Two Filipino nursers were convicted of murdering patients in July through August 1975 at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Following a 13-week trial the two VA nurses Filipina Narcisco and Lenora Perez were convicted conspiring to commit three murders on July 13, 1977.
The nurses were accused of deliberately injecting a muscle
relaxant, Pavulon, into the intravenous feeding tubes of nine VA patients,
resulting in breathing failure. There were more than 50 such breathing failures
at the Ann Arbor VA Hospital in the Summer of 1975. The prosecution was highly
controversial involving the charge that the FBI deliberately withheld
exculpatory evidence. On appeal the nurses had the conviction overturned and
the prosecution elected not to pursue a retrial. It was the mentally ill VA
nursing supervisor Betty Jakim, 51, seems to have confessed to having committed
the murders when institutionalised at the University of Michigan Neuropsychiatric
Institute. She committed suicide in Sebring, Florida on February 3, 1975. She
had attempted suicide twice before.
[Robert St. Estephe, Oct. 16, 2015]
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The Ann Arbor Hospital Murders were the
murders of 10 patients by unauthorized administration in their IV of a curare
drug Pavulon in an Ann Arbor, Michigan, Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital
during 1975. After a huge FBI investigation Filipino nurses Filipina Narciso
and Leonora Perez were charged with murder but only found guilty on poisoning
and conspiracy charges. Public opinion was against prosecution of the nurses on
the basis that they could have had only the most trivial of possible motives
for conspiring to commit such extremely serious crimes, and the case was
dropped after a retrial was ordered. [Wikipedia]
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The case of Betty Jakim is exhaustively covered in online
posts of the original newspaper clippings.
[Old News, Ann Arbor, Michigan.]
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[918-12/31/20]
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working in security for a local department store in Pittsfield Twp, I arrested this lady and released her pending a letter from her doctor concerning some experimental drug she was taking.During her arrest she indicated she was a second floor supervisor at the VA hospital in Ann Arbor and she described her elderly patients as her vegetable garden to care for.It was months later that it was reported that suspicious deaths were occurring at that hospital. I had release Betty conditional on her providing a doctors note about her diagnose and medication being prescribed. I had received a copy of a a medication from a PDR and a letter from her. Month or so later I became aware of the FBI investigating murders at the facility and with permission provided the FBI with the documents I had been provided.After some time to Filipino ladies, were found guilty of the murders, and I heard that there was some dispute as to discovery and not all evidence had been turned over to the defense, as I recall a Thomas O'Brian. I called that attorney, and was informed they had nit received the Jakim evidence, but had some where heard of it. I informed him the FBI had what I had given them. I soon after was informed the FBI was at my work and wanted to talk with me. I contacted a friendly county prosecutor for advise. I was told to take a tape recorder to the meeting and did so. Once I turned the tape recorder on the interview ceased.The Filipino ladies, who had been found guilty were never ..recharged. I did become a friend with one of the agents and was informed they believed the Filipino ladies had done this as a contest against working conditions.. I never believed this.
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