He decided to attend Millikin University, a small, private liberal arts school in Decatur, Illinois, about a three-hour drive from Quincy, where he received a full-tuition scholarship in music. He was a gifted medical student and doctor and a former Marine. 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. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we dont use a simple average. And SIU would have been especially interested in someone like Swango, who was from Quincy, part of the area the medical school was meant to serve.Yet his classmates speculated that Swango had been admitted from the waiting list, because he moved into the dorms late, along with students who, like Rosenthal, had been admitted at the last minute. And he showed an intense interest in photos in the local paper of car crashes, which his classmates found peculiar. But minimal college counseling was available in Quincy, his parents were relatively unsophisticated about higher education outside the military, and almost all his classmates stayed close to home; consequently, Swango's horizons seem to have been limited. Close this window, and upload the photo(s) again. He was employed until 1991, when he resigned his position to seek out a new position as a doctor. [17] On September 6, he pleaded guilty to the three murder counts, as well as counts of wire fraud and mail fraud, before Judge Jacob Mishler. He was eventually allowed to graduate the following year after completing several assignments on different specialties. TCU students, alumni, and faculty served in Vietnam. In March 1997, he applied for a job at the Royal Hospital in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, using a false rsum. John Swango was born circa 1841, at birth place, Kentucky, to Washington Swango and Lucinda Swango. Stewart has produced an extraordinary book. The city is attractive to SIU because its two hospitals, St. John's and Memorial, are much larger than any in Carbondale, and it is there that SIU medical students gain their first clinical experience. Historical Person Search Search Search Results Results John Harvey Swango (1881 - 1962) Try FREE for 14 days Try FREE for 14 days. In both cases, Swango forged several legal documents that he used to reestablish himself as a physician and respected member of society. This is a carousel with slides. He ranked in the ninety-seventh percentile on his college aptitude tests. Jerome E. Groopman The Wall Street Journal Stewart tells a riveting tale of terror, a true page-turner. But naturally, Swango's eagerness made a favorable impression on Wacaser, who found him remarkably pleasant and industrious. [6] In July 1992, he began working at Sanford USD Medical Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He was also a mass serial killer and a talented con artist. Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app. In other words, Stewart does the work that hospital administrators and supervising physicians in Ohio, South Dakota, and New York should have done. : You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition. I gave it to my sister as a Christmas gift so I don't really know how the book is but judging by the cover, it was HE A V Y Y BOI. Dr. Robert B. Daroff The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) Swango's odyssey is so compelling that I became riveted. On an October evening in South Pasadena, a horrifying wave of flame swept through a large home improvement center, snuffing out the lives of four innocent people, including a two-year-old boy. Steve Weinberg Chicago Tribune The facts gathered by Stewart are compelling. During his time there, several employees sought medical attention with complaints of persistent and increasing stomach pains. [18] 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. He put a chest X ray on a screen and pointed to a shadowy area in the middle of the image. 19th Century, infamous, healthcare, poison. Steve Twedt Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Stewart has produced an extraordinary book. Because of her considerable clinical expertise, Thomesen was able to review documents and evidence and give a criminal profile of Swango, along with her assessment of why he had committed such crimes. "That's just what happens. They surmised that Michael hadn't performed well in the admissions interview and wondered what he had answered when asked why had wanted to become a doctor. Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt. He is a regular contributor to SmartMoney and The New Yorker. We encourage you to research and examine . In each locale, fellow health-care practitioners could tell something was wrong with Swango's doctoring, according to Stewart. During his time there, several employees sought medical attention with complaints of persistent and increasing stomach pains. He married Ada Alma Hamilton on 15 April 1907, in Monticello, Lewis, Missouri, United States. 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. Joan O'C. "Do you think it was just coincidence?" 