While Dr. Michael Joseph Swango eventually pleaded guilty to four murders, his victim count may be as high as 60. Upload . 1954. Michael Swango always seemed to make a good first impression. 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. By making a deal with prosecutors, he was spared the death penalty, and the government of Zimbabwe agreed not to . "Behind the Murder Curtain: Special Agent Bruce Sackman Hunts Doctors and Nurses Who Kill Our Veterans.". Michael Swango, seen here preparing for his 1985 trial in Quincy, would end up in a place unlike any other. WhenDr.Michael Joseph Swangowasasked to leave his medical internship in Ohio after several suspicious patient deaths, he packed up his things and moved to Illinois, where he would be sent to prison for poisoning his co-workers. Sackman said many people are stunned by how easy it appeared for Swango to continue his killing despite suspicions. Born in Sinaloa, Mexico in 1957, Guzman started his journey into the drug world early by growing marijuana with his father. 2023 www.columbusmonthly.com. He was immediately fired. He was sentenced in 2000 to three consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole, and is serving his sentence at ADX Florence at his own request. 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. Colleagues fall ill and suspect Swango of poisoning them. [1]:28, Swango displayed troubling behavior during his time at SIU. [22] He developed a deep resentment for what he called industrial-technological society. 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. [7] Authorities arrested McNair, but he slipped out of his handcuffs by greasing them with lip balm. 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. Swango was arrested in October 1984 for poisoning his co-workers, and during a search of his apartment, police found Tero ant poison, books on Satanism, guns, survival knives and recipe cards for pesticides, botulism and cyanide mixtures, according to the Los Angeles Times. So Sackman and his partner headed up to Northport to see what was going on. In 1984, he poisoned his co-workers there. Knowing that he would likely face the death penalty for his crimes in Zimbabwe, Swango began talks for a plea agreement. Dr. Death Part 1: A License to Kill: Directed by Brett Kelly. In the 1980s, he began to take a deeper interest in his religion and became inspired by the Iranian revolution. The medical staff in Zimbabwe were competent, and they started to realize that something was going on, and they tried to charge him, but he beat the charges and had returned to the United States to renew his passport. Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! 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, reportedThe New York Times. Link your TV provider to stream full episodes and live TV. 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. These cases are extraordinarily hard to prove. Many investigators worked on the case, including Bruce Sackman. 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. While he was training at one hospital, he even gained the nickname Double-O Swango, referencing James Bonds license to kill. 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. [5] In July 1992, he began working at Sanford USD Medical Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Swango could very well have remained in Sioux Falls for some time, but he committed a critical blunder. 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. His past, again, comes out, and Swango is fired. 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. 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. 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. [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. He doesnt beat people up or get into shootouts. 1993: Several healthy patients die. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! The gang started as a white counterpart to African-American prison gangs when prisons began to desegregate, but has since grown to 20,000 members[25] They operate on a blood in, blood out motto which implies that members must kill or assault another prisoner or correctional officer to join, and the only way to leave the gang is death. 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. These clippings confirmed toxic levels of arsenic in the hair. He and his brother Michael Mickey Marcello were convicted of murdering two other mafia brothers Michael and Anthony Tony The Ant Spilotro and dumping Anthonys body in a cornfield. Instead, 30 years later, what happens in Michael Swango? [20] He became a mathematics professor, but was an awkward and uncomfortable teacher, and resigned suddenly in 1969. He was profiled on ABCs 20/20, vehemently denying the charges against him and any connection to the deaths in Ohio. 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. 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. Eventually, prosecutors agreed to not pursue the death penalty or extradition in return for Swango accepting a sentence of life in prison without parole. Because there has to be a reason to do things like this," he said. Again using forgeries, Swango is hired as a psychiatry resident at State University of New York at Stony Brook. Michael Swango was sentenced to three life terms for his heinous crimes. "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. 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. [12] Because of the failure to perform adequate autopsies, no firm conclusions could be drawn. Everyone. Sackman said. Talley telephoned Jordan Cohen, the dean at Stony Brook. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. 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. His mother, Muriel, was a housewife, and his father, John, was a military officer. Swango? McNairs final and most notorious escape was in 2006 when he packed himself into a shipment of mail leaving the prison. 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. 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. And he was not what Sackman was expecting. Updated. 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. 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. 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. "I don't think there's ill will. [17] He was sent to ADX at his own request; he had been stabbed by another inmate while serving time for lying to the VA, and feared he would be attacked again if he were placed in general population. Like Father, Like Son. 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. Michael Swango pursued the world of medicine for fifteen years, and Michael Swango had the strong ambition with the . In March 1997, he applied for a job at the Royal Hospital in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, using a false rsum. No one has ever escaped from ADX Florence, where he is now serving two life sentences. 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. [18], According to Theodore Ted Kaczynskis parents, he started life as a normal baby, but as a young child he was forced to spend a long period of time in isolation in the hospital and he emerged a different kid, one who showed little emotion. Amid the reports and a sub-par performance record, administrators canceled the residency it had offered him, and he returned to his home town of Quincy, Illinois, to work as an emergency medical technician on an ambulance crew.

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