Doctors Who Kill

by Davis, Carol Anne; Davis, Carol Anne

  Moments later, he shot her in the jaw with a Ruger pistol, fitted with a home-made silencer. She backed away and he shot her again, the bullet entering her arm. This time Sian – a day short of her twentieth birthday – lunged at him and tried to grab the gun. Panicking, the hired killer battered her with the weapon. She collapsed, but he continued to strike her another six times. The killer fled, leaving his insurance papers behind. His ungainly flight was spotted by the postman, and shortly afterwards, the teenager’s corpse was found by her aunt.

  Confession

  Brought in for questioning, David Schlender confessed, although he blamed the murder on Sian, saying that he wouldn’t have shot her if she hadn’t started screaming. He implicated fellow biker Brian West, who had given him the gun and silencer.

  Meanwhile, Sian’s family fled the area, terrified that they would be murdered next. They had their suspicions that Dr Charalambous was behind Sian’s death and said so to police. In turn, detectives bugged the doctor’s home. They were perturbed to hear him tell Shelley that he might be returning to Cyprus and were even more alarmed when they heard him beating Shelley up.

  Soon Shelley began an affair with a policeman and left the doctor, taking her three children with her. Now, she was willing to speak openly about her husband’s threats to murder various people who had crossed him, and she told the police everything she knew about the medic’s schemes. On 28th May 1993, detectives arrested both Dr Charalambous and Brian West.

  Trial

  Four months after Sian’s murder, David Schlender was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was also given fifteen years for the earlier attempted murder of a drug dealer. He later gave a further statement to police, saying that Brian West might have been given C$50,000 by Dr Joseph Charalambous to arrange Sian’s death.

  In custody, the doctor opted for a judge-only trial. The proceedings finally began on 24th October 1994 and he pleaded not guilty from behind bulletproof glass.

  David Schlender took the stand and said that he’d never seen the doctor before, that Brian West had organised the murder. Katie Simmonds then testified that she and her sister had complained about Joseph in September 1991 and that he’d subsequently phoned them, trying to get them to retract their statements.

  Shelley, the doctor’s wife, also testified against him. Now in the Witness Protection Program, she told of how often her husband had spoken about killing the Simmonds sisters. She also said that he had gone to great lengths to track down Brian West. Later, the doctor had told her about how the murder was carried out and, thereafter, she had feared for her own safety. She was now divorcing him.

  The doctor himself took the stand and admitted driving past the Simmonds’s house but said that he was just trying to get up the nerve to talk to their father. He’d sent Brian West to talk them out of pressing charges, knowing that the biker looked intimidating. He said that he’d visited Brian after the murder because he wondered if the man had anything to do with Sian’s death. Brian had allegedly admitted to knowing David Schlender and he, Joseph, had been shocked at this. Brian had then told him that David had gone over to the sisters’ flat to scare them but had ended up murdering one of them by mistake.

  On 29th November 1994, Judge McKinnon delivered his verdict: guilty. The spectators, most of whom had loved his innocent victim, burst into applause. The following month, Dr Joseph Charalambous was barred from practising medicine and was sent to a federal penitentiary to begin his life sentence. For the first few weeks he felt depressed but then he began to exercise and his mood improved.

  When he had exhausted the appeals process, he unsuccessfully requested a new trial, claiming that Shelley’s affair with a police officer had played a part in her testifying against him. In 2006, he gave an interview to the Vancouver Sun, in which he again proclaimed his innocence.

  32 Anthony Joyner

  This young man was comparatively unusual in that the targets of his lust were elderly women.

  A soft-spoken young man

  In 1982, the Kearsley Home of Christ Church Hospital in Pennsylvania, which had become a retirement home, interviewed candidates for the post of diet technician. One candidate, 22-year-old Anthony Joyner, was especially impressive, polite to both interviewers and residents, chatting easily to the elderly ladies who had made Kearsley their final abode. Although his slight build meant that his friends jokingly called him a faggot, he did in fact have a girlfriend.

