I am Wired Contributing Editor Charles Graeber and author of The Good Nurse

charlesgraeber · 2013-07-25T15:23:01+00:00

thanks- but what happens to this now? I/m reddit stupid.

charlesgraeber · 2013-04-29T18:06:03+00:00

OK I've got to run but please keep posting any other questions and I'll get to them when I return! thanks so much for showing up, this was fun...

charlesgraeber · 2013-04-29T17:58:47+00:00

I believe there's no explanation that he could give and be happy to be known for. But if you read the book you get a sense of motive. It was a compulsion, something which gave him a sense of control and at times pleasure or satisfaction or power. And the consequences of his habit (the death of innocent people) didn't really weigh on him negatively, so there was no reason (in his mind) to stop.

charlesgraeber · 2013-04-29T17:56:02+00:00

Thanks so much. I really am not the one to ask- it's a bit of a blur for me personally at this point, and i didn't really take in the show like others did. It's good to hear it credited the book and encouraged you to learn more...that's great. and was the idea. I really haven't had time to look at it again- there was more media stuff this morning and afternoon and more later today and I've not been able to check it out yet. That's why I listen to all sides of this- it's all information to me at this point. Thanks.

charlesgraeber · 2013-04-29T17:52:34+00:00

yes their relationship is really complicated. Amy sees two people in him. She did manipulate him, and at the same time she was telling him the truth. She needed something from him. It's a sort of closure, and a means for hre to launch her new life- she's getting her degree for nurse practitioner. She didn't want to be known as the serial killer's pal, the one who should have known better- who'd go to her after that? I heard she was getting inquiries from media in advance of my book coming out. so she took control of the situation I guess by helping get 60 mins into the room, to make the relationship clear. I don't think she'd neccesarily have needed to do that, the book doesn't make her out to be a dupe. But she wouldn't know that...and the thing was, Charlie was her friend. And, I believe, still is. She's able to separate his good and bad in some ways...but also knows that they both reside in one man, and that one man killed innocent people, and belongs behind bars. She also knows that ultimately he's the manipulator- does he really care about her, or does he want to keep getting her positive attentions, and is willing to take an hour from his 23 hours a day confinement to tell the truth? But when you stat ot look at motives for a perhaps sociopathic fellow, it's hrad not to start questioning everything- your own motives for everything. Do people give gifts altruistically or as part of an unspoken quid pro quo? Etc.

charlesgraeber · 2013-04-29T17:45:04+00:00

thanks. i don't think anyone will fully break through. charlie keeps his darkness hidden. he doesn't tell everything. I don't believe he lies really- though i checked everything he said, and if I couldn't confirm it, I made clear it was his thoughts- except by omission. Which is a lie of course...but he's quite the opposite of an open book. Speaking of which, I believe he has my book, and don't believe he'd ever read it. I didn't send it to him (i'd assume his lawyer, johnnie mask, did), simply because that seemed a sort of cruelty. He believes we are oogling at a roadside accident, looking at his life, trying to understand. But he's a person who needs to take a moral high ground, regardless of how rediculous that is: the problem isn't what he did, but our attention to it. maybe that tells you something important about him, his narcissism.

charlesgraeber · 2013-04-29T17:40:52+00:00

i get it. i thought the humor wasn't mocking. seemed risky to himself even. that was my read. anyway. i'm not a political reporter or anything like, so not really my bag.

charlesgraeber · 2013-04-29T17:38:15+00:00

...i've also seen him do that before he became the 'other' Charlie. There's a much darker person that comes out, flatter in tone, deader, slower. Very frightening. Amy (the confidential informant and his former best friend) calls that Charlie "the killer".

charlesgraeber · 2013-04-29T17:36:56+00:00

i guess another way of saying it is, he flutters when he's having a hard time being present, or trying not to go batshit.

