Math Caught A Serial Killer
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- čas přidán 14. 02. 2022
- Kristen Gilbert was nicknamed the “Angel of Death” because so many patients happened to die during her shifts. No one saw her doing anything wrong, and there just wasn’t any physical proof in post mortem examinations… but many of the patients who went into cardiac arrests didn’t have health problems that should result in heart failure. Some were even young and physically healthy. But without hard evidence, is it even possible to determine whether a doctor or nurse is actually killing patients?
The data revealed a shocking pattern of elevated patient death rates during Gilbert’s shifts at the Veterans Administration hospital, but that still didn’t prove anything beyond a reasonable doubt. The thing is… it doesn’t necessarily HAVE to. In the case of Kristen Gilbert, math identified the possibility of a serial killer’s existence and then let a full investigation do the rest. Gilbert is serving four life sentences plus an additional 20 years, and dozens, if not hundreds, of lives were saved by getting her away from patients.
The state spent $1.8 million defending Kristen Gilbert in a trial in which she narrowly escaped a death sentence. But that trial never would’ve happened at all without math.
** SOURCES & READING **
“Statistics in the Courtroom, United States v. Kristen Gilbert,” by George Cobb and Stephen Gehlbach. www.stat.ucla.edu/~nchristo/st...
Adrenaline, by Brian B. Hoffman. www.amazon.com/Adrenaline-Bri...
Perfect Poison: A Female Serial Killer’s Deadly Medicine, by M. William Phelps. www.amazon.com/Perfect-Poison...
Molecules of Murder: Criminal Molecules and Classic Cases, by John Emsley. www.amazon.com/Molecules-Murd...
Calculating Justice: Mathematics and Criminal Law, by Ken Strutin. www.llrx.com/2013/12/calculat...
** LINKS **
Vsauce2:
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Talk Vsauce2 in The Create Unknown Discord: / discord
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Hosted and Produced by Kevin Lieber
Instagram: / kevlieber
Twitter: / kevinlieber
Podcast: / thecreateunknown
Research and Writing by Matthew Tabor
/ tabortcu
Editing by John Swan
/ @johnswanyt
Huge Thanks To Paula Lieber
www.etsy.com/shop/Craftality
Vsauce's Curiosity Box: www.curiositybox.com/
#education #vsauce #crime - Věda a technologie
You know what's really messed up? Is that the schizophrenic patient, if for example he knew that it was this lady doing this to him, and for all 3 consecutive heart attacks, he was like "She's doing this to me! She's trying to kill me!" they would just chalk it up to him being crazy. Because once you're labeled as crazy, anything you say or do is just gonna fit that mold. Really sad honestly.
It's applying confirmation bias, but to a human being. Actually despicable
he had paranoid schizophrenia which means he was already always feeling like someone is trying to kill him, which is really sad once he would have realised that he is actually becoming a victim of a conspiracy against him (thats what he had believed anyways all the time)
Can hardly believe that he was fully justified in his concerns there, in a literal hospital, but the proof’s in the pudding now.
I agree that it's a shame if patients with paranoid thoughts (like schizophrenic patients) aren't trusted even when they tell the truth, but I don't think it's necessarily a case of doctors who would "label them as crazy" (because crazy isn't a medical term by the way, it's a stigmatizing term used towards mentally ill, usually psychotic patients that is patients that lose contact with reality).
Paranoid patients can have delusions about persecution (people trying to assault or kill them...), so it's no surprise that doctors who have a lot of patients to care about don't pay attention everytime a patient with those kind of delusions says that a nurse is trying to kill him. It's a shame, but it's not the doctors' fault in my opinion. It's like if a depressive person says that they have nothing valuable in their life, most of the time it's not true so doctors won't act like it is (but the feelings of despair are real don't get me wrong, just like the schizophrenic's feelings of persecution are real).
Yeah I gotta agree with the guy above me. Mu brother has paranoid delusions, qnd we can't take anything he says at face value. He will claim things I know for a fact are not true with perfect sincerity. He believes these things.
