He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. What's life like in Supermax prison? | CNN 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 . If you feel you have received this message in error, please contact the customer support team at 1-833-248-7801. March1984: Ohio State recommends Swango for medical licensure. In 2000, Swango was sentenced to life in prison at USP Florence ADMAX in Florence, Colorado. The End: Michael Swango meets his fate | KHQA His co-workers found him unusually grim. 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. His coworkers and other acquaintances also became violently ill after eating food that Swango had access to or had prepared. 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. "I don't think there's ill will. Only he knows how many people he killed, and only he knows why. Again using forgeries, Swango is hired as a psychiatry resident at State University of New York at Stony Brook. Swango served in the Marine Corps, graduating from recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego. In a phone call, she implored him to look closer into Swango, whom she suspected of killing patients at her facility. 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. Michael Strahan dead 2023 : Footballer killed by celebrity - Mediamass [1] Following his graduation, Swango went to medical school at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine (SIU). He called Richard Thomesen, who was stationed in the DEA's Manhattan field office to discuss the case. [15] A week before the indictment was handed up, FBI agents interviewed Swango in prison. Thats where we arrested him.. When Swango, who was still in Africa, tried to . Michael Swango pleaded guilty to five counts of a nine-count . is alive and well, currently serving a 42 . [1], In the meantime, Swango had sensed that authorities were closing in on him. [9], Kinney's mother, Sharon Cooper, was horrified to find out that a person with Swango's history could be allowed to practice medicine. In 2006, Bingham and several others were convicted of murder and racketeering, but federal prosecutors failed in securing the death penalty. 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. Their answers reflect what many still wonder. He eventually resurfaced again at Northport, where he came to the attention of Sackman before bolting to places unknown. Killers part of OSU's past - The Lantern But the public needs to know these (killers) are the remote outliers. In the 1980s, he began to take a deeper interest in his religion and became inspired by the Iranian revolution. 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. Dr. Death Part 1: A License to Kill: Directed by Brett Kelly. Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. While Dr. Michael Joseph Swango eventually pleaded guilty to four murders, his victim count may be as high as 60. Because there has to be a reason to do things like this," he said. They met at the police headquarters, and Swango looked . To the outside observer, this would seem like the likely end to his medical career in any shape or form. This story is from the April 2022 issue ofColumbus Monthly. 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. It looked like he had just come in from the golf course, Sackman recalled. He was only 17 years old then but was stilled charged as an adult considering the level of his crime. history. ", 'Dateline' investigates case of Sarah Jean Hartsfield, former Minnesotan accused of killing husband, Karla Jo Nieland was murdered at a 1981 Minnesota farm party. Photos: The Infamous Dr. Michael Swango - The Columbus Dispatch 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. Michael Swango aka David J. Adams, Michael Kirk, Jack Kirk, Michael Swan, Dr. Death is believed to have committed as many as 60 murders including his patients and colleagues. He doesnt beat people up or get into shootouts. This included the date for a drop of classified material in a nearby park, where he was apprehended. "Behind the Murder Curtain: Special Agent Bruce Sackman Hunts Doctors and Nurses Who Kill Our Veterans.". 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. It was a case that stunned many in both the healthcare profession and law enforcement. But it happened, and thats what got me involved in that case, and it changed the course of my career., Sackman outlines his investigation of the Swango case, and the cases of other medical serial killers who also preyed hospitalized veterans, in his book 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. He has consulted with foreign police on cases, as well. Sources: Media reports; Meeks report; Blind Eye, by James B. Stewart. Unmisig and John Landis were struck by his charisma. 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. I pressed harder and thats when his friendly nature changed and he asked us to leave, Sackman said. Prosecutors read lurid passages from Swango's notebook, describing the joy he felt during his crimes. In addition to writing his book, Sackman has become an in-demand speaker due to his work in the field of medical killers. Police search his house and find a mini-laboratory of poisons, including handwritten recipes for ricin, botulism and supersaturated cyanide. 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. Sackman asked him about the television piece broadcast earlier, and about the alleged poisoning that had taken place, among other specifics. Vicky Bowman-Hall and Sheila Meyers Murders: Where is Michael Swanson Born in Sinaloa, Mexico in 1957, Guzman started his journey into the drug world early by growing marijuana with his father. In 1985, it's where a judge sentenced him to five years in prison. Sackman said many people are stunned by how easy it appeared for Swango to continue his killing despite suspicions. 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. 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. He grew up in Freeman, S.D., graduating from Freeman High School. "He violated not only the trust of his patients, but the trust of his co-workers, certainly," another former co-worker, John Landis, added. We had quite a team of people working on this thing, because thats what it takes, Sackman said. Michael Swango, former physician who authorities say poisoned patients from Ohio to Zimbabwe but continued to find medical jobs, will plead guilty in federal court to charges that he killed three . 