He saw no action overseas during his service, but his training in the Marines left him with a commitment to physical exercise. It looked like he had just come in from the golf course, Sackman recalled. Thats where we arrested him.. A scathing review by law school dean James Meeks concluded that the hospital should have called in the police, and also revealed several glaring shortcomings in its initial investigation of Swango. But doctors are revered in American culture, and deaths are a common occurrence at hospitals. The sentencing judge ordered that Swango not be allowed to prepare or deliver food, or have any involvement in preparing or distributing drugs. [8] His final re-capture came from rookie officer Constable Stephane Gagnon in 2007 after a long stint on Americas Most Wanted. The woman consulted a local surgeon, Michael Cotton, who suspected arsenic poisoning and persuaded her to send hair samples for forensic analysis to Pretoria, South Africa. While he was training at one hospital, he even gained the nickname Double-O Swango, referencing James Bonds license to kill. Patients", "Ex-Doctor Pleads Not Guilty in Murder and Fraud Case", Prosecutors Say Doctor Killed to Feel a Thrill, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Michael_Swango&oldid=1151889846, American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment, Medical practitioners convicted of murdering their patients, Military personnel from Tacoma, Washington, People convicted of making false statements, Articles with dead external links from January 2018, Articles with permanently dead external links, CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, David J. Adams, Jack Kirk, Michael Kirk, Michael Swan, This page was last edited on 26 April 2023, at 21:37. 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. 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. It takes the work of law enforcement officials acting on those suspicions. He eventually resurfaced again at Northport, where he came to the attention of Sackman before bolting to places unknown. Dr. Michael Swango is one of the prolific medical serial killers in history. It was a damning piece of television, which Sackman had just happened to miss when it was broadcast the night before. Despite suspicious stories, there is no hard evidence. [1], In July 1984, Swango returned to Quincy and began working as an emergency medical technician with the Adams County Ambulance Corps even though he had been fired from an ambulance service in Springfield for making a heart patient drive to the hospital. Dr. Death Part 1: A License to Kill: Directed by Brett Kelly. ?s mind is still a mystery. There, he met the alleged killer in the flesh. This story is from the April 2022 issue ofColumbus Monthly. [15] A week before the indictment was handed up, FBI agents interviewed Swango in prison. 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. His team also attempted to establish a terrorist training camp in Oregon,[10] leading to U.S. involvement in his case. [15] Over the span of 1996 to 1998, Rudolph committed four bombing attacks, two at abortion clinics and one at a lesbian bar. From what he identified as the text of ''My Secret Life,'' Mr. Swango was inspired to copy: ''I love it. He was sentenced to five years' imprisonment. Everyone. Sackman said. He murdered a number of our nations heroes in Veterans hospitals. 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. He eventually graduated behind schedule. He moved on to Ohio State University Medical Center, where more serious concerns were raised by staff. Not all of Swangos poisonings ended in death. ?s former teacher and attorney Dan Cook summed it up best. In a phone call, she implored him to look closer into Swango, whom she suspected of killing patients at her facility. The couple fell in love and planned to marry. report from 2007 describes this maximum-security prison as a 21st century Alcatraz, where many inmates spend 23 hours a day locked in their cell. 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. local. Thats true the world over, Sackman said. 1 Swango killed hospitalized patients, those under his care or others just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He pleads guilty and is sentenced to 3 years in prison. They also knew that they had a limited amount of time to amass that proof. [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. Born in Sinaloa, Mexico in 1957, Guzman started his journey into the drug world early by growing marijuana with his father. He is incarcerated at ADX Florence. Currently, Michael Swango is 68 years, 6 months and 8 days old. He even managed to convince a police officer who was looking for the escapee that he was just a jogger. They became ill, and some vomited so hard that blood vessels in their eyes broke, reported the Los Angeles Times. But what seemed like a bright opportunity would turn into a deeply scarring college experience. [1] He was valedictorian of his 1972 Quincy Catholic Boys High School class. [11], Since the latest Swango incident took place at a Veterans Affairs facility, federal authorities got involved. It takes a team to do it. Did something happen that nobody noticed? In 1989, Swango was released from prison. Former SIU medical student turns serial killer Double-0 Swango sentenced to life in prison Less than two years after he graduated from the SIU School of Medicine in 1982, Michael Swango committed his first murder. [16], The man known as Simon Trinidad was actually named Juvenal Ovidio Ricardo Palmera Pineda and was one of the first high-ranking members of this violent guerilla group to be arrested. in Colorado for the death of four of his patients, though many suspect him of dozens more that have not been proven. After his release, Swango ended up in New York,where he killed at least three people at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center. In 1995, Kaczynski demanded