Richard Angelo
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| Richard Angelo | |
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 Richard Angelo in custody |
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| Background information | |
| Alias(es): | The Angel of Death |
| Born: | August 29, 1962 Long Island, New York |
| Penalty: | 61 years to life |
| Killings | |
| Number of victims: | 25 |
| Span of killings: | April, 1987 through October 11, 1987 |
| Country: | USA |
| State(s): | Long Island, New York |
| Date apprehended: | October 11, 1987 |
Richard Angelo (born April 29, 1962) is an American serial killer.
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[edit] Murders
Angelo worked as a nurse at Good Samaritan Hospital on Long Island. By the time he was caught, he had killed 25 patients.
As a ploy for attention and praise, Angelo came up with a plan where he would inject drugs into patients at the hospital, bringing them to a near-death state. He would then show his heroic capabilities by helping to save his victims, impressing both co-workers and the patients with his expertise. For many, Angelo's plan fell deathly short, and several patients died before he was able to intervene and save them from his deadly injections.
"I wanted to create a situation where I would cause the patient to have some respiratory distress or some problem, and through my intervention or suggested intervention or whatever, come out looking like I knew what I was doing," Angelo later said of the murders. "I had no confidence in myself. I felt very inadequate."
During Angelo's short employment at Good Samaritan there were 37 "code blue" emergancies during his shift. Only 12 of the 37 patients lived.
Angelo, apparently not swayed by his inability to keep his victims alive, continued injecting patients with a combination of the paralyzing drugs, Pavulon and Anectine. [1]
Soon after administering the deadly cocktail, the patients would begin to feel numb and their breathing would become constricted as did their ability to communicate to nurses and doctors. Few could survive the deadly attack. [2]
On October 11, 1987, Angelo purportedly told patient Gerolamo Kucich [3], "I'm going to make you feel better," and injected pavulon into his IV. Immediately the man felt numbness and had difficulty breathing. However, he was able to buzz in another nurse who saved his life. One of the nurses responding to his call for help took a urine sample and had it analyzed. The test proved positive for containing the drugs, Pavulon and Anectine, neither of which had been prescribed to Kucich.
The following day Angelo's locker and home were searched and police found vials of both drugs and Angelo was arrested. The bodies of several of the suspected victims were exhumed and tested for the deadly drugs. The test proved positive for the drugs on ten of the dead patients.[4]
[edit] Trial and imprisonment
Prosecutors called to the stand two mental health experts, who agreed that Angelo suffered from a personality disorder but not one that precluded him from appreciating whether his actions were right or wrong. The two psychologists testified that Angelo suffered from dissociative identity disorder, and after he'd injected his victims, he moved into a separate personality that made him unaware of what he had just done. Angelo had earlier passed a polygraph test when asked about the murders; however, the test was ruled inadmissible in court.
The jury convicted Angelo of two counts of second-degree murder, one count of second-degree manslaughter, one count of criminally negligent homicide, and six counts of assault. He was sentenced to 61 years to life. He is currently incarcerated in Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York.