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. Demand for doctors was so strong that lucrative careers awaited med school graduates. The claim triggered renewed talk and concern about Swango among his classmates; Rosenthal and several others even wondered whether Swango should be reported to the Student Progress Committee, a group of twelve faculty and two students that heard complaints of student misconduct. We collect and match historical records that Ancestry users have contributed to their family trees to create each person's profile. His fascination with death led him to poison colleagues and kill patients wherever he worked. Vampire Killer: A Terrifying True Story of Psychosis, Mutilation and Murder (True C Child Killer: The True Story of The Atlanta Child Murders. The book was in good conditions when it arrived. Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2019. Scott McLemee Newsday A remarkable piece of reporting. : R. Z. Sheppard Time magazine James B. Stewart's Blind Eye is a persuasive case against Dr. Michael Swango. It boasts the state capitol building and is steeped in the lore of its most famous resident, Abraham Lincoln, whose restored home is a major tourist attraction. Try again. [3] During high school, he played clarinet in the band. 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, rather than the five years for felony poisoning that he served. By that time, Swango had fled the country. - Middle child of Muriel and John Virgil Swango but later got divorced. You need a Find a Grave account to continue. https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/michael-swango-14036.php. [16] At his sentencing hearing, Swango admitted to causing three murders, lying about his role in causing a fourth death, and lying about his 1985 conviction.[18]. Michael Swango was many things. (Richard Kerkering, Muriel's son from a previous marriage, lived with his father.) Updated: September 25, 2013 Biography ID: 157019722 The Terrifying Story Of A Doctor Who Got Away With Murder By James B. Stewart Trade Paperback LIST PRICE $18.99 PRICE MAY VARY BY RETAILER Get a FREE ebook by joining our mailing list today! I thought you might like to see a memorial for COL John Virgil Swango I found on Findagrave.com. To add a flower, click the Leave a Flower button. 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. In July 1992, he began working at Sanford USD Medical Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This may have been because Swango was still working for the ambulance corps and frequently was either unavailable or fidgeting because he was going to be late for ambulance duty. He would brook no criticism of Swango's alleged haste, sloppy habits, or indifference to patient care. Previous page of related Sponsored Products. There was enough evidence for INS agents to arrest Swango in June 1997 on a layover at Chicago-O'Hare International Airport on his way to Saudi Arabia. Most people who become doctors do so to help people, but not Joseph MIchael Swango, born on October 21, 1954 in Tacoma, Washington. Swango never participated in these conversations; he seemed blank when the topic surfaced. There was a standing joke at SIU that the dumb and the lazy chose anesthesia; the smart and the lazy went into radiology; the dumb hard workers chose pediatrics; and the smart hard workers went into neurosurgery. 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. When Rosenthal and other classmates struggled out of bed in the morning after a late night of studying, they would often see Swango outdoors doing early-morning calisthenics, chanting Marine cadences. With non-patients, such as his coworkers at the emergency medical service, he used poisons, usually arsenic, slipping them into foods and beverages. The FBI obtained a warrant charging Swango with using fraudulent credentials to gain entry to a Veterans Affairs hospital. Javascript is not enabled in your browser. Amid the AMA report and calls from frightened colleagues, Sanford fired Swango. Photos larger than 8Mb will be reduced. Four months later, Kinney died by suicide, and arsenic was found in her body at the time of her death. Who Speaks for You? Swango's father was a career U.S. Army officer who served in the Vietnam War and was troubled by alcoholism. son of John Harvey and Ada Hamilton Swango Military Service: Storekeeper, 2nd Class, United States Naval Reserve USS General G. O. Squier [AP130, supply ship] 9/11/1943 to 5/17/1946-----Family Members. Muriel Swango. [14] The government used this time to amass a dossier of Swango's crimes. 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. Please contact Find a Grave at [emailprotected] if you need help resetting your password. As the Bulgarian crossed the busy Waterloo Bridge in central London in September 1978, he felt a faint pricking on his thigh. It was so obvious that his classmates concluded that Swango must simply have panicked and frozen.Yet the episode was one of many that led some of his classmates to conclude that Swango was taking a surprisingly cavalier approach not only to medical school, but to the well-being of his patients. Michael Swango attended Quincy Catholic Boys High School, where he was valedictorian of his 1972 class and played clarinet in the school band Quincy Notre Dame. In a career trajectory that includes work in Illinois, Ohio, South Dakota, Virginia, New York and eventually, Africa, Swango makes good first impressions and often receives glowing reviews. Publisher [10], Kinney's mother, Sharon Cooper, was horrified to find out that a person with Swango's history could be allowed to practice medicine. There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Try again. Please check your email and click on the link to activate your account. He next got a job as a laboratory technician for ATICoal in Newport News, where many employees had to be treated for stomach pain during his tenure. We have set your language to Still, competition for internships and residencies is intense. He crossed the border to Zambia and subsequently to Namibia, where he found temporary medical work. Well, Cashman said, Swango was a medical doctor suspected by the FBI of killing at least 60 patients. The younger Swango enjoyed being at the scene of gruesome diasters as a paramedic, was obsessed with firearms and kept a small arsenal at home, and dwelled on news reports of mass murder, such as the July 1984 shooting spree at a McDonald's restaurant in San Ysidro, California.". 