first-rate investigative examination into an unthinkable problem of growing concern: the healthcare professional who intentionally kills patients who have come to a hospital in search of medical care. M. William Phelps goes behind the headlines to show not only who the victims were-United States veterans-and how nurse [Kristen] Gilbert harmed them, but also, perhaps most frightening, the reasons why." - Dr. Michael Baden, forensic pathologist, host of HBO's Autopsy series, and author of Dead Reckoning: The New Science of Catching Killers and Unnatural Death: Confessions of a Medical Examiner

"Captivating, exciting, a jolt-a-minute. With this tour de force M. William Phelps earns a deserved place among the best true crime writers ... PERFECT POISON is skillfully woven like a great, suspenseful novel . . . true crime at its best-compelling, gripping, an edge-of-the-seat thriller. All the way through Phelps packs wallops of delight with his skillful ability to narrate a suspenseful story and his encyclopedic knowledge of police procedures. PERFECT POISON is the perfect antidote for a dreary night!" - Harvey Rachlin, author of 13 books, including The Making of a Detective and The Making of a Cop