Under intense questioning from the head of Stony Brook's psychiatry department, Alan Miller, Swango admitted he had lied about his poisoning conviction in Illinois. While in school, Swango worked part-time as a paramedic and would never miss a shift, reported theChicago Tribune. 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 toThe New York Times. He had taken phone calls before about tips that led nowhere, but this phone call would prove to be like no other he had ever received. 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. Prosecutors read lurid passages from Swango's notebook, describing the joy he felt during his crimes. Later, it emerged that OSU officials feared that Swango would sue if he were fired without cause, and resolved to quietly push him out of the hospital as soon as possible after his internship ended. [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. Now 68, Swango is incarcerated at, To learn more about Dr. Swango, watch Oxygen's series ". [20] He became a mathematics professor, but was an awkward and uncomfortable teacher, and resigned suddenly in 1969. In 2000, Swango would confess to the 1984 murder of Cynthia McGee, 19, by injecting her with a fatal dose of potassium, according toCBS News. 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. He can be reached at ekaufman@mitchellrepublic.com. [14] At the same time, Zimbabwean authorities charged him with poisoning seven patients, five of whom died. [28] He escaped prison twice in Mexico but was extradited to the U.S. in 2017 and sentenced to life in prison plus thirty years on ten different charges. During his time there, several employees sought medical attention with complaints of persistent and increasing stomach pains. 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. . [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. Michael Swango - Age, Bio, Faces and Birthday. While Swango eventually pleaded guilty to just four murders, his victim count, Joseph Michael Swango was born in Tacoma, Washington, in 1954. Mr. Brown, on the steps of United . "Behind the Murder Curtain: Special Agent Bruce Sackman Hunts Doctors and Nurses Who Kill Our Veterans. But Sackman said information was harder to come by in those days, and Swango used every trick in the book to keep access to the medical field. Swango could very well have remained in Sioux Falls for some time, but he committed a critical blunder. But later that same year, he would reach out to the Soviet Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) and become a double agent. Michael Swango's story began right here in the Tri-States, but few could have ever guessed where it would end. local. In 1984, Swango claimed he discovered the dead body of patient Ricky DeLong, 21, while performing his rounds. They told him that on the day he was due to be released, he would be extradited to Zimbabwe to face charges of murder and attempted murder. Despite almost getting thrown out of Southern Illinois University, Swango was accepted into an internship program at Ohio State University Medical Center in 1983 that put him on track to become a neurosurgeon. ?60 Minutes?? Swango claimed she suffered heart failure; he had killed her by giving her a potassium injection that stopped her heart. His past, again, comes out, and Swango is fired. Unmisig and John Landis were struck by his charisma. He grew up in Freeman, S.D., graduating from Freeman High School. Although his first trial ended in a hung jury, his second trial ended with him being sentenced to sixty years in prison, where he remains to this day. [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. 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. On this coming Sunday August 16, 2020 at 9PM EST on HLN (CNN Headline News) the show Very Scary People - Dr Death, will detail the investigation and conviction of this doctor based largely upon my book . Oxygen Insider is your all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more. He eventually resurfaced again at Northport, where he came to the attention of Sackman before bolting to places unknown. September 8, 2018 10:43am. 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. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. The patient survives, but nurses suspect Swango in five deaths on the ward. 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. Yet investigators suspect that during his crime spree, which spanned 1981 to 1997, Swango may . He showed a fascination with dying patients, and preferred working as an ambulance attendant instead of studying. 10 Inescapable Prisons People Somehow Escaped From, Like every other medical professional, Dr. Michael Swango swore an oath to do no harm. No charges are brought. A graduate of the Southern Illinois University Medical . It was a damning piece of television, which Sackman had just happened to miss when it was broadcast the night before. Returning to the U.S. to obtain a visa, he is arrested in a Chicago airport on federal fraud charges. 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. James Marcello, known as Little Jimmy, was a sanitation worker turned mafia boss in Chicago during the 1980s and 1990s. [2] During high school, he played clarinet in the band. As part of his residency, Swango began seeing patients at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Northport, New York. [3] Hanssen began working as a Special Agent in 1976 and in 1979, he was given the project of collecting Soviet intelligence for the agency. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Most of those cases were what he considered standard fair for his office fraud, prescription drug theft and other graft. [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. 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. It was originally nicknamed the Diamond Tooth Gang because of the glass shards that some members put in their teeth. It was reported on another occasion that he emerged from a dying patient's room with a smile on his face. His co-workers found him unusually grim. Dr. Michael Swango is now serving three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole at The federal indictment came after the victims bodies were exhumed and tested positive for poison. A ? 