The Murdering Doctor Who Kept Being Hired to Kill Again

Joseph Michael Swango was fascinated with death and was allowed to pursue this interest as a doctor.

Even at a young age, Joseph Michael Swango was fascinated with death and dying. Later, he chose a job that meant he would be surrounded by death; he qualified as a doctor. 

His total kill count is unknown, although not as prolific as Harold Shipman, another doctor; he is thought to have killed well into double figures. The death toll is not the only shocking element of this case; the incompetence of many professionals allowed his murderous reign to continue for many years across many countries. 

Early Life

Swango was raised in Quincy, Illinois. He graduated as a valedictorian for the 1972 Class of Quincy Catholic Boys High School. He was an active member of the school, playing clarinet and becoming a Quincy Notre Dame band member. 

Surprisingly although he attended a Catholic School, he was raised as a Presbyterian. After school, he served in the Marine Corps after receiving an honourable discharge in 1980. 

In 83, he returned to education, enrolling at Quincy College and then later at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine.

The trouble starts

Swango's strange nature was first observed at Southern Illinois University School. He was considered a brilliant student and won the American Chemical Society Award. Despite this, he was considered lazy. It was observed several times that he preferred to work as an ambulance attendant rather than working on his studies. 

Although it was not noticed then, those who worked with him later commented that many patients he worked with either coded or suffered life-threatening emergencies. At least five patients during this time died suddenly. 

Internship

Swango projected an appearance of charm and confidence, but his school report was lacklustre. During this time, people commented that he had become more withdrawn. Despite this, he still qualified for medical school and started his internship. 

It was then that it was noticed that the more he was asked to work with the patient's hands, the more he pulled away. His performance was poor, but he continued progressing through his first six months.

At the end of the six months, his supervisor had no choice but to place him on probation. He was told he needed to improve significantly or would not be recommended for residency, his next career step.

Rena Cooper

Rena Cooper was sixty-nine and was recovering from a routine back surgery when she met Swango. He had just been put on probation, and it was part of his duties to check on patients. He reported that she was doing fine when he left her; however, she suffered a mysterious seizure moments later. 

Doctors and nurses struggled to stabilise her. However, Rena was determined to tell them something; as she struggled to speak, someone provided her with a pen and paper. On it, she wrote, 'The doctor put something in my IV.'

Whilst this was happening, four rooms down, Swango left another room. He was said to be smirking as he left. When a nurse entered the room, she found a large hypodermic needle with the plunger depressed stuck down the sink.

Three doctors confronted Swango about Rena's deterioration, to which he told three different stories. 

Amazingly, Rena survived her ordeal, but at least five other patients were not as lucky; they died in areas Swango had been working. For some inexplicable reason, hospital officials chose not to call the police. Instead, they watched him closely while he worked the last months of his internship. As a result, he was barred from returning for a second year. 

Spicy Chicken

Swango was not upset by the hospital's decision. On the contrary, in the last month of his internship, he treated all the staff members to a home-cooked meal, extra spicy chicken. 

Shortly after eating it, at least three doctors became violently ill. They were so violently sick that they required treatment for ruptured blood vessels in their eyes. Many commented that the symptoms were consistent with that experienced with arsenic poisoning. 

Swango left the Ohio State University Hospital in June 1984; he was never formally investigated for deaths or poisoning accusations.

A new job

One month later, Swango was back in employment, this time in Quincy, Illinois, not as a doctor but as a paramedic. 

He brought the whole crew some doughnuts to introduce himself to his new team on 14th September. Unfortunately, less than an hour later, he and several others became ill, some more serious than others. 

The authorities were concerned about the food poisoning incident, so they decided to test the leftover doughnuts, but only the empty box remained. The rest of the doughnuts had disappeared.

Swango was back on duty at a local football game with fellow paramedic Brent the next night. At halftime, Swango treated his partner to a soda, Brent started to drink it, but within a matter of minutes, he became deathly sick. His symptoms also resembled that of arsenic poisoning.

Macabre personality

Swango had come to the attention of the authorities eventually. The police decided to investigate him, including searching his belongings. In the gym bag in his locker, his coworkers found two bottles of arsenic and poison; one was full, the other empty. 

They also discovered a scrapbook of accidents he and his coworkers had witnessed; he had a gruesome fascination for horrific accidents. His coworkers had also saved a glass of iced tea from the work kitchen that was found to contain arsenic. 