that newspapers publish his essay Industrial Society and Its Future and after it was printed by The Washington Post, Kaczynskis brother David came forward with suspicions about his brother that led to his capture and conviction. [1] Upon his return from Vietnam, John Swango became depressed and he and his wife Muriel divorced. In 1985, it's where a judge sentenced him to five years in prison. In the summer of 1984, Swango returned to Quincy, where he obtained a job as anemergency medical technician with the Adams County Ambulance Service, reportedThe New York Times. Standard procedures for checking applicants were not followed, former school dean Dr. Jordan Cohen toldPeoplemagazine. Sackman spent 32 years working for the federal government, including 25 with the Veterans Administration, investigating crime within the department. March1984: Ohio State recommends Swango for medical licensure. It was here that coworkers began noticing a troubling trend. He used his job as prison reporter to gain information about the layout of the prison, and then escaped through the air ducts in 1992 along with two other prisoners and remained free for nine months before being re-captured. 1979: Graduates summa cum laude from Quincy College. At the ages of 47 and 61, respectively, both Vicky Bowman-Hall and Sheila Meyers of Iowa were innocent gas station clerks with families of their own when they abruptly lost their lives. Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski sent sixteen hand-made bombs to figures he felt represented technology, killing three people, and injuring twenty-three. Michael Swanson was a teenager who killed two convenience storekeepers in the year 2010. 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 could very well have remained in Sioux Falls for some time, but he committed a critical blunder. Swango rarely changed his murder methods. Michael Joseph Swango (born October 21, 1954) is an American serial killer and former physician who is estimated to have been involved in as many as 60 fatal poisonings of patients and colleagues, although he admitted to causing only four deaths. Unmisig said. How could this guy have passed background investigations and have a position to treat our nations heroes? The End: Michael Swango meets his fate. New York Post. Guzman was ordered to pay $12.6 billion in forfeiture. August1985: Convicted in the nonfatal Illinois poisonings. The federal indictment came after the victims bodies were exhumed and tested positive for poison. Instead, 30 years later, what happens in Michael Swango? Calabreses brother Nicholas was the prosecutions star witness and Calabreses own lawyer said that he was so vicious that He would shoot you in the head over cold ravioli. After a number of patients died on his watch, his classmates began mockingly calling him Double-O Swango like the fictional spy James Bond, he had a license to kill, they would say, according toThe New York Times. No doubt Swango wanted these pictures for his scrapbook of death. After she left Swango, the headaches stopped. 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. While he worked in Rhodes Hall at OSU, nurses noticed that apparently healthy patients began dying mysteriously with alarming frequency. Only he knows how many people he killed, and only he knows why. [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. Joseph Michael Swango was born in Tacoma, Washington, in 1954. In late 1994, Swango used forged documents and false information to secure a job as a physician at Mnene Lutheran Mission Hospital in the city of Bulawayo. He was profiled on ABCs 20/20, vehemently denying the charges against him and any connection to the deaths in Ohio. Erik Kaufman joined the Mitchell Republic in July of 2019 as an education and features reporter. Over the next two decades, Hanssen would leak vast amounts of intelligence to the Soviets about spy identities, FBI investigations, and detailed technological information. 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. Dr. Michael Swango is now serving three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole at ADX Florence federal prison in Colorado for the death of four of his patients, though many . A former doctor admitted Wednesday he fatally poisoned three patients in a Long Island hospital. However, he was forced out after being caught working on a scrapbook of disasters on work time. Talley telephoned Jordan Cohen, the dean at Stony Brook. Without them we would never have known about it. Michael Swango was born in Tacoma, Washington and raised in Quincy, Illinois, the middle child of Muriel and John Virgil Swango. [1] The FBI obtained a warrant charging Swango with using fraudulent credentials to gain entry to a Veterans Affairs hospital.[10]. Joaquin Guzman, aka "El Chapo", is one of the most notorious drug traffickers and murders in the world. Terrorists, spies, serial killers, and cult leaders live side by side. After that he was gone and went to Zimbabwe, and when he was there he killed men and women and children. In November 1994, he settled in Zimbabwe and used forged documents to obtain a job at Mnene Lutheran Mission Hospital in the center of the country. 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. In 2006, he was sentenced to seven years in British prison for inciting violence. While in school, Swango worked part-time as a paramedic and would never miss a shift, reported theChicago Tribune. 1954. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Aryan Brotherhood today is the largest and most deadly prison gang in the United States.[27]. 1993: Several healthy patients die. His reign of terror came to an end in 1997, when he was arrested at Chicagos OHare International Airport and subsequently convicted and sentenced to three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. 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. In July 2000, Swango was charged with the murders of three New York state patients. 