Gotta agree with the Judge on this one. Humans like patterns. If that graph was in front of any regular person, there'd be no question in their mind Gilbert was guilty, but graphs can be misleading unless you understand how data works (and even then).
It's not really misleading if you can read an X and Y axis (or the labels on them) lmao. Literally primary school stuff
@@jazzabighits4473 No, that's precisely why it *is* misleading. Data in isolation doesn't take in extraneous factors. "Correlation is not causation" can be difficult for people to process.
Fun fact, there's a strong correlation between drownings via household swimming pools in the USA, and Nicholas Cage staring in leading roles in movies. Does this mean Nicholas Cage likes to spend his time off-set murdering people in pools? Probably not. One chart without proper analysis can lead you to very wrong conclusions.
@@RisqueBisquet Making a terrible strawman doesn't seem the right way to argue it dude. I'd argue that the thing that correlates closest to household swimming pool drownings in the USA is living in the USA and actually having a household swimming pool.
Of course, this chart failed to mention if any other people were working the same shifts as her, because it could've just as easily been someone else. However, it is quite obvious that either her, or somebody during those shifts, was doing something dodgy. Nothing misleading about it (and it turned out to be correct in the end)
@@jazzabighits4473 The big correlation is the boyfriend always being the one giving chest compressions.
@@Foolish188 Yeah, I'm surprised he didn't get charged for coverup or conspiracy to multiple murder.
What a despicable human being. I think death sentence is inhumane, but I don't understand how anyone else can be considered for death row if this person got away with what she did.
I think the death sentence is humane. when you consider what people have done to get there.
@@lesgoshooping6695 evidence isn't ironclad, and the truth might resurface decades later. And you can't undo a death penalty the same you could life in prison. Its better to leave 100 murderers alive than to put one innocent person to death in my opinion
@@AlexNotFound404 I mean yhe ones that have been 100% proven or the ones that turn themselves in or admit it. because I know that has happened
They should bring back concentration camps for rapists pedophiles and serial killers
Death sentence is inhuman unless you're talking about a life sentence. Death sentence takes justice away from victims, death is easy, life is hard.
This video allows you to appreciate all the time you spent learning math in school lol
Eggs
It’s definitely cool, but math at school still sucks
Bacon
I already loved math
I don't get why so many people say "i will never use math" the only common subject that most people might not use in their everyday lives is Science beyond physical Science.
Reminds me of the "sociopath riddle":
A woman meets a man at a funeral for a member of his family, and falls in love, but has no contact information or name for this man. What does she do to meet the man again?
Dunno
The woman would kill "a member of his family"
Kills her mother(or some other member of her family) so there would be another funeral and they can meet again
Yeah, but any pragmatic sociopath would know there’s spectacularly easier ways to find a guy if you know who his family is but not who he is.
How tf you all answered it?
We need to be careful with claiming to use statistics to “prove” any causation. In this case, more evidence was found in order to make a conclusion. If you used only correlation, you can imagine that you could just as easily have found a disproportionately high death rate associated with that police officer. It would also be incredibly easy to frame someone with a crime if statistically significant correlation was sufficient to convict someone. Statistical analysis often only tells you where to look; you still need to investigate deeper and/or perform an experiment to reach a useful conclusion.
bruh so well explained, I'm seeing people arguing that those statistics were solid proof, without acknowledging that by that logic you could easily claim the whole hospital was a criminal organization, or the police man was a psychopath, even though it's not true
that in itself is evidence that outlandish statistics wouldn't reveal the answer
it is solid proof bc they used the expected data vs actual data of when the woman was present for those deaths
@@alanbanh No, it’s not. Even if there was a higher death rate in the woman’s presence, you still don’t know the cause of those deaths without investigating them. Stats can’t tell you that, only further investigation can.
@@alanbanh that doesn’t give solid proof mate lmao.
