update
In October 2021, more details were revealed on the investigation that led up to the arrest of Reta Mays. The details are outlined in this Metro News article. Mays did a poor job of covering up after herself, reacting to the interviews in ways that only dug her hole deeper.
"You're the monster no one sees coming."
Haunting words from Judge Thomas Kleeh this past week. On May 11, 46-year-old Reta Mays was sentenced to seven consecutive life terms plus 240 months for the deaths of seven men. All were veterans and patients at a Veteran Affairs hospital in West Virginia, which is under intense investigation after discovering that a serial killer worked among their staff. Between June 2015 and her termination from her job in July 2018, Mays decided to play God with the lives of innocent men who had served their country. On July 14, 2020, she finally confessed to injecting eight men with insulin, killing seven.
As a nightshift nursing assistant, Mays' job was to measure patients' vital signs, test blood glucose levels and observe patients one on one as needed. She was not qualified to give out medications or insulin. But, since the security of medication proved to be loose, Mays helped herself to insulin to inject into men who didn't even have diabetes. This causes blood sugar levels to plummet and induces hypoglycemia. It's a dangerous condition that can result in seizures, concentration problems, unconsciousness, and death. Giving insulin to someone who doesn't have diabetes can be fatal.
Mays stuck around after giving the injections to watch revival efforts by doctors, observing the reactions of family. This pattern makes her a specific type of killer.
Reta Mays (West Virginia Regional Jail and Correctional Facility/AP)
An "Angel of Death" refers to a nurse who kills patients in a hospital or caregiving setting. Nurses are meant to be caring, nurturing figures. Especially right now, during the pandemic, they are present at the worst times of someone's life. Heroic figures. Overworked in places where they too could easily get sick. But some become our worst nightmares. Investigators cross referenced her work schedule with patient deaths, and exhumed the bodies of those they suspected she killed. They linked her to seven, but believe she could be responsible for as many as 20 murders.
Judge Kleeh's words ring true for female serial killers as a whole. No one sees them come. No one sees them go. Often, they are in plain sight.
Psychology
According to forensic psychologist Katherine Ramsland, Ph. D., killer nurses, or angels of death, are ones who "exploit an atmosphere of trust". In a Psychology Today article, she quotes a 2006 study from the Journal of Forensic Sciences that says nurses, male or female, comprise about 86 per cent of all health care serial killers. Power, control and attention are more important to these killers than helping people.
Indeed, Reta Mays confessed to her murders and reportedly said that in the chaos of her personal life, killing gave her a sense of control. In 2012, her husband, Gordon Mays, pled guilty to accessing child porn and then in 2019, was sentenced to a year in prison for failing to update the sex offender registry as required. Staying with him likely came with much judgment and disapproval. Records indicate he was found guilty of accessing 43 images and videos of child porn in October of 2010. However, she was killing before his second prison sentence.
In 2013, she was caught up in a lawsuit with other correctional officers at the prison where she worked. The inmate claimed that Mays held him down, kicked him, swore and insulted him while the other officers assaulted him. Despite her reputation in the National Guard, this incident hints at a potential history of violence.
Something else we know about serial killers in general is that they are two-faced. They lead double lives. Tina Hickman thought Mays, her neighbour was friendly and struggled to believe this was all possible, according to the Washington Post. In an especially cruel twist, one of Mays' victims was Hickman's grandfather, Archie Edgell. Mays actually tried to kill him twice. In March 2018, she gave him a first injection which he survived. In her second attempt the following night, he died. The autopsy revealed four injection sites.
In a feeble defense, her attorney, Jay McCamic, claimed her PTSD and various mental problems meant that “any ability in her to maintain clear thinking collapsed.”
“Unfortunately, the ‘why’ can’t be answered here. Reta Mays doesn’t know why.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jarod Douglas viewed it differently.
“Apparently the defendant found some excitement or self-worth in causing these emergencies. These actions gave the defendant a sense of control,” he told the courtroom.
Let me start by saying that not all people with mental illness or trauma go on to kill others. I personally suffer from Complex PTSD, severe chronic depression and high-functioning anxiety, and despite my fascination with serial killers to top it all, I have never become one. That defense gets old quickly.