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. [5] Prosecutors in Franklin County, home to Columbus, also considered bringing charges of murder and attempted murder against Swango, but decided against it for lack of physical evidence.[2]. After a committee evaluated all the information candidates submitted, SIU (like other medical schools) placed them into one of three categories: "Reject," "Accept," or "Accept When Place Available. When Effie Walls, a kindly patient whom Rosenthal had met, and whom Swango had been treating for an injury, died suddenly after a visit from Swango, he scrawled "DIED" over her name as well. He fled to Atlanta and took up a job as a chemist, but an FBI warning led his employer to fire him. Around this time, Swango met Kristin Lynn Kinney, a nurse at Riverside Hospital. : Finally, Stewart had an epiphany. Following his graduation, Swango went to medical school at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine (SIU). [2] Nonetheless, it was another decade before OSU formally conceded it should have called in outside investigators. Michael was the second of Muriel and John Virgil Swango's three sons. John Virgil Swango was born on August 26, 1914 in Quincy, Illinois, USA. cemeteries found within miles of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. Notes and textbooks weren't allowed in the exam room.That didn't deter Swango, however, from using his notes during the exam. Michael had excelled at the private Catholic boys' high school he attended in Quincy, Illinois, beginning in 1968. When Swango was out of earshot after one particularly frustrating encounter, Zawodniak turned to Sweeney and lamented, "What did I fucking do to deserve him? It isn't hard to fathom why the death of Georgi Markov might have drawn Swango's attention. He would choose one of the tests, take it, then choose his next test topic and sprint from the room back into the hallway. In November 1994, he went to Zimbabwe and used forged documents to obtain a job at Mnene Lutheran Mission Hospital in the center of the country. The sentencing judge ordered that Swango not be allowed to prepare or deliver food, or have any involvement in preparing or distributing drugs. Curiously, in the same yearbook he described his "ambition" as "to be an Illinois State Trooper. He was employed until 1991, when he resigned his position to seek out a new position as a doctor. : Each time, Swango had been the floor intern. Rosenthal and Swango were partners, and at Rosenthal's suggestion, they chose to discuss the repair of certain defects through open-heart surgery. "Swangoing," the noun, or "to Swango," the verb, described the practice of racing into the hall and cramming between tests.Swango was notorious not only for his test-taking regimen. His fascination with death led him to poison colleagues and kill patients wherever he worked. 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,[8] rather than the five years for felony poisoning that he served. In the process, he exposes the arrogance and the fraudulent professional courtesies that allowed Swango to move ahead unchallenged. Following his graduation, he managed to get into Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, where he also served as an ambulance attendant. Michael Swangos income source is mostly from being a successful Killer. Your new password must contain one or more uppercase and lowercase letters, and one or more numbers or special characters. "Don't you feel bad that she died? Remove advertising from a memorial by sponsoring it for just $5. Upon his return from Vietnam, the elder Swango became depressed and was divorced by Muriel. With the prodigious investigative reporting that has defined his Pulitzer Prizewinning career, James B. Stewart has tracked down survivors, relatives of victims, and shaken coworkers to unearth the evidence that may finally lead to Swangos conviction. , Simon & Schuster; First Printing edition (June 15, 2000), Language As part of that investigation, prosecutors exhumed the bodies of three patients and found poisonous chemicals in them. Would brook no criticism of Swango 's alleged haste, sloppy habits or! On different specialties Z. Sheppard time magazine James B. Stewart 's Blind Eye a... To SmartMoney and the new Yorker notes and textbooks were n't allowed in the same yearbook he described his ambition! R. Z. Sheppard time magazine James B. Stewart 's Blind Eye is regular... Allowed Swango to move ahead unchallenged ambulance attendant case against dr. michael Swango he attended in Quincy, Illinois beginning! He is a persuasive case against dr. michael Swango and was divorced by.! On Wacaser, who found him remarkably pleasant and industrious help resetting your password, but FBI! 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