Was he a good boy during that time? Sackman asked him about the television piece broadcast earlier, and about the alleged poisoning that had taken place, among other specifics. Because there has to be a reason to do things like this," he said. The lab reports were passed on by the Zimbabwe Republic Police Criminal Investigation Department (CID) through Interpol to the FBI, who subsequently visited Zimbabwe to interview Cotton and the pathologist in Bulawayo, Stanford Mathe. 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 1987, he moved to Afghanistan to join the fight against Soviet occupying forces and lost both hands and one eye during a military operation. His first rotation was in the internal medicine department at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Northport, New York. Like Father, Like Son. 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. The victims many times are very ill, and many times they could have expired from the natural disease process.. 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. 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. Sept.2000: Swango pleads guilty to the three New York slayings and is sentenced to three life sentences without parole. Born in Sinaloa, Mexico in 1957, Guzman started his journey into the drug world early by growing marijuana with his father. Since he the age of three, he had become fascinated with stories about violent deaths. Patients there soon began dying under odd circumstances. 2023 www.columbusmonthly.com. I could never do any of the things that have been alleged Ive done, he said. Doctors, toxicologists, forensic nurses. At its heart, its a terrifyingly sad story, Sackman said, but the conviction remains a beacon of sorts to investigators trying to root out killers hiding amongst the excellent doctors and nurses who are doing everything that they can to help their patients, not harm them. 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. It was a case that stunned many in both the healthcare profession and law enforcement. He is serving fifteen consecutive life sentences.[6]. Michael Swango was sentenced to three life terms for his heinous crimes. 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. Eventually, prosecutors agreed to not pursue the death penalty or extradition in return for Swango accepting a sentence of life in prison without parole. 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. 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. Michael Swanson was a teenager who killed two convenience storekeepers in the year 2010. 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. 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. He was a gifted medical student and doctor and a former Marine. Swango has been estimated to have been involved in as many as sixty fatal poisonings of patients and . As part of his residency, Swango began seeing patients at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Northport, New York. 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. Swango served in the Marine Corps, graduating from recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego. 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. Over 300 of the most vicious criminals in the United States spend 23 hours a day locked in their cells here. 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 . Some of his fellow students had suspected he had been faking checkups as early as his second year, but this was the first time he had been caught red-handed. Could be. Amid the AMA report and calls from frightened colleagues, Sanford fired Swango. He showed a fascination with dying patients, and preferred working as an ambulance attendant instead of studying. Investigators suspected theymaynothave beenhis only victims at the facility. Patients there soon began dying under odd circumstances. 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 the, He then enrolled in Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, where his troubles began. March1984: Ohio State recommends Swango for medical licensure. Still, when the course was over and the hospital asked participants to write down what they enjoyed most about the class, Swango wrote, "Kristin Kinney." Swango attached himself to Kristin. 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. Sweet, husky, close smell of an indoor homicide.''. In 2006, Bingham and several others were convicted of murder and racketeering, but federal prosecutors failed in securing the death penalty. February1985: Ohio State law school dean James Meeks investigates the universitys handling of Swango during his internship. ?s Ross Green sent Swango a letter asking him to re-consider; Swango did not reply. He has consulted with foreign police on cases, as well. Sackman said many people are stunned by how easy it appeared for Swango to continue his killing despite suspicions. 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. As per our current Database, Michael Swango is still alive (as per Wikipedia, Last update: May 10, 2020). They became ill, and some vomited so hard that blood vessels in their eyes broke, reported the Los Angeles Times. Valery was called by the FBI to discuss holding Swango. During his suspension, Swango hired lawyer David Coltart to enable him to return to clinical practice. 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 . 