Charles Edmund Cullen (born February 22, 1960) is an American serial killer. Cullen, a nurse, murdered dozens – possibly hundreds – of patients during a 16-year career spanning several New Jersey medical centers, until being arrested in 2003. He confessed to committing as many as 40 murders, at least 29 of which have been confirmed, though interviews with police, psychiatrists and journalists suggest he committed many more. Early life Charles Cullen was born on February 22, 1960, in West Orange, New Jersey. He was raised in a working-class Catholic family, the youngest of eight children. His father Edmond, a bus driver, died on September 17, 1960, when Charles was seven months old. Cullen later described his childhood as "miserable" and claimed to have been constantly bullied by his schoolmates and sisters' boyfriends. When he was aged nine, he made the first of many suicide attempts by drinking chemicals from a chemistry set. Cullen's mother, Florence Cullen (), was born in England and emigrated to the US after World War II. She was killed in a car accident on December 6, 1977, at the age of 55, when Cullen was in his senior year of high school. Cullen recalled his mother's death as being "devastating" and described being upset that the hospital did not immediately inform him of her death and cremated her body instead of returning it. The following year, Cullen graduated from West Orange High School and enlisted in the United States Navy. He served aboard the submarine USS Woodrow Wilson. He successfully passed basic training and the rigorous psychological examinations required for submarine crews, who were expected to spend as long as two months at a time being submerged in a cramped vessel. Cullen rose to the rank of petty officer second class as part of the team that operated the vessel's Poseidon missiles. He did not fit in during his time in the Navy and was hazed and bullied by his fellow crewmen. A year into his service, Cullen's leading petty officer aboard Woodrow Wilson discovered him seated at the missile controls wearing a surgical mask, gloves and scrubs rather than his uniform. Cullen was disciplined for that action but never explained why he had dressed that way. The Navy reassigned Cullen to a lower-pressure job on the supply ship USS Canopus. He attempted suicide and was committed to the Navy psychiatric ward several times over the