death angels and dead pools:

A nurse accused of murdering her patients

angel of death!

“Angel of Death!” screamed headlines across the United States in the spring of 1980.  These sensational stories centered around a 32-year-old supervising nurse for the graveyard shift at Sunrise Hospital’s intensive care unit in Las Vegas named Jani Adams.  And the articles about the “Death Angel” carried a distinctly Vegas twist – Jani and the nurses she supervised had been running a hospital “dead pool” to place wagers on when patients under their care would die.

How did a mild-mannered nurse that described herself being “shy as a mouse” end up in the national spotlight for allegedly murdering her patients?

a nurse known for gallows humor

Jani Adams’ slight stature belied the rougher side of her personality.  Jani had a reputation for being high-strung and blunt, but she also won over her coworkers with her innate aptitude – Jani had started her professional life as an English professor at Clemson University before turning her attention to nursing.  She obtained her nursing license while living in Tucson and moved quickly up the ranks of her profession in that town before relocating to Vegas in 1978 to assume her supervisory role at Sunrise Hospital, which in 1980 had a 666 bed capacity.

Jani started on the night shift, where she developed a reputation around the midnight staff of the intensive care unit for frequently employing dark humor about their patients to get a laugh.  Things were quiet on the shift Jani supervised from 11:00 p.m. until 7:00 a.m., and it wasn’t uncommon for Jani to joke while she played cards with her coworkers about which of the critical patients clinging to life in the ten rooms that constituted the ICU she would kill next, dubbing herself the “Angel of Death.”  Such comments were gruesome when taken out of context, but were an understandable way to get through the day in a job where death was an inevitable day-to-day occurrence.

Unfortunately, dark humor, when mixed with gossip and local media looking for a sensational story, can be an explosive combination.

“isn’t he gone yet?”

Vincent Fraser, a local 51-year-old lawn sprinkler repairman, was admitted to the Sunrise Hospital ICU with a case of liver failure in January of 1980.  Jani acted as supervising nurse during the graveyard shift while Fraser lingered on life-support for two months.  Like many critical patients, Fraser’s vital signs ebbed and flowed until finally he passed away in the early morning hours on March 3, 1980, with Jani staying true to form and cracking jokes with her coworkers as Fraser deteriorated.

And this would be the end of the Jani Adams story were it not for the fact there was a new face in the ICU at the start of the graveyard shift the night of March 2, 1980.  Barbara Farro had worked for years as a nurse at Sunrise Hospital but had little prior interaction with Adams since she ordinarily worked in a different unit on a different shift.  But Farro had just been transferred to the graveyard shift of the ICU on March 2, 1980.  And the first impression Jani made on Farro would thrust the young supervising nurse and her gallows humor into the national spotlight.

The first bit of culture shock for Farro – who was accustomed to the bustling hum of activity on the day shift – was witnessing her colleagues on the graveyard shift wiling away the time by playing cards.  There just wasn’t much to do in between making the rounds and administering medication, and given their charges were attempting to sleep, the nurses and orderlies on the night shift settled on a quiet activity to stave off boredom. Plus the hospital was a ghost town during the late hours, the only sounds the rhythmic beeps of machines monitoring vital signs echoing from the patients’ rooms.

Then one of those rhythmic beeps changed in Vincent Fraser’s room.  Farro went to check and reported back to Jani that Fraser’s vital signs were worsening.  Jani responded by sarcastically asking, “Isn’t he gone yet?”  Farro was stunned at the response, and Jani didn’t help when she added, “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of him tonight.”

Sometime that evening another patient, 85-year-old accident victim Marian Bartlett, passed away.  After Farro made Jani aware of the elderly patient’s death, Jani quipped, “I just killed off another one.  Well, you know what they call me – the Angel of Death.”

Later that night, after Farro had notified Jani of Vincent Fraser’s deteriorating condition sometime between 3:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m., the unconscious lawn repairman’s heart gave out.  Upon being informed of Fraser’s death, Adams commented, “If anyone can get rid of a critical patient, it’s me.”  Farro overheard these comments and either truly believed she had just heard a murder confession or had decided she could use Jani’s grim commentary to remove a coworker she found objectionable.

Regardless, on March 6, 1980, Farro reported her concerns to the City Attorney of North Las Vegas, who referred her to the Clark County District Attorney - Bob Miller.

“police probe death bets”

The District Attorney’s office coordinated with the police and coroner’s office to quietly investigate six recent deaths at the Sunrise Hospital ICU that were potentially suspicious.  The initial medical reports indicated the critical patients had died due to the ailments which led them to be admitted to the ICU in the first place.  No one knows if the District Attorney’s investigation would have closed without incident or if charges would have been sought had it not been for an explosive report by one of the two leading newspapers in Las Vegas.