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. 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. Guzman was ordered to pay $12.6 billion in forfeiture. ?s former teacher and attorney Dan Cook summed it up best. Sackman spent 32 years working for the federal government, including 25 with the Veterans Administration, investigating crime within the department. [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. [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. Five of his co-workers became violently ill, according to The New York Times. In 1989, Swango was released from prison. 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. [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]. A Psychoanalytical study on Michael Swango`s psychopath in James Not all of Swangos poisonings ended in death. [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. Dr. Death - The New York Times His classmates found him strange and fiercely competitive, according toThe Washington Post. Swango has been estimated to have been involved in as many as sixty fatal poisonings of patients and . 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. Don't let the nickname "Shorty" fool you. 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. He can be reached at ekaufman@mitchellrepublic.com. [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. Michael Swango Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth, Family Some have even formed unlikely friendships. 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. His first rotation was in the internal medicine department at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Northport, New York. 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.". 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. 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 . Serial Killer Michael Swango's Timeline of Crimes - Columbus Monthly [1] Nonetheless, it was another decade before OSU formally conceded it should have called in outside investigators. During his time there, several employees sought medical attention with complaints of persistent and increasing stomach pains. 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. The television special she had seen outlined the unusual behavior of Swango, including the fact that death appeared to follow him almost everywhere he worked. 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. It takes medical examiners to help prove the causes of deaths that at first blush may seem unremarkable. 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. He was immediately fired. 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.. 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. [6] In both cases, Swango forged several legal documents that he used to reestablish himself as a physician and respected member of society. He used a local storage facility to hide his stolen goods, but the manager contacted the police after noticing that the contents looked suspicious. 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 theOffice of Inspector General. 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. 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. Abu Hamza al-Masri, aka the Hook Hand, is an Egyptian national who was a former club bouncer and civil engineer before becoming an Islamic extremist and terrorist leader. At various stops during his career, some colleagues had reported seeing Swango inject patients with an unknown substance shortly before they died. He was profiled on ABCs 20/20, vehemently denying the charges against him and any connection to the deaths in Ohio. On July 11, 2000, less than a week before he was due to be released from prison on the fraud charge, federal prosecutors on Long Island, New York, filed a criminal complaint charging Swango with three counts of murder, one count of assault and one count each of false statements, mail fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Swango proved to be a very smooth interview, deftly deflecting questions. [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. 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. Why would you do this? 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. 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. 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. Mr. Brown, on the steps of United . No doubt Swango wanted these pictures for his scrapbook of death. What motivated you to hurt and kill people?" 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. 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. While in school, Swango worked part-time as a paramedic and would never miss a shift, reported theChicago Tribune. Michael Swanson was a teenager who killed two convenience storekeepers in the year 2010. "Why? The infamous ADX Florence has earned the nickname The Alcatraz of the Rockies because of its extreme security. Lessons from the Worst-Case Scenario. Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. The Swango case almost sounded too sensationalistic to be believed, Sackman said. Under the appearance of a caring doctor, Michael Swango planned and killed. The second of three children, he grew up in Quincy, Illinois. July1984: Finds work as a paramedic in Quincy. In July 2000, Swango was charged with the murders of three New York state patients. [1] Kinney went back to Virginia soon afterward after suffering from violent migraines. Swanson went to rob a store and in the process, he had to kill the storekeepers. While he was training at one hospital, he even gained the nickname Double-O Swango, referencing James Bonds license to kill. 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. Prosecutors said Michael Swango killed for pleasure, and they read entries from a handwritten journal in which he mused about "the sweet, husky, close smell of indoor homicide." Another entry suggested that murder was "the only way I have of reminding myself that I'm still alive." Swango, 45, pleaded guilty to three counts of murder in a plea . " He joins the long list of celebrities who have been victimized by this hoax. Knowing that he would likely face the death penalty for his crimes in Zimbabwe, Swango began talks for a plea agreement. 