14 DAY TRIAL // Serial Killer Charles Cullen has been interviewed by CBS for 60 minutes, and he has discussed the motivation for his killings.
“There is no justification. ... The only thing I can say is that I felt overwhelmed at the time. [...] It felt like I needed to do something and I did,” he tells interviewer Steve Kroft.
According to the Daily Record, Cullen, known as the Angel of Death, killed at least 29 patients during his 16 years working as a nurse.
Since the exact number of his victims has not been identified, investigators believe that the toll can reach hundreds.
He has been in New Jersey State Prison in Trenton for the last nine years, and this is the first time that he has tried to explain himself in an interview.
Asked whether or not he found pleasure in killing, he responded that he did not feel “satisfaction” or “relief.”
“No, I thought that people weren't suffering anymore. So, in a sense, I thought I was helping,” he says.
“I worked on the burn unit. So, I mean, there was a lot of pain, a lot of suffering. And I didn't cope with that as well as I thought I would,” he adds.
He admits to attempting suicide several times, due to his constant discontent with himself.
“I tried to kill myself throughout my life because I never really liked being who I was. 'Cause I didn't think I was worthy of anything.
“It was never about anyone but Charlie Cullen. He did what he did because of his own needs, his own compulsions,” he says during the chilling interview.
He has openly talked about killing patients at Hunterdon Medical Center in Raritan Township, Warren Hospital in Phillipsburg, Somerset Medical Center in Somerville, and Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston.
“At St. Barnabas, they could've had my license investigated and probably revoked at that point in time. [...] Should they have? Yes,” he says.