The Death Shift: Nurse Genene Jones and the Texas Baby Murders

Updated with dramatic developments and multiple new murder
charges--the classic account of arguably the most shocking and insidious
case in the history of medicine: the crimes of one nurse that were
hidden by a hospital for years.

It's 1980, and Genene Jones is working the 3 to 11 PM shift in the
pediatric ICU in San Antonio's county hospital. As weeks go by, infants
under her care begin experiencing unexpected complications--and death--in
alarming numbers, prompting rumors that there is a murderer among the
staff. Her eight-hour shift came to be called "the death shift." This
strange epidemic continued unabated for more than a year, before Jones
was quietly sent off--with a good recommendation--to a rural pediatric
clinic. There, eight children under her care mysteriously stopped
breathing--and a 15-month-old baby girl died.

In May 1983, Jones was finally arrested, leading to a pair of trials that
revealed not only her deeply disturbed mind and a willingness to kill,
but a desire to "play God" with the lives of the children under her
care. More shocking still, it was discovered that the hospital had
shredded records and remained silent about Jones's horrific deeds,
obscuring the full extent of her spree and prompting grieving parents to
ask: Why?

Elkind chronicles Jones's rampage, the desperate investigations of what
happened--including those that led to five new murder charges decades
later--and the chilling aftermath of one of the most horrific string of
crimes in America, while also turning his piercing gaze onto those
responsible for its cover-up. The Death Shift is a tale with
special relevance years after her conviction, as prosecutors, distraught
parents, and victims' advocates struggled and ultimately triumphed to
keep Jones behind bars, despite her scheduled mandatory release from a
Texas prison in early 2018.

Author: Peter Elkind
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 10/01/2021
Pages: 480
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.50w x 1.40d
ISBN: 9781635764505

About the Author
Elkind, Peter: - Peter Elkind, senior reporter at ProPublica, is an award-winning investigative journalist and co-author of the national bestseller The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron and Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer. He has written for The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, and the Washington Post. He was also associate editor at Texas Monthly, and an editor of the Dallas Observer. Elkind has been a guest on numerous radio and television programs, including The Today Show, Nightline, CNN Newsnight, and The Charlie Rose Show. Elkind graduated from Princeton University in 1980 and now lives with his family in Fort Worth, Texas.