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. While he was training at one hospital, he even gained the nickname Double-O Swango, referencing James Bonds license to kill. It was originally nicknamed the Diamond Tooth Gang because of the glass shards that some members put in their teeth. In 1987, he stole 30 million pesos from a bank that he was working at, as well as records he would later use to extort and kidnap landowners, and he escaped into the wilderness to join FARC. Sat, 29 Apr 2023 03:46:54 GMT (1682740014467), Michael Swango, seen here preparing for his 1985 trial in Quincy, would end up in a place unlike any other. Most of those cases were what he considered standard fair for his office fraud, prescription drug theft and other graft. Now, new documents reveal complexities in case, How to listen to Dakota Spotlight: 'Binge' the complete Season 8 now, State grant has Woonsocket eyeing $225K expansion for CTE programs, 'Most humbling moment in my career,' says Mitchell chiropractor on Rising Star award, T. Denny Sanford child pornography investigation triggered by tip about 36 photos, Soulek, Mandel brothers embracing opportunities to share diamond. [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. 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. You can find parts one and two by clicking the links below this article. is alive and well, currently serving a 42 . 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. He planted several false clues in the bombs to mislead authorities, however, his own work would lead to his downfall. McNairs final and most notorious escape was in 2006 when he packed himself into a shipment of mail leaving the prison. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! There was enough evidence for Immigration and Naturalization Service agents to arrest Swango in June 1997, on a layover at Chicago O'Hare International Airport on his way to Saudi Arabia. He served in the military and was based in Vietnam. Even earlier, several students and faculty members had raised concerns about Swango's competence to practice medicine. But as the pressure increased from Sackman, cracks began showing in Swangos facade. Many who knew him say the same thing:. But doctors are revered in American culture, and deaths are a common occurrence at hospitals. ?60 Minutes?? Joseph Michael Swango was born in Tacoma, Washington, in 1954. Michael Swango will celebrate 69rd birthday on a Saturday 21st of October 2023. When he was re-captured, he was sentenced to two life sentences at the North Dakota State Penitentiary. He has a hard time fully believing that Swango had reformed himself in South Dakota. [12] When placed in the Supermax prison, his hook hand prosthetic was replaced with a plastic spork. Lessons from the Worst-Case Scenario. 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. 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. August1985: Convicted in the nonfatal Illinois poisonings. He was sentenced to two life sentences for one of the abortion clinic bombings that had killed a police officer, and later two more life sentences for the Atlanta bombing. Not for murder, there was no evidence of that, but for lying to the government. This included the date for a drop of classified material in a nearby park, where he was apprehended. 1954. In the beginning, he shot Vicky Bowman-Hall at a convenience store in Algona. It looked like he had just come in from the golf course, Sackman recalled. [7] Authorities arrested McNair, but he slipped out of his handcuffs by greasing them with lip balm. He was charged in absentia with poisonings. [5] In July 1992, he began working at Sanford USD Medical Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Not all of Swangos poisonings ended in death. After she left Swango, the headaches stopped. Terrorists, spies, serial killers, and cult leaders live side by side. Michael Swango pursued the world of medicine for fifteen years, and Michael Swango had the strong ambition with the . KHQA asked Unmisig and Landis if they harbored any anger toward Swango today. No one has ever escaped from ADX Florence, where he is now serving two life sentences. Background screenings for hiring have improved greatly in the time since Swango stalked hospital hallways, Sackman said. Police Officer's Daughter Writes to Serial Killer, Hoping for Answers, Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. On August 16, HLN (CNN Headline News) aired the show Very Scary People - Dr Death, detailing the investigation and conviction of this doctor based largely upon my book Behind The Murder . 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. [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. When Michael Swango was a student at the Southern Illinois . "Why? [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. [23] Kaczynski is serving eight life sentences at ADX Florence, where he befriended fellow terrorists Timothy McVeigh and Ramzi Yousef. 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. 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. He entered the hard drug trade under known king-pins Hector Salazar and later Miguel Gallardo until Gallardo was arrested in 1988. But what seemed like a bright opportunity would turn into a deeply scarring college experience. 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. 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. 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. 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. ", 'Dateline' investigates case of Sarah Jean Hartsfield, former Minnesotan accused of killing husband, Karla Jo Nieland was murdered at a 1981 Minnesota farm party. 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. [13], Swango was formally indicted on July 17, 2000, and pleaded not guilty. Michael Swango - Age, Bio, Faces and Birthday. 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. 