One of the stories making the news here in Italy is the arrest of Daniela Poggiali, 42, a nurse who is accused of killing at least 38 of her patients because she found them or their relatives to be annoying. She was initially charged in the death of an elderly patient and now police believe that she is a serial killer.
The case of Rosa Calderoni draw attention of the authorities because she been admitted for a routine illness and when she died there were high levels of potassium in her bloodstream. At least 10 other deaths are now being listed as “very suspicious”.
Prosecutor Rossella Materia called her a sadist who “who draws pleasure in provoking the death of the patients in her care.” One picture on her phone reportedly shows her giving a thumbs up next to when of her patients who had died seconds before. The public statements are an interesting dimension since Italy prosecutes people for criminal libel, as in the abusive case against the parents of Amanda Knox that we discussed earlier. While comments against the police can bring a charge, it clearly does not apply when prosecutors make such comments against individuals.
Even a colleague described her as a “cold person who was always eager to work.” This included the allegation from a co-worker that Poggiali would give patients strong laxatives at the end of her shift to make work more difficult for the nurses taking over.
Poggiali told police that she is innocent and the victim of a conspiracy by her enemies.
The case could prove very difficult given the length of time that has passed.
Source: MSN
Nick,
You are free to accept or reject advice but you are far from qualified to tell me what I’m experienced to do. And I wouldn’t be so arrogant as to assume some fictitious title of elder statesman. I’ll leave that to the imaginations of others.
I am DAMN proud of the people I have recruited here. They are SUBSTANTIVE contributors to this fine blog. I believe in the big tent theory. None of US have been banned from ANY blog.
Nick Spinelli wrote: “None of US have been banned from ANY blog.”
Thanks for setting the record straight on that. Not that it would matter to me. I have been banned by more blogs than accepted. I’m sure that is not surprising to most people on the left. The last blog banned me for commenting about creationism. I think I lasted just a week or two there before the hammer came down without warning. One thing I have enjoyed about this blog is adherence to principles of freedom of speech in addition to civil discourse.
When my daughter was in Afghanistan, Troope York, Spinelli and the ‘gang’ went so far as to harrass me about the existence of my OWN daughter. They said I had created her, that she didn’t exis and she was a figment of my imagination, until Aridog, one of their own who is ex military researched her and found out she truly did exist and was serving in Afghanistan. I do thank Aridog for being truthful and setting them straight. This is how vile and low this group of people are. Karen just keep associating yourself with hem and before long you’ll be one of them. Nice guy Spinelli, huh?
It is these babies that get me. Someone who is really sick and at the end of their life…..well you can almost understand the motivations of these people. I mean that is what Obama and Ezekiel Emanuel have planned for us with Obama care.
Sorry, David.
You are not a damn fool. Just a guy with some VERY eccentric ideas.
David
It was obvious that this wasn’t a serious attempt at sock puppetry.
Any damn fool could see that.
But I enjoyed reading Gene’s writing once again.
trooper, It is a strange dynamic. You have brave nurses treating Ebola patients and all these demented ones killing patients. Italy, Austria, US, I’m sure it’s in every country. Sometimes it takes investigators a while to see patterns. They’re too busy eating donuts!
I was reading about a pediatric nurse in San Antonio named Genene Anne Jones who murdered babies which seems quite unusual since most of these cases involve elderly people. It seems that through a loop hole this monster will soon be released after only serving 33 years of a 99 year sentence. There is a Facebook page set up by the families of her victims that is fascinating reading.
Perhaps it would be prudent to remember an illuminating post by Gene Howington, a former guest blogger here. He wrote about the different tactics used by propagandists. Following is a short paragraph about the tactic of using sockpuppets to create false consensus:
Band Wagon and False Consensus – The Band Wagon tactic is a variation of the appeal to popularity (argumentum ad populum) that is best illustrated by the line, “All the really cool kids are doing it.” It is, like that illustrative line, a form of peer pressure. Where it comes into full bloom as a propaganda tactic is when it is combined with false consensus. False consensus is a tactic where posters use “sockpuppet” identities to basically agree with themselves and create the false illusion that the proposition is good by consensus. The best way to combat this tactic is to familiarize yourself with poster’s writing styles so sockpuppets are easier to spot, frequent sites that use moderation to mitigate the effects of sockpuppetry. If you have the skills, you might even write analytical software that spots sockpuppets based on published public data. It has been my experience on this particular blog and topic though that when people use technological solutions to spot sockpuppets, the sockpuppeteers get really pissed off at not being able to lie without the threat of easy detection of their tactics. While this tactic may be overboard, I have found that simply being able to recognize writer’s by “their voice” works almost as well. This is a skill that you may or may not be able to acquire though. It’s analogous to having an ear for dialects. You simply may or may not have the proclivity and predisposition to do this effectively, but it never hurts to try. When combined, these two tactics are illustrative of the tactic known as astroturfing. These tactics can also be used in divide and conquer strategies.
http://jonathanturley.org/2012/07/29/propaganda-104-magica-verba-est-scientia-et-es/
I was born in Austria. I’ve been called a Nazi by this toxic group for over two years now on three different blogs, now it’s come here. What a wonderful addition to RIL.
