Despite suspicious stories, there is no hard evidence. Michael Swango always seemed to make a good first impression. He committed multiple incidents of forgery and assault so that he could continue his disastrous medical career, but he was eventually charged by both U.S. and Zimbabwean authorities and is serving three consecutive life sentences. She contacted a friend of Kinney who was a nurse at Sanford, who in turn alerted Sanford's dean, Robert Talley, to Swango's whereabouts. I always like to say thank you to the very professional doctors and nurses who brought these cases to our attention. [2] During high school, he played clarinet in the band. Swango has been estimated to have been involved in as many as sixty fatal poisonings of patients and . In the early 2000s, authorities charged him and 28 other gang leaders with a litany of charges in an attempt to sentence many of them to death. Michael Swango | Unsolved Mysteries Wiki | Fandom At one point he was even assigned to investigate who had leaked the identities of two Soviet agents who had been helping the Americans and were killed in the USSR after they were compromised. They became ill, and some vomited so hard that blood vessels in their eyes broke, reported the Los Angeles Times. Security guard Richard Jewell led a partial evacuation of the area and was originally the main suspect but was eventually cleared and hailed as a hero. A ? Combine that with his skill in administering poisonous doses of chemicals that were difficult to track and his smooth people skills, it becomes more clear how he was able to avoid detection. 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 . [13] In his book Blind Eye, Quincy native James B. Stewart estimated that counting the suspicious deaths at SIU, circumstantial evidence links Swango to 35 suspicious deaths. Sept.2000: Swango pleads guilty to the three New York slayings and is sentenced to three life sentences without parole. Murders A-Z is a collection of true crime stories that take an in-depth look at both little-known and infamous murders throughout history. A graduate of the Southern Illinois University Medical . Each time, Swango had been the floor intern. However, when he attempted to join the American Medical Association (AMA), it conducted a more thorough background check than Sanford and found out about the poisoning conviction. Was he a good boy during that time? In a phone call, she implored him to look closer into Swango, whom she suspected of killing patients at her facility. Michael Swango pursued the world of medicine for fifteen years, and Michael Swango had the strong ambition with the . Bioethics: Quiz 2 Flashcards | Quizlet [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. The medical staff in Zimbabwe were competent, and they started to realize that something was going on, and they tried to charge him, but he beat the charges and had returned to the United States to renew his passport. He entered the hard drug trade under known king-pins Hector Salazar and later Miguel Gallardo until Gallardo was arrested in 1988. Wherever he went, death followed. Unmisig said. A quick search of inmate records will show ADX Florence is home to domestic and foreign terrorists, spies, gang leaders - and a doctor from Quincy. Sept. 2000: Swango pleads guilty to the three New York slayings and is sentenced to three life sentences without parole. Yet investigators suspect that during his crime spree, which spanned 1981 to 1997, Swango may . One day, Swango brought a box of doughnuts to work. "If I could see him today? At various stops during his career, some colleagues had reported seeing Swango inject patients with an unknown substance shortly before they died. Authorities in Zimbabwe would later issue a warrant for his arrest on charges that he poisoned seven patients, including five fatalities, according to, In June 1997, Swango returned to the U.S. to catch a flight to Saudi Arabia, where he had been offered a job as a doctor. During his suspension, Swango hired lawyer David Coltart to enable him to return to clinical practice. His mother, Muriel, was a housewife, and his father, John, was a military officer. Currently, Michael Swango is 68 years, 6 months and 8 days old. After that he was gone and went to Zimbabwe, and when he was there he killed men and women and children. That's all Michael Swango has left; the twisted answers inside a once-brilliant mind - all alone, in a prison cell, for the rest of his life. Michael Swango (born Joseph Michael Swango) was a physician who spent most of the 1980s and '90s using his . In the beginning, he shot Vicky Bowman-Hall at a convenience store in Algona. [5] Hanssen pled guilty to escape the death penalty and was convicted of fourteen counts of espionage and one count of attempted espionage. Doctor of Death: The Twisted Crime Spree of Michael Swango Dr. Michael Swango is serving three consecutive life sentences in connection with the murders of three patients in Northport, New York. He immediately jumped back into the medical profession, claiming his battery conviction was the result of a bar fight, and at one point changing his name to David Jackson Adams. Investigators believe the death of Cynthia Ann McGee, 19, began a string of poisonings by Michael Swango, who last month pleaded guilty . Barely noticed at the time, many of Swango's assigned patients ended up "coding", or suffering life-threatening emergencies, with at least five of them dying. Only he knows how many people he killed, and only he knows why. 