Just say ur defending the woman
I really like these new videos about crimes that have to do with math, but I miss a little the old puzzles, games and paradoxes. So I would really like to have some combination of those 2 types of videos. Btw amazing job!
But really, these crimes are very interesting. Very nice.
Good idea!
i ask you,to what extent do you think,the puzzles,games and paradoxes can be shown?
Dread for it,run for it,crime videos arrive all the same
if u get the reference ur a legend
I agree!
@@theboss-by5gd this reference makes 0 sense
More like "sentenced her to life in prison without the possibility of Perrault."
Ba dum tshh!
HAHAHAHAHHA
Judge was pretty smart using the graph in that way, everyone definitely would've thought of it as definitive proof
yeah but using only that as definitive proof would be illegal
you can't exactly say "mister x is secretly stealing winning lottery ticket numbers" if he won the lottery thrice in a row
statistically it'd be likely but
realistically the aforementioned claim is basically baseless
It is also isn't very relevant to the question of if she killed a specific individual.
And that is the question before the court, "did she kill these four people?" not "did she kill people?"
What’s sad about the case is that just by eliminating the presence of Nurse Gilbert in all this, the hospital would’ve had a survival rate noticeably higher than the average establishment.
Does that imply that every other hospital has a "Nurse Gilbert" in them?
@@jeffreybond5796there were quite a few other homicidal doctors and nurses in the 80’s and 90’s….so maybe
What if she was covering up her crimes by being a good nurse and actually saving some other people? Maybe that's why this hospital's death rate wasn't higher. But it's just a theory.
@jeffreybond5796 no
There was a similar case in Finland few years ago where nurse Aino Nykopp-Koski killed 5 by insulin. Motive was also to appear as a hero
And a similar case in Germany. This appears to be worryingly common.
It could be why a small number of people go into nursing. Just a small number, but a good motive to a mentally ill person with Munchausen by proxy syndrome.
My grandmother was at that hospital when she was working there, luckily she was not a target. Was scrolling to see if someone would mention this case.
@@I_am_Irisarc The worst thing about cases like this is that it just can't be completely avoided.
@@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721 That's true.
Why on the earth police officer would make CPR, while surrounded by medical professionals!?
shot in the dark, but because its a VA hospital maybe? need someone to restrain the person in case of a ptsd event? most logical thing i could think of
Maybe the "surrounded by medical professionals" part. A VA hospital is not like a regular hospital. Very few doctors on every shift.
@@BariumCobaltNitrog3n nurses and medical technicians are still more competent for giving CPR than police officer.
@@mrblc882 Hey ask Kevin, I don't know. You are generalizing anyway, do some research lazyboy.
CPR takes a lot of strength and endurance. Could be he was good at it and he was fit and strong.
Big fan of these videos, great job bro
Let me get this straight: You comment something that is unrelated to the fact that I have two HEAVENLY HANDSOME girlfriends? Considering that I am the unprettiest CZcamsr ever, having two handsome girlfriends is really incredible. Yet you did not mention that at all. I am quite disappointed, dear chu
@@AxxLAfriku sorry but that means your girlfriends are men
@@AxxLAfriku ratio
@@AxxLAfriku i really don't know what is wrong with you
@@AxxLAfriku bot 🤖
This series on the use and misuse of math in the justice system is amazing and important, there hasn’t been anything like it on the platform.
"Sometimes math and science don't need to put out the fire; sometimes all they need to do is sound the alarm." Best quote in the video.
Imagine being a serial killer and being caught by math
I wish that wont happen to me-
@@jerome_arceus wait a minute
@@jerome_arceus r/holdup
@@jerome_arceus good one-
Nah that's nothing compared to that case solved by the African Gray
there was a similar case in Germany in which a nurse (Niels Högel) killed over 300 patients over a period of 15 years
I'm really loving the direction you've taken this channel lately. Every single video is immensely interesting!
wow youtube is small
Confused, in a hospital with medical professionals a cop was required to give CPR?