  Anthony soon became a familiar sight at Kearsley, ascertaining the residents’ nutritional needs and spending time with them at barbecues and cream teas. He was a hard worker and well liked by his colleagues and by many of the older women, with whom he had a special rapport. The building had been made into sixty apartments so that each resident had their privacy as well as access to a communal lounge, an on-site doctor and private hospital facilities. There was also a security guard.

  An unexpected death

  One of the home’s oldest residents, 92-year-old Margaret Eckard was also the most lively, so a nurse was surprised to find her lying dead on the floor on the morning of 21st January 1983. There was bruising around her nose and mouth alongside smears of blood. Further examination revealed traces of blood in her vagina and anus, but dead bodies sometimes leak bloody fluid so the doctor decided that she had died of natural causes and she was duly buried.

  Another unexpected death

  The following month, on the 12th February, 85-year-old Katherine Maxwell’s door was found to be open, and when a nurse peaked in, she saw the octogenarian lying dead on top of the bed. Her pyjamas were streaked with blood. Again, the death was put down to natural causes and no autopsy was performed.

  Suspicion grows

  Shortly afterwards, 86-year-old Elizabeth Monroe was found dead in her bed. Again, there was bleeding from the vagina. The home’s usual physician, Dr Williams, was out on call, so another physician did the paperwork, reporting that Elizabeth had died of natural causes. When Dr Williams returned and heard that a third resident had died with blood smears in the genital area, he asked for an autopsy but the body had already been embalmed. The medical examiner assured him that there was nothing to worry about, that his patient had died of illness associated with old age.

  The death toll mounts

  Lillie Amlie, 89, was the next unexpected death. Despite her advancing years, she had a boyfriend and loved to party. She had been in her usual high spirits on 1st June 1983, had gone for a late-afternoon nap, but then failed to arrive in the dining room for her evening meal. A nurse investigated and found her face down in the bath, which only had a few inches of lukewarm water in it. Strangely, she was wearing stockings and jewellery and there was blood around her nose, mouth, vagina and anus. However, Lillie had had a heart condition and the staff decided that she must have slipped and fallen into the tub.

  Two more horrible deaths

  Eugenia Borda, 90, a religious woman who was believed to have been a virgin, was the next to be found dead in her bed. There was blood around her nose, mouth, vagina and anus. Dr Williams was so alarmed at this pattern – convinced by now that it indicated rape – that he refused to sign the death certificate.

  A few hours later, 72-year-old Mildred Alston was found dead across the hall, her panties lying next to the bed. She too had blood around her face and genitals. The medical examiner ruled that both women had been murdered, Eugenia of strangulation and Mildred of suffocation.

  Detectives investigated and found that Mildred’s wedding and engagement rings and her purse had been stolen. Security was good so they suspected an inside job.

  They began to question the friends and family of every employee and struck gold when one said that Anthony Joyner had boasted of raping women to prove that he was a man.

  Taken into custody, Anthony soon broke down and admitted, ‘I killed all of them.’ He said that he’d done so after fights with his girlfriend, but he played down the murder element, saying that he’d put pillows over the sleeping women’s heads so
that they wouldn’t recognise him as he raped them and that they’d accidentally died of suffocation during the sexual assaults. In another instance, he’d stuffed a rag into a victim’s mouth to stop her screaming and she’d choked to death on the rag.

  He talked on, admitting that he’d mainly entered the building at night through the cellar and sneaked into the residents’ rooms. He’d chosen most of his victims at random, with the exception of Mrs Amlie, who had confronted him when he stole $20 from her. Disturbingly, he had responded by telling her how attractive she was. He had sneaked into her apartment again one afternoon, planning to steal further cash, only to find her about to take a bath, whereupon he’d thrown her onto the bed, raped her and held a pillow over her face. Believing that she was dead, he’d gone to loot through her apartment but she’d revived and tried to leave the room. Grabbing her, he’d dragged her to the bathroom and held her down in the bath until she drowned.

