The Lainz Angels of Death

The Lainz General Hospital in Vienna, Austria was a place where death was common. Especially the Pavilion 5 area, normally reserved for terminally ill patients in their seventies. In 1983, 24 year old Waltraud Wagner was a nurse’s aide at the hospital, when a 77 year old asked her to end her suffering. Wagner hesitated, but she granted the lady’s wish by injecting her with morphine. In this situation, most would feel guilty or remorseful, but she enjoyed the sense of power she got. She liked playing God, but she simply couldn’t hoard this power for herself, and she recruited three other nurses to join her in a six year murder spree.