Iirc the rule for who does CPR is about who's available more than career. If they were trained it would have been helpful - CPR is hard to do, and it lets everyone else do their job
@@rowanreed914 that is not what was started
@@dillonbuford maybe, since cops are supposed to be fit and strong the Reason he does the cpr is because he would likely have the most stamina and would be able to do it for longer than anyone else?
@@teamdarkfan317 and you're just making things up
I used to think this guy was super annoying but he's grown on me and i really enjoy the content
lol same
Go watch some old Markiplier videos. It will desensitize you.
He sounds like he has a Michigan accent but google says he grew up in New York
Same
"Murder isnt an accident." 3rd degree murder: "am i a joke to you?"
i think the term is involuntary manslaughter, sorry this is a month old
292,
*Translated*
Wow!
3rd degree murder is not an accident. It is a homicide without an intent to kill.
If punch you without the intention to kill, but you end up dying, that is 3rd degree murder, not an accident. I intentionally harmed you and that harm has the potential to kill. If I was making some repairs and you happen to pass by just as I drop a hammer from high up, that is an accident possibly not a murder.
Manslaughter is an accident
yea, this is a month old i think the term is involuntary manslaughter now
I, once again, have to say that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE WAY THIS CHANNEL WENT!
Sincerely there is a lot of math and criminal analysis channels but nothing gets close to the presentation level of Vsauce2! It's absolutely incredible!
The worst thing about this is that there is a high likelihood of things as crazy as this or even more so that just go unnoticed.
Yeah, the bar graph is _incredibly_ suspicious, but it doesn't prove _why_ Gilbert was there for such an inordinate number of deaths. Since she always worked the same shift, it could very well have been that another coworker there on her same shifts was responsible, or that certain problems like power outages or equipment failures were more common at that time of day, etc.
The bar graph was useless in the trial, but it was vital in the _investigation._ It was a clear lead that led to the other, much more concrete evidence that finally put her away.
My grandmother actually worked at this hospital. I wish she was still around for me to ask her about this crazy lady.
RIP, may she rest in peace
She was in on it
there was a similar case in Germany. The nurse Nils Högel killed 80 patients in a hospital between 1999 and 2005. They've suspected him on over 300 counts. It took a decade before he was convicted of all the murders, because doctors did not report the noticeable increase in deaths & patients in mortal danger during his shifts to the police, they only transferred Högel to other hospital stations, where he started killing again.
Yea thats a major L on the German healthcare system.
Are we just going to ignore the fact that a patient death every 6 weeks is EXPECTED on the job?
Hospitals are the the place where dying people are sent in hope of saving their life. Doctors are not God and can't save them all. Also, sometimes clearly dead people are sent to the hospital to make it official and figure out cause of death.
Less then one death a month is pretty good if you look at it that way!
Hum yeah. Feels even should be less, like a month. (12 deaths on a year)
The probability of dying over your lifetime is 100 percent.
@@francogonza death every six weeks is less than one death per month , meaning less than 12 deaths on average
I guess it depends how many patients there were at one time
*This is what your Teacher was talking about when they said "You'll use this when you're older." And these guys actually did.*
I really appreciate that your channel has both moved on to create content that's a little less stagnant with this true crime stuff but also stays true to its original message by always involving math and probability. great stuff!
We just started our probability unit in pre-calc and I'm actually excited to learn about it because of this channel. Thank you.
I'd been talking to friends of mine about your channel since forever, recently I've gotten to put a true crime angle on it, and they're chomping at the bit. Love all your work Kev, keep it up duder!
I'm loving these new true crimes with math videos. I heard on his podcast the other day that Kevin was really happy with the new slant, as well. I'm glad to see the quirky math shorts haven't gone away, though. I like VSauce 2 even better now.👍
I gotta say, Vsauce2 is insanely impressive. Consistent videos about cool topics that still maintain a coherent theme. Keep up the great work; not to demean Vsauce 1 or 3 but the infrequency of 1 and basic ending of 3 leaves Vsauce2 standing out in consistency.
