On Murder Shelf Book Club Podcast, we have been in the midst of recording a series on Charles Cullen; dubbed an ‘angel of death.’ Often, these ‘angels’ are considered mercy killers; they are hospital workers, care givers — those who we entrust our sick and aging loved ones to be cared for when we ultimately cannot. Yet, Charlie was no angel. He killed at random, loading chemical cocktails into IV bags and sending them out into the Intensive Care Unit like grenades. It was a lottery of sorts; each combination of drug creating a special biochemical effect pushing and pulling just enough to send a patient on the mend over the edge.
For our final episode of the series, which we dub 2ndCast; my co-host and I often discuss various topics from the case that we might not have gotten to cover in detail. We decided to research more ‘angels of death’ — especially those who were male, like our real life villain — Charles Cullen. Male healthcare serial killers are very rare. In my research, I stumbled across the opposite — a woman, a ‘pretend’ child caretaker, named Dagmar Overbye dubbed Englemagersken — “Angel Maker.” Unfortunately, she does NOT have a book for us to cover in Book Club — but I wanted to share her story.
