Episode 155 MIchael Swango: Unmasking the Sinister Serial Killer in Healthcare Part XI

Could a dangerous serial killer be lurking in the halls of a hospital? Join us as we unravel the chilling case of Dr. Michael Swango, a convicted felon who managed to gain access to several hospitals, and the intense FBI investigation that ensued.

We'll also dissect Dr. Swango's narcissistic, psychopathic traits, from his fascination with disasters and weapons to his penchant for lying and manipulation. Explore the role of his absent and detached father, his mother's overvaluation of him, and his subsequent loss of self-worth. Delve into his possible motivations for his heinous acts, which may have been retaliation for criticism.

Finally, we'll investigate the disturbing psychology of serial killers and the lack of empathy they often exhibit. Discuss potential causes, such as a lack of parental bonding or biological predispositions, and how psychopathic killers can craft a seemingly normal social persona. We'll also consider the increase in serial killers in recent decades and the possibility of emulation. Don't miss this gripping episode as we uncover the secrets behind one of healthcare's most sinister serial killers.
Sources:
Newspapers:
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-age/159936395/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-telegraph/159936564/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-telegraph/159936596/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sydney-morning-herald/159936624/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-observer/159936664/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-observer/159936664/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/argus-leader/159936906/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-age/159936962/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/edmonton-journal/159936985/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-windsor-star/159937017/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news/159937055/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/fort-worth-star-telegram/159937085/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/sunday-telegraph/159937145/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-grand-rapids-press/159937244/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/standard-speaker/159937305/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-la-crosse-tribune/159937365/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/argus-leader/159937413/


Books:
Smith, J. (2017). Dr. Death: Life of Serial Killer Michael Swango

Stewart, J. B. (2012). blind Eye: the terrifying Story of A Doctor Who Gets Away with Murder.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Motorbook.
This is your host, kiera, andthis is part 11 of the case of
Dr Michael Swango, sirioPoisoner.
Let's begin.
While O'Hare was covalencing,she and Swango would watch TV

(00:24):
and continue their conversations.
He was passionately interestedin anything having to do with OJ
Simpson, who had been acquittedthe previous October of
murdering his wife, and spokeoften of how much he admired him
.
He seemed thrilled at theverdict, which puzzled O'Hare,
and she asked him look, do youactually think he's innocent?

(00:47):
And he snapped and he said ofcourse not.
He seemed almost as fascinatedby the story of English serial
killer John Reginald Christie,who was convicted of murdering
eight people, including his wifeand a baby, over 10 years,
ending in 1953.
But before Christie was caught,another man, timothy Evans,

(01:10):
whose wife and child were amongChristie's victims, had been
tried, convicted and hanged fortheir murders.
Evans was posthumously pardonedin 1966.
Swango told O'Hare the wholestory and seemed especially to
savor the fact that Christie hadbeen able to deflect blame onto

(01:34):
an innocent man.
This same notion that the wrongman might be accused of severe
murder, figured in the suspensethriller that he told Joanna he
was writing, and Swango oftenspoke of the incompetence of the
police and other members of themedical profession.
And Swango even told O'Hare towatch the miniseries on Ted

(02:03):
Bundy, professing his admirationfor the handsome law student
and exulting that no one hassuspected him for so long.
O'hare had never heard of Bundybut at Swango's insistence She
watched the program.
Under the circumstances, o'harefound Swango's enthusiasm

(02:23):
strange And she warned him afterwatching the show She said in
view of what you are suspectedof, i wouldn't go around talking
about serial killers.
So, giving his faithfulattendance at the Presbyterian
Church and his friendship withthe law remers, she was also

(02:44):
surprised by the irreverence ofsome of his comments.
He often mocked participants inthe Bible study class,
especially a woman named RosieMalcolm.
He had once shown a romanticinterest in Rosie and would

(03:05):
comment sarcastically guess whatwe pray about today?
And when he talked like that,o'hare would ask him so why do
you go?
And his answer was well, i'dlike to mix with night's people.
On another occasion Swangoseemed so content with religion

(03:30):
that O'Hare asked him so why doyou believe in?
And he said I believe in God.
She said do you believe inChrist?
And he didn't reply.
But O'Hare drew nothing ofsignificance from these
conversations, which wereisolating, puzzling notes and

(03:51):
usually a cordial relationship,and she trusted her young lodger
so much that she turned her carover to him.
He would take her to work inthe morning, pick her up for
lunch, return to take her homeat the end of the day.
That gave him unlimitedmobility and freed him from

(04:11):
having to depend on Joanna,while her friends for rights
Only the servants Lissie andMary remained suspicious.
One afternoon Lissie Carrero,one of the maids, was watching
O'Hare's car and Swango waswatching her And he asked her

(04:33):
are you sure it's clean?
And she was annoyed by theinsinuation.
But she answered yes, i am sure.
And he said well, maybe Ishould wipe it with a white
cloth.
In jail The security officerswiped everything with a white
cloth to see if it's clean AndCarrero asked shut back.