I remember the case of Richard Angelo who killed a bunch of patients at Good Samaritan Hospital in upstate New York. I knew a guy whose had a relative who was one of his victims. That was the only case I knew of at the time besides the nonsense you seen on some TV shows.
There must be hundreds of families who were in that hospital in Italy that have questions and are wondering if this nurse had something to do with their parents or loved ones deaths. What a mess!
Getting a better idea of the toxic and abusive friends Spinelli has brought to this blog? Here are a listing of his ‘gang’ from the Althouse blog they are longer allowed to comment on.
1. Aridog
2. Michael Haz
3.Dust Bunny Queen
4.Trooper York
5. Pogo
These people harrassed and abused Ann AlthouseNAND her husband in the same manner they have now done to me here on this blog. This is a pattern. Now this toxic group has landed here at RIL. You can thank Spinelli.
Annie – seems to me like you are continuing your attack on Nick. And given your propensity for the truth lately, I am not sure we should even start to believe you.
Olly, thanks, you are right.
Elaine:
I did find it difficult to discuss the topic of public/charter schools with you, but that’s just my opinion. Even so, after Darren, you were my next favorite guest blogger. Issues facing children and their education are topics I am keen about, and it is my impression that you feel the same way. We just disagree on some of the approaches.
Trooper, Interesting, thanks. Austria has given us Hitler, Arnold, and now demented LPN’s. Combine these female demented nurses killing patients, and all the female teachers raping students, I think we need to have some compilation and see just what is driving this.
“Maria Gruber, Irene Leidolf, Stephanija Mayer, and Waltraud Wagner made up one of the most unusual crime teams in 20th Century Europe. The four Austrian women were nurse’s aides at Lainz General Hospital in Vienna who murdered scores of patients between 1983 and 1989. The group killed their victims with overdoses of morphine or by forcing water into the lungs. By 2008, all four of the aides had been released from prison.
Wagner, 23, was the first to kill a patient with an overdose of morphine in 1983. She discovered in the process that she enjoyed playing God and holding the power of life and death in her hands. She recruited Gruber, 19, and Leidolf, 21, and eventually the “house mother” of the group, 43-year-old Stephanija Meyer. Soon they had invented their own murder method: while one held the victim’s head and pinched their nose, another would pour water into the victim’s mouth until they drowned in their bed. Since elderly patients frequently had fluid in their lungs, it was an unprovable crime. The group killed patients who were feeble, but many were not terminally ill.
Investigators criticized the hospital for meeting them with “a wall of silence” as they attempted to look into a suspicious 1988 death. The aides were caught after a doctor overheard them bragging about their latest murder at a local tavern. In total, they confessed to 49 murders over six years, but may have been responsible for as many as 200. In 1991, Wagner was convicted of 15 murders, 17 attempts, and two counts of assault. She was sentenced to life in prison. Leidolf received a life sentence as well, on conviction of five murders, while Mayer and Gruber received 20 years and 15 years respectively for manslaughter and attempted murder charges.In 2008, the Justice Ministry in Austria announced that it would release Wagner and Leidolf from prison due to good behavior. Mayer and Gruber had been released several years earlier and had assumed new identities.” Wikipedia
There is nothing new under the Sun. This type of thing seems to recur all the time. I was not aware of the number of cases where this has happened but a quick check on Google turned up a bunch of similar cases.
Olly, your buddy Spinelli is feeling a bit threatened by you I see. Perhaps you will get to see the other side of his face now.
Karen,
You’re participation in this blog has been consistently civil and on point. If I could be so bold as suggest you do what you would do if you discovered the person you were physically in a room talking to had 19 personalities. 😉
I would make the same suggestion I made to Darren last night. Suspend comments on this toxic thread. Compare this to the other threads today. The others are all quite civil and good. Use deductive reasoning to see the cast of characters on those productive threads, compared to here. ‘Nuff said.
People can be so mean.