On March 13, 1980, the front page of the Las Vegas Review Journal blared – “VEGAS POLICE PROBE SUNRISE BET DEATHS” – with reports of a hospital dead pool that took wagers on when patients would die, with the heavy implication that a nurse was killing patients to gain an advantage in the odds. The bombshell report traveled across the wires and became national news. And in the city of about 450,000 people, there was a demand for action in response to the report of a “Death Angel” lurking the corridors of one of the Vegas Valley’s preeminent hospitals.

“inconceivable” accusations

Sunrise Hospital was taken by surprise at the allegations.  Cameras and reporters swarmed the halls of the hospital hours after the story broke.  In the aftermath of the news, five members of the graveyard shift ICU staff were immediately suspended with pay pending the conclusion of the District Attorney’s investigation and the hospital ceased all advertising.  Despite initial concerns over damage to the hospital’s reputation in light of the “Death Angel” reports, there was never a noticeable decline in patients seeking treatment at Sunrise.

There was, however, a cascade of calls to the police from relatives of those that had passed away at the Sunrise Hospital ICU in recent months to inquire whether their family members may have fallen victim to the “Death Angel.” 

Jani Adams was soon identified as the alleged “Angel of Death” which led to suspicions being raised about the role played by Jani’s live-in boyfriend, Sunrise Hospital respiratory therapist Bernard Deters.  Las Vegas police brought Jani in for questioning, where she allegedly sat in stunned silence staring at the wall of the interrogation cell as detectives told her, “You can either be a defendant or a witness” and that the young nurse “could go to the gas chamber.” 

Jani hired a well-known attorney out of San Francisco, Marvin Belli, who had gained notoriety defending the murderer of Lee Harvey Oswald as well as actor Errol Flynn. He called the allegations against Jani “inconceivable” and set about clearing his client’s name.

A D.A. compelled to act seizes an opportunity

District Attorney Bob Miller’s hand was now forced by the daily front-page Review Journal headlines detailing Jani’s alleged role in up to six deaths at the Sunrise Hospital ICU.  In a sign of the pressure Miller faced, even Nevada Governor Bob List commented on the “Death Angel” allegations: “I never heard of anything like this in my life.  It involves shocking, bizarre allegations.  I would like to think the whole thing a figment of somebody’s imagination but there appears to be a good deal of smoke and fire both.”     

Miller had two available ways to indict Jani for the alleged murders.  He could simply file a complaint for murder, which would result in Jani being arrested and brought before a judge for a hearing to establish whether the District Attorney had established a sufficient basis to bring the charges.  Or Miller could present evidence to the local grand jury and let them make the decision. 

For the up-and-coming politician, the answer was clear.  He would defer the decision on indictment to the grand jury, knowing full well that the old adage a grand jury “will indict a ham sandwich” would lead to his desired result.  In a sign of the heavy public pressure placed on Miller’s office, he scrambled to round up members of the 1979 Clark County grand jury because the 1980 grand jury had not yet been impaneled.  By early April, there was the required number of grand jurors to bring an indictment and Miller began presenting evidence to support a murder charge in the deaths of Vincent Fraser and Marian Bartlett. 

21 witnesses testified before the grand jury, with multiple nurses that worked with Jani on the graveyard shift admitting that she had a habit of joking about patient deaths.  Farro was among the witnesses that testified that she actually saw Jani shut off Fraser’s respirator.  And it did nothing to assuage the grand jurors when they heard testimony that Jani stood over Marian Bartlett and said, “Come on, Marian - die.”

Then there was the compelling testimony of Fraser’s widow.  Bertha Fraser said that Jani asked her to sign forms deciding which mortuary her husband’s body would be sent to the day before he died.  She also saw her ailing husband repeatedly pointing to his respirator and shaking in apparent terror.

Keep in mind, defense attorneys are not allowed to present evidence or even attend grand jury proceedings, so there was no ability to clarify from the witnesses on cross-examination that Jani was only joking.  All told, the grand jury was presented with evidence that Jani had shut off Vincent Fraser’s respirator, that Fraser tried to signal to his wife that something about the respirator made him fearful, colleagues testified to Jani’s routine callousness to her patients, and coworkers told the grand jury Jani herself boasted she was an “Angel of Death.”  Based on all of that, it is not surprising the grand jury took only half-an-hour to return an indictment on an open charge of murder in relation to the death of Vincent Fraser, meaning that Jani could ultimately be found guilty of anything from first degree premeditated murder to involuntary manslaughter.

The fact the grand jury refused to return the second indictment in the death of Marian Bartlett indicates they may have split the difference when faced with requests from the District Attorney for two murder indictments.

The first hearing and bail

Jani Adams voluntarily surrendered herself to the police upon learning of her indictment.  She burst into tears when cuffs were placed on her at the commencement of her bail proceeding, at the conclusion of which she was released on $15,000 bail.  Her attorney called the murder charges among the most ridiculous he had ever seen and quipped to the Review Journal that, “We won’t be suing you people for a while now.”