(04:55):
And she said how will you knowwhat they do in jail?
And Swango looked flustered andthen explained that jail was
just like the army and that theyhave done the same thing when
he was in the army.
But after she heard him saythat, she became a little
suspicious.
One day Swango offered Carreroand Mary some empty plastic

(05:23):
vials and asked if they wantedthem.
They said they did, but thenthought the vials had a strange
smell so they threw them away.
Another time Carrero suspectedthat Swango had tampered with
the peanut butter she kept inthe kitchen in her cottage.
It was a new jar but it hadbeen opened and an indentation

(05:46):
suggested something had beenpushed into it, so she was
afraid to eat it.
If Swango was at home when sheneeded to clean, he would stand
in the room and make Carrerorack him around him.
When he left he always carrieda duffel bag slung over his
shoulder, which made her wonderwhether he had something he

(06:10):
didn't want her to see.
But her madam would hearnothing of the suspicious.
So one day Carrero came toO'Hare and insisted that she
came into Swango's room.
They all had considered it oddthat Swango insisted on so much
bacon and four slices of toastfor breakfast every morning.

(06:32):
So Carrero pointed to a closetshelf and said I'm worried.
And there, neatly wrapped in arange, were dozens of bacon
sandwiches.
So of course Mrs O'Hare wasupset With Swango returned that
evening she told him a fib thatthe cat had come across the

(06:54):
sandwiches in his closet And shelectured him.
She said this is a wholesome inour climate because it would
attract ants, if not worse.
Please put the sandwiches inthis plastic box and put it in
the refrigerator.
But a few weeks later again themaid Carrero came to her again

(07:18):
with a triumphant look on herface And she said come, look.
And she let O'Hare intoSwango's room.
This time she opened the bureaudrawer and, wrapped with minute
precision, concealed in thecenter of the drawer were more
bacon sandwiches.
Mrs O'Hare was alarmed.

(07:38):
She thought that Swangosuffered from some sort of food
hoarding syndrome.
And Carrero said well, i'm alittle worried.
No doctor would hide food insuch a way.
So she insisted that she andMary Shemwe, the other maid,
begin sleeping in the otherbedroom next to O'Hare's with

(08:00):
their door open.
If he asked why, they wouldtell Swango they had come into
the house from their cottagebecause they were suffering from
colds, struggle seemed upset attheir presence, scuffing at the
explanation and asking themevery day when they planned to
return to the cottage.
But they felt the vigilance wasvindicated.

(08:21):
Mrs O'Hare slept with herbedroom door ajar so the cat
could go in and out during thenight.
On several evenings Carreroheard Swango open his door and
come into the hallway.
He would stand motionlesspeering into Mrs O'Hare's room.
In each time Carrero made asound to indicate she was awake

(08:43):
and he quickly returned to hisroom.
Mrs O'Hare began to notice oddthings around the house.
A few souvenirs and books weremissing.
Small amounts of money vanished.
The liquor bottles were nearlyempty.
She began to worry about what hewas doing with the car.
Sometimes he was out until 4 amand would come creeping into

(09:06):
the house in a way thatfrightened the servants.
Then one day when Swango wassupposed to pick her up for
lunch at home, he failed to showup, stranding her at the office
.
When he arrived that eveningshe was angry and she demanded
to know where were you?
He asked in a mocking-town.

(09:29):
Do you think I was trying tomake a getaway to Botswana?
That was it.
He said that Mrs O'Hare wassuddenly alarmed because such a
possibility had never evencrossed her mind.
Had he tried to flee?
If so, was there something tothose stories from Nini?

(09:50):
These suspicions hardened whenthe Chronicle ran a brief news
items two days later That saysDoctor try to escape And the
article said In American Doctorof Cues of Cossing the Death of

(10:10):
5 Patients at Nini Hospital inBerengua reportedly tried to
leave the country for Botswanabut was apparently stopped.
Police sources claimed.
They say the Doctor wasbelieved to be still in Bulawayo
, but his except were about werenot known.
So in the wake of that incident, mrs O'Hare terminated Swango's

(10:37):
car privileges, a decision hegreeted with what she considered
a cold, hostile stare.
Then a fax arrived for Swangofrom a medical school in
Pretoria, south Africa, whichO'Hare retrieved from the
machine And he says because youare 42, we cannot accept you for

(10:58):
the course.
The letter began.
It was addressed to MichaelSwango, not Swan, the name by
which Mrs O'Hare knew him.
So now Mrs O'Hare was startled.
He had told her he was 27, herdaughter's age.
That evening she asked himabout his name and age Without

(11:19):
any hesitation he explained thatSwango was pronounced Swan in
America to avoid ethnicprejudice.
Swango is an anglicized name ofSwedish origin, according to
family members.
As for his age, the school musthave misread his resume The
68th and my birthday looks like53, he said That.

(11:43):
All sounded plausible when hesaid it, but the more she
thought about it the less senseit made When she mentioned the
discrepancies to Keredo theymade.
Again.
Let O'Hare into Swango's roomwhere she opened the cupboard
and show her Swango's Zimbabwework permit.

