Richard Angelo

Richard Angelo (born August 29, 1962) is an American serial killer and former nurse at the Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip, New York. In 1989, he was convicted of murdering several of his patients and sentenced to 50 years to life in prison.

Angelo was born on August 29, 1962, to parents who were both working in the educational sector.

His mother was an economics teacher, and his father was a high school guidance counselor for the Lindenhurst school district on Long Island. He graduated from St. John the Baptist Diocesan High School in 1980 and then entered a two-year nursing program at Farmingdale State College, where he was a well-regarded honor student.

Angelo first came to the attention of the public in October 1987 when he was suspected of poisoning a patient at the Good Samaritan Hospital on Long Island, where he worked as a nurse.

He was accused of injecting Gerolamo Cucich with a drug into his I.V. Cucich did not feel well after the injection, so he paged another nurse to help him. Later it was found that he had Pavulon in his urine, which he had not been prescribed.

He was arrested for assault on the 73-year-old patient because he was the only person to match the description given to the police (a "heavyset man with a dark beard and glasses").

Following his arrest, he confessed to having poisoned other patients with Pavulon and Anectine. As a result, as many as 30 recently deceased patients were exhumed and examined for traces of these powerful paralyzing agents.

It was later concluded that he had poisoned at least 35 people at the hospital while working there for seven months. The poisoning resulted in ten deaths. He claimed that his motive was to portray himself as a hero. After poisoning his victims, he would wait until they went into cardiac arrest and then come by and save them in front of his colleagues.

He was held in Suffolk County Jail for over a year, awaiting trial. He declined to pay his $50,000 bail, fearing for his safety — given the high-profile nature of the case.

In December 1989, Angelo was found guilty on two counts of murder, one count of manslaughter, and one count of criminally negligent homicide. He was also convicted of assault in connection with the deaths of four other patients, and he was suspected of being responsible for several other deaths.

On January 25, 1990, he was sentenced to 50-years-to-life in prison. He was 27 years old. He is serving his sentence in the Great Meadow Correctional Facility.