Fans are asking if The Good Nurse is based on a true story as it prepares for release. Taking on real crime projects is nothing new for Netflix. The streaming behemoth has, throughout the years, published a few spine-chilling programs that are based on bizarre true crime tales. These
programs include documentary series like “Unsolved Mysteries” and “The Tinder Swindler” as well as dramatized, critically praised series like “Mindhunter” With “The Good Nurse,” a film based on Charles Graeber’s 2013 book of the same name, the platform is now bringing the unbelievable real story of serial murderer Charles Cullen to the big screen.
The original movie, starring Oscar winners Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Chastain, is focused on Cullen’s 16-year murderous rampage around multiple hospitals in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and, more especially, the brave nurse who put an end to it. In the meanwhile, continue reading to find out more about Charles Cullen’s puzzling crimes before “The Good Nurse” premieres on Netflix in October.
The Cast Of The Good Nurse:
The Good Nurse is a suspenseful thriller with Academy Award winners Jessica Chastain as Amy Loughren and Eddie Redmayne as Charles Cullen. This is directed by Academy Award nominee Tobias Lindholm and scripted by Academy Award nominee Krysty Wilson-Cairns. Fans will always remember Redmayne as the naïve but kind and compassionate animal lover from the Fantastic Beasts series.
Nnamdi Asomugha, Kim Dickens, and Noah Emmerich — the traitor to the FBI agent in Dark Winds — are also featured in The Good Nurse. Malik Yoba and tiny Alix West Lefler round out the cast alongside them. The skilled and well-known Ari Handel, Glen Basner, Jonathan Filley, and Josh Stern are the executive producers of The Good Nurse.
The fact that the cast and crew of The Good Nurse are all powerhouses in the entertainment business is crucial. Their expertise, talents, and adaptability always provide a guarantee of the greatest results. All things considered, it appears like The Good Nurse will be another instance of history repeating itself.
The Plot Of The Good Nurse:
The new film, which is based on Charles Graeber’s book, follows the terrifying true tale of Charles Cullen, a nurse and spree murderer who admitted to killing up to 40 victims over the course of his career. Cullen was born in New Jersey in 1960 to an Irish Catholic low-income family, the eighth and youngest child.
Seven months after Cullen was delivered, his bus driver’s father, who was already fifty-six at the time of his son’s birth, passed away. Despite being close to his mother, Cullen suffered mental and physical abuse at the hands of his elder sisters and their partners. Cullen made his first attempt at suicide at the age of nine by ingesting liquids out of a chemical kit.
Florence, Cullen’s mother, passed away in a vehicle crash when he was seventeen. Cullen was so devastated that he quit high school and enlisted in the US Navy. Despite joining the military to give his life meaning, his crewmates often hazed and tormented him. Cullen was granted a medical release in 1984 after making at least one attempt at suicide and spending many periods of time in the Navy’s mental unit.
When Cullen eventually settled back into society, he enrolled in the Mountainside Hospital School of Nursing in Montclair, New Jersey, where he was the only other male student. Approximately at this time, he fell in love with and wed Adrianne Baum. Cullen received a position in the burns unit at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, New Jersey.
Following graduating as student body president of his nursing degree. Adrianne gave birth to Shauna, a girl, in less than a year. Adrianne was soon upset by Cullen’s treatment of his child and the household dog. He repeatedly drank, often in front of Shauna, and violently mistreated the dog. Authorities at St. Barnabas Hospital started to have suspicions that Cullen had murdered a patient by injecting insulin into his Intravenous bag.
Cullen left St. Barnabas after learning about the probe, although she had little trouble finding another nursing position. Cullen was detained for breaking into a coworker’s home while working at his subsequent employment at Warren Hospital. After accusing Cullen of giving elderly female patients deadly amounts of the cardiac drug digoxin, Warren Hospital ultimately dismissed him.
Even though Cullen never had trouble finding a new nursing position after being fired, this trend remained for many years. Cullen moved into a basement apartment at the same time as Adrianne and Cullen were divorced. Cullen made a third attempt at suicide, which led to a brief stint at Greystone Psychiatric Hospital.
Cullen spent the following several years employed as a nurse at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania’s St. Luke’s Hospital, Morristown Memorial Hospital, Hunterdon Medical Center, Liberty Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, and Lehigh Valley Hospital. Within each of these nurse positions, Cullen murdered many victims.
At Somerset Medical Center, where he made the acquaintance of coworker Amy Loughren, Cullen secured yet another nursing position in September 2002. Because Somerset utilized software to track the medications used at the hospital, Cullen was compelled to adopt increasingly inventive methods of murder while he was there.
The Somerset pharmacy reported its concerns to the Center for Poison Control after Reverend Gall’s enigmatic death. Despite being advised by Poison Control to contact the police, Somerset informed the Department of Health, which took a while to respond. The Department wouldn’t get in touch with the police for another five months.
Despite their diligence and dedication, detectives Tim Braun and Danny Baldwin had trouble understanding the medical documents that were given to them. By analyzing the medication and software data belonging to Cullen’s patients and outlining to Braun and Baldwin the reasons for their suspicions, Amy proved to be a crucial ally in this situation.