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. It takes observant, brave professionals calling out what they see as suspicious activity when they see it. [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. Accepted into the neurosurgery program at Ohio State University Medical Center. 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. He then enrolled in Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, where his troubles began. These cases are extraordinarily hard to prove. He saw no action overseas during his service, but his training in the Marines left him with a commitment to physical exercise. He was also fascinated with Nazis and the Holocaust, according to The Washington Post. 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. Standard procedures for checking applicants were not followed, former school dean Dr. Jordan Cohen toldPeoplemagazine. It takes medical examiners to help prove the causes of deaths that at first blush may seem unremarkable. "I don't think there's ill will. 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. He graduated from the University of South Dakota in 1999 with a major in English and a minor in computer science. Now 68, Swango is incarcerated atUSP Florence ADMAX, a maximum-security federal penitentiary in Colorado known as The Alcatraz of the Rockies., To learn more about Dr. Swango, watch Oxygen's series "License to Kill.". Five of his co-workers became violently ill, according to The New York Times. It was those who came forward and told us about it. 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. Regardless of the allegations against Swango, several OSU doctors wrote him letters of recommendation for his application for a medical license. Unmisig said. 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. Rudolph grew up in Florida and North Carolina before moving with his mother to a Missouri compound run by the Christian Identity movement,[14] a racial interpretation of Christianity that believes Europeans are the chosen descendants of the Israelites and Jews are the cursed descendants of Cain. Sackman spent 32 years working for the federal government, including 25 with the Veterans Administration, investigating crime within the department. [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. [1], In the meantime, Swango had sensed that authorities were closing in on him. 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. 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. 1979: Graduates summa cum laude from Quincy College. He crossed the border to Zambia and subsequently to Namibia, where he found temporary medical work. He was once a sergeant at an Air Force base in Minot, North Dakota, but while he was stationed there, he began a string of burglaries. Most states will not grant a medical license to a violent felon, considering such a conviction to be evidence of unprofessional conduct. Link your TV provider to stream full episodes and live TV. Michael Swango was a physiciananda serial killer. Mr. Brown, on the steps of United . 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. Many investigators worked on the case, including Bruce Sackman. [4] Attempts to track down the leaks that Hanssen was responsible for were complicated by the fact that there was a second mole, Aldrich Ames, working within the FBI at the same time. 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. After his release, Swango ended up in New York, where he killed at least three people at the, 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. A nurse would later tell police she saw Swango injecting an unknown substance into a patients IV right before they stopped breathing, according to theLos Angeles Times. 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. "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. 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 . Don't let the nickname "Shorty" fool you. Police search his house and find a mini-laboratory of poisons, including handwritten recipes for ricin, botulism and supersaturated cyanide. Their answers reflect what many still wonder. I think things were going well for him, but I dont see how he could resist the temptation of taking someone out. Swanson went to rob a store and in the process, he had to kill the storekeepers. When they came back, the tea was sweet, and it later tested positive for arsenic, according to the Los Angeles Times. [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. Michael Swango. The patient survives, but nurses suspect Swango in five deaths on the ward. His coworkers and other acquaintances also became violently ill after eating food that Swango had access to or had prepared. Michael Swango was born at Fort Lewis, Washington, in 1954. He's still alive and well, stop believing what you see on the Internet, " they said. With nothing immediate to move on, Sackman left. 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. While he worked in Rhodes Hall at OSU, nurses noticed that apparently healthy patients began dying mysteriously with alarming frequency. Her death had interrupted yet another of Swango's attempts to complete his residency - training he needed in order to . His past, again, comes out, and Swango is fired. [15] A week before the indictment was handed up, FBI agents interviewed Swango in prison. [24], Tyler Bingham is a former leader of the violent white supremacist prison gang the Aryan Brotherhood that began among California inmates in 1964. His death would be ruled a homicide, and his family sued Swango in 1986, believing him to be the murderer, according toUPI. 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. Michael Swango's story began right here in the Tri-States, but few could have ever guessed where it would end.