When the police searched his flat, they discovered more incriminating evidence. Inside the flat were several bottles of poisons, books on poisons, recipe cards for making poisons and an assortment of syringes. One of them was found to contain an ant killer. 

On 26th October 1984, Swango was arrested and charged with six counts of aggravated battery. He was convicted of the charges and sentenced to five years in prison. This should have been the end of Dr Swango. But, unfortunately, this was not true. 

After serving half his sentence, he was released for good behaviour. 

Back to medicine

In 1989, it was reported that he was working in Virginia at a medical vocational school. During his time there, three of his colleagues fell ill. In 1990, he changed his name to David Adams and applied for a residency at the Ohio Valley Medical Centre.

When questioned about his conviction, he reported that it resulted from a barroom brawl. To support these claims, he produced false court documents. As a result, the Medical Centre learned the true nature of his conviction, and his application was rejected. 

In 1992, Swango obtained a job at the University of South Dakota hospital; this time, he claimed that the conviction was a miscarriage of justice and he was innocent; again, he was dismissed. 

Murder again

Stony Brook University in New York was his next hospital in 1993. The hospital assigned him to the Long Island Veterans Hospital in Northport. It was here that he changed his name to Michael Kirk. 

The hospital accepted him into their program. Had they bothered to check his credentials with the central registry for medical residents, they would have been presented with a file an inch thick, but they did not. 

On 29th September 1993, Swango met Elsie and Baron Harris. Baron was sixty years old and a cabinet maker. He arrived at the hospital with a temperature of 104 and a slight case of pneumonia.

When Elsie saw Swango on 2nd October, he told her not to worry. He had given Baron a sedative to help him sleep. By the following day, Baron had been transferred to intensive care, where he lapsed into a coma. 

Elsie commented that she did not know why he had deteriorated so quickly. Swango suggested that maybe he had an allergic reaction to the drugs he had been prescribed.

When she questioned him further, he said, ' he hoped it wasn't anything we did,'  Elsie commented that he said this with a smirky attitude and a smile. She felt there was something sneaky about him. 

On 22nd October 1993, Swango was fired as the hospital had learned that he lied about his criminal past.

Disappearance

The story became common knowledge quickly, and reporters went to the hospital, trying to search him out in his dorm room. Instead, he packed up and disappeared. It is reported that before he did, he told Elsie that Baron would never escape his coma. Baron died on 9th November 1993.

An arrest warrant was issued for Swango, but it was too late. He had fled to Zimbabwe, where he killed his patients and poisoned his coworkers. In July 1995, the Zimbabwe hospitals accused him of these crimes and suspended him from practising. 

The end of the doctor

Swango planned to flee to Saudi Arabia, where he had secured a new job. He headed to the United States to renew his work visa. When he arrived at Chicago's O'Hare airport, he was arrested by INS agents after they ran his passport and saw his arrest warrant.

Swango was charged with defrauding a government agency by making false statements on his hospital application form. In September 1997, he was also charged with illegally prescribing narcotics to patients. 

Zimbabwe also charged him with poisoning seven patients, five of which died. The charges were adding up. In March, he pleaded guilty to fraud and false statements charges. He was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. 

The US federal prosecutors now had three years to establish a murder case against him.

Murderer

The bodies of several of his suspected victims were exhumed, and toxicology tests were performed. His diary was also examined; it contained page after page of personal writings about how much he enjoyed killing people.

On 11th July 2000, just days before he was released, Swango was charged with murder. In September, he pleaded guilty to three counts of murder and intentionally administering toxic substances. He was sentenced to three life sentences without the possibility of parole. 

A month later, he pleaded guilty to his final murder; in return for his plea bargain, Zimbabwe agreed not to pursue charges against him; the United States also dropped the death penalty.

Final death count

What amazes me about this case and that of Christopher Duntsch is the many hospital authorities who had the chance to report him and stop him but didn't. 

Swango is now imprisoned at the Supermaz, ADX Florence prison and spends twenty-three hours daily in solitary confinement. There is circumstantial evidence that links him to at least thirty-five deaths. The fear is he could have been responsible for over sixty.

Sources

Michael Swango Doctor of Death

The Power Creator and Stars Break Down Episode 6's Horrifying Ending