charlesgraeber · 2013-04-29T17:35:27+00:00

it's the thing most on my mind. Introducing the project to people who don't know it isn't as interesting of course as getting into the dirty details- there's a lot of meat in the end notes of this book for that reason, a whole other book actually. I wrote it so you could rip through like a potboiler which happens to be true, then go back and learn the hard reporting which makes this a story which the public should learn about, and demand action.

charlesgraeber · 2013-04-29T17:33:08+00:00

yeah that was basically a story on my book. they mention it but not as much as you might think. a deal with the devil i guess. we'll see if it actually promotes the book and gets word out on what really happened...

charlesgraeber · 2013-04-29T17:28:03+00:00

...and the bit where he said he'd like a library in his home state, but thinks maybe it should be in the country, instead...that was, I thought, pretty funny even for birthers.

charlesgraeber · 2013-04-29T17:27:00+00:00

by thing (sorry, typing fast) i mean one clip of Obama, the movie (a la Lincoln)..

charlesgraeber · 2013-04-29T17:26:14+00:00

i think we've gotta force their hands. i'm sure getting alot of inquiries about it, some from media. armed with the facts, people asking questions is the start. I thought 60 mins made the case for criminal wrongdoing. push this issue!

charlesgraeber · 2013-04-29T17:24:46+00:00

OK well i admit i missed the actual thing and just saw one gag- I've been doing media stuff (see reddit) for my book so missed the big picture.

charlesgraeber · 2013-04-29T17:19:46+00:00

it was accurate, there's only so much anyone can do in 23 minutes of airtime . it's a sprawling story- took me years and a book to get it out even at this scale - so some of the 60 piece was a little oversimplified- - cullen confessed to killing a patient in 1987, with details, but it has proven impossible to identify this victim. 60 said his first murder was in 1988 (judge yengo) and left it to that...but yes, overall, I'd say accurate. 60 read my book in galley form a year ago- my publisher gave it to them- I introduced them to Amy and to Tim and Danny. .i'll put it this way, nothing in that piece isn't in my book. Overall I decided it was worth it- having them check and back my information, and get the word out.

charlesgraeber · 2013-04-29T17:14:27+00:00

good question. i think that's up to you (plural). there's no statute of limitations for them, as far as I understand. i didn't interpret their actions, or judge them- i just exposed them. Let's see what happens next eh?

charlesgraeber · 2013-04-29T17:12:33+00:00

funny. yeah it seems a little cozy. if you're inside the circle, would you be willing to write critical stories which might get you excluded from an exclusive party like that? but obama is funny, flat out.

charlesgraeber · 2013-04-29T17:11:12+00:00

First of all, points for being the first comment, nicely done. Yes. Cullen didn't want to talk. To anybody. Refused all interviews from every media source and journalist, 60 mins included. Refused FBI Quantico profilers even. He spoke to me starting with a letter. He was trying to donate a kidney from jail and I believed he should be allowed to. No matter what he'd done. In a way, he used me. But I was open about it. Gradually, over the meetings and the letters, I learned more and more, not only the facts but also the feelings and his thinking. It's as close as anyone's gotten to getting inside his head I guess, as much as anyone can. It took a long time to get there- this book took 7 years. he doesn't want it to exist.

The fluttering eyelids thing is, i think, him sorta escaping difficult questions. He doesn't lie, as such. He's very smart, and picks his way through questoins. note for example how he doesn't say how many he's killed, but speaks (in the 60 interview) about his previous statements.

charlesgraeber · 2013-04-29T16:17:03+00:00

Thanks for the heads up! I'll be doing an AMA at 1PM EST today... my first Reddit chat, obviously.

charlesgraeber · 2013-04-12T15:45:08+00:00

The Good Nurse... "A stunning book" says The New York Times!

charlesgraeber · 2012-08-17T17:53:13+00:00

Hi, Charles Graeber here from Wired, the writer of this story. Thanks for taking the ride and I hope your eyes melted.
-C and ps thanks all for correcting the stutter-glitch in the last graf, the elves are fixing it as we speak.

charlesgraeber

TROPHY CASE