(12:03):
The birthday on it was not 1968, it was 1954, he was actually
41.
Mrs O'Hare wondered if Swango'sstrange symptoms might indicate
post-traumatic stress disorder.
Was he perhaps a Vietnam Warveteran?
She decided to phone his formergirlfriend, whom she still knew

(12:29):
only as Lee Ann.
She had wondered at the timewhy she had broken off the
relationship and thought thereason might shed some light on
the recent strange events.
She retrieved Lee Ann's phonenumber, which she saved from the
time Swango had asked her tocall and tell Lee Ann She was

(12:50):
making a mistake and breakingoff with Swango.
Mrs O'Hare told Lee Ann that shewas Swango's landlady and
reminded her that they had metwhen Swango brought her to the
house, adding I know you havebroken up, so, and she didn't
want to sound alarmist.
So Mrs O'Hare said only thatshe had begun to feel uneasy

(13:13):
about Swango And she asked herwere you uneasy as well?
And Lee Ann said I can't say.
And Mrs O'Hare said is hepossibly older than he claims?
And Lee Ann said well, i saw adocument, a driver's permit,

(13:34):
that said he was 28.
But Lee Ann hardly seemedtalkative or forthcoming.
So Mrs O'Hare got directly towhat was really worrying her.
She said do you think I'm inany danger, it might quite safe
with him in the house.
And Lee Ann said well, i don'twant to answer, and that was

(13:58):
hardly reassuring.
So Mrs O'Hare said why not?
And Lee Ann hesitated as if shemight say more, but then she
said you know what he's accusedof, right?
And then click, she hang up.
Mrs O'Hare suddenly felt weakand lightheaded.
There must be something to thenanny charges.

(14:22):
After all, she had to find away to get Swango out of the
house without alarming orangering him.
She immediately called hercousin in South Africa And she
said I'm scared, i want to getrid of him.
So she and her cousin work on ascheme in which the cousin will

(14:42):
send a fax to the fact that herson will be teaching at the
university in Bulawayo and wouldneed a place to live, both a
bedroom and an office.
So the fax arrived, o'hare tookit and nervously presented it
to Swango when he returned thatevening, and she said that under
the circumstances she wouldhave to give him two weeks

(15:04):
notice.
And he said well, fine, i'mrunning out of money anyway.
I don't know how much longer Ican afford the rent.
And he even mentioned that hemight leave for work in Sambia,
which lies north of Zimbabwe.
O'hare was immensely relievedthat he had taken the news so
calmly and didn't ask anyquestions about her flimsy cover

(15:27):
story.
The next day, thursday, august 8, 1996, when Mrs O'Hare returned
from work, her maid Coredo mether at the gate And she said
Mike has done something.
He's too happy.
He's been singing and playingyour CD player.
And of course there's annoyingMrs O'Hare because Swango had

(15:51):
been expressly asked not to usethe CD player.
When she entered the house,tapes and CDs were strewn upon
the lounge And so she knocked onSwango's door.
She said Mike, i believe youhave been playing my CD.
You know that's my privateproperty.
And he replied since when?

(16:13):
And he slammed the door.
O'hare immediately phoned herlawyer and told him everything
The niny allegations, thebizarre behavior, the missing
money, the unauthorized use ofher tapes and CDs.
And the lawyer said get him out.
Today I'll come out to help.
So she went to Swango's roomand knocked again, and this time

(16:36):
she said Mike, i want you toleave tonight.
He seemed resigned to herdecision.
He looked as though he hadalready cleared out his room.
He said I suppose you willrefund the rent money.
And she wrote him a check forthe balance.
And then she told him she waschanging the locks and hiring a

(16:56):
security guard.
And he said do whatever youwant.
When he later emerged from theroom carrying his bags, a
neighbor had arrived.
O'hare hoped that wouldn't be ascene, but to her surprise he
now seemed as charming as ever.
He smiled.
He shook O'Hare's hand, biddingher farewell, and he said I

(17:20):
hope you're not going to talkabout me and then I won't talk
about you.
And Mrs O'Hare said what do youmean by that?
What could you possibly say?
And he said that you have goneraving mad.
And with that he left, slammingthe door behind him.

(17:41):
The next morning Mrs O'Harediscovered what had evidently
put Swango in such a good mood.
The previous day She tried tostart her car, but the motor
keep quickly sputtered and died.
She tried several times but thecar wouldn't start.
On Sunday she had the car towedto a service station.

(18:01):
It didn't take long to diagnosethe problem.
He says your tank is full ofsugar.
So furious, o'hare wentdirectly to the police accusing
Swango of sabotaging a car.
On August 9th, the day afterSwango left O'Hare's place,
joanna Daly drove him to Werofor a hearing in his lawsuit

(18:25):
against the Lutheran ChurchSince the day before he has seen
on edge.
He was especially worried thatreporters I hound him at the
hearing and he told Joanna thatunder no circumstances did he
want to talk to the press.
Nor did he want Joanna towitness the proceedings, so he
told her to wait in the car.

(18:45):
David Coltard and his firmcontinued to represent Swango,
not only in the suit against thechurch but in the
administrative proceedings thathad begun in Harare to suspend
his license to practice medicine.
But Coltard's enthusiasm forSwango had begun to cool.
Judy Todd, his fellow civilrights lawyer, had mentioned at

(19:11):
church that O'Hare was unhappywith Swango.
Though she had not been able toprovide any details, they had
caused Mr Coltard some concern,since he respected Mrs O'Hare.
Partly because of growingdoubts about Swango, he sent an
associate to handle the hearing,which was held at the Midlands

(19:31):
Labor Relations Office before anadministrative office Officer.
The lawyers expected the churchto reveal the evidence it had
regarding Swango's involvementin the mysterious deaths at Nini
, which might also shed somelight on where the criminal
investigation was headed.
But any concerned Swango mighthave felt about this possibility

(19:55):
quickly evaporated, in keepingwith the strategy of attracting
as little attention as possibleto the Nini deaths.
The church surprised Swango'slawyers by relying entirely on a
technical procedural defense.
He'd argued that it couldn't besued for wrongfully dismissing
Swango since he was actuallyemployed by the Ministry of