  Trial

  Anthony was sent to a Philadelphia detention centre, where he was denied bail. He soon started to rewrite history, accusing detectives of framing him, but the autopsies showed that all six women had been raped and murdered and Anthony had no alibi. He had also admitted previously breaking into an apartment and raping a 62-year-old woman some time before starting the Kearsley job.

  At his trial in April 1984, Anthony’s ex-girlfriend testified against him, saying that he’d told her he would soon be famous. He had also allegedly told her that there had been lots of murders at the home.

  The diet technician took the stand and said that he’d been pushed around by detectives and that they had sworn at him despite the fact that he never used bad language. Facing the death penalty, he was fighting for his life.

  The jury were out for ten hours then found him guilty of all six murders, although they were deadlocked over the penalty. It was the judge who imposed a sentence of life imprisonment. Anthony smiled when he heard this, relieved to avoid execution.

  33 Dr Samson Dubria

  Although this resident physician has always protested his innocence, he was convicted of murder, the alleged motive being lust.

  A model student

  Samson (which was soon shortened to Sam) Dubria was born in 1963 to Pat and Lourdes Dubria in Glendale, California. A bright child, he went on to study at Rochester University in New York and the University of California before attending the George Washington School of Medicine.

  By 1990, Sam was resident physician at a veterans hospital in New Jersey. Many of the nurses were attracted to his oriental good looks but he fell for Jennifer Klapper, who worked in the medical library. The beautiful young librarian explained to him that she had a boyfriend so only wanted a platonic relationship. The doctor readily agreed to this and often met the twenty-year-old for drinks after work.

  In the summer of 1991, Sam asked her to accompany him on holiday but Jennifer wasn’t sure if this was a good idea and asked her parents for their input. They said that she was a sensible young woman and that she should trust her judgement, so Jennifer decided to go.

  Sam drove her to meet his parents, who lived near Los Angeles, and they stayed overnight then drove on to an inn near San Diego. During the holiday, Jennifer made a lengthy, loving phone call to her boyfriend, a call that her friend Sam was aware of. Later, the prosecution and defence would have very different views of what happened on that fateful night of 16th August 1991.

  The first that the authorities knew of any problem was when they received a call from the doctor, stating that his girlfriend had died suddenly. Paramedics arrived to find him desperately doing CPR but it was already too late. Sam said that he and Jennifer had enjoyed a sex session and that, shortly afterwards, she had collapsed.

  Jennifer’s body was autopsied by Dr Leona Jariwala. She noted that the girl’s ski-pants were inside out, there was semen in her body and some marks on her face. Subsequent toxicology tests showed traces of chloroform. Determined to get a second opinion, the doctor sent further bodily samples to an independent laboratory and they too confirmed the results – that Jennifer had died of chloroform poisoning.

  When detectives confronted the doctor, he said that he believed he’d driven to California behind a chemical lorry that contained chloroform. He said he’d felt dizzy during the drive.

  In March 1992, Sam Dubria was arrested and stood trial for Jennifer’s murder. The prosecution alleged that he had chloroformed her in order to rape her, and that she had died accidentally during the sexual assault. The defence said that the 28-year-old doctor had had consensual sex with Miss Klapper, and that her death was a tragic accident.

  In 1993, the doctor – still protesting his innocence – was sentenced to life imprisonment. His family immediately began a campaign to have him released. In the summer of 2007, his attorneys asked for his conviction to be set aside, stating that Jennifer Klapper had previously made hospital visits complaining of a rapid heartbeat – information that had been withheld from the court. They also stated that the chloroform allegedly found in samples from her body could have come about through contamination in the laboratory.