There was nothing spontaneous or passionate about these murders. Mays had time to think about what she was doing. She could have decided against it while walking to get the insulin. Or in the seconds prior to injecting the helpless victims who relied on her for care. She went to work for her night shifts knowing what she was going to do. Somewhere in the trial, it was mentioned that Mays watched "Nurses Who Kill" and performed Google searches on female serial killers. It's not really possible for her to have simply "snapped" yet maintain the clarity to remain inconspicuous about the murders. She knew what she was doing. This was calculated, premeditated and cold. A veteran killing fellow veterans. The urge to kill was within her, the idea circulating in her mind, before she ever gave that first injection.
Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay
This is indicative of a psychopath. The simplest answer to her psychology and motive is that she killed simply because she wanted to. She craved the power and sense of control, even enjoyed the act of murder. Female serial killers kill to kill. Rare it is to find a ritual, a fantasy pertaining to the victims, or anything that would otherwise drag out the murder. Women make swift work of victims, be it for material gain or for a sense of control.
Before I delve deeper into discussing psychopaths, another disclaimer: not everyone who is diagnosed with anti-social personality disorder (APD) becomes a killer. A personality disorder is not always a pre-requisite for becoming a criminal. Just as I don't appreciate having mental illness used as a defense for killers, there are those with personality disorders who can lead and manage normal lives. This isn't making a generalization or an assumption about everyone diagnosed with such.
That being said, I'll keep this in the context of Reta Mays. There is an extensive list of traits used to diagnose one with APD. A person needs to exhibit three or more before being diagnosed. Studies show that psychopaths have areas of the brain that are underdeveloped; areas which regulate emotion and impulse control. They are born this way, unlike a sociopath, which is believed to root from environmental circumstances. (This can also occur with psychopaths but environment is more of a contributing factor instead of the primary).
Reta Mays displays several traits that make her a psychopath:
Disregard for right and wrong.
Using intimidation and dishonesty to violate the rights of others.
Lack of empathy and remorse.
Impulsive.
Failure to consider negative consequences.
Seen as charming and trustworthy, can hold a steady job, have a family and appear to function normally and productively.
Carefully plans criminal behaviour in a way that minimizes the risk to herself.
No real emotional attachments. She uses people and relationships to manipulate, control and gain something.
This explains a few things. Her relationship with Tina Hickman gave her power. Tina viewed her as friendly. Reta probably felt a sense of contempt and superiority over this. She had her secrets and she had control of the whole situation. This is the type of thing a psychopath might feel smug over. Female killers don't tend to feel the need to brag about their crimes. They enjoy simmering in the quiet satisfaction from their activity. Hickman would be a constant reminder of the murder of Archie Edgell, a way of reliving it. Hanging back in the hospital room while doctors attempted to revive victims would serve the same purpose. Watching the result of her actions while listening to the family.
Reta Mays wore two masks.
One, of a caring, devoted nurse, described by those who knew her as a go-getter, a woman who was friendly, devoted to her job and church. Involved and helpful, her co-workers would say. Her other side was quietly, hauntingly sinister. A woman who looked down on her fellow veterans with scathing superiority for reasons hard to pinpoint. No one knows for how long her inner psychopath brewed before she focused on these innocent elderly men as her target. Maybe they were simply convenient.
In the same Psychology Today article from Katherine Ramsland, she explains some behaviours that killer nurses might show.
"Yet we have learned that healthcare serial killers tend to show the same types of behaviors, even when different motives inspire them," Ramsland writes.
These behaviours include:
Drifting from one hospital to another. (which we know Mays didn't do, but likely would have had she not been caught when she was.)
A history of mental illness such as depression, or a pattern of odd behaviour like aggression towards patients they find irritating.
Seen in or around rooms where the pattern of deaths occur. (Mays was on shift for each of the murders and one witness said she made a remark about things always happening when she was working.)
Difficult personal relationships.
Secretive.
Preference for night shifts.
Faking credentials or work history.
Killer nurses tend to commit their crimes alone. They move with the stealth of many female serial killers, but in the disguise of one who is supposed to be filled with empathy and compassion. The nurse by your hospital bed isn't supposed to kill you. But Reta Mays did just that. No amount of psychological dissection can give back what she took from those families. The cruel malice with which she coldly murdered veterans. Fellow men who also served their country, living out their senior years as otherwise healthy men who thought their stay in the VA hospital would be temporary - not where they were about to die at the hands of a nurse.
Image by whitfieldink from Pixabay
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