A deranged nurse, chillingly known as the ‘Angel of Death’, is believed to have murdered up to 60 babies in a terrifying killing spree that spanned several years.
Genene Jones, one of America’s most notorious serial killers, used her nurse’s uniform as a disguise while she targeted the most defenceless – innocent infants and children under her care. Operating in Texas hospitals during the late 1970s and early 1980s, she presented herself as a caring healthcare worker.
In truth, she was a beast in medical attire.
Fellow workers once labelled her as “dedicated” and “diligent”, and parents entrusted their ill children to her care. However, behind the privacy screens of the paediatric wards, Jones was playing a deadly game – intentionally administering lethal doses of medication to tiny patients, causing them to go into cardiac arrest.
She would then rush to “rescue” them, revelling in the admiration for her swift action.
Investigators suspect Jones’s reign of terror began whilst she was employed at Bexar County Hospital in San Antonio. Unexplained deaths started to occur in the paediatric intensive care unit – infants who had been on the mend suddenly ‘crashed’ without any apparent cause.
One child after another ceased breathing, their hearts failing. It wasn’t long before murmurs started among staff that something malevolent was happening.
Jones was swiftly transferred to a small-town clinic in Kerrville, where the horror persisted. Within months, more children tragically lost their lives.
One of them, 15-month-old Chelsea McClellan, became her final victim in 1982 when Jones administered a lethal dose of muscle relaxant, succinylcholine, to the healthy baby. Chelsea’s body went limp in her mother’s arms.
This heartbreaking incident finally unveiled the murderous nurse’s trail of death. An autopsy revealed traces of the drug in Chelsea’s system – a substance no infant should ever be exposed to.
Jones was apprehended and charged with murder and injury to a child. During her 1984 trial, prosecutors depicted a chilling image of a woman obsessed with playing the hero. They claimed she sought attention and desired to be perceived as the nurse who saved the day – even if it meant creating the emergencies herself.
The jury took little time to find her guilty, and Jones was sentenced to 99 years in prison. However, that wasn’t the conclusion of the tale. Due to a Texas law designed to alleviate prison overcrowding, she was set to be released after serving just 33 years.
The prospect of the so-called ‘Angel of Death’ walking free again sent shockwaves through the families of her victims.
In a bid to keep her behind bars, prosecutors reopened past cases and discovered new evidence linking her to numerous suspicious deaths. In 2017, Jones was once again charged – this time for the murder of another baby, 11-month-old Joshua Sawyer.
To avoid the death penalty, she pleaded guilty in 2020 and received an additional life sentence. Experts suggest that Jones may have murdered up to 60 infants – although the true figure will never be confirmed. Records have been misplaced, evidence has been destroyed, and many of her victims were laid to rest without closure.
Her motive remains disturbingly unclear to this day. Some theorise that she killed for attention, while others believe she was simply addicted to the power over life and death.
Now in her seventies, Jones resides in a Texas prison, showing little remorse for the unimaginable pain she inflicted.
During her sentencing in 2020, District Judge Frank J. Castro addressed the former nurse: “Something has to be said for you taking the plea to life on this murder.
“But it doesn’t come close to what you did to these families and the tragedies that you caused. You took God’s most precious gift – babies, defenceless, innocent. But I truly believe that your ultimate judgment is in the next life.”
