True crime Friday: Michael Joseph Swango, An American Serial Killer

Michael Joseph Swango, previously known as James Michael Swango, was born October 21, 1954, is an American serial killer. The physician who is estimated to have been involved in as many as 60 fatal poisonings of patients and colleagues, although he admitted to only causing four deaths. He was sentenced in the year 2000 to prison and is not eligible for parole. Swango used poison to murder his victims. He killed patients, co-workers and friends. His preferred poison was Arsenic slipping the poison into foods and beverages He administered drug overdoses with whichever drug the patient had been prescribed, or wrote unnecessary prescriptions for dangerous drugs.

The Early life of Michael Joseph Swango

Michael Swango was raised in Illinois. He is the middle child of Muriel and John Virgil Swango. His father was an officer in the United States Army officer and served during the Vietnam War. Upon his return from the war he became depressed. He and his wife Muriel divorced. After the divorce Swango saw little of his father and as a result was closer to his mother. He was valedictorian of his class at Quincy Catholic Boys High School. He also played the Clarinet in the band.

Swango served in the Marines and he graduated from recruit training at Marine Corps in San Diego, California. He received an honorable discharge. Swango went to medical school at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. Swango displayed troubling behavior during his time while attending the university. Although, he was a brilliant student, he preferred to work as an ambulance attendant rather than concentrate on his studies. Swango had a fascination with dying patients and his odd behavior was observed by his peers. Many of Swango's assigned patients ended up suffering life-threatening emergencies, with at least five of them dying.

He was due to graduate, when it was discovered that he had faked checkups during his ObGyn rotation. He was finally caught and almost expelled. However, he was allowed to remain when one member of the committee voted to give him a second chance. His colleagues and faculty members had raised concerns about Swango's competence to practice medicine. The school allowed him to graduate but he had to repeat his OB/GYN courses.

The Known Victims of Michael Joseph Swango

• Thomas Sammarco, 73
• George Siano, 60
• Aldo Serini, 62
• Cynthia McGee, 19

He was employed at Rhodes Hall at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

He also worked at another hospital in Ohio. Nurses started to notice that apparently healthy patients began dying mysteriously when he worked in Rhodes Hall at OSU. A nurse caught him injecting some medication into a patient who later became violently ill. The nurses reported their concerns to administrators but were ignored. Swango was cleared by a cursory investigation in 1984. His work was not up to par so Ohio State University pulled its residency offer after his internship ended.

In 1984 Swango worked as an emergency medical assistant for Ambulance Corps after being fired from another ambulance service in another city for making a heart patient drive to the hospital. He poisoned his peers while he was working at the ambulance service. Whenever Swango prepared the coffee or brought any food in people would become very ill. On August 23, 1985, Swango was convicted of aggravated battery for poisoning his peers. He was sentenced to five years in prison.

In 1989, Swango was released from prison. He worked a number of odd jobs before meeting Kristin Lynn Kinney who was a nurse at Riverside Hospital. The couple fell in love and planned to marry. He resigned his position as a medical technician to seek out a new position as a doctor at Sanford USD Medical Center.

Daniel J. Adams

Swango legally changed his name to Daniel J. Adams in 1991. He began working at a hospital in South Dakota as a physician. Swango forged numerous legal documents that he used to reestablish himself as a physician and respected member of society. He forged a fact sheet from the Illinois Department of Corrections where he falsified his criminal record, stating that he had been convicted of a lesser charge than a felony.

Swango established a sterling reputation at Sanford. But when he attempted to join the American Medical Association. The AMA conducted a more thorough background check than Sanford and found out about the poisoning conviction. He was fired from Sanford after the discovery. He poisoned Kinney and she left him. Once she left Swango she discovered she was no longer sick. She died by suicide because of the toll the poison took over her body. He used a number of aliases when working at different companies. Kinney's mother did her own investigation and found Alan Miller aka Swango to be a fraud. Swango admitted he had lied about his poisoning conviction in Illinois. He was blacklisted from apply at any other colleges or residency programs.

Swago got a job as a chemist at a computer equipment company's wastewater facility. The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) alerted the company and he was fired for lying on his job application. The FBI obtained a warrant charging Swango with using fraudulent credentials to gain entry to a Veterans Affairs hospital.

He settled in Zimbabwe and used forged documents to obtain a job at Mnene Lutheran Mission Hospital in the center of the country. Like clockwork his patients began dying mysteriously. He was suspend from the job. During this time he poisoned his land lady. There are too many employers and facilities for me to list in this writing regarding Swango. I have included references were it is explained in detail how this man escaped justice and ruined many lives.

Lady Justice

Because of the hard evidence authorities had on him in Zimbabwe, Swango pleaded guilty to defrauding the government in March 1998. He was sentenced to almost four years in prison. The judge ordered that Swango not be allowed to prepare or deliver food, or have any involvement in preparing or distributing drugs while in prison for fear he may poison his fellow inmates. The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) believes Michael Swango may be responsible for as many as 60 deaths. If so, that would make him one of the most prolific serial killers in American history.

Reference

Michael Swango - Wikipedia

Dr. Michael Swango's ‘House Of Horrors’ Filled With Handwritten Recipes For Poison | Crime News (oxygen.com)

Serial Killer Michael Swango's Timeline of Crimes (columbusmonthly.com)