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. [13] The government used this time to amass a dossier of Swango's crimes. 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. He showed a fascination with dying patients, and preferred working as an ambulance attendant instead of studying. But he never thought hed become wrapped up in a serial killer investigation. Some of his fellow medical students had dubbed him Double 0 Swango, a play on words of the code number for James Bond, who in literature had a license to kill. [12] When placed in the Supermax prison, his hook hand prosthetic was replaced with a plastic spork. One day, Swango brought a box of doughnuts to work. Below we countdown to Michael Swango . Background screenings for hiring have improved greatly in the time since Swango stalked hospital hallways, Sackman said. He was nearly expelled, but was allowed to remain when one member of the committee voted to give him a second chance. Michael Swango was a physiciananda serial killer. He planted several false clues in the bombs to mislead authorities, however, his own work would lead to his downfall. [11] In 2012, he was extradited to the U.S., and found guilty of 11 terrorism counts and sentenced to life in prison in 2015. "I don't think there's ill will. Unmisig and John Landis were struck by his charisma. During the trial, the prosecution also argued that Palerma was involved in the kidnapping of three U.S. contractors in 2003, and a former guerilla testified against him about the kidnapping of a former mayor. That gave us a window to start the investigation and make a determination on whether he had killed anyone, Sackman said. Swango proved to be a very smooth interview, deftly deflecting questions. In October of that year, Swango was arrested by the Quincy Police Department after arsenic and other poisons were found in his possession. Why would you do this? Swanson went to rob a store and in the process, he had to kill the storekeepers. February1985: Ohio State law school dean James Meeks investigates the universitys handling of Swango during his internship. A joint FBI-CIA task force zeroed in on Hanssen and he was secretly observed by a younger agent, Eric ONeill, who was able to download information that Hanssen was storing on a PDA device. [8], Swango established a sterling reputation at Sanford. He also appealed to the authorities at Mpilo Hospital, Bulawayo, to allow him in the interim to continue working voluntarily there; however, this was opposed by Abdollah Mesbah, a surgical resident, who had often found him snooping around mysteriously in the wards and in the intensive care unit (ICU) even when not on call. At this time, Swango rented a room in Bulawayo from a widowed woman who subsequently became violently sick after a meal she had prepared for herself and a friend. An autopsy would later reveal that a ball of gauze had been placed down DeLongs throat. He is thankful for the help his colleagues provided as they studied the case. Kaczynski participated in a brutal psychological study that involved over 200 hours of verbal abuse and humiliating personal attacks, which was possibly part of CIA-led attempts at mind-control through project MKUltra. McNairs final and most notorious escape was in 2006 when he packed himself into a shipment of mail leaving the prison. Again using forgeries, Swango is hired as a psychiatry resident at State University of New York at Stony Brook. By that time, Swango had fled the country. A fascination with dying patients was observed during this time. In both Virginia and South Dakota, he used his inherent charm and a variety of forged legal documents to re-establish his career in the medical field. Knowing that he would likely face the death penalty for his crimes in Zimbabwe, Swango began talks for a plea agreement. "I don't think there's any anger. "I know I wouldn't get any answers, but I'd have to ask the questions, and try to find out what he was thinking. There were still many victims in Zimbabwe. "Why? Swango's father was a career United States Army officer who served in the Vietnam War, was listed in Who's Who in Government 19721973, and became an alcoholic. 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. In 1987, however, he was caught red-handed by a staff member while robbing the offices of the Farmers Union and he shot the man and then killed a truck driver as he fled the building. Such was the case for the patients of infamous physician and serial killer Michael Swango. Sackman had no proof, and without it Swango could decline Sackmans request to search his room. He sought medical work in other states including South Dakota, but was rejected after it was discovered he had forged documents and lied about his criminal past, reported, Standard procedures for checking applicants were not followed, former school dean Dr. Jordan Cohen told, As part of his residency, Swango began seeing patients at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Northport, New York. In 1984, he poisoned his co-workers there. When not studying, he was frequently seen jogging or performing calisthenics on the Quincy University campus, and he was known to perform pushups as a form of self-punishment when criticized by instructors. In 2000, Swango was sentenced to life in prison at USP Florence ADMAX in Florence, Colorado. Investigators believe the death of Cynthia Ann McGee, 19, began a string of poisonings by Michael Swango, who last month pleaded guilty . [4] Prosecutors in Franklin County, Ohio (where Columbus is located) also considered bringing charges of murder and attempted murder against Swango, but they decided against it for lack of physical evidence.[1]. 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. [5] In July 1992, he began working at Sanford USD Medical Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
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