He was a gifted medical student and doctor and a former Marine. [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. Once again, his patients began dying for no explicable reason. Michael Swango was born at Fort Lewis, Washington, in 1954. Serial killer nicknamed "Dr. Death," serving three consecutive life terms. From his earliest days working as a volunteer ambulance driver during his undergraduate years, patients seemed to die around Swango at a higher than normal rate. Management more often than not supports the accused and not the whistleblower. "Behind the Murder Curtain: Special Agent Bruce Sackman Hunts Doctors and Nurses Who Kill Our Veterans.". The story of Michael Swango is perhaps not quite as well-known as that of other prolific killers such as Ted Bundy and Richard Ramirez, but this . "Why? A ? He was charged in absentia with poisonings. He called Richard Thomesen, who was stationed in the DEA's Manhattan field office to discuss the case. Below we countdown to Michael Swango . He was tan, wearing aviator sunglasses. James Marcello, known as Little Jimmy, was a sanitation worker turned mafia boss in Chicago during the 1980s and 1990s. Swanson went to rob a store and in the process, he had to kill the storekeepers. [5] Hanssen pled guilty to escape the death penalty and was convicted of fourteen counts of espionage and one count of attempted espionage. In 2000, Swango was sentenced to life in prison at USP Florence ADMAX in Florence, Colorado. Columbus leaders ID corridors . It takes observant, brave professionals calling out what they see as suspicious activity when they see it. By making a deal with prosecutors, he was spared the death penalty, and the government of Zimbabwe agreed not to seek his extradition and pursue charges against him. In 1984, Swango claimed he discovered the dead body of patient Ricky DeLong, 21, while performing his rounds. March1992: Secures a residency at a university hospital in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, using forged documents. Many who knew him say the same thing:. I suppose I would ask why. Doctors, toxicologists, forensic nurses. We had quite a team of people working on this thing, because thats what it takes, Sackman said. Sept. 2000: Swango pleads guilty to the three New York slayings and is sentenced to three life sentences without parole. Only he knows how many people he killed, and only he knows why. 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. 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. 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. 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. Since he the age of three, he had become fascinated with stories about violent deaths. Palerma quickly rose through the ranks of the organization to lead the area known as Front 41 and eventually was one of the leaders of the entire Caribbean bloc. Wed, November 19th 2014, 9:24 PM PST. He showed a fascination with dying patients, and preferred working as an ambulance attendant instead of studying. September 8, 2018 10:43am. As part of his residency, Swango began seeing patients at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Northport, New York. Download FREE with Kindle Unlimited. Over the next two decades, Hanssen would leak vast amounts of intelligence to the Soviets about spy identities, FBI investigations, and detailed technological information. By that time, Swango had fled the country. Sackman spent 32 years working for the federal government, including 25 with the Veterans Administration, investigating crime within the department. Overwhelmingly, medical professionals are the salt of the earth., Courtesy / Sioux Falls Argus Leader file photo. 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. ?60 Minutes?? McNairs final and most notorious escape was in 2006 when he packed himself into a shipment of mail leaving the prison. 1979: Graduates summa cum laude from Quincy College. Abdul Rahman Yasin is still at large, and the FBI is offering up to $5 million for any information that leads directly to his arrest. Nobody is going to see it.. He was profiled on ABCs 20/20, vehemently denying the charges against him and any connection to the deaths in Ohio. Weeks later, the co-workers laid a trap before they were dispatched, leaving behind a pitcher of unsweetened iced tea. Most states will not grant a medical license to a violent felon, considering such a conviction to be evidence of unprofessional conduct. Accepted into the neurosurgery program at Ohio State University Medical Center. Swango then worked as a laboratory technician in Newport News for ATICoal (which later became Vanguard Energy, a division of CITA Logistics). And when scrutiny would come closing in around him or his superiors would discipline him for infractions, he would eventually move on to another health care outpost, ready to take up another role that put him in a position to begin his work all over again. Sackman was serving as a special agent in charge for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs out of New York when he first became aware of Swango, who had recently been featured on a television program that caught the attention of a doctor at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Northport, New York. He was employed until 1991, when he resigned his position to seek out a new position as a doctor. If I didnt know any better and my daughter had brought him home and said he was a doctor at the VA, I would have thought it was like winning the lottery.. These clippings confirmed toxic levels of arsenic in the hair. A graduate of the Southern Illinois University Medical . [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. 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. 