The day of the bail hearing, District Attorney Bob Miller held a press conference where he detailed to the entire community his allegation that Jani had tampered with the oxygen supply sustaining Vincent Fraser. These public statements only further poisoned public attitudes against the young nurse.  

Jani was stunned to find herself facing capital murder charges, partially because her strong Catholic background led her to place enormous value on human life. But she also compared working in an ICU to the television show “MASH” – doctors and nurses faced with critical patients that often died despite the staff’s best efforts coped with the emotional toll by resorting to dark humor.

an appeal exposes a flimsy case

While Marvin Belli acted as headliner for the defense, it was local Las Vegas attorney Gary Logan that did the heavy lifting for the defense team.  Logan filed a writ of habeas corpus appealing Jani’s indictment to the District Court, arguing that the grand jury had indicted Jani based on “rank speculation” rather than any kind of concrete evidence. 

Once Jani appeared before Clark County District Court Judge Michael Wendell, it became clear that the District Attorney’s office had presented a slanted case to the grand jury in order to secure an indictment in the Fraser death.  The jurors only saw a fraction of Fraser’s thick medical file and no testimony was presented regarding Fraser’s cirrhosis and peptic ulcers.  Most alarming, District Attorney Miller charged Jani with murder for allegedly shutting off Fraser’s respirator, but the official cause of death from the county medical examiner was sepsis due to a massive infection.  Five doctors at Sunrise certified that Fraser was a terminal patient, and District Judge Wendell noted that a physician correctly predicted in Fraser’s file that the patient would likely die within the next twelve hours.

aftermath of an accusation

Adams lost her salary while suspended from her work at Sunrise Hospital pending the conclusion of her criminal case, forcing her to seek work as an EMT for a local ambulance company while awaiting the outcome of her case.  After the dismissal of the murder charge, Jani felt unable to return to her former position at Sunrise and endured months of unemployment before finding work at another Las Vegas hospital that she refused to disclose in an effort to move past the “Death Angel” label that continued to plagued her.

An article in People from the time noted that had Adams been convicted it could have led to an inability of ICU staff to effectively perform their duties.  And it is easy to imagine how overzealous and unscrupulous prosecutors could twist the gallows humor common among first responders and medical professionals into the basis for spurious murder charges.  In fact, former coworkers that had served alongside Jani at a Tucson ICU vouched for her professionalism and patience when caring for critical patients, and they noted ICU nurses regularly had to adjust oxygen and other vital indicators as part of their job, which could account for why Barbara Farro thought she saw a routine action as a malicious one.

Jani later told the Los Angeles Times, “I’m still a little bitter about it all, but I’m getting over it.”

Unfortunately, the “Death Angel” case was not Jani Adams’ last run-in with the law.  In 1985, Las Vegas police raided a home shared by Jani and her husband, respiratory technician Bernard Deters.  The police had received a tip marijuana was being grown in the home, and cops apparently recovered heroin and morphine.

prosecutorial abuses and promotions

It seems the motive behind the railroading of Jani Adams was an effort by the District Attorney to cover for the publisher of the Review Journal newspaper, which had sensationalized gossip of a betting ring and “Angel of Death” at Sunrise Hospital.  Sunrise Hospital pathologist Daniel Wilkes said this was a case of “media malpractice” - rushing out scurrilous stories which then resulted in a “flimsy indictment” to provide the newspaper cover. 

Not only did District Attorney Miller’s prosecutorial abuses nearly destroy the career of a respected nurse, his actions also cost precious police resources.  Las Vegas only had 11 active homicide detectives and most were tied up for 2 weeks on the “Death Angel” wild goose chase.

Added to this was the pain Miller’s prosecutorial misjudgment caused to the relatives of Vincent Fraser.  After Jani’s indictment was handed down, Fraser’s widow Bertha told the Associated Press, “I just hope my husband’s death will be avenged.  I was beginning to accept his death as fate.”  

Despite this blatant abuse of prosecutorial discretion, the District Attorney that oversaw the efforts to indict Jani went on to become the 26th governor of Nevada.

the importance of due process

Sunrise Hospital and Jani Adams both demanded the Las Vegas Review Journal issue corrections regarding allegations of a hospital dead pool that speculated on when patients would die.  The Review Journal held firm, arguing that every time it reported about the alleged “dead pool” it noted authorities did not have any evidence of such a gambling ring.  And during the investigation, the Review Journal felt compelled to issue defensive editorials arguing they were merely reporting the facts surrounding a police matter that involved a public concern about safety in local hospitals.    

In the Review Journal’s defense, Jani Adams’ attorney argued that the newspaper was merely repeating the anonymous leaks about the case from the District Attorney’s office. 

Regardless, the Jani Adams case demonstrates the necessity of due process to protect the innocent from powerful officials looking for a quick scapegoat.