Edson Izidoro Guimarães

Edson Isidoro Guimarães (born 1957) is a Brazilian nursing assistant and convicted serial killer.[1] He confessed to five murders of which he was convicted of four, but is suspected of committing up to 131 in total. He claimed that he chose patients whose conditions were irreversible and who were in pain.

Edson Izidoro Guimarães
Born
Edson Izidoro Guimarães

1957 (age 63–64)
Brazil
Other namesThe Nurse of Death
Conviction(s)Murder
Criminal penalty76 years in prison
Details
Victims4–131
Span of crimes
January–May 1999
CountryBrazil
Date apprehended
May 4, 1999

Crimes

Guimarães worked as a nurse in the Salgado Filho Hospital in the Méier district of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He was caught in 1999 when a hospital porter saw Guimarães fill a syringe with potassium chloride and inject a comatose patient who immediately died. The police were informed and a higher than average death rate on his ward increased their suspicions. On his arrest he confessed to five murders.[2] He told a television reporter prior to his trial, "I don't regret what I did", adding "I did it to those in irreversible comas and whose families were suffering."[3]

He was convicted on February 21, 2000, of the murders of four patients and sentenced to 76 years in prison.[4] He is thought to have killed up to 131 patients between January 1 and May 4, 1999.[2][4] He told reporters: "The oxygen mask was taken away, yes. There were five patients that this happened to... I chose the patients I saw suffering, generally patients with AIDS, patients who were almost terminal. I am in peace because the patients were in a coma and had no way of recovering."[4]

One possible motive for the murders is thought to be the fact that he was paid $60 a time to inform local funeral homes of a patient's death so that they could contact the deceased's relatives.[4] According to Josias Quintal, Rio's secretary for public security, "He may have begun doing it to earn money and then just lost control".[3]

See also

References
  1. "Serial Murder by Healthcare Professionals" (PDF). Archived from the original on January 6, 2009. Retrieved 2013-09-28.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  2. "John Field, Caring to Death: a discursive analysis of nurses who murder patients, 2007, pp. 44-45" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-10-26. Retrieved 2008-09-24.
  3. "Brazilian police: Nurse may have killed up to 132 patients in the past four months, Associated Press". Archived from the original on July 9, 2006. Retrieved 2013-08-18.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  4. Amanda Howard and Martin Smith, River of Blood: Serial Killers and Their Victims, Universal-Publishers, 2004, p. 171, p. 171, at Google Books
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