1994: Federal investigators obtain a warrant for Swangos arrest on fraud charges, but he flees to Zimbabwe, where he gets a job at a hospital in Mnene. Not all of Swangos poisonings ended in death. Time is slowly putting Swango's story to rest, but Judge Dennis Cashman feels he has a responsibility to speak up about his involvement whenever he's asked, to serve the greater good. Investigators suspected theymaynothave beenhis only victims at the facility. It was reported on another occasion that he emerged from a dying patient's room with a smile on his face. It was those who came forward and told us about it. He is fired. Swango? August1985: Convicted in the nonfatal Illinois poisonings. That Thanksgiving Day, the Discovery Channel aired an episode of Justice Files that included a segment on Swango. He eventually became blacklisted from all teaching hospitals and medical schools in the United States and fled to continue practicing medicine in Zimbabwe, where patients continued to die mysteriously under his care. If you feel you have received this message in error, please contact the customer support team at 1-833-248-7801. ", 'Dateline' investigates case of Sarah Jean Hartsfield, former Minnesotan accused of killing husband, Karla Jo Nieland was murdered at a 1981 Minnesota farm party. I could never do any of the things that have been alleged Ive done, he said. I dont see how he could control himself, and the more work he did, the better he got at it.. Colleagues fall ill and suspect Swango of poisoning them. 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 . [17] Palmera formed his strong political opinions while teaching economics at the Popular University of Cesar and helped create the socialist organization known as Los Indipendientes. Soon after his arrival, however, staff were alarmed by an unusual number of patient deaths or illnesses, according to theLos Angeles Times. KHQA asked three of the men who knew him what they would say to Michael Swango today, if given the opportunity. As per our current Database, Michael Swango is still alive (as per Wikipedia, Last update: May 10, 2020). 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. With patients, he sometimes used poisons as well, but usually, he administered an overdose of whichever drug the patient had been prescribed, or wrote unnecessary prescriptions for dangerous drugs.[1]. 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 March 1997, he applied for a job at the Royal Hospital in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, using a false rsum. "If I could see him today? Jack Smith. [14] At the same time, Zimbabwean authorities charged him with poisoning seven patients, five of whom died. When Michael Swango was a student at the Southern Illinois . His patients, many of whom were considered stable, began to mysteriously die without explanation. Guzman was ordered to pay $12.6 billion in forfeiture. Thomesen's conversation focused on Swango lying on his government application to work at the VA, where he prescribed narcotic medications. It was here that coworkers began noticing a troubling trend. Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski sent sixteen hand-made bombs to figures he felt represented technology, killing three people, and injuring twenty-three. 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. Guzman has claimed to have indirectly killed 2,000-3,000 people. And I like the way Columbo works. Erik Kaufman joined the Mitchell Republic in July of 2019 as an education and features reporter. On August 23, 1985, Swango was convicted of aggravated battery for poisoning co-workers. Most of those cases were what he considered standard fair for his office fraud, prescription drug theft and other graft. When Swango, who was still in Africa, tried to . In 2006, he was sentenced to seven years in British prison for inciting violence. He later became obsessed with the Holocaust, with particular interest in vivid images of the death camps. He's still alive and well, stop believing what you see on the Internet, " they said. While Swango eventually pleaded guilty to just four murders, his victim count, Joseph Michael Swango was born in Tacoma, Washington, in 1954. In July 1998, he was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison. Another suggested that murder was"the only way I have of reminding myself that I'm still alive." . He worked as a counselor at the state career development center in Newport News, Virginia. . Thu, 20 Nov 2014 05:24:34 GMT Note: this is the conclusion to a three-part KHQA special report. Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like Judge Hews (in the first legal hearing) kept Elizabeth Bouvia alive because he feared her death would have a depressing effect on other handicapped people., they think scarce resources drive patients to make autonomous decisions to die., The implied right to privacy or personal liberty and more. 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. [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 was found atop a car in the midst of a horrible accident, he was trying to take pictures of the victims who were still inside the car. [24], Tyler Bingham is a former leader of the violent white supremacist prison gang the Aryan Brotherhood that began among California inmates in 1964. Michael Swanson was a teenager who killed two convenience storekeepers in the year 2010. Thirty years after slipping poison into the food and drink of his Quincy co-workers, those who knew him reflected on a life gone wrong. 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. 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. [30] Marcellos own father was killed while collecting a mob debt in 1973, perhaps leading to his sons life in the criminal underbelly of the city. And he was not what Sackman was expecting. 