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. Sackman spent 32 years working for the federal government, including 25 with the Veterans Administration, investigating crime within the department. Terrorists, spies, serial killers, and cult leaders live side by side. Such was the case for the patients of infamous physician and serial killer Michael Swango. Unbeknownst to the FBI, it was Hanssen himself who had revealed them. 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. He received an honorable discharge in 1980. He saw no action overseas during his service, but his training in the Marines left him with a commitment to physical exercise. "A physician takes the Hippocratic Oath, and he's vowed to preserve and protect and provide the necessary means to sustain life and here's this guy looking at that oath and basically burning it," former co-worker Brent Unmisig said. Only with their help can people like Sackman and his team bring justice to those who were the victims of murderers like Swango. His coworkers and other acquaintances also became violently ill after eating food that Swango had access to or had prepared. Michael Swango is an American serial killer and a former physician who is serving three consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole at the ADX Florence supermax prison near Florence, Colorado. 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. [14], Additionally, prosecutors found evidence that Swango lied about the death of Cynthia Ann McGee, a patient he treated during his internship at OSU. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Swangos past becomes known. After being released from prison in 1989 on the poisoning charges, he worked for a time in Virginia before finding his way to Sioux Falls, where he again took up position as a doctor, this time with what is now Sanford Health. This included the date for a drop of classified material in a nearby park, where he was apprehended. 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.. [22] He developed a deep resentment for what he called industrial-technological society. local. March1992: Secures a residency at a university hospital in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, using forged documents. Eventually, the school allowed him to graduate one year after his entering classmates, on condition that he repeat the OB/GYN rotation and complete several assignments in other specialties. Swango was released from prison in 1987, after serving only two years. He has consulted with foreign police on cases, as well. From what he identified as the text of ''My Secret Life,'' Mr. Swango was inspired to copy: ''I love it. Please enable javascript and refresh the page to continue reading local news. 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. Jack Smith. 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. McNairs final and most notorious escape was in 2006 when he packed himself into a shipment of mail leaving the prison. Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. FARC was offered a deal by the Colombian government that they would not extradite Palmera if FARC released 63 political and military hostages, but they refused. 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. As per our current Database, Michael Swango is still alive (as per Wikipedia, Last update: May 10, 2020). 1983: Graduates from Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, where classmates nickname him Double-0 Swango and faculty raise concerns about his performance. [5] Hanssen pled guilty to escape the death penalty and was convicted of fourteen counts of espionage and one count of attempted espionage. "I've always felt like it's old news, but at the same time, as long as it gets attention, it might help prevent something like this from happening again," Cashman said. He also said, in his experience as an investigator, whistleblowers to crimes would often face blowback in the form of accusations of paranoia, which could make it unappealing for an individual to step forward with shocking claims. Once again, his patients began dying for no explicable reason. Medical credentialing is 100 times more restrictive now than it was back then. [13], Swango was formally indicted on July 17, 2000, and pleaded not guilty. [32] Marcello appeared cold and matter of fact in court as all five men were convicted. ?s former teacher and attorney Dan Cook summed it up best. Everyone. Sackman said. After that, Swango was gone.. In a sharply worded report, Meeks concludes the hospitals inquiry was far too superficial.. 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. How could this guy have passed background investigations and have a position to treat our nations heroes? The program also noted that he had actually been imprisoned for a time for poisoning his own co-workers on an ambulance crew. He was charged in absentia with poisonings. What motivated you to hurt and kill people?" Swango was an exemplary student and high school valedictorian. 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. Dont let the nickname Shorty fool you. ?s Ross Green sent Swango a letter asking him to re-consider; Swango did not reply. He soon confessed to the crimes, and would admit to one additional slaying. 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. Then he also had the chance to work alone, to draw that curtain around himself and the victim, Sackman said. He was only 17 years old then but was stilled charged as an adult considering the level of his crime. As part of that investigation, prosecutors exhumed the bodies of three patients and found poisonous chemicals in them. He worked as a counselor at the state career development center in Newport News, Virginia. Without them we would never have known about it. . [1], In the meantime, Swango had sensed that authorities were closing in on him. In October of that year, Swango was arrested by the Quincy Police Department after arsenic and other poisons were found in his possession. [9], Kinney's mother, Sharon Cooper, was horrified to find out that a person with Swango's history could be allowed to practice medicine. Unmisig said. 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. 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. He now spends 22 hours a day in his 80 ft cell. ADX Florence federal prison history. Born in Sinaloa, Mexico in 1957, Guzman started his journey into the drug world early by growing marijuana with his father. Guzman was ordered to pay $12.6 billion in forfeiture. Despite the fact that he was half-Irish, Marcello quickly rose through the ranks to run multiple racketeering schemes, loan-sharking operations, and eventually planned eighteen murders and committed fourteen. Investigators suspected theymaynothave beenhis only victims at the facility. 