So glad to see you posting, always love your vids!
This was so interesting! Hope to see more like this!
Broke: Using math to catch a speedrunner cheating in "Minecraft"
Woke: Using math to catch a serial killer in "Outside"
I'm curious as to whether or not you're making a Tierzoo reference? Idk
Yukari?
I really love these videos you've been doing about math and crime coming together
If her coworkers figured it out without any math it's probably little bit too late for math being praised in this case.
It was necessary though. The suspicion of her coworkers wasn't evidence.
Love how you completely changed the vector your channel is going.
I'm really, really loving this series, all videos have been great!
Man I tried mathematically working out one of your problems because it didn't work out as planned so yeah I'm addicted to your videos
Someone coppied your comment
Dream stans be like:
_"she was just very (un)lucky"_
You know Dream was exonerated by Karl Jobst, right?
@@straightupanarg6226 He cheated simple as that
@@straightupanarg6226 dream admitted to cheating. It's as simple as it gets.
@@straightupanarg6226 Karl did the literal opposite of exonerating ream.
@@iurigrang It doesn't make it any better, since he had to be conclusively proven to have cheated _multiple times_ before he admitted to it.
That's by no means the only issue with him, anyway.
wow Kevin, these new episodes are amazing! thanks man
Best VS2 video yet. Well done!
I wish when they taught us statistics, that they would have mentioned your videos! Really makes statistics make sense and finally interesting, keep the series going!
This man gives us so much information for his time. We need to subscribe to him right now
based sans
based sans
Mind Blow used to inspire and motivate me. Why did you stop? it was perfect! Thank you for your work.
Nice timing, thank you:)
I really love how the episodes complete each other!
these videos are always a treat :) thanks for the entertainment
Wonderful video on every aspect of it!
I am liking the recent format of videos, good work!
"Math caught a serial killer."
Hmm, maybe math isn't so bad after all. I'm still confused about how to figure out algebra tho.
I instantly remembered your Sally Clark video bro, that too was awesome
Thanks for doing such a great video
these kinds of videos are truly mindblowing
My Stats teacher told our class about this a few months ago, pretty cool how it showed up in a video
Pleeeeaase please keep doing true crime series! You really have a knack for it! ❤❤
Glad to see you're still making videos
Awesome video. I love this series I hope it never ends...
I love this math in trail series, keep it going!
It's important to know that math itself isn't deciding who's innocent and who's guilty. Like many things created by humans, Math is a tool, and tools can be used by whoever knows how to get their hands on it. It can be used correctly and honestly, or it can be used by someone with less honest intents and not much interest in learning how to use it properly. Math can really lead to some amazing futures and feats, but it can also cause horrible tragedies to happen. That's why I think it's really important for math to be show and shared to everyone so anyone can understand and can call out whenever someone abuses it. Sadly schools aren't doing a too good of a job encouraging younger generations to learn and be curious.
7×60=420
math is discovered not invented
@@highlander1075 no it’s made up
I live in Northampton mass and I'm very familiar with this story. Thanks for giving it the treatment it deserves.
Nice! I’m from mass too! I clicked on the video thinking it would just be a regular v sauce vid, I was mind blown when they showed the picture of downtown! I used to love mama iguanas as a kid, and I had teriyaki chicken from noodles last night!
An absolutely amazing video!
"Math is everywhere"
FBI used *MATH* as a portable security camera
I mean, at this point I have a “history of Mental Illness”, after being treated for anxiety with Zoloft after 2 years of being in lockdown.
So I’ve got to wonder about the inclusion of that type of thing in stories like this now.
Or in the news articles from the time.