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. 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. Judge Mishler sentenced Swango to three consecutive terms of life without parole. 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. 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. [5] Hanssen pled guilty to escape the death penalty and was convicted of fourteen counts of espionage and one count of attempted espionage. After that, Swango was gone.. No one has ever escaped from ADX Florence, where he is now serving two life sentences. Swango admitted to McGee's poisoning whenhe pleaded guilty in the New York killings so . Thats true the world over, Sackman said. Upload . He crossed the border to Zambia and subsequently to Namibia, where he found temporary medical work. 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]. Patients there soon began dying under odd circumstances. [24], Tyler Bingham is a former leader of the violent white supremacist prison gang the Aryan Brotherhood that began among California inmates in 1964. Terrorists, spies, serial killers, and cult leaders live side by side. September 8, 2018 10:43am. 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. Although everyone there has a horrific record, these are ten of the worst of the worst. The public outcry resulted in Cohen and Miller being forced to resign before the end of the year. 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. Again, patients die mysteriously. His patients, many of whom were considered stable, began to mysteriously die without explanation. 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. Below we countdown to Michael Swango . 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. "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. . 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. . He was later accused of falsifying patient reports and threatened with expulsion, but he ultimately graduated, reported theLos Angeles Times. He graduated from the University of South Dakota in 1999 with a major in English and a minor in computer science. Jack Smith. Like Father, Like Son. Wed, November 19th 2014, 9:24 PM PST. On Friday (April 28) the footballer's reps officially confirmed that Michael Strahan is not dead. Could be. Eventually, prosecutors agreed to not pursue the death penalty or extradition in return for Swango accepting a sentence of life in prison without parole. [12] Because of the failure to perform adequate autopsies, no firm conclusions could be drawn. I suppose I would ask why. He showed a fascination with dying patients, and preferred working as an ambulance attendant instead of studying. He saw no action overseas during his service, but his training in the Marines left him with a commitment to physical exercise. He moved on to Ohio State University Medical Center, where more serious concerns were raised by staff. Thu, 20 Nov 2014 05:24:34 GMT Note: this is the conclusion to a three-part KHQA special report. 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. As part of that investigation, prosecutors exhumed the bodies of three patients and found poisonous chemicals in them. Michael Swango, seen here preparing for his 1985 trial in Quincy, would end up in a place unlike any other. 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. In 2004, he was extradited to the United States on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering. When he was re-captured, he was sentenced to two life sentences at the North Dakota State Penitentiary. Joseph Michael Swango was born in Tacoma, Washington, in 1954. That gave us a window to start the investigation and make a determination on whether he had killed anyone, Sackman said. New York Post. He was also a mass serial killer and a talented con artist. 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. Serial killer nicknamed "Dr. Death," serving three consecutive life terms. Soon after his arrival, however, staff were alarmed by an unusual number of patient deaths or illnesses, according to theLos Angeles Times. The AMA review spotted his conviction for poisoning, and once again Swango was on the run. After she left Swango, the headaches stopped. [19] He was a mathematics prodigy and began studying at Harvard at age 16. Man to Admit To Murdering 3 L.I. Patients - The New York Times 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. Guzman has claimed to have indirectly killed 2,000-3,000 people. I said to myself, Bruce, you dont have any proof and we cant even search his room, Sackman said. The second of three children, he grew up in Quincy, Illinois. But later that same year, he would reach out to the Soviet Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) and become a double agent. After that he was gone and went to Zimbabwe, and when he was there he killed men and women and children. Without them we would never have known about it. When they came back, the tea was sweet, and it later tested positive for arsenic, according to the Los Angeles Times. Michael Swango will celebrate 69rd birthday on a Saturday 21st of October 2023. Michael Strahan Death Hoax Dismissed Since Footballer Is 'Alive And Well'. Instead, 30 years later, what happens in Michael Swango? Regardless of the allegations against Swango, several OSU doctors wrote him letters of recommendation for his application for a medical license. Four months later, Kinney died by suicide, and arsenic was found in her body at the time of her death. Was he a good boy during that time? [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. 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 was nearly expelled, but was allowed to remain when one member of the committee voted to give him a second chance. He falsified his criminal record, changing his aggravated battery conviction and prison sentence into a misdemeanor for getting into a fight with coworkers, resulting in six months in prison as opposed to the five years he actually received for felony poisoning. 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.
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