(
)
Even after Amy Loughren printed out computer data, wore a wire and worked for months as a confidential informant, the cops still needed her for one last duty — getting him to confess.
They’d arrested Charles Cullen, but he wouldn’t tell them anything — wouldn’t even answer a question with “yes” or “no.”
On the verge of having to set him free, they called Amy in to see if she could succeed where they had failed.
“When I got there, I said, ‘I need to get this confession,’ ” she told The Post.
BOOK EXCERPT: THE DAY I DISCOVERED MY PAL WAS THE ANGEL OF DEATH
Loughren thought about the Rev. Florian Gall, who had been admitted to Somerset in June of 2003 in critical condition and who had made an astounding recovery from pneumonia, heart and kidney failure. His improvement was so great that it was looking like he’d soon be discharged — until he suddenly went into cardiac arrest and died.
Amy also thought about Cullen’s family; she knew that he didn’t want his two daughters with his ex-wife to suffer for what he had done. Amy led with this.
“I told him that he had the opportunity to be the hero that day,” she said, adding that if he didn’t confess, he’d be dragged through a lengthy trial and that “he was going to drag his daughters and me through this for years.”
Then she asked him how he killed Rev. Gall, and he confessed: “He said he injected him with an overdose of digoxin.”
Amy believes she was the only one who could have gotten that out of him: “I believe the reason he confessed is because I cared about him.”
Then she asked him who his first victim was.
“He said, ‘I’ll talk, but I want the death penalty.’ ”
Amy stayed with Cullen the whole day. He spoke to the police for seven hours, and the whole time, she got him food and drinks during breaks, gave him hugs — not just to keep him talking, but because “I still cared for his soul. His human part may be a monster, but his soul belongs to God.”
Cullen eventually confessed to killing 40 patients but authorities believe he has killed as many as 400. His only motive? Perverse kicks. He wasn’t killing just terminal patients; he murdered even healthy ones, randomly, just to watch them die.
Loughren recently went to visit Cullen in jail, where he’s serving multiple life sentences. She said she had not seen him since the day he confessed.
“I needed to have that catharsis,” she said, but as far as further contact, “I think that was probably it for me.”
For the first time in nine years, she no longer has nightmares.