In June 1974, Leonard Hudson Sr. was one of several patients who died suddenly on the overnight shift in the coronary care unit at Petersburg General Hospital. The deaths clustered between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., and investigators later tied a pattern of lethal lidocaine injections to multiple victims whose clinical charts offered no clear medical cause for cardiac arrest. Hudson’s body was among those exhumed and tested as the inquiry expanded.

Lee Roy Hargrave Jr., a young night nurse’s aide who frequently sounded code blues, was indicted in August 1974 and ultimately tried for the 1974 murder of Josephine L. Thomas. He was convicted on May 8, 1975, and given life in prison. Hargrave was indicted in six deaths total, including Hudson’s, but was never tried separately for the other alleged murders; Hudson’s case therefore has no individual verdict recorded in court.