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. Virgil Swango was Michael's father. [1] Upon his return from Vietnam, John Swango became depressed and he and his wife Muriel divorced. On July 11, 2000, less than a week before he was due to be released from prison on the fraud charge, federal prosecutors on Long Island, New York, filed a criminal complaint charging Swango with three counts of murder, one count of assault and one count each of false statements, mail fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Swango, awaiting trial and still spending time with a girlfriend in Columbus, contacted Harp and asked to see the items the police had taken. He worked as a counselor at the state career development center in Newport News, Virginia. Knowing that he would likely face the death penalty for his crimes in Zimbabwe, Swango began talks for a plea agreement. Guzman was ordered to pay $12.6 billion in forfeiture. If in fact our society let him out then I think there would probably be more anger, but knowing that he's in a place where he'll never hurt anybody again, I'm good with that," Unmisig said. I pressed harder and thats when his friendly nature changed and he asked us to leave, Sackman said. Amid the AMA report and calls from frightened colleagues, Sanford fired Swango. He pleads guilty and is sentenced to 3 years in prison. Swango? It was originally nicknamed the Diamond Tooth Gang because of the glass shards that some members put in their teeth. [12] Because of the failure to perform adequate autopsies, no firm conclusions could be drawn. Inside America's Toughest Federal Prison - The New York Times [1] Kinney went back to Virginia soon afterward after suffering from violent migraines. A fascination with dying patients was observed during this time. License to Kill: Dr. Joseph Michael Swango's Disturbing 'House of Horrors'Quincy Police Department Chief Investigator Billy Meyer recalls searching Dr. Josep. His co-workers found him unusually grim. He later became obsessed with the Holocaust, with particular interest in vivid images of the death camps. Killers part of OSU's past - The Lantern Swango claimed she suffered heart failure; he had killed her by giving her a potassium injection that stopped her heart. His father was a prominent U.S. Army officer and Vietnam War veteran, who allegedly bragged about his combat kills and suffered from alcoholism, according to theNew York Post. Management more often than not supports the accused and not the whistleblower. [7] Authorities arrested McNair, but he slipped out of his handcuffs by greasing them with lip balm. 1954. [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. Michael Swango pleaded guilty to five counts of a nine-count . [1], Despite a very poor evaluation in his dean's letter from SIU, Swango gained a surgical internship at Ohio State University Medical Center in 1983, to be followed by a residency in neurosurgery. I dont see how he could control himself, and the more work he did, the better he got at it.. Advertisement During the 10 years that followed, a trail of suspicious deaths beset Swango's career through several states and two. Abu Hamza al-Masri, aka the Hook Hand, is an Egyptian national who was a former club bouncer and civil engineer before becoming an Islamic extremist and terrorist leader. He is assigned to a Veterans Administration hospital. Thats true the world over, Sackman said. Thu, 20 Nov 2014 05:24:34 GMT Note: this is the conclusion to a three-part KHQA special report. Thats part of the reason why he was only convicted in the involvement of four deaths he confessed to them in exchange for not being extradited to Africa and to avoid the death penatly in the United States instead of the dozens he is suspected of, Sackman said. [1] Nonetheless, it was another decade before OSU formally conceded it should have called in outside investigators. [6], The AMA temporarily lost track of Swango, who managed to find a place in the psychiatric residency program at the Stony Brook University School of Medicine in New York. [15] At his sentencing hearing, Swango admitted to causing three murders, lying about his role in causing a fourth death, and lying about his 1985 conviction.