The One Nurse that Launched an Epic Controversial Media Debate Around the World

Christine Malèvre: Did she help people who suffer or was she really a genuine killer?

Normally when we feature a Medical Serial Killer, we commonly see they have the moniker Angel of Death. Some have been called Angel of Mercy. Imagine my surprise when I saw that Christine Malèvre was referred to as the  Madonna of Euthanasia in the press. 

After I dug further and further into her case, I realized why they would call her that. Her case sparked a debate in France which practically split the country right down the middle when it came to those who supported her and those who condemned her. I haven’t seen a case this controversial since we talked about Mary Bell in England and Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka in Canada. 

However, with those cases, the controversy lied in the outrage the country had towards their justice system. This case was controversial because of the reason Christine gave for her motivation. It’s also one of the first cases I have seen where the judge decided to change the defendant’s charges to counts that would have a more severe penalty than the ones she was originally facing.

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Another Nurse Makes Predictions

On May 3, 1998, 71-year-old Jacques Guitton was at the François Quesnay (Kah-Nay) Hospital in Mantes (Man-Tease)-la-Jolie, Paris, France when the doctors told him he had terminal cancer.  When he asked them how long they expected him to live, they told him two weeks at the most. Unfortunately his family and friends didn’t even get a chance to say their goodbyes because he died later that same afternoon. 

We have covered many cases involving older, considerably ill patients that die so suddenly that their death is suspicious to everyone around. That was the case with Jacques’ death. However, rather than wonder what possibly could have happened, the other nurses on the floor immediately directed their suspicions toward Christine Malèvre.  I mean, they didn’t nickname her The Black Widow for no reason.

Christine was another nurse on the neuro-pulmonology ward who pulled a card from Colin Norris’ book of medical serial killers – she had been making predictions earlier that day telling everyone, “Jacques wouldn’t make it through the afternoon.” She made these claims despite the fact that from the time he was admitted until around noon, his vitals were stable and he appeared to be rather healthy. 

Despite the fact they couldn’t yet prove it, the rest of the nurses on the ward thought they were pretty sure she was responsible. They were so sure they took their concerns straight to the Hospital Director Henri Gosset. After all, Jacques wasn’t the only patient that died on the ward under mysterious circumstances. In fact, it seemed like more people died while Christine was on shift than when she was off work.

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Denying Any Responsibility

After the other nurses went to Gosset with their concerns, he reviewed the records of patient deaths on Christine’s ward. He must have felt there was something significant in those records, because on May 6, he placed a phone call to the District Attorney’s office and requested they come in and conduct a formal investigation. 

However, he also decided to confront Christine personally. When Gosset brought her into his office and questioned her, she of course denied any responsibility. Gosset later said that her statements weren’t very convincing, which is why he decided to transfer to a different ward immediately. Why he didn’t suspend or terminate her would normally be perplexing. But we featured cases like Niels Hogel in the past, so I wasn’t shocked at all.

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A Failed Suicide Attempt

Christine was deeply affected by Gosset’s accusations. When she got back home that day, she wrote out a letter declaring her innocence. Then she went into the bathroom and took a handful of pills in an attempt to end her life. It’s obvious her suicide attempt failed because that would make a very short presentation.

Sometime after she passed out, her boyfriend returned home and found her lying on the bathroom floor. He immediately called the paramedics and they took her to the hospital. Ironically, she wound up being admitted to the psychiatric ward in the same hospital where she worked.

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The District Attorney Moves Forward with an Investigation

Even though it appeared as if Christine was experiencing some sort of mental anguish, the District Attorney moved forward with an investigation. He started by interviewing Christine’s co-workers. They didn’t hesitate to tell them why they were suspicious of the other nurse’s actions. 

Apparently, she decided to pull cards from the playbooks of several Angels of Death. What the other nurses told the District Attorney reminded me of some of the things Genene Jones did before she was arrested.

For instance, they felt that Christine was “very close” to the patients on the ward. When they died, she would always be the first one to volunteer to prepare their bodies so their families could come in and say their final goodbyes. 

