What did Orville Lynn Majors do?
Orville Lynn Majors was an American serial killer and licenced practical nurse who murdered his patients in Clinton, Indiana. He claimed he murdered patients who were demanding or adding to his work load. He was dubbed “The Angel of Death” for his despicable crimes.
Majors was initially viewed as a popular nurse where he worked at Vermillion County Hospital in Clinton, especially among elderly patients. However, he came under suspicion when the death rate at the Hospital jumped significantly when he returned for a second stint there.
Some of his victims died of an erratic heartbeat after respiratory arrest, while others died from conditions they didn’t have when they were admitted to the hospital.
Majors’ coworkers noticed the spike in deaths and in 1995, nursing supervisor Dawn Stirek checked the time cards to see who was on duty during the deaths. She discovered that Majors was on duty for 130 of the 147 deaths between 1993 and 1995. She alerted officials, who called the police in to investigate. Major was suspended pending an investigation and had his licence suspended for five years after they determined he had exceeded his authority by giving emergency drugs and working in an ICU without a doctor. The hospital later fired him.
Investigators determined that more deaths would occur when he was on duty, but Majors denied the claims, hired a lawyer and went on talk shows to proclaim his innocence. Police struggled to find enough evidence to bring a case against him until family members of his victims came forward to report odd behaviour by Majors just before their loved ones died.
What happened after the investigation?
After a two-year investigation, Majors was arrested in December of 1997 and charged with seven murders. However, authorities believed he killed 100 to 130 people in total. Prosecutors chose to focus on seven to avoid overwhelming the jury. His trial began in 1999, and he was convicted on the 17th October for six murders, with the jury deadlocked on the remaining victim. He was sentenced to six consecutive sentences of sixty years. The judge described Majors’ crimes as “diabolical acts.”
Where is Orville Lynn Majors now?
Orville Lynn Majors served his sentence at Indiana State Prison until his death in 2017. He was 56 years of age.
The story of the investigation and the prosecution of Majors was featured in a segment of an episode of The New Detectives, and also on an episode of Licence to Kill on Oxygen.
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