(20:19):
Health which paid his salary.
Thus the church lawyerssidestepped their actual cause
of Swango's dismissal.
While no ruling was made,swango was elated.
There have been no reporters atthe proceeding, no mention of
his alleged crimes.
The hearing officer had giventhe church's argument short

(20:41):
shrift, even noting and passingthat six other labor complaints
against the church were pendingfrom Nini.
Joanna Naffo justified in herbelief that Swango had been
adjustly dismissed.
But Swango's euphorias provedshort-lived because several days
later Joanna answered the phone, then called to Swango and said

(21:03):
the police wanted to speak tohim.
He turned pale and told her tosay he was out.
The police called several moretimes and each time she said
Swango wasn't there.
Finally he called the policeand asked what they wanted.
They were vague, saying theywanted to interview him in

(21:24):
person.
So he agreed to appear at thepolice station on August 28.
In the next three days Swangoseemed increasingly on edge.
His squint and eye twitchbecame more pronounced and the
chronicle had reported on July28 that investigations at Nini
were at an advanced stage andofficers would be questioning

(21:45):
the last group of people soonSoon after the calls from the
police, swango told Joanna thathe thought he might take a
vacation.
He felt he needed to get awayafter the stress of the court
hearing and said that he hadliked to visit the National Park
at Yunga, a wild region onZimbabwe's northeast border with

(22:07):
Mozambique where, he said, hehad friends.
Numerous hiking trails crossedthe border in the wilderness
area and many local peoplewalked across the border without
observing any immigration orcustom formalities.
Joanna had mixed feelings aboutSwango's impending departure.

(22:28):
She thought it was a bit abrupt.
After leaving Mrs O'Hare's,swango had agreed to house it
for a family he knew from churchand several weeks remained
before their return.
He asked Joanna if she hadchecked the house every day
while he was gone and though sheagreed it was an unwelcome

(22:50):
addition to her daily chores, healso had not asked her to
accompany him on his vacationand, although she probably
couldn't have left the childrenin any event, the omission had
hurt her feelings And she wasgrowing a little tired of having
him around the household day,of having to cook for him, talk

(23:12):
with him, follow his directionsof being constantly fearful that
she might be violating hisprivacy, and he had never taken
her to dinner, paid for a movieor given her a present.
Swango also wrote to his lawyer,coltard, to tell him of his
plans.
He said that he had beencontacted by the police and an

(23:35):
officer wanted to speak to himand that he agreed to delay his
coming until August 28th.
He said I had a strongsuspicion as to what this was
about.
The letter continued and hesaid I will be gone for a few
days but I'll be back on the28th.
Then he sent two cards to thelaw remers, one wishing Ian good

(23:57):
luck and some upcoming medicalexams and another wishing Cheryl
a happy birthday.
On August 27th He took twotrunks, dropped them off at the
Murdo's house, asking Cheryl'sparents if they have mine,
keeping them for him until hereturned and found another place
to live.
So on August 14th Joanna droveSwango to the Blue Arrow Bus

(24:22):
Terminal in downtown Bulawayu.
Blue Arrow operates longdistance buses to Mayor's City
in Zimbabwe, south Africa andneighboring countries.
He had packed carefully,leaving one box of belongings
with her carrying only hisstuffer bag and backpack.
He told her he would be gonefor two weeks.

(24:44):
He kissed her, asked her tocollect any mail for him, said
he would be in touch with herand vanish into the bus station.
But August 28th came and went.
Swango did not keep hisappointment at the police
station.
Joanna began to worry when hedidn't return.

(25:05):
She told the police that he waswith friends in Yanga, but he
had never told her their namesand she had no way to reach him.
It dawned on her that he wasgone and that she would never
see him again.
When Swango didn't show up forhis police interview and Caltard
had not heard from him, hismisgivings increased.

(25:27):
He formed the US Embassy inHarare to ask about Swango and
was stunned by what he was told.
He said Michael Swango waswanted for murder in the United
States.
Ironically, caltard won theLutheran Church case for Swango.
In early October the laborrelations hearing officer ruled

(25:52):
that Swango had indeed bewrongfully discharged by the
Lutheran Church and thatwarranted him $35,000 and their
monetary bills and damages.
And the award wasn't collectedNowhere Caltard's bills paid.

(26:15):
So after several weeks Joannatore up the mail she was keeping
for Swango, went through thebox of things that he had left
behind and she found only twothings of interest.
One was a bottle of blonde hairdye.
She was surprised that he hadevidently been dyeing his hair.
The other was a supply of antkill, which is a brand of ant

(26:39):
poison, and she thought that wasodd.
Why would Swango had a supplyof ant killer?
She put the ant kill with herhousehold supplies and threw
everything else away.
Even after the sugar was removedfrom the gas tank, mrs O'Hare's
car continued to have problems.
No one seemed able to locatethe trouble And finally the

(27:03):
mechanic discovered crystallizedsugar in the carburetor.
O'hare's health problemspersisted.
In addition to the occasionalnausea and headaches, she felt
weak and had a nagging coughwhich the doctor thought was
chronic bronchitis.
She mentioned her symptoms oneday to Mike Cotton, one of the

(27:27):
doctors who had worked withSwango at Pillow, and Cotton
told her that he thought sheshould have her hair sample
tested.
And she asked him why.
And he explained that givingher symptoms with crumb
bronchitis is a side effect ofarsenic poisoning And the nature
of the accusations againstSwango.

