The story of Indiana's 'Angel of Death,' Orville Lynn Majors

When patient deaths spiked at Vermillion County Hospital, an investigation revealed something nefarious: They weren't coincidental.

A years long investigation revealed a hospital employee — Orville Lynn Majors — was injecting patients with heart-stopping drugs. Majors, dubbed the "Angel of Death," was convicted of murdering six patients and was sentenced to 360 years in prison in 1999.

Majors died in prison Sept. 24, 2017. He was 56.

Though Majors was only convicted for the murders of six patients, it’s believed he was a serial killer likely responsible for many more — over 150 deaths at the hospital were investigated, according to Indianapolis Star archives. 

Suspicious deaths at area hospital

Majors was from Linton, Indiana, which had about 5,800 people at the 1990 census. 

In addition to being a nurse at the Vermillion County Hospital, he worked as a visiting nurse for a home health care agency and owned a pet shop in Linton. He was inspired to pursue a career in nursing after taking care of his grandmother as a teenager. 

Majors was suspended from his nursing job in March 1995, after the hospital’s death rate increased so dramatically that the Indiana State Department of Health and the Indiana State Police began an investigation. 

An anonymous letter sent to a state health agency, as well as the media, called Majors the killer in spring 1995. Majors’ nursing license was suspended in December that year.

What did Orville Lynn Majors do?

A nurse’s review of Majors concluded that over a 22-month period, he was on duty during 130 of 147 deaths in the hospital.Many of the patients who died were in the intensive care unit. 

Ultimately, 15 bodies were exhumed and further examined in a two-and-a-half year probe before Majors’ arrest. It would be nearly another two years before the trial. 

“It’s been an investigation (of such scope) that has never been done to my knowledge in the history of the Indiana State Police,” said state trooper Frank Turchi, who led the investigation, according to archives.

In December 1997, Majors was arrested on six counts of murder. A seventh count was added later.

Nina Alexander was, at the time, chief deputy prosecutor in Vermillion County. She was later elected prosecutor and remains a deputy prosecutor in the Vermillion County Prosecutor’s office.

The Majors case, in addition to gaining national attention, deeply affected the small community in Vermillion County, Alexander said. 

“When you have the number of deaths that you had, there is nobody in the community that was not in some way affected personally,” Alexander said.

Though she can’t be sure, Alexander said she strongly believes Majors’ murders are the reason the county hospital changed to what’s now Union Hospital-Clinton, part of a larger conglomerate.

“What is the association with the Vermillion County Hospital? Oh, that's where that nurse killed all those people,” Alexander said. 

The case against the 'Angel of Death'

Alexander, along with co-counsel Greg Carter, started investigating many death records, but narrowed it down to seven charts to pursue charges. 

The lawyers consulted both a panel of doctors and Indiana State Police to decide which cases to charge. They looked for strong medical evidence — deaths not consistent with clinical histories, Alexander said. They aligned with strong testimonial evidence, such as people having seen Majors injecting something into patients just before their deaths.

“We took those that had the best medical evidence and those that had the best testimonial evidence, and those were the ones we charged,” she said.

For example, on Feb. 16, 1995 — Freddie Dale Wilson’s daughter saw Majors inject something into her father’s IV tube, and moments later, her father, 56, “was gone.” Wilson’s death was one of the six on which Majors was convicted. 

In addition to the medical and testimonial evidence, two witness reports rocked the trial room in Brazil, Indiana.

Andy Harris, Majors’ former roommate, testified Majors had sometimes said “Old people should be gassed.”

The other witness testified he heard Majors confess in 1996 to killing patients with potassium chloride at the former Vermillion County Hospital.

“He said he done it,” Miller said, according to IndyStar archives.

Majors was convicted on six of the seven deaths. The state alleged he killed them by injecting them with potassium chloride, epinephrine — also known as adrenaline — or both.

On Oct. 17, 1999, a jury found Majors guilty on six of the seven counts of murder . He was sentenced to 360 years in prison. 

“The first two guilties, that was all I needed to hear. Because I knew they'd be stacked,” Alexander said. 

Trying a case such as this, where the victims were already ill and there was no ostensible murder weapon, was difficult, Alexander said. 

“We had to prove not only who committed it, we had to prove there was a crime to begin with,” Alexander said. “And that was by far the harder part.”

Over 20 years later, Alexander said she doesn’t regret the experience of prosecuting the Majors case, but she wouldn’t want to do something like that again. 

“It just takes over everything,” she said. 

Majors' nearly two decades in prison

After his conviction, Majors never spoke publicly about the murders. In previous IndyStar archives, he attributed his presence at so many deaths to “bad luck” and working overtime.

“I know deep down inside, I’ve not done nothin’ wrong,” he said, according to a 1995 report. 

He always had his own cell in prison, according to previous IndyStar reporting. 

Majors turned down multiple requests to be interviewed by the media. In his 18 years behind bars, he had just three minor infractions on his record, said Pam James, a spokesperson for Indiana State Prison.

“And that is like almost wonderful," James previously told IndyStar.

His last visitor was in 2015, and James declined to say who it was.

Gracie Carithers, sister of Cecil Ivan Smith — the seventh death that the jury declined to convict Majors on — said subjecting Majors to die in the same way his victims did “would be the easy way out.”

“If he had to serve a life term, maybe that would be better,” Carithers said, according to archives.

Majors died in 2017 in the Indiana State Prison. 

Prison staff were assisting with a medical pass for Majors when he became unresponsive, according to previous IndyStar reporting. He was later pronounced dead in Franciscan Health Hospital in Michigan City.

An autopsy revealed that Majors had cardiac issues and died of natural causes.

Former IndyStar reporter Will Higgins and IndyStar reporter Holly Hays contributed to this report.

Contact IndyStar trending reporter Claire Rafford at crafford@gannett.com or on Twitter @clairerafford.