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. In 2004, he was extradited to the United States on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering. Upload . After she left Swango, the headaches stopped. Michael Swango returned to New York two days after Kristin's memorial service. It takes a team to do it. He was immediately fired. He graduated from the University of South Dakota in 1999 with a major in English and a minor in computer science. It was originally nicknamed the Diamond Tooth Gang because of the glass shards that some members put in their teeth. Michael Strahan Death Hoax Dismissed Since Footballer Is 'Alive And Well'. is alive and well, currently serving a 42 . By 1994, Swango had fled overseas to Zimbabwe, where he again tried to establish himself as a doctor. He murdered a number of our nations heroes in Veterans hospitals. He was also fascinated with Nazis and the Holocaust, according to The Washington Post. Wherever he went, death followed. But his partner had seen the program, and was sure the reporters working on it would not have gone on the record with their story if they had not been sure. Dan Cook saw something in Swango long before 1984, when he was one of Michael's teachers at Christian Brothers High School in Quincy, the school from which Swango graduated as valedictorian in 1972. 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. When they came back, the tea was sweet, and it later tested positive for arsenic, according to the Los Angeles Times. Sweet, husky, close smell of an indoor homicide.''. He eventually graduated behind schedule. In July 2000, Swango was charged with the murders of three New York state patients. He is incarcerated at ADX Florence. 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. 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. 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. It takes medical examiners to help prove the causes of deaths that at first blush may seem unremarkable. [5] In July 1992, he began working at Sanford USD Medical Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Dr. Death Part 1: A License to Kill: Directed by Brett Kelly. Rudolph enlisted in the U.S. Army shortly after this but was discharged for marijuana use. Link your TV provider to stream full episodes and live TV. March1984: Ohio State recommends Swango for medical licensure. He received an honorable discharge in 1980. While he was training at one hospital, he even gained the nickname Double-O Swango, referencing James Bonds license to kill. [1] Upon his return from Vietnam, John Swango became depressed and he and his wife Muriel divorced. The sentencing judge ordered that Swango not be allowed to prepare or deliver food, or have any involvement in preparing or distributing drugs. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! [3] Swango graduated from Quincy summa cum laude and was given the American Chemical Society Award. 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. The second of three children, he grew up in Quincy, Illinois. [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. Medical credentialing is 100 times more restrictive now than it was back then. 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. He grew up in Freeman, S.D., graduating from Freeman High School. [1][10] Before he resigned, Cohen sent a warning about Swango to all 125 medical schools and all 1,000 teaching hospitals across the US, effectively blacklisting Swango from getting a medical residency at any American institution. At the time, a unanimous vote was required for a student to be dismissed. Please enable javascript and refresh the page to continue reading local news. Michael Swango always seemed to make a good first impression. Michael Swango pursued the world of medicine for fifteen years, and Michael Swango had the strong ambition with the . He was later accused of falsifying patient reports and threatened with expulsion, but he ultimately graduated, reported theLos Angeles Times. Sources: Media reports; Meeks report; Blind Eye, by James B. Stewart. Some have even formed unlikely friendships. Standard procedures for checking applicants were not followed, former school dean Dr. Jordan Cohen toldPeoplemagazine. Patients there soon began dying under odd circumstances. [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. Again, his patients began dying mysteriously. Michael Swango's story began right here in the Tri-States, but few could have ever guessed where it would end. Dont let the nickname Shorty fool you. In August 1985, he was found guilty of aggravated battery and sentenced to five years in prison, reported. I pressed harder and thats when his friendly nature changed and he asked us to leave, Sackman said. In 1989, he was working at a medical-career vocational school in Newport News, Virginia, when three co-workers became ill,although no charges were ever filed, according to CBS News. When he was re-captured, he was sentenced to two life sentences at the North Dakota State Penitentiary. Swango is arrested and charged, but goes into hiding. His classmates found him strange and fiercely competitive, according toThe Washington Post. So Sackman and his partner headed up to Northport to see what was going on. Talley telephoned Jordan Cohen, the dean at Stony Brook. Guzman began his own cartel operations, trafficking more cocaine, marijuana, meth, and heroin into the United States than any other drug dealer in history. 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. His death would be ruled a homicide, and his family sued Swango in 1986, believing him to be the murderer, according to, An internal probe of Swango brought about no conclusive evidence, but the school still ended his neurosurgery residency, according to, In the summer of 1984, Swango returned to Quincy, where he obtained a job as an, emergency medical technician with the Adams County Ambulance Service, reported. 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. [1] Following his graduation, Swango went to medical school at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine (SIU). [20] He became a mathematics professor, but was an awkward and uncomfortable teacher, and resigned suddenly in 1969. ?s Ross Green sent Swango a letter asking him to re-consider; Swango did not reply. A co-worker said he saw Swango leave the area where the pitcher had been left. Is Dr. Michael Swango Still Alive? [13], Eric Rudolph spent five years on the FBI Most Wanted List for terrorism until he was arrested by a rookie police officer while digging through the dumpster behind a Save-A-Lot grocery store. He was nearly expelled, but was allowed to remain when one member of the committee voted to give him a second chance.
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