(27:48):
He thought it would be a goodidea.
So O'Hare was shocked She saidsurely he didn't do anything to
me.
She insisted but she agreed tothe test.
The hair sample was sent to alaboratory in South Africa which
found a concentration ofarsenic that was more than 12

(28:08):
times the norm.
O'hare had to go on long-termdisability from her job.
The low-rimors and the myrtlesheard of O'Hare's plight and
also learned that books andother objects had disappeared
from her house.
Ted Myrtle called her andmentioned the trunk Swango had
left with them, saying he wouldbring them over to the house.

(28:30):
Perhaps her missing items mightbe found there.
So Mrs O'Hare opened the trunksand went through Swango's
belongings And she was shockedby what she was discovered.
There were about 10 hospitalgowns from PILO, all of them
rank filthy.

(28:51):
They were a kidney-shapedhospital dish and a used syringe
.
There were numerous newspaperclippings from about the OJ
Simpson murder case, the CrystalC Row Killings in Britain.
There was a cardboard hospitalform with a list of names
written on it.
O'hare noticed the name Edith,which she recognized from

(29:14):
newspaper accounts as one ofSwango's alleged victims.
There were some men's apostlebooks.
There were books about murderand the supernatural.
In one book Swango hadunderlined a sentence the
British are arrogant.
Swango had written yes in themargin, which O'Hare took as a

(29:35):
personal affront.
And there were books includingthe anthologies High Risk and
High Risk II Writings on Sex,death and Subversion.
Glancing at some of the pages,mrs O'Hare felt faint.
Several passages werehighlighted in yellow marker.
There were violent,scatological sexual descriptions

(30:00):
that O'Hare found revolting.
But most upsetting to MrsO'Hare was makeup that had
belonged to her daughter,paulette, as well as a pair of
Paulette underwear.
Talked between the pages of oneof the books was a piece of
paper, and on it Swango hadcarefully written a poem by W H

(30:23):
Alden, and O'Hare was initiallypuzzled, but then she recognized
the poem as a funeral orationand four weddings and a funeral.
The one that says stop all theclocks, cut off the telephone,
prevent the dog from barkingwith a juicy bone, silence the
pianos and, with muffled drum,bring out the coffin.

(30:47):
Let the mourners come.
Let air replay in circle,moaning overhead, scribbling on
the sky the message he is dead.
Put crepe bowls around thewhite necks of the public doves.
Let the traffic policemen wearblack cotton gloves.
He was my north, my south, myeast and west, my working week

(31:11):
and my Sunday rest, my noon, mymidnight, my talk, my song.
I thought that love will lastforever.
I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now.
Put out everyone, pack up themoon and dismantle the sun, pour
away the ocean and sweep up thewood, for nothing now can ever

(31:36):
come to any good.
So now it's June 27, 1997.
An immigration official at OldHare International Airport in
Chicago took the Americanpassport of a man arriving from
Johannesburg, rio, london.

(31:57):
He was en route to Portland,oregon, and then on the same day
to Don Ron saw the Arabia.
The immigration officialentered the name on the passport
, michael J Swango, and thepassport number into the
computer.
When the results appeared, heasked Swango to step into a

(32:22):
private room.
Swango was arrested on federalcharges of fraud.
The outstanding warrant for hisarrest has shown up on the INS
computer.
The next day he was transferredby a federal marshal to the
Metropolitan Detention Center inBrooklyn, new York, the federal
prison primarily serving theeastern district of New York,

(32:45):
which covers Long Island.
Since living in Zimbabwe nearly10 months before, swango had
already obtained two newpositions as a physician.
The first was at a universityteaching hospital in Lusaka, the
capital of Zambia, the Africannation which lies to the north

(33:06):
of Zimbabwe and east of Angola.
He had obtained a temporarymedical license from the Zambian
government and had beentreating patients for over two
months when Zimbabwe authoritiesissued an alert on him to other
southern African nations,including South Africa, nabilia,
botswana and Zambia.

(33:28):
Zambia authorities promptlyfired Swango from the hospital
on November 19, 1996, andsuspended his medical license.
Swango protested by the actionby letter saying he had left
Zimbabwe because the medicalsystem there was in turmoil and
he was being harassed bygovernment authorities and had

(33:51):
never been given an opportunityto contest the charges.
But, as in South Dakota, hedidn't stay to pursue the appeal
.
By the time hospital officialsreplied Swango had again
vanished.
Swango next surfaced inJohannesburg, south Africa.
Through a medical placementfirm, he quickly secured a

(34:13):
position at a hospital in SaudiArabia, far from the scrutiny of
US or Southern Africaninvestigators.
There was only one snag He hadto obtain a Saudi visa to a
consulate located in the UnitedStates.
Saudi Arabia only issued visasto foreigners in the country of

(34:33):
their citizenship.
Swango argues strenuously thathe was absurd to make him fly
all the way back to Americarather than travel directly from
Africa to Riyadh.
But Saudi officials would notmake an exception.
Since the Saudi royal family,which ran the hospital that had
hired Swango, had often used amedical placement firm in Oregon

(34:56):
to obtain physicians for itshospitals, it was arranged for
Swango to pick up his visa there, then travel that same day to
Saudi Arabia.
Though his reluctance to returnto America suggests that Swango
was aware that a warrant hadbeen issued for his arrest and
that he might be picked up whilegoing through customs and

(35:17):
immigration, he neverthelesstraveled under his real name,
using his own passport.
Perhaps he felt he had nochoice, since the medical
diploma he had used to securehis job wasn't the name Michael
Swango.
Or perhaps he simply could notforge or obtain new passport in
the short time before hisscheduled departure.

