The Serial Killer Compendium

Thankfully, there are only a handful of doctors who have been inclined to murder their patients, and they do not represent the millions of doctors who genuinely care and uphold their oaths.

Nevertheless, it’s not only doctors who have killed in healthcare; there have been several nurses convicted for serial killing as well. Nurse Donald Harvey, for example, killed eight-seven patients and claimed that he started killing to “ease the pain” of patients, but eventually found it to be a sadistic pleasure. His methods included cyanide, arsenic, massive amounts of morphine, turning off ventilators, overdosing on insulin, adding tainted fluid to IVs gathered from patients with Hepatitis B or HIV, inserting a coat hanger into a catheter to cause kidney failure, and suffocation. Harvey is currently serving three life sentences.

Dr. Joseph Michael Swango

Born: October 21, 1954

Place: Tacoma, Washington

Killing Span: 1981 – 1997

Number of Killings: 60

Captured: June, 1997

Background

Michael Swango is a former licensed physician and an American serial killer. He was also known as Doctor of Death. While he was in medical school, Swango's classmates gave him the nickname 'Double-O-Swango' in reference to James Bond's 007 as any patient he met would apparently die soon thereafter.

Born in Washington but raised in Quincy, Illinois, he was the middle child of Muriel and John Swango. Michael’s father was a United States Army Officer who served in the Vietnam War, and who later fell into alcoholism. Michael grew close to his mother as his father was away to war. Upon his return from Vietnam, John Swango became depressed and soon after his wife divorced him.

Michael Swango was an intelligent student in grade school. He spoke as class valedictorian in his senior year, played the clarinet, and was a member of the Quincy Notre Dame band. Post high school, he joined the U.S. Marine Corp but never saw any action, and was honorably discharged in 1976. While in the Marines, he took a great interest in physical fitness. After being discharged, he was often seen in the gym or jogging.

Medical Career, Murders

Swango enrolled at Quincy College, graduating summa cum laude. He was awarded the American Chemical Society Award and moved on to medical school at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. It was during his time at the university that he exhibited disconcerting behavior. Although he was a bright student, he was also known to be sluggish, preferring to work as an ambulance attendant rather than focus on his medical studies. It was also noted at this time that he had an attraction to dying patients. No one thought much of it at the time, but many patients to which Swango was assigned for routine checkups ended up 'coding,' and suffering life frightening emergencies; five of them passed away. Swango's halfhearted approach to his studies caught up with him only a month before he was due to graduate. It was exposed that he had forged patient checkups during his OB/GYN rotation. He was almost disqualified, but was allowed to remain when one member of the committee voted to give him a second chance. At the time, a unanimous vote was mandatory for a student to be dismissed.

However, even before that happened, several students and faculty members had raised alarm about Swango’s capability to practice medicine. In the end, the school permitted him to graduate a year after his class with the stipulation that he repeat the OB/GYN rotation and complete several assignments in other specialties.

Although his dean gave him a very poor assessment, Swango still managed to get a surgical internship at Ohio State University Medical Center in 1983, and soon rose to a placement in neurosurgery. While he worked at the Rhodes Hall wing, nurses began observing that genuinely healthy patients began dying inexplicably with alarming regularity each time Dr. Swango was the intern on the floor. One nurse caught him injecting medicine (or not medicine) into a patient who later became peculiarly sick. The nurses reported their unease to administrators, but were accused of being paranoid. Swango was cleared by a quick investigation in 1984.

While at Ohio State University Medical Center, part of Swango’s residency included a one-month rotation at Columbus Children's Hospital. There were sufficient suspicions at this point that he was required to have someone else with him at all times while at the Children's Hospital. Nurses were instructed not to call him even if he was listed as the doctor on call, and he was not appointed to a position as physician once his internship ended in June of 1984.

In July of 1984, Swango went back to Quincy College and started working as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) with the Adams County Ambulance Corps even though he had been dismissed from another ambulance service for making a heart patient drive himself to the hospital. It did not take long for other paramedics on staff to begin noticing that every time Swango made the coffee or brought food, several of them would become brutally ill for no apparent reason. Just three months later, Swango was arrested by the Quincy Police Department and arsenic and other poisons were discovered in his custody. He was convicted on August 23, 1985, of aggravated battery for poisoning co-workers, and subsequently sentenced to five years in prison. Franklin County, Ohio prosecutors also considered charges of murder and attempted murder against Swango, but decided against it for lack of physical evidence.

In 1989, Swango was released from prison. He found work as a counselor at the Ohio State Career Development Center in Newport News, Virginia. He was forced out, however, after being caught working on a scrapbook of disasters on work time. He then landed a job as a laboratory technician for ATI Coal in Newport News, Virginia, now Vanguard Energy, a division of CITA Logistics. During his time there, several employees required medical attention, complaining of unrelenting and increasing stomach pains.

About the same time, the good doctor (or not) met Kristin Kinney, a nurse at Riverside Hospital. Swango and Kinney fell in love, and planned to marry and settle down. Swango was employed as a lab technician until 1991, when he quit his position to look for a new position as a doctor. After he quit his job, the FBI commenced an investigation, questioning employees on several occasions, though Swango wasn’t aware of it at the time.

In the same year, Swango legally changed his name to Daniel J. Adams, and applied for a residency program at Ohio Valley Medical Center in Wheeling, West Virginia. He wasn’t successful; however, in July of 1992 he began working at Sanford USD Medical Center in Sioux Falls. In both applications, he forged several legal documents, including an actuality sheet from the Illinois Department of Corrections that falsified his criminal record. The sheet he submitted declared that he had been convicted of a misdemeanor after he’d gotten into a struggle with a co- worker, receiving six months in prison rather five years for the felony charge of poisoning that he served.

This was a very significant omission on his part, knowing very well that most states won’t award a medical license to a convicted felon as they consider a felony conviction to be confirmation of unprofessional behavior. He