Reports indicate that Christine was often seen at their funerals as well. Now, a lot of the reports I read suggested they thought this was strange behavior. But in my opinion, it’s not at all bizarre. As most people know, I grew up in the healthcare industry. My mom was a nurse and she often went to the funerals of patients that passed away. 

However, if Christine didn’t have a well established nurse-patient relationship with the deceased, then I would find her behavior odd. After all, my mom never went to the funerals of patients that weren’t on her wing or if they were rather new to the facility.

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The Records Are Shocking

After the interviews were complete, investigators reviewed the records because they wanted to compare Christine’s schedule with the patients’ deaths on the ward. They determined that the list of patient deaths coincided almost perfectly with the dates and times she was working her shift. One of the articles made the following comparison which I found to be comical: “A lot of deaths stuck to her like a creep on the subway.”

What the investigators were able to determine was that patients on the ward were 3-4 times more apt to die during Christine’s shifts. Those numbers may seem low, but they are in fact staggering.

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An Unorthodox Confession

Once the investigators made that discovery, on May 7, they decided it was time for them to interrogate Christine herself. It was obvious she wasn’t an experienced criminal, because they didn’t have to question her very long before she crumbled like a cheap suit. She admitted that she murdered a couple dozen patients.  

They were surprised by the fact it didn’t take very long for them to get the nurse to talk. The investigators didn’t really get her entire confession before they decided to have her arraigned. 

As Christine stood before the judge and he asked her about the patient deaths, she began stuttering her response. At first she recanted her original confession, claiming she only gave it under duress from the investigators interrogating her.   

Then she changed her story. It may have taken some time, but the court finally heard her somewhat unorthodox confession. According to her, she didn’t murder her patients. Instead she performed “consensual euthanasia” which we refer to as “assisted suicide.”

Here’s the kicker: that probably wasn’t a good choice for her defense. Even though assisted suicide is legal in a lot of places around the world, it was and is illegal in France. So ultimately, they charged her with manslaughter.

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Granted Bail

Even though Christine admitted to aiding in the death of her patients, because she was only being charged with manslaughter, the judge granted her bail. Considering this, one might think that she would be satisfied with her circumstances for the time being. However, that was not the case. She attempted to commit suicide a second time by taking another handful of pills. Obviously, she was once again unsuccessful in her attempt to kill herself.

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Sparking the Debate

Considering the nature of Christine’s confession, it’s not surprising that in the beginning the media was all over this case. In fact, her supposed motivation sparked a nationwide debate on consensual euthanasia. In fact, she even made an appearance on a French talk show where she talked about how she “simply helped patients who longed for death.” The majority of French citizens ate up her words as if they were starving. 

France as a country has been split on the topic of assisted suicide right down the middle. On one side is the Roman Catholic population with their strong hostility regarding compassionate euthanasia. On the other side is the increasing pressure from French liberals who want to decriminalize the process.

This split was practically a mirror to those who supported Christine and those who wanted to see her punished to the full extent of the law. She received more than 5000 letters from people who supported her cause. Some even expressed an appreciation for her seemingly compassionate actions.

In fact, Bernard Kouchner, a Health Minister, publicly stated “everyone should avoid hasty moral judgment when it comes to her case.” The media had even begun describing Christine as “a model nurse who was helping these terminally ill patients end their life of misery for the good of the patient.”

However, her victims’ families were outraged by the attention the press was giving the person who murdered their loved ones. The press’ love for Christine was short-lived. The fickle media outlets suddenly turned on her when a journalist, Anne-Marie Casteret, published an article titled “Deadly Compassion.”

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A Complete 180

People who read the article found out that Christine may have had as many as 30 victims. It even went into great detail about her apparent “morbid fascination with disease and death.”

After the article was published, the major associate in France that advocates for a patient’s “right to die” quickly retracted their support for Christine. This was what caused the majority of the public to back the prosecution’s case.

The media did a complete 180 on their compassion for the nurse that one would have thought the press was Bo and Luke Duke in the General Lee running from Roscoe P. Coltrane and Boss Hogg. However, that didn’t stop her from writing and publishing her book My Confessions. 