[17]. Dr. Michael Swango is one of the prolific medical serial killers in history. Prosecutors read lurid passages from Swango's notebook, describing the joy he felt during his crimes. Michael Swango will celebrate 69rd birthday on a Saturday 21st of October 2023. Rudolph enlisted in the U.S. Army shortly after this but was discharged for marijuana use. The two-part series finale tells the story of Dr Michael Swango - a high school valedictorian, distinguished Marine, and a cunning serial killer. Prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, he was a featured speaker on the subject in far-away locales like Europe, Dubai, Sweden and across the United States. Soon after the FBI alerted the company, Swango was fired for lying on his job application. The sedative caused him to lapse into a coma, and Harris died on November 9, 1993. Below we countdown to Michael Swango . An autopsy would later reveal that a ball of gauze had been placed down DeLongs throat. But as the pressure increased from Sackman, cracks began showing in Swangos facade. "Why? July 12, 2000 / 11:23 AM / CBS. I Hunt Medical Serial Killers. Ask Me Anything. : r/IAmA - Reddit 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. Over the next two decades, Hanssen would leak vast amounts of intelligence to the Soviets about spy identities, FBI investigations, and detailed technological information. Judge Mishler sentenced Swango to three consecutive terms of life without parole. [3] Swango graduated from Quincy summa cum laude and was given the American Chemical Society Award. Please enable javascript and refresh the page to continue reading local news. In March 1997, he applied for a job at the Royal Hospital in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, using a false rsum. 10 Secret Prisons Governments Are Hiding From Us, Photo Credit: United States Marshal Service /, Photo Credit: Federal Bureau of Prisoners employee /, Photo Credit: North Carolina criminal records /, Top 10 Notorious Killers Who Were Murdered In Prison, Top 10 Horrific Facts About Robert Black, Britain's, Top 10 Actors Who Relived Their Worst Moments On Camera, Top 10 Celebs with the Worst Interior Design Taste, 10 Historical Shoe Rituals and Superstitions You Might Not Know About, 10 Unusual and Incredible Reinterpretations of Classic Artworks, 10 Ancient Fertility Treatments You Wouldnt Want to Use Today, 10 Inventive Ways People Survived Winter Before Electricity, 10 Bleak Facts about Victorian Workhouses, 10 Amazing Archeological Discoveries Made by Dogs, 10 Macabre Murder Tales From Asia That Will Make You Sick, 10 Forensic Science Tools You Didnt Know Existed, 10 Disturbing Times Women Married Convicted Cold-blooded Killers. He is thankful for the help his colleagues provided as they studied the case. Michael Swango used to tell colleagues that his favorite movie was ''The Silence of the Lambs.'' That was not a reassuring datum, considering the rumors being whispered among the nurses, and the epidemics of cardiopulmonary arrest that seemed to follow whenever Swango happened to be working a floor. [1], While all this was happening, Tom Valery, chief investigator for the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), consulted with Charlene Thomesen, a forensic psychiatrist. When Swango, who was still in Africa, tried to . [1]:28, Swango displayed troubling behavior during his time at SIU. [12] When placed in the Supermax prison, his hook hand prosthetic was replaced with a plastic spork. He also used intricate tunnel systems for moving drugs and escaping authorities, but he wont have much luck if he tries that at Colorados Alcatraz. The symptoms were consistent with arsenic poisoning. October 1984: Ohio State University police are joined by the Franklin County prosecutor and the state medical board in investigating Swangos time at Ohio State. I'm not a big Dirty Harry kind of guy, but I like the work. While he worked in Rhodes Hall at OSU, nurses noticed that apparently healthy patients began dying mysteriously with alarming frequency. Sweet, husky, close smell of an indoor homicide.''. Guzman has claimed to have indirectly killed 2,000-3,000 people. Only with their help can people like Sackman and his team bring justice to those who were the victims of murderers like Swango. When he was re-captured, he was sentenced to two life sentences at the North Dakota State Penitentiary. Investigators suspected theymaynothave beenhis only victims at the facility. He has consulted with foreign police on cases, as well. He used a local storage facility to hide his stolen goods, but the manager contacted the police after noticing that the contents looked suspicious. One nurse caught him injecting some "medicine" into a patient who later became strangely ill.[1], The nurses reported their concerns to administrators but were met with accusations of paranoia. John Roca/NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images 2023 www.columbusmonthly.com. Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. He's still alive and well, stop believing what you see on the Internet, " they said. He was tan, wearing aviator sunglasses. Swango was an exemplary student and high school valedictorian. Lessons from the Worst-Case Scenario | Journal of Ethics | American 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. Former SIU medical student sentenced to life for murders [29] Despite having very little formal education, Guzmans Sinona cartel grew to control 40%-60% of the drug trade in Mexico.

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