Amy gave the investigators permission to record and listen to the conversations she made with Cullen, throughout which he provided sufficient evidence to support an arrest. Cullen admitted to thirteen killings while being questioned; he was eventually found guilty and sentenced to consecutive lifetimes in prison.
Although many police officers, doctors, and media think that Cullen killed up to 400 patients, making him the worst serial killer of all time, he helped authorities confirm at least twenty additional homicides during the following several years.
Cullen’s declared goal was to save those who were suffering and were certain to pass away. But many of those patients were already getting better, and some were predicted to recover. Insufficient legal security for hospitals in situations when a worker kills a patient is one reason why he was allowed to murder a large number of hospitals for such a long time, according to experts.
Because of these and low reporting guidelines, hospitals had no motivation to expose Cullen’s homicidal behavior. As a result of the Cullen case, 37 states, including New Jersey and Pennsylvania, passed new legislation that enables healthcare professionals to evaluate the performance of their employees honestly without running the risk of incurring excessive criminal or civil responsibility. By giving a kidney to an ex-brother, girlfriend’s the book’s conclusion notes that Cullen has at least performed one nice deed during his life.
The Good Nurse is inspired by the true tale of Charles Cullen, a nurse who murdered several patients in New Jersey and Pennsylvania until being apprehended in the early 2000s as well. As the movie is based on Charles Graeber’s 2013 novel The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medical, Insanity, and Crime. The narrative is frightful. Furthermore, the movie is quite true. Details are as follows:
Who Is Charles Cullen?
According to The New York Times, Charles Cullen was a former nurse who murdered close to 30 people over the course of his life. According to The Independent, Charles was born in 1960 in West Orange, New Jersey.
He enlisted in the US Navy before being medically dismissed after an unsuccessful suicide attempt in 1984, according to the publication. Both of his parents passed away before he was an adult—his mother when he was still in high school and his father shortly after he was born.
From 1988 to 2003, Cullen worked for sixteen years at a variety of hospitals in New Jersey and Pennsylvania after graduating from nursing school in Montclair, New Jersey. In December 2003, he was eventually captured for his crimes. Adrienne Taub, who was once married to Cullen, requested separation in 1993, according to The Morning Call.
According to the Times, Cullen killed at least 29 individuals while in office, though others believe the actual number was significantly higher. It is thought that John W. Yengo, a judge in Jersey City, was his first victim. At the age of 72, the judge passed away in 1988.
How did he execute his victims?
According to NJ Cullen murdered people by infusing fatal dosages of insulin and cardiac medicines into their IV bags. He went between hospitals in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and according to the news source, he was dismissed from rather than forced to leave at least six of them. Amy the Good Nurse, the website Loughren runs, quotes her as saying that “five hospitals knew he was injuring victims and yet issued him a favorable recommendation, leading him on to resume his murdering rampage.”
What made him kill them?
In an appearance with 60 Minutes, Cullen asserted that they were mercy killings. In a way, he felt that he was assisting since he believed that individuals were no longer in pain.
A few of Cullen’s victims had fatal illnesses, whereas others didn’t. Cullen responded, “My objective here isn’t to justify,” when 60 Minutes questioned him about it. You are aware that there is no defense for what I did.
The one and only thing I can really say is that I was feeling overpowered at the time. According to the Times, Cullen was accused of the murder of 29 persons. The number of his victims, according to some estimates, may have been closer to 400.
Amy Loughren: Who is she?
In the film, Jessica Chastain plays Amy Loughren, a nurse who was a personal colleague and friend of Cullen’s. Officials sought her out in an effort to prosecute Cullen. According to her blog, the single mother worked as a trauma and ER nurse up until 2003.
According to an interview with Glamour Magazine, Loughren said that “it was like everything shut down” when authorities initially informed her of Cullen’s actions. “Because I was unable to understand reality, I entirely disassociated from it. I was unable to comprehend the emotion since it was so strong.
Where are Cullen and Loughren Now?
Cullen is presently incarcerated in Trenton, New Jersey, serving 11 consecutive life sentences and Loughren is currently a Reiki Master. She also practices DreamSculptor, reconnective healing, integrative energy healing, past-life regression, crystal language reading, hypnotherapy, and meditation, and is a medical intuitive and crystal language reader.
Loughren helped the actors’ representations by working closely with them on the film. “Eddie and I had several conversations concerning Charlie’s true identity. I had just briefly met the serial murderer; I didn’t know him or her. The Charles Cullen we knew was not the Charles we knew,” She spoke to Glamour.
“Eddie took notes from how I described him, and I watched as he applied those notes to his trade and artistic expression to become Charles. Jessica, who represented me 20 years ago, also spoke a lot.” Since the day she discovered her friend was a murderer, a lot has changed.
“I’ve gained confidence and 20 years of wisdom. Compared to then, I’m a far better version of myself.” The Good Nurse is now playing in certain cinemas and will be available on Netflix on October 26.
