The Crime & Investigation network presents a new episode of the documentary series Murder by Medic, airing on Wednesday, 4 September 2024, at 8:00 pm. This instalment focuses on Vickie Dawn Jackson, an American serial killer who took the lives of at least ten patients at the Nocona General Hospital in Nocona, Texas, between 2000 and 2001. The means to her deadly crimes? A muscle-paralyzing drug called mivacurium.
Born Vickie Dawn Carson on 13 February 1966, in Montague County, Texas, Jackson was a licensed vocational nurse since 1989. She worked at various hospitals and a nursing home in North Texas before finding employment at Nocona General Hospital in late 2000. The hospital primarily treated elderly patients with minor ailments and was considered one of the nation’s top 100 medical facilities, despite its modest size.
Jackson’s trial was highly scrutinised, with a gag order issued to prevent lawyers from disclosing specifics beyond the prosecutors’ decision not to seek the death penalty. The case took an even darker turn in January 2004, when Jackson was charged with six additional murders, causing her bond to increase from $2 million to $6 million.
The first trial ended in a mistrial due to the judge’s determination that comments made by prosecutor Ralph Guerrero prejudiced the jurors. As a result, the venue for the retrial was moved to San Angelo, and a new jury was empaneled.
According to prosecutors, the killings took place during Jackson’s night shifts at Nocona General Hospital, coinciding with the disappearance of more than 20 vials of mivacurium. A syringe containing traces of the drug was also discovered in the nurse’s garbage. Jackson faced indictment on two counts of capital murder for the deaths of four patients, with traces of the paralyzing drug Mivacron found in their bodies.
Murder By Medic: Vickie Jackson airs Wednesday, 4 September 2024, at 8:00 pm on Crime & Investigation.