In this book, Christine stated, “I helped people to end their suffering and depart in peace. I did not kill. I am not a criminal.”

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The Mask Crumbles

From the moment Christine appeared in front of the judge for the first time, every time she told her story, she could never keep the “facts” straight. She started telling people that the deaths of her patients were a complete accident. She actually said at one point that “the syringe slipped.” 

I mean come on – that’s worse than the time my ex-boyfriend told me that it was an accident when he created a profile on a dating website and began dating another woman while we were still together. Seriously?

Finally the judge became so frustrated with her ever-changing tale he was determined to prove she was lying. His next move shocked everyone present in the courtroom. He demanded a demonstration.

Imagine everyone’s surprise (she says sarcastically) when they discovered it takes quite a bit of force on the plunger of a morphine syringe to administer the necessary dose to end someone’s life. They can’t be emptied in one quick push like an insulin syringe. That was about the time Christine’s mask crumbled.

Once the judge managed to prove the nurse was lying, he made a bold move and changed her indictment. Rather than charge her with manslaughter, he chose instead to charge her with first-degree murder. The difference was a longer prison sentence.

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The Families’ Attorney Has a Theory

Olivier Morice, an attorney representing the families of five victims gave his theory regarding why the judge changed Christine’s charges: After the syringe demonstration, the judge suddenly realized “We are dealing with a serial killer more than with a “Madonna of Euthanasia.”

Once the judge made this statement, the prosecutor argued for the more extreme charges because they assumed the jury would treat her like a serial killer rather than show her leniency because they sympathized with her alleged cause.

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The Trial Begins

Christine decided to take her case all the way to trial because she was facing seven charges of first-degree murder. Now, she readily admitted to being responsible for the death of four of the patients. However, she was adamant that she didn’t aid in the deaths of the other three patients.

Christine’s trial began on January 20, 2003 in Versailles. During the proceedings she went back to her original claim – she merely assisted her patients when they asked her to help them die. The thing is, two of her victims’ families believed her. The rest stated there was no way in hell their loved one wanted to die before they could say their goodbyes.

The prosecution argued that by killing her patients, Christine was ultimately able to satisfy her sick compulsions. Family members testified that they agreed with the statements of the prosecutor. They went on to say she didn’t kill her patients for their good, but for her own. Even before the case went to jury, those statements turned more of her supporters against her. 

Once the jury broke for deliberation, they were out for four hours. When they returned, they pronounced her guilty of six out of the seven murder charges she was facing. Apparently, the jury found her claim to be logical enough for them. Even though they found her guilty, she was only sentenced to serve 10 years in prison. That was an extremely lenient sentence by most country’s standards. They also officially revoked her nursing license permanently.

When all was said and done, the courts proved she was responsible for the deaths of six of the seven patients below who died sometime between 1997 and 1998:

• 64-year-old Raymond Baudet
• 75-year-old Hubert Bruyelle
• 48-year-old Denise Le Maout
• 47-year-old Dominique Kostmann
• 52-year-old Patrick Hauguel
• 29-year-old Patrice Collin
• 71-year-old Jacques Guitton

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Choosing to Appeal

Despite her relatively light sentence, Christine didn’t want to spend that long in prison. She chose to appeal her sentence. However, that wound up backfiring on her. By the end of that process, the Paris Court of Appeals decided to add two additional years to her sentence. 

In the long run, it really didn’t matter all that much. Christine was released after serving only four years because of good behavior. Once she was free – and alive – she met a man and the two are happily married. And she managed to get a job as an accountant. Apparently France doesn’t care about the reputation they have with the rest of the world. Perhaps they have truly earned the ridicule they have received throughout history.

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My Theory

Keep in mind, I have never claimed to be an expert in psychology. My theory comes from my history of being raised by a woman who, for the majority of my life, was a well-respected nurse in our community. When you’re exposed to the medical industry nearly on a daily basis, you tend to pick up on some things.

