Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more! He could have been great. Swango is arrested and charged, but goes into hiding. Swango allegedly cheered TV reports of murders, professed his admiration for serial killers and told them that he fantasized about a busload of children being impaled by a tanker, according to the Los Angeles Times. WhenDr.Michael Joseph Swangowasasked to leave his medical internship in Ohio after several suspicious patient deaths, he packed up his things and moved to Illinois, where he would be sent to prison for poisoning his co-workers. Guzman was ordered to pay $12.6 billion in forfeiture. Michael Swango is a convicted serial killer who used his position as a medical student, paramedic and later as a physicianto poison colleagues and patients. These cases are extraordinarily hard to prove. Before police could conduct a full investigation into the suspicious deaths at the Northport VA Hospital, Swango fled the country to Zimbabwe. He's serving three life sentences at the country's only supermax federal penitentiaryin Florence, Colorado. He murdered a number of our nations heroes in Veterans hospitals. Regardless of the allegations against Swango, several OSU doctors wrote him letters of recommendation for his application for a medical license. His co-workers found him unusually grim. Michael Swango pleaded guilty to five counts of a nine-count . Several of his sons have also been convicted of terrorism and other charges. Please enable javascript and refresh the page to continue reading local news. While he worked in Rhodes Hall at OSU, nurses noticed that apparently healthy patients began dying mysteriously with alarming frequency. The public outcry resulted in Cohen and Miller being forced to resign before the end of the year. [2], Robert Hassen spent only three years as a clean FBI agent before beginning his 22 years of spying that would one day be described as possibly the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. By that time, Swango had fled the country. Eventually, prosecutors agreed to not pursue the death penalty or extradition in return for Swango accepting a sentence of life in prison without parole. Michael Swango, seen here preparing for his 1985 trial in Quincy, would end up in a place unlike any other. He serves two years of a five-year sentence. Many investigators worked on the case, including Bruce Sackman. He has consulted with foreign police on cases, as well. It was a damning piece of television, which Sackman had just happened to miss when it was broadcast the night before. That investigation extensively outlined in Sackmans book paid off with the conviction of Swango's involvement in four deaths. local. New York Post. Police arrested him at Chicagos OHare Airport on fraud charges for presenting a false statement to Stony Brook and illegally distributing controlled substances, according to the, Right before he was to be released from prison in early July 2000, Swango was charged with three counts of murder for the deaths at the Northport VA hospital, according to, On Sept. 6, 2000, Michael Swango pleaded guilty to three counts of murder and was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, according to the, His subsequent guilty plea that October in the McGee murder earned him another life sentence, according to CBS News. Is Dr. Michael Swango Still Alive? As a result of suspicions of the medical director there, Dr. Christopher Zishiri, Swango was suspended. An internal probe of Swango brought about no conclusive evidence, but the school still ended his neurosurgery residency, according toThe Washington Post. Michael Swango (born Joseph Michael Swango) was a physician who spent most of the 1980s and '90s using his . Authorities in Zimbabwe would later issue a warrant for his arrest on charges that he poisoned seven patients, including five fatalities, according toThe New York Times. [1], Although the FBI, the VA, and prosecutors for the Eastern District of New York were convinced Swango was a serial killer, they knew it would be difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. KHQA reached out to Michael Swango for a face-to-face interview at ADX Florence in Colorado. All rights reserved. . Sept. 2000: Swango pleads guilty to the three New York slayings and is sentenced to three life sentences without parole. He then enrolled in Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, where his troubles began. 1 Swango killed hospitalized patients, those under his care or others just in the wrong place at the wrong time. This crime partially inspired the 1995 movie Casino. Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, List of serial killers in the United States, List of medical and pseudo-medical serial killers, 2011 Stepping Hill Hospital poisoning incident, "Former Doctor Charged in Death of 3 Patients", "Man to Admit to Murdering 3 L.I. He was sentenced in 2000 to three consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole, and is serving his sentence at ADX Florence at his own request. In August 1985, he was found guilty of aggravated battery and sentenced to five years in prison, reportedThe New York Times. asked to leave his medical internship in Ohio after several suspicious patient deaths, he packed up his things and moved to Illinois, where he would be sent to prison for poisoning his co-workers. is alive and well, currently serving a 42 . His mother, Muriel, was a housewife, and his father, John, was a military officer. He murdered a number of our nations heroes in Veterans hospitals. He was a gifted medical student and doctor and a former Marine. In July 1998, he