Efren Saldivar, the Hospital Worker Who Called Himself the Angel of Death, Charged With Six Murders
The former Glendale respiratory therapist confessed to killing patients in 1998 and recanted. Nearly three years later, tests on exhumed bodies led to his arrest.
Published
In 1998, Efren Saldivar told police he was the Angel of Death and had killed dozens of patients, then recanted. Nearly three years later, tests on exhumed bodies led to his arrest.
Saldivar, a former respiratory therapist at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, had said he lied to police because he was depressed and suicidal and wanted to be sent to death row. Police released him for lack of evidence, and he went on to work as an electrician's apprentice. On Tuesday, January 9, 2001, officers arrested him as he arrived at that job, and the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office charged him with six counts of murder. Saldivar, 31, was held without bail.
The case had taken nearly three years to build. Saldivar had worked at the Glendale hospital on and off from 1989 to 1997, and investigators reviewed the 171 deaths that had occurred while he was employed there. They set aside the 54 patients who had been cremated, picked out 20 deaths as suspicious and had those bodies exhumed. Toxicology tests found the paralyzing drug Pavulon in six of them, and in five of the six the drug had not been part of the patient's treatment. Prosecutors said Saldivar injected the six patients between December 1996 and January 1997. All of them were elderly and ill, and one was Jose Alfaro Sr., 82, who died on January 4, 1997, after he was admitted with pneumonia and emphysema. His death had been recorded as cardiorespiratory failure.
The charges carried two special circumstances, multiple murder and murder by poison, which made Saldivar eligible for the death penalty or life in prison without parole. Deputy District Attorney Al MacKenzie explained why the drug was lethal: it is used to stop the breathing of patients on respirators, and "if you give the person the drug and you don't create an artificial means for them to breathe, they're not going to breathe, and they're going to die."
CNN's broadcast transcript spells the prosecutor's name "McKenzie," while the Associated Press spells it "MacKenzie."
Sources
- 'Angel Of Death' To Be Arraigned, CBS News (AP)
- Burden of Proof: Investigators Charge Former California Hospital Worker With Six Counts of Murder, CNN
- Saldivar Case Poses Prosecutor Challenge, ABC News
Related News
- March 12, 2002: Efren Saldivar Pleads Guilty to Murdering Six Patients at Glendale Adventist Medical Center