As I was going over this case, one thought popped into my head. I think Christine suffered from Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another/FDIA. This disorder was once referred to as Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy/MSP.

We’ve talked about this illness before, but here’s a brief summary to refresh your memory. FDIA/MSP is a form of mental illness, but it’s also a form of abuse. It is an illness that affects caregivers. It’s most typically found in those who care for children and more often seen among mothers. 

FDIA/MSP generally causes an individual to act like their charge is sick when they truly aren’t. Oftentimes they will falsify information in medical records, lie to medical personnel about their charge’s condition or health. All of this is done to satisfy their need for attention.

People who suffer from FDIA/MSP might purposefully do things to cause their charge to become ill when they aren’t. Some will consciously expose their charge to unnecessary surgical procedures or risky/painful medical treatments. 

They may do things that will deliberately create adverse symptoms that mirror actual illnesses or health conditions. Oftentimes, they achieve this by administering poison, giving their charge inappropriate medications, withholding proper nourishment, suffocating their charge, and/or withholding medications that have been prescribed. 

When a person with FDIA/MSP creates such situations, they are potentially placing their charge in extreme danger. They might even cause their death.

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How I Arrived at this Theory

Some might be wondering how I arrived at this theory. Think about it. Christine demonstrated a complete lack of discretion, she confessed quickly, she made appearances on television, and she wrote a book. She did everything she could to get the slightest bit of attention. In a social situation, she might have been referred to as an “attention whore.”

Then there’s the fact that her sister required the attention of her parents while Christine was being molested by someone they should have been able to trust. In other words, she wasn’t getting the attention she so desperately needed and thus more than likely felt completely neglected. Therefore, later in life, she sought opportunities to get the attention she felt she missed out on. 

The only thing this world can hope for is that Christine receives the therapy she so desperately needs. That or she never has children. Because she might just fall back into her old behaviors and this won’t be the last we’ll hear from her.

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Additional References

Brutal Nation. A Man with a God Complex Terrorizes Germany: Niels Hogel. Twisted Blue LLC, 26 July 2021, https://open.spotify.com/episode/0XWgH3nKV5fGtCPtwcv0YP?si=Hp6uUaLVQ6qjzRyLbzkshw.

—. Declared Guilty but Proclaims Innocence: Colin Norris. Twisted Blue LLC, 13 Sept. 2021, https://open.spotify.com/episode/4dtDU5aR1rf3cF2TMF2FW9?si=LzIeptJlSgWSgwQYimiumA.

—. The Global Debate That Split a Country in Half: Christina Malevre. Twisted Blue LLC, 11 July 2022, https://open.spotify.com/episode/2cNgAhWVlREGLatKEEDSTm?si=p6HS0RVQQCO3HjRr2ECpRg.

—. The Juvenile Killer That Received a New Identity: Mary Bell. Twisted Blue LLC, 30 June 2021, https://open.spotify.com/episode/6p3eFNWOm52v59GJbL69tE?si=zcgenQSMSO-CJXq0wpdwYQ.

—. The Serial Killing Couple That Enraged an Entire Nation: Paul Bernardo & Karla Homolka. Twisted Blue LLC, 6 July 2021, https://open.spotify.com/episode/0sGDy7qy6YGghyTezSd7AN?si=-AfvKg3dSDStaKeW39cafQ.

—. Were They Mercy Killings or the Work of Pure Evil: Charles Cullen. Twisted Blue LLC, 5 July 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Mal%C3%A8vre.

—. What Happens When You Combine Munchausen Syndrome with a Drama Queen: Genene Jones Part 1. Twisted Blue LLC, 8 Nov. 2021, https://open.spotify.com/episode/7maMsOVD86M8tgQ6wBBVil?si=Q3MRIDDNSFm0wv1hY84iJQ.

—. What Happens When You Combine Munchausen Syndrome with a Drama Queen: Genene Jones Part 2. Twisted  Blue LLC, 15 Nov. 2021, https://open.spotify.com/episode/7maMsOVD86M8tgQ6wBBVil?si=Q3MRIDDNSFm0wv1hY84iJQ.