Killer Nurse: Genene Jones

 

Genene Anne Jones (born July 13, 1950) is an American serial killer, responsible for the deaths of up to 60 infants and children in her care as a licensed vocational nurse during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1984, Jones was convicted of murder and injury to a child. She had used injections of digoxin, heparin, and later succinylcholine to induce medical crises in her patients, causing numerous deaths. The exact number of victims remains unknown; hospital officials allegedly misplaced and then destroyed records of Jones' activities, to prevent further litigation after Jones' first conviction.

Early life and marriages

Jones was adopted by a nightclub owner and his wife. Jones worked as a beautician before attending nursing school in the late 1970s.

Jones was married to her high school sweetheart between 1968 and 1974, and they had one child during that time. The relationship ended in divorce. Three years later Jones and her husband reconciled and had another child together in 1977. Just before her indictment, Jones married a 19-year-old nursing assistant. He filed for divorce a short time later.

Career and background

While Jones worked as a licensed vocational nurse (LVN) at the Bexar County Hospital (now University Hospital of San Antonio) in the pediatric intensive care unit, a statistically improbable number of children died under her care. Because the hospital feared being sued, it simply asked all of its LVNs, including Jones, to resign and staffed the pediatric ICU exclusively with registered nurses. No further investigation was pursued by the hospital.

Jones left and took a position at a pediatrician's clinic in Kerrville, Texas, some 60 miles northwest of San Antonio. It was here that she was charged with poisoning six children. The doctor in the office discovered puncture marks in a bottle of succinylcholine (Suxamethonium chloride) in the drug storage, where only she and Jones had access. Contents of the apparently full bottle were later found to be diluted. Succinylcholine is a powerful short-acting paralytic that causes temporary paralysis of all skeletal muscles, as well as those that control breathing; the drug is used as a part of general anaesthetic. A patient cannot breathe while under the influence of this drug. In small children, cardiac arrest is the ultimate result of deoxygenation due to lack of respiration.

Jones claimed she was trying to stimulate the creation of a pediatric intensive care unit in Kerrville.

Prosecution

In 1985, Jones was sentenced to 99 years in prison for killing 15-month-old Chelsea McClellan with succinylcholine. Later that year, she was sentenced to a concurrent term of 60 years in prison for nearly killing Rolando Santos with heparin.

As of May 2016, Jones was held at the Lane Murray Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. She had been scheduled for mandatory release in 2018 due to a Texas law meant to prevent prison overcrowding. To avoid this, Jones was indicted on May 25, 2017, for the murder of 11-month-old Joshua Sawyer. Nico LaHood, Bexar County District Attorney, stated that additional charges could be filed in the deaths of other children. Due to the mandatory early-release law covering Jones' original convictions, she would otherwise have been released upon completion of a third of the original sentence. The new charges were filed to avoid her release. In April 2018, a judge in San Antonio denied a request to dismiss five new murder indictments against Jones. On 16 January 2020, Jones pleaded guilty to the murder of 11-month-old Joshua Sawyer on 12 December 1981 as part of a plea deal in which four other charges were dropped. She was sentenced to life in prison. She will not be eligible for parole until she is roughly 87 years old.

In popular culture

She was portrayed by Susan Ruttan in the television movie Deadly Medicine (1991) and by Alicia Bartya in the straight-to-video movie Mass Murder (2002). She was also featured in a Discovery Channel documentary, Lethal Injection; season five episode ten of Forensic Files titled "Nursery Crimes"; season one episode three of the British docuseries Nurses Who Kill (2016); as well as the "Dark Secrets" season two, episode four of Investigation Discovery's Deadly Women, and was said to have inspired Annie Wilkes from Stephen King's Misery.