  A similar case

  Britain witnessed a spate of drugged rapes by a male nurse in the late 1990s, which ultimately led to a murder charge. Kevin Cobb, who worked in the casualty unit of St Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey, Surrey, injected several female patients with midazolam, a tranquilliser that causes short-term memory loss. When they were unconscious, he raped them, often striking late at night when the hospital was quiet.

  He was friends with another nurse, Susan Annis, whom he secretly lusted after. One day, when they were on a residential nursing course together, he slipped a date rape drug into her drink. He accompanied her back to her room and raped her after she lost consciousness – but Susan had a bad reaction to the drug and died. Kevin told his fellow nurses that he’d desperately performed CPR but had been unable to save her; the 31-year-old woman was found to have a minor heart complaint and her sudden death was attributed to this. Kevin wept copiously at her funeral and everyone felt sorry for the man.

  Unfortunately his friend’s demise wasn’t enough for him to stop his criminal acts and he raped another patient, who woke up during the sexual assault and was able to notify the authorities. They found midazolam in her system and Kevin was swiftly arrested. Traces of the drug were found in his pockets, and two other women came forward to make rape allegations against him, although he continued to protest his innocence.

  In May 2000, the 38-year-old was convicted of manslaughter, two rapes and four counts of administering drugs with intent to rape. He was given seven life sentences. Police later said that they were convinced he had raped other patients but that the drug had impaired their memory of events.

  34 Bobby Joe Long

  Halfway through his murder spree, this serial killer began work as an X-ray technician in a Florida hospital. Some of his patients were outraged when he touched them inappropriately, but the sexually insatiable Bobby Joe was capable of much, much worse.

  Early confusion

  Bobby Joe Long was born on the 14th October 1953 in Kenova, West Virginia, to Louella and Joe Long; she was seventeen, he twenty-three. Within a year of their marriage, Louella had given birth to Bobby Joe, but the marriage swiftly deteriorated and, by 1955, the couple were divorced.

  Louella moved to Miami and looked after Bobby Joe by day, but she had to leave him each evening to do bar or waitressing work. She would later admit that he suffered during these impoverished years. They were so poor that they would share a bed throughout his childhood, an increasingly inappropriate thing to do as the boy matured.

  On other nights, his mother would bring a man to her bed, in which case Bobby Joe was told to sleep on the settee, from where he could hear them coupling. Some of these men were unkind to him, and he was increasingly full of hate.

  When he was seven, his parents remarried but it was an off-and-on relationship and Louella continued to spend much of her time in Miami. That sa
me year, Bobby Joe ran in front of a car and was badly injured; he was left with a deformed jaw and teeth. School bullies made fun of his strange appearance and he often returned home in tears. Although he had an IQ of 118, well above average, he had little concentration and performed badly at school. Later, he would have an operation to remove excess flesh from his chest as a genetic disorder had caused him to grow almost female-like breasts. Desperately unhappy, he took to torturing neighbourhood animals and began to fantasise about hurting humans, especially girls.

  Meanwhile, in a desperate bid to make more money, his mother took a bar job that required her to dress in provocative outfits. The growing boy found this embarrassing and often pleaded with her to cover up, but the sexy clothes earned her more tips and increased her ability to attract new boyfriends – men that she continued to bring home.

  Teenage romance

  At thirteen, Bobby Joe met Cynthia, who was also from a broken home, and they became inseparable; he now stayed at her house whenever possible and was able to sleep apart from his mother. The couple dated for the next six years, during which time Bobby Joe was expelled from school for poor performance, became an electrician and joined the army. In January 1974, he and Cynthia married and she went to live with him at the air force base in Florida.

  In March, he was out speeding on his motorcycle when it was hit by a car. He was left unconscious with a fractured skull, had shoulder injuries and almost lost a leg. In time, he recovered from most of his injuries, but the blow to the head left him with an overwhelming sex drive, so strong that the hospital nurses noticed that he was masturbating four or five times a day. This almost-manic lust was also infused with an equally overwhelming rage.