was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison. His first rotation was in the internal medicine department at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Northport, New York. ?s Ross Green sent Swango a letter asking him to re-consider; Swango did not reply. In the beginning, he shot Vicky Bowman-Hall at a convenience store in Algona. That gave us a window to start the investigation and make a determination on whether he had killed anyone, Sackman said. Yet investigators suspect that during his crime spree, which spanned 1981 to 1997, Swango may . Joseph Michael Swango was born in Tacoma, Washington, in 1954. Swango was arrested in October 1984 for poisoning his co-workers, and during a search of his apartment, police found Tero ant poison, books on Satanism, guns, survival knives and recipe cards for pesticides, botulism and cyanide mixtures, according to the Los Angeles Times. Being as difficult as these cases can be to prove the investigations are expensive and time-consuming and theres no guarantee of eventually bringing a killer like Swango to justice. At the time, a unanimous vote was required for a student to be dismissed. Swango could very well have remained in Sioux Falls for some time, but he committed a critical blunder. Over the years, some nurses and other coworkers would develop an inkling that something was amiss, but they couldnt prove it. It was those who came forward and told us about it. Her death had interrupted yet another of Swango's attempts to complete his residency - training he needed in order to . So Sackman and his partner headed up to Northport to see what was going on. It was at this stop that he notoriously poisoned his own ambulance colleagues with arsenic, a move that resulted in five years in prison on aggravated battery charges. It was a little harder to get information on a persons background than it is now, Sackman said. Your Friend, Michael:Police Officer's Daughter Writes to Serial Killer, Hoping for Answers, 1954: Born James Michael Swango in Tacoma, Washington, 1972: High school valedictorian in Quincy, Illinois, 1976: Honorable discharge from the Marines. He served in the military and was based in Vietnam. But the public needs to know these (killers) are the remote outliers. Michael Swango was born in Tacoma, Washington and raised in Quincy, Illinois, the middle child of Muriel and John Virgil Swango. Ive heard and Ive read and weve discussed that it was somewhere in the vicinity of 60 people. Richard McNair is not the type of man that one would expect to find in the Supermax stacked up against the other people on this list. I'm not a big Dirty Harry kind of guy, but I like the work. ADX Florence federal prison But he would break this oath dozens of times, as he was convicted of killing four people, and possibly killed up to 60 while he worked as both an EMT and a physician. After two years in college, he enlisted in the Marines, but later returned to school at Quincy College to pursue a career as a doctor, reported theChicago Tribune. local. After his release, Swango ended up in New York,where he killed at least three people at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center. [1] He was valedictorian of his 1972 Quincy Catholic Boys High School class. In 2006, he was sentenced to seven years in British prison for inciting violence. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. While Swango eventually pleaded guilty to just four murders, his victim countmay be as high as 60. And, for a short time, he was also a South Dakotan. Michael Swango was sentenced to three life terms for his heinous crimes. Sackman had no proof, and without it Swango could decline Sackmans request to search his room. 3.70. [32] Marcello appeared cold and matter of fact in court as all five men were convicted. He even faked a letter from the governor of Virginia that stated his right to vote and serve on a jury had been restored. I think it was watching too many Columbo television shows, Sackman told the Mitchell Republic about how he became interested in investigative work in his younger days. Only with their help can people like Sackman and his team bring justice to those who were the victims of murderers like Swango. He was tan, wearing aviator sunglasses. According to "Blind Eye," James B. Stewart's deeply researched 1999 book about the case, Swango, who has confessed to four killings, very likely murdered 35 people and perhaps 60 or more.He was convicted of injecting victims with poison while working in hospitals in Ohio and New . [14] At the same time, Zimbabwean authorities charged him with poisoning seven patients, five of whom died. In 1989, Swango was released from prison. Federal inmates must serve at least 85 percent of their sentences before being eligible for time off with good behavior, meaning that they likely had only three years to prove Swango was indeed a murderer. Erik Kaufman joined the Mitchell Republic in July of 2019 as an education and features reporter. If you think about it, youre working where death is a common occurrence. [18], According to Theodore Ted Kaczynskis parents, he started life as a normal baby, but as a young child he was forced to spend a long period of time in isolation in the hospital and he emerged a different kid, one who showed little emotion. He doesnt beat people up or get into shootouts. KHQA asked three of the men who knew him what they would say to Michael Swango today, if given the opportunity. Serial killer nicknamed "Dr. Death," serving three consecutive life terms. [16] On September 6, he pleaded guilty to the three murder counts, as well as counts of wire fraud and mail fraud, before Judge Jacob Mishler. Thomesen's