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. Below we countdown to Michael Swango . When Michael Swango was a student at the Southern Illinois . [1] He was valedictorian of his 1972 Quincy Catholic Boys High School class. Deep in the mountains of Colorado, Americas only supermax prison houses the nations most violent inmates. "I don't think there's any anger. By accounts he was considered a valued member of the medical staff, and if anything seemed out of the ordinary, nobody came forward to point it out. Download FREE with Kindle Unlimited. On Friday (April 28) the footballer's reps officially confirmed that Michael Strahan is not dead. If Michael Swango killed as many people as those who investigated him believe, he was astonishingly prolific. 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. Nobody is going to see it.. Before the long arm of the law could catch up to him, he flew to Africa, where his penchant for poisoning people and murder continued. 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. They also knew that they had a limited amount of time to amass that proof. I suppose I would ask why. The FBI believes he may be responsible for as many as 60 deaths, which would make him one of the most prolific serial killers in American history. It was a case that stunned many in both the healthcare profession and law enforcement. Swango rarely changed his murder methods. 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. KHQA? There were still many victims in Zimbabwe. He is assigned to a Veterans Administration hospital. His classmates found him strange and fiercely competitive, according to, Swango seemed to be obsessed with violence and kept scrapbooks of newspaper clippings of disasters, accidents, crime scenes and other incidents, according to, Despite almost getting thrown out of Southern Illinois University, Swango was accepted into an internship program at Ohio State University Medical Center in 1983 that put him on track to become a neurosurgeon. ?s mind is still a mystery. in Colorado for the death of four of his patients, though many suspect him of dozens more that have not been proven. Wed, November 19th 2014, 9:24 PM PST. The Swango case almost sounded too sensationalistic to be believed, Sackman said. Swango, born in the state of Washington and raised in Illinois, was considered a bright upcoming student before attending the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. 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. Swango admitted to McGee's poisoning whenhe pleaded guilty in the New York killings so . [9] From 1997-2003 he was the imam of the Finsbury Park Mosque in London and voiced his support for terrorism, including 9/11 attacks. He was also fascinated with Nazis and the Holocaust, according to The Washington Post. Can you imagine? Sackman said. Swanson went to rob a store and in the process, he had to kill the storekeepers. During his suspension, Swango hired lawyer David Coltart to enable him to return to clinical practice. Not for murder, there was no evidence of that, but for lying to the government. He forged a fact sheet from the Illinois Department of Corrections that falsified his criminal record, stating that he had been convicted of a misdemeanor for getting into a fistfight with a co-worker and received six months in prison,[7] rather than the five years for felony poisoning that he served. Lessons from the Worst-Case Scenario. Her death had interrupted yet another of Swango's attempts to complete his residency - training he needed in order to . [29] Despite having very little formal education, Guzmans Sinona cartel grew to control 40%-60% of the drug trade in Mexico. It takes the work of law enforcement officials acting on those suspicions. Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski sent sixteen hand-made bombs to figures he felt represented technology, killing three people, and injuring twenty-three. The second of three children, he grew up in Quincy, Illinois. Michael Swango was born in Tacoma, Washington and raised in Quincy, Illinois, the middle child of Muriel and John Virgil Swango. 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. He lied on his applications and he lied to me. March1984: Ohio State recommends Swango for medical licensure. After his release, Swango ended up in New York,where he killed at least three people at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He even faked a letter from the governor of Virginia that stated his right to vote and serve on a jury had been restored. [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. Since he the age of three, he had become fascinated with stories about violent deaths. We see that you have javascript disabled. Michael Swango, seen here preparing for his 1985 trial in Quincy, would end up in a place unlike any other. COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- A former doctor who prosecutors say enjoyed killing people pleaded guilty Wednesday to fatally poisoning a woman at Ohio State University's hospital in 1984 while she was under his care. 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. 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. One day, Swango brought a box of doughnuts to work. Is Dr. Michael Swango Still Alive? In August 1985, he was found guilty of aggravated battery and sentenced to five years in prison, reported. In 1984, he poisoned his co-workers there. Larry Getlen. 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. 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. [31] In 2007, Marcello was tried alongside four others: mobsters Joey the Clown Lombardo and Frank Calabrese Sr., jewel thief Paul Schiro, and former Chicago police officer Anthony Doyle. Again using forgeries, Swango is hired as a psychiatry resident at State University of New York at Stony Brook. 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. 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. After Stony Brook was tipped off to Swangos nefarious history, he was fired and effectively blacklisted from the medical industry in the U.S., reportedThe Washington Post.
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