Gwendolyn Graham - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Gwendolyn Graham and Cathy Wood (born 1962) are American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

serial killers who killed five elderly women in Grand Rapids

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Grand Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is located on the Grand River about 40 miles east of Lake Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 188,040. In 2010, the Grand Rapids metropolitan area had a population of 774,160 and a combined statistical area, Grand...

, Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

in the 1980s. They committed their crimes in the Alpine Manor nursing home

Nursing home

A nursing home, convalescent home, skilled nursing unit , care home, rest home, or old people's home provides a type of care of residents: it is a place of residence for people who require constant nursing care and have significant deficiencies with activities of daily living...

, where they both worked as nurse's aides.

Crimes

The two women met at the Alpine Manor nursing home where Graham was a nurse's aide and Wood was her supervisor. They quickly became friends and then lovers in 1986. They practiced sexual asphyxia to achieve a better orgasm. Graham began to talk about committing murder as a sexual game.

Posting Wood as a lookout, Graham attempted to kill a few elderly women. However, the women were able enough to fight back. In January 1987, Graham entered the room of a woman who had Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...

; the woman was too incapacitated to fight back, and thus became the pair's first victim. The woman's death appeared to be natural, so an autopsy

Autopsy

An autopsy—also known as a post-mortem examination, necropsy , autopsia cadaverum, or obduction—is a highly specialized surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse to determine the cause and manner of death and to evaluate any disease or injury that may be present...

was never performed.

Over the next few months, four more Alpine Manor patients were murdered. Many of the victims, whose ages ranged from 65 to 97, were incapacitated and suffered from Alzheimer's disease. Graham and Wood turned the selection of victims into a game, choosing victims whose initials collectively spelled M-U-R-D-E-R. Graham took souvenirs from the victims, keeping them to relive the deaths. Both women openly bragged about smothering six victims to their coworkers, with Graham even showing off her souvenirs, but no one believed them.

The couple broke up when Wood refused to actively kill a patient to prove her love to Graham. Wood transferred to another shift. Graham moved to Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

with another woman and began work in a hospital taking care of infants.

The murder investigation began in 1988 after Wood’s ex-husband, who she had told about the murders, went to the police. Her ex-husband told the police in October 1988, which led them to investigate further. The first victim was exhumed on November 30, 1988 almost a year after her burial. The coffin was then taken to Kent County Morgue for examination. Eight possible victims were identified, but police ended up pursuing five.

In the end there was enough evidence to warrant the arrest of Wood and Graham. In December 1989, Graham was arrested in her hometown of Tyler, Texas

Tyler, Texas

Tyler is a city in and the county seat of Smith County, Texas, in the United States. It takes its name from President John Tyler . The city had a population of 109,000 in 2010, according to the United States Census Bureau...

; however, she maintained their claims were made as a joke to scare their co-workers.

During the trial, Wood plea-bargained

Plea bargain

A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case whereby the prosecutor offers the defendant the opportunity to plead guilty, usually to a lesser charge or to the original criminal charge with a recommendation of a lighter than the maximum sentence.A plea bargain allows criminal defendants to...

her way to a reduced sentence

Sentence (law)

In law, a sentence forms the final explicit act of a judge-ruled process, and also the symbolic principal act connected to his function. The sentence can generally involve a decree of imprisonment, a fine and/or other punishments against a defendant convicted of a crime...

, claiming that it was Graham who planned and carried out the killings while she served as a lookout or distracted supervisors. On November 3, 1989, Graham was found guilty of five counts of murder and one count of conspiracy

Conspiracy (crime)

In the criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to break the law at some time in the future, and, in some cases, with at least one overt act in furtherance of that agreement...

to commit murder, and the court gave her five life sentences. She resides in the Huron Valley Complex (for female offenders). Wood was charged with one count of second-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit second-degree murder. She was sentenced to 20 years on each count and has been eligible for parole since March 2, 2005. Wood is currently incarcerated in the minimum security Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee, Florida, she is expected to be released on June 6, 2021.

Several of the families sued the owners of Alpine Manor for hiring “dangerous and unbalanced employees.” Alpine Manor has since gone out of business but the building now houses a nursing home called "Sanctuary At Saint Mary's"

Media

The case was the basis of the 1992 true crime

True crime (genre)

True crime is a non-fiction literary and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people.The crimes most commonly include murder, but true crime works have also touched on other legal cases. Depending on the writer, true crime can adhere strictly to...

novel Forever and Five Days by Lowell Cauffiel

Lowell Cauffiel

Lowell Cauffiel, born in Michigan, USA, is an American writer and TV producer.An award-winning reporter with the Detroit News and Detroit Monthly Magazine in the 1970s and 1980s, Cauffiel began his bookwriting career in 1988 with Masquerade: A True Story of Seduction, Compulsion and Murder. That...

.

Graham and Wood were featured in two episodes of the TV series The Serial Killers in which they were interviewed about their relationship and crimes.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.