Gwendolyn Graham and Cathy Wood
Gwendolyn Graham (born August 6, 1963) and Cathy Wood (born March 7, 1962) are American serial killers convicted of killing five elderly women in a suburb of Grand Rapids,
Michigan in the 1980s. They committed their crimes in the Alpine Manor nursing home, where they both worked as nurse's aides.
The two women met at the Alpine Manor nursing home shortly after Graham had moved to Grand Rapids from Texas. They quickly became friends, and then lovers, in 1986. Two years later they both were facing murder charges for allegedly smothering five elderly patients as part of a "love bond," resulting in one of the most sensational murder cases in Michigan's history.
The details of the murders came almost entirely from accounts to criminal justice authorities by Cathy Wood, whose murder charges were reduced by a plea agreement so she could testify against Graham in Graham's trial for first degree murder. However, Wood's accounts and her self portrayal as a pawn of Graham were later brought into serious question by award-winning journalist Lowell Cauffiel in his 1992 true crime book, Forever and Five Days.
According to Wood's account, in January 1987, Graham entered the room of a woman who had Alzheimer's disease and smothered her with a wash cloth as Wood acted as her lookout. The woman was too incapacitated to fight back, and thus became the pair's first victim. The woman's death appeared to be natural, so an autopsy wasn't performed. Wood claimed Gwen murdered the patient to "relieve her tension." Also, they now shared a horrible secret that would assure they would never be able to leave each other.
Over the next few months, four more Alpine Manor patients were murdered by Graham, Wood alleged. Many of the victims, whose ages ranged from 65 to 97, were incapacitated and suffered from Alzheimer's disease. Wood testified that the couple turned the selection of victims into a game, first trying to choose their victims by their initials to spell M-U-R-D-E-R. But when that became difficult, they began counting each murder as a "day," as in the phrase, "I will love you for forever and a day." A poem by Wood to Graham, and introduced in the trial, concluded, "You'll be mine forever and five days." Wood also testified that Graham took souvenirs from the victims, keeping them to relive the deaths. However, no such souvenirs were ever discovered by police. The excessively overweight Wood also portrayed herself as a helpless, love-sick victim under the spell of Graham, who she portrayed as sexually, physically and emotionally dominant in their relationship.