conversation focused on Swango lying on his government application to work at the VA, where he prescribed narcotic medications. Michael Swango's story began right here in the Tri-States, but few could have ever guessed where it would end. [1], Swango's lackadaisical approach to his studies caught up with him a month before he was due to graduate, when it was discovered that he had faked checkups during his OB/GYN rotation. When Michael Swango was a student at the Southern Illinois . He eventually resurfaced again at Northport, where he came to the attention of Sackman before bolting to places unknown. In 1991, Swango legally changed his name to Daniel J. Adams and tried to apply for a residency program at Ohio Valley Medical Center in Wheeling, West Virginia. Oct.2000: Swango pleads guilty in Columbus to the 1984 slaying of 19-year-old Cynthia McGee, a Dublin native who died at University Hospital while recovering from an automobile accident. Sackman said it is possible Swango was trying to lie low, but its possible he was up to his old habits and he just kept it under better wraps, though he notes that is strictly speculation. Soon after his arrival, however, staff were alarmed by an unusual number of patient deaths or illnesses, according to the, A nurse would later tell police she saw Swango injecting an unknown substance into a patients IV right before they stopped breathing, according to the, An autopsy would later reveal that a ball of gauze had been placed down DeLongs throat. [21] Kaczynski soon moved to a remote cabin near Lincoln, Montana intending to live a quiet rural lifestyle, but soon began attacking urban developments that he felt were encroaching on his forest. At one point in the 2010s, law enforcement determined that despite being less than 0.10% of the prison population, they were responsible for 18% of prison murders. Soon, many of the paramedics on staff began noticing that whenever Swango prepared the coffee or brought any food in, several of them usually became violently ill, with no apparent cause. Swango, awaiting trial and still spending time with a girlfriend in Columbus, contacted Harp and asked to see the items the police had taken. The two-part series finale tells the story of Dr Michael Swango - a high school valedictorian, distinguished Marine, and a cunning serial killer. On Sept. 6, 2000, Michael Swango pleaded guilty to three counts of murder and was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, according to theAssociated Press. With non-patients, such as his coworkers at the emergency medical service, he used poisons, usually arsenic, slipping them into foods and beverages. Thats true the world over, Sackman said. Swango seemed to be obsessed with violence and kept scrapbooks of newspaper clippings of disasters, accidents, crime scenes and other incidents, according toThe Columbus Dispatchnewspaper. Real Name: Joseph Michael Swango Aliases: Michael Kirk, David Jackson Adams, Jack Kirk, Michael Swan, "Double-O Swango" Wanted For: Making False Statements, Questioning in Murders Missing Since: October 1993 Details: On February 7, 1984, at the State University Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, an intern, Dr. Michael Swango, checked on a sixty-nine-year-old woman, Rena Cooper, who was recovering . Crime News is your destination for true crime stories from around the world, breaking crime news, and information about Oxygen's original true crime shows and documentaries. One day, Swango brought a box of doughnuts to work. Not only were the killings performed by a certified doctor who was sworn by oath to do no harm in hospitals surrounded by other patients and medical colleagues but he also managed to elude criminal charges for years while continuously finding employment in new locations. While there, he murdered at least three victims by lethal injection Thomas Sammarco, 73, George Siano, 60, and Aldo Serini, 62, according to, After Stony Brook was tipped off to Swangos nefarious history, he was fired and effectively blacklisted from the medical industry in the U.S., reported, Before police could conduct a full investigation into the suspicious deaths at the Northport VA Hospital, Swango fled the country to Zimbabwe. [1] He may have also been responsible for the death of his fiance, Kristin Kinney, who took her own life in a state of mental confusion that was potentially caused by arsenic poisoning. The End: Michael Swango meets his fate. His patients, many of whom were considered stable, began to mysteriously die without explanation. Is this April 1? Sackman asked himself. No one has ever escaped from ADX Florence, where he is now serving two life sentences. [17] He was sent to ADX at his own request; he had been stabbed by another inmate while serving time for lying to the VA, and feared he would be attacked again if he were placed in general population. He can be reached at ekaufman@mitchellrepublic.com. An autopsy would later reveal that a ball of gauze had been placed down DeLongs throat. Dr. Michael Swango is one of the prolific medical serial killers in history. Below we countdown to Michael Swango . He was immediately fired. He is thankful for the help his colleagues provided as they studied the case. License to Kill: Dr. Joseph Michael Swango's Disturbing 'House of Horrors'Quincy Police Department Chief Investigator Billy Meyer recalls searching Dr. Josep. Amid the reports and a sub-par performance record, administrators canceled the residency it had offered him, and he returned to his home town of Quincy, Illinois, to work as an emergency medical technician on an ambulance crew.
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