THE REAL LIFE ANNIE WILKES OF STEPHEN KING’S ‘MISERY’
There is something of the Kathy Bates about Elizabeth Wettlaufer. The great actresses’ portrayal of Annie Wilkes in ‘Misery’ evokes a sense of similarity with photographs of the nurse from Ontario, handcuffed and looking strangely empty. Perhaps it is the hair, straight and of a style almost, but not quite, every day. Or it could be the slightly dumpy looks, creating a face that is pasty and unhealthy. Most likely it is the eyes – the windows on a mind where the view is too often one of the darkest, emptiest night.
Annie was, of course, famously a nurse; one who had a habit of sending her patients – elderly and weak – off to an early grave. She’d experienced a tough upbringing and a failed romance. She was a loner, one who was forced to enjoy her own company due to the absence of any other.

Elizabeth’s criminal career began while she worked at the Caressant Care home in Woodstock, Ontario. Located handily in the middle of town, the long-term care facility had manufactured a good reputation locally. Indeed, right up until Elizabeth confessed to her serial killings, few had an inkling that something was very wrong with the nursing and retirement home. Or, indeed, that the helpful little night nurse who circulated with her clinking trolley of medications kept a very dark secret behind her smiling façade.