🙁
every living person has an history of mental illness
When a story says somebody has a "history of mental illness" they usually do not mean anxiety or depression. Yes those are mental illnesses, but they are not mental illnesses that are relevant to what is going on. Sort of like how when they say "is there a doctor in the house" at a resturaunt they are not asking for the guy who studied theatre for 20 years eve though yes he would have a doctorate it is known that the mean a medical doctor. Similarly A "history of mental illness" is usually talking about skitsofrenia, Bipolar Disorder, Psycopathy or Another serious mental illness that actually would contribute to a mental state in which the person would do the thing they did. An Anxiety disorder is pretty much never going to contribute to the mental state required to commit a crime. To be clear having a serious mental health condition such as those mentioned does not make a person automatically "Dangerous" but the fact that people with these conditions are sometimes compelled by the mental state created by their disease to commit horrific crimes is not "made up" either. It is a case of a few exceptional individual cases creating stigma for the entire group, but just because most skitzofrenics are completely harmless, does not mean that the condition of skitsofrenia did not contribute to the crime committed by a one skitsofrenic individual.
@@angrynoodletwentyfive6463 Schizophrenia* (i agree with your statement just letting you know so you can make an edit)
@@angrynoodletwentyfive6463
I tend to be a little cynical. Sensationalism sells. And "history of mental illness" is just vague enough if an editor wants to sell more papers or has it out for someone.
@@PvblivsAelivs which is why people overestimate the prevalence of malignant skitsophrenia. Nobody is going to read an article entitled "skitsophrenic man goes about his day trying to ignore his hallucinations." But "skitsophrenic man murders entire orphanage" or whatever? So many reads.
Really like the ending message in general; we don't always have to solve the problem, just make the problem be known.
Very cool, I like how you wrapped it up.
I love your math crimes realted to crimes and legal issues, please do more :)
This is already one of my favourite videos of the murder math series. Although I really like them all.
Dude I like this. Your channel shows in recommended. I saw this episode and I had to sub.
great timing
"In the United States, the most dangerous place you can go is:"
Chicago!
"The hospital"
oh
I know right? I definitely can think of a few places more dangerous than a hospital. Plus correlation doesn't always mean causation.
7:30-7:39 Makes sense. Epinephrine is also naturally produced, notably during stress.
Been waiting for this
This channel is so underrated, it's criminal!
really scary that it was known and understood that she had purposefully hurt that child and then she was still allowed to have a career as a caregiver...
Having just lost a patient on a code a few days ago, that they (or she) flirted during one is sickening.
GREAT videography!
This series is really incredible.
Man, you are making me fall in love with maths and science (and with VSauce2)! Every punchline you make gives me goosebumps!
"Kristen Gilbert was a nurse... in Northampton, MA."
Me, who just moved there: 😶
Me, who has lived there my whole life and was born at Cooley Dickinson hospital: 😳
Great Video! I do have one question though. How did they know it wasn't another nurse working the evening shift.
I have been enjoying these new videos a lot
As someone with a math degree and an interest in criminology, I love this video!!
Love this content, wish I had the brain for math. But I miss Mike and Jake.
I think they have their own channels where they talk about their own relevant topics, unless that's changed.
Sure, medical error is terrible, but what REALLY makes American hospitals so terrifying- the hospital fees are heart-stopping.
The last message is inspiring, thanks
This brings "solve for x" to a whole new level
I love the real life videos. While the thought experiment/games were entertaining they all kinds mixed together i never knew what videos i had already watched
Another great story video
*The guy named Math* -"What?"
I understand everything, math and stuff, but do u know how creepy it is when ur sick and a nurse is just straight trying to poison you while u cant do anything about that?
OMG this is a series! Damn looks like we ain't sleeping anytime soon :D
Amazing video man... chef kiss
What my teacher thinks I will use math for in the future:
i think this was what the math teachers meant when they say were gonna use maths later on in life
I love these new videos relating crimes and maths but i really miss those old game theory related videos... They were so much more fun and mathematical
Does this series have a name yet? Because I absolutely live for these videos now. 👏🏻
I was thinking the same thing. Maybe it should just use the title of the first episode: "Making a Math Murderer."
Damn, we got some old school Jake Chudnow outro music (Olive - Jake Chudnow)
Love your channel my Gojira loving fellah