(35:39):
Of course, he could have turneddown the job offer and sought
non-medical employment, butaccess to hospital patients
appears to have become acompulsion, something he would
take extraordinary risks tomaintain.
Swango's arrest attracted littlepublic attention, and

(35:59):
indictment charging him withwillfully making a materially
false fictitious or fatherlandstatement and representation to
gain admins to the New YorkVeterans Hospital A matter
within the jurisdiction of adepartment or agency of the
United States was filed on July3rd, but it wasn't on seal and

(36:21):
made public until July 25th.
The FBI investigation now wentinto high gear and an assistant
US attorney for the EasternDistrict of New York, cecilia
Gardner, was assigned to handlethe case.
A Brief New York Daily Newsarticle on July 26th reported

(36:46):
that Swango had been napped inChicago.
When Elsie Harris, bermanHarris' widow, heard the news
she could hardly believe it andburst into tears.
She thought everyone hadforgotten about Swango, even
though in her heart she wasconvinced that Swango was
responsible for her husband'sdeath And, as a matter of fact,

(37:12):
elsie Harris and relatives oftwo other patients who died.
They sued Swango, they sued theVeterans Administration, they
sued the University MedicalCenter at Stony Brook for
wrongful death And Andrew Seiman, a lawyer for the plaintiff,

(37:33):
said the cases were dismissedbecause they could not prove
that Swango had cost the deaths.
So now it's September and shetraveled to Federal District
Court in Uniondale, long Island,for Swango's arraignment.
She noticed that he had lostweight.
He seemed calm, polite,respectful.
She was hoping he might offersome explanation or say

(37:57):
something to her, but he avoidedher eye and didn't acknowledge
her presence In Quincy.
Dennis Cashman, the judge, whohad found Swango guilty of
poisoning his co-workers 11years earlier, heard about
Swango's arrest from a newsdayreporter who called, and then

(38:19):
from Nancy Watson, the officialat the American Medical
Association in Chicago who hadrejected Swango's application
while he was in South Dakota.
The judge was amazed, dismayed,that Swango had surfaced yet,

(38:39):
so now decided to call areporter that he knew, james B
Stoard, and he said that becauseMr Stoard knew the judge.

(39:01):
So in Quincy, illinois, judgeDennis Cashman this is the judge
who had found Swango guilty ofpoisoning his co-workers 11
years earlier heard aboutSwango's arrest.
He heard it from two peoplefrom a newsday reporter who
called him and told him thatpiece of information, and also

(39:25):
from Nancy Watson who was theofficial at the American Medical
Association in Chicago who hadrejected Swango's application
while he was in South Dakota.
So the judge was dismayed aboutthis information, so he decided
to call a reporter by the nameof James Stoard, who was

(39:48):
somebody that he knew for years.
They grew up in the sameneighborhood, the families
basically knew each other And hetold him that he had learned
from Michael Swango, who hadbeen arrested at Ohio Airport,
and he said that Swango hadgrown up in Quincy and he has

(40:11):
been the valedictorian of hishigh school class.
So the reporter Stoard thoughta little bit and he said well,
the name was familiar, but theywere not exactly from the same
high school class.
There was some years differenceAnd the reporter went to public
school, while Swango didn't.

(40:33):
He went to a Catholic highschool So but he did remember
the last name, swango, and hedid remember the poisoning
charges that had back in 1985when it happened.
So he asked Judge Cashman whySwango had been arrested And

(40:55):
they just say oh, i know, isthat he had been arrested on a
minor charge.
But for him the real issue wasfar more serious, because two
years earlier an FBI agent foundthe Bureau's Springfield
Illinois office.
John I think his name was JohnMcCatty Jr visited the judge in

(41:20):
his chambers and said that theBureau was trying to develop a
psychological profile of Swangoas it continued to search for
him.
And McCatty and the Bureau hadrecently intervened to have
Swango fired from a job dealingwith the water system of a
larger Southern metropolitanarea, which was in this case

(41:42):
Atlanta, because of fears thathe might try to poison the water
supplies in a system in Atlanta.
So the judge found thisstartling enough.
But then the agent told him theFBI had now connected Swango to
numerous possible homicides Andthe Bureau was reasonably

(42:05):
confident that Swango had killed60 people.
So the judge said oh, do yousay six?
Do you say six people?
And then the agent told him.
No, no, no, not six.
Sixty.
The number of Swango's allegedvictims would, if proved, rank

(42:27):
him among the most prolific andsuccessful serial killers in
America history.
But Cashman was equallydisturbed by the conduct of
members of the medicalprofession.
So he went on and told thereporter, mr Stewart, that he

(42:47):
briefly recounted Swango'semployment history.
He pointed out that doctors andadministrators have entrusted
patients to a man they knew tobe a convicted felon, and the
medical profession seemed blindto the possibility that one of
its own could be a serial killer.
And he said this is outrageous,and I believe this is a

(43:09):
national scandal.
So the reporter was stunned bythe possibility that someone
from his own hometown could be aprolific serial killer and that
he had been able to move fromhospital to hospital.
And his question was how couldsuch a thing have happened?

(43:30):
What could possibly explain themind of a doctor who took an
oath to help people but insteadkilled them, seemingly at a
random?
Or was it possible that, asSwango always maintained, he was
a victim of a bizarre series ofcoincidences and a miscarriage
of justice?

(43:51):
So the reporter decided to dosome research on his own, and he
researched this case for almosttwo years.
He wanted to look for answers.
So of course, he went to Quincy, to Ohio, to Virginia, to South

(44:12):
Dakota, to Long Island andfinally to Africa.
And that is when he stood in aremote field in Zimbabwe, face
to face with one of Swango'svictims, that he became
convinced of his guilt.
He met Kinia Sisiwa, who toldhim the same story as Rina

(44:39):
Cooper.
Rina Cooper was the woman whowas also a victim of Swango in
another hospital in the States,and this woman, she had never
met or heard of Mr Sisiwa, butat the same time their stories

(45:01):
were very, very similar.
So he started looking for moreinformation of Michael Swango,
and one of the things that henoticed is that all these
patients trusted Michael Swangoas a doctor.
You know he had.
They have looked up to Dr Miketo save them.

(45:23):
And the other thing that thereporter found out in his
research is that Michael Swangohas consistently refused to be
examined by a psychiatrist or aclinical psychologist.
He has maintained that there isno reason why he should be
examined since he has nothing.
He has done nothing wrong.

(45:45):
So you know, perhaps he isintelligent and knowledgeable
enough to have a pretty goodidea of what a psychiatrist
would find.
And so the reporter wanted tounderstand Swango a little bit
more, so he decided to contactDr Jeffrey Smoldon, who is a

(46:05):
clinical and forensicpsychologist and his specialty
is psychopathology, specificallyserial killers.
He had consulted in more than ahundred death penalty cases and
he has interviewed severalserial killers, including John
Wayne Gacy.
Dr Smoldon lives in ColumbusOhio, and so he decided to go

(46:32):
all the way to Columbus Ohio andtalk to the doctor.
When he did that, one of thethings that the doctor told the
reporter was look, you know, i'mnot going to give you a
diagnosis, because no diagnosiscan entirely explain an extreme
case such as Swango's And anysingle explanation will

(46:56):
ultimately come up way shortbecause antisocial, narcissistic
.
There's still a large amount ofunexplained variants and large
unanswered questions, but inmany ways Swango seems a
textbook case of psychopath whoexhibits extreme narcissistic

(47:19):
tendency, and he went onexplaining that, although the
term psychopath is not currentlyin formal diagnostic use, the
label is still widely used byboth professionals and lay
people.
A psychopath is generallyunderstood to be someone who
lacks a capacity for empathy andmay exhibit aggressive,

(47:44):
perverted, criminal or immoralbehavior, and the psychopath
tends to be highly self-absorbed.
The condition is usuallyclassified as an extreme and
dangerous variation ofnarcissistic personality
disorder and narcissism beingthe excessive love of self.

(48:05):
But it is not a form ofinsanity.
Psychopaths are full aware oftheir actions and have the
actions consequences and theycan distinguish right from wrong
.
So the other thing that DrSmoadant told Mr Stewart was
look, you know, we can talkabout the case.
But I want to emphasize that Icannot diagnose someone that I

(48:29):
have never met.
So after reading the materialsthat the reporter gave him, he
said that he was struck by theincredible narcissism that
Swango displayed and that thisis often the most prominent
personality feature of some ofthe serial killers that he has

(48:53):
met.
And he said that Swango seemsto have that sense of
entitlement, a preoccupationwith control and manipulation,
and that Swango was a narcissistin some relatively obvious ways
, such as his obsession withphysical fitness.

(49:14):
He wanted to have control overhis body's appearance And also
he exerted some control over hisgirlfriends.
But the ultimate expression ofa narcissistic preoccupation is
control over life and death In.

(49:35):
Serial killers typically betrayor portray I should say
fascination with the military,law enforcement, they want to be
in careers in which people arearmed.
They often fantasize aboutviolence and disasters in which
they emerge as heroes.
One example would be serialkiller David Berkovitz, the son

(50:03):
of Sam.
He wanted to be a fireman Andhe told an interview, during an
interview, that he wanted to diewhile saving lives and fighting
a blaze.
He wanted to help people,rescue people and be a hero,
even if it means dying in thefire.
So it is significant thatSwango indicated in his high

(50:28):
school yearbook that he wantedto be a state trooper and that
he later enlisted in the Marines.
His fascination with what mightbe called armed careers was
also manifested in the arsenalthat was found in Quincy when
the police searched hisapartment, his obsession with

(50:49):
disasters and his work as aparamedic.
When he was a paramedic, hecame to the scene of accidents
even when he was off duty, infantasies in which he would
arrive on the scene of disastersand have control over the fate
of the victims.
So all these situations, allthese were situations in which

(51:10):
he had control over the lives ofothers.
The narcissistic psychopath isnot motivated by empathetic
concern for the victims or bydesire to help them, but it is
more a grandiose sense of self.
And of course, there arenumerous theories suggesting

(51:31):
biological and geneticpredispositions to
psychopathology, and this mayhave played a role in Swango's
development.
But narcissism, in the classicFreudian view, is an attempt to
compensate for early, profoundfeelings of being unloved and

(51:51):
undervalued.
So if we look at Swango, heexperienced an absent, detached
father, a mother who, howeverdevoted, had difficulty
expressing love and affection.
The father who is eitherphysically or emotionally absent
figures in the history of mostmale psychopaths is a common
feature in the profiles that areused to detect saver killers.

(52:14):
So Swango spoke often of hisabsent father.
He glorified his father'sKorean Vietnam, while expressing
his own language of being oldbut abandoned.
He had a fascination withdisasters, with killing, with
weapons echoed and with echoesthat echo similar interests that

(52:36):
he perceived in his father, andone of the things he learned
was that his father also keptscrapbooks of disasters like he
did.
So, according to the doctor'sanalysis, it is almost too
simplistic to say that Swango istrying to close the gap between
himself and his and his dad.

(52:56):
Also, in Swango's case, theproblem may have been compounded
by his mother's focus on him,to the exclusion of her other
children.
As special, as gifted, assomeone deserving of a private
school education and someone whoseems as narcissistic as Swango

(53:16):
, you're going to find a patternof overvaluing by one or both
parents, because everything thatthey do is seeing superior is
seems special.
His mother's inability toabsorb that Michael wouldn't
graduate with his class.
They need to keep up the front.
That he was special andbrilliant is significant, and he

(53:39):
may have lost the ability toevaluate his own self-worth by
any realistic standard.
They are severe narcissists thatoften demonstrate their
grandiose sense of self bydeceiving others.
They experience bothacceleration at their own
super-reality and contempt fortheir victims when they

(54:02):
successfully put something overon another.
Their activities may range fromrelatively innocuous lies to,
in extreme cases, serious crimescommitted largely for the
thrill of eluding detection.
And, paradoxically, the thrilland the sense of super-reality

(54:23):
may be enhanced by taking riskthat actually increased the
likelihood of getting caught.
So Swango seems to be anextreme example of this
grandiose personality in action,because he lied constantly,
sometimes for seemingly rationalreasons such as concealing his

(54:43):
past in order to get a job, butoften it seems simply to get
away with something.
He lied about his militaryrecord because he said that he
received a bronze star and apurple heart.
At one point he said his motherwas dead.
And he was a good liar too.

(55:03):
He was able to deceive eventrained psychiatrist at Stony
Brook, which no doubt stoke hisown sense of importance His
claims that he didn't give MrsRena Cooper an injection, that
he wasn't even in her room, thathe didn't give Mr Cicillo an
injection, even as Cicilloappointed to him as a doctor who

(55:25):
had injected him with aparalyzing drug, and for him
that was intensely thrilling.
And Dr Smyldon also mentionedthat he was struck by the
gratucious falsification, theidea of putting one over just
for its own sake, just becauseyou can get away with something,

(55:48):
and there is a sense of powerin this.
He also talked about Swango'scomments about violence, sex and
death.
His open admiration for serialkillers like Ted Bundy is
calling attention to articlesabout serial killers, to movies

(56:11):
such as The Silence of the Lambs, according to Dr Smyldon, he
continually drew attention tohimself in ways that are hard to
understand, except in terms ofthe thrill of going right to the
edge.
Another revealing clue toSwango's psychopathic mind was
his reaction to criticism.

(56:33):
He he bridled when teased andbelittled in medical school.
Dr Smyldon suggested that theincident in which Swango botched
his cadaver and was criticizedand mocked would have been
experienced by him as an extremehumiliation.

(56:54):
He may have begun killing andretaliation.
Swango's failure to graduatewith his SAU medical school
class was so humiliating that hecouldn't bring himself to tell
his mother or show up at thedinner where he would have to
face his relatives.
He subjected himself to theself-punishment of push-ups when

(57:17):
criticized by residents at OhioState and his apparent crime
spree there began right afterhis performance as an intern was
criticized by a faculty member.
He seems to have poisoned hisfellow paramedics after he was
mocked for not being assigned tothe primary ambulance, and he

(57:38):
appears to have begun poisoningat least two of his girlfriends,
kristin Kinney and Joanna Daly,and probably his landlady, mrs
Linado Hare.
And this happened immediatelyafter they questioned his
innocence and he erupted in ragewhen Sharon Cooper commented
that he had put up a few pounds.

(58:01):
While some of his the criticismshe encountered may seem trivial
, a cardinal feature of thesevere narcissistic personality
is that they cannot breakcriticism or challenge of any
kind.
According to Dr Smoldon, he wascriticized at med school and he

(58:21):
couldn't take it.
He was thin-skinned, he wasextraordinarily self-absorbed.
The narcissistic theme is verystrong.
The extreme narcissisticpsychopath almost invariably
attributes criticism orchallenge to persecution, as did
Swango and his many claims tobe the victim of miscarriage of

(58:46):
justice.
Besides enjoying the thrill ofcontrolling life and death and
getting away with it, serialkillers feel no empathy for the
victims, so complete is theirabsorption in themselves.
When Swango poisoned hisvictims short of the point of
death, he very well may havefelt they deserved punishment he

(59:07):
needed on.
But a serial killer who chooseshis victims at random has no
motive in any rational sense.
The thrill of killing andgetting away with it simply has
no deterrent in the form ofempathy for the victim.
Precisely why this would be thecase, why some people utterly

(59:30):
fail to develop a capacity foremotional bonding or
identification with anotherhuman being, is a subject of
much debate among psychologists.
Some have suggested that achild who fails to undergo an
edible transfer to either parentrisk losing the capacity for

(59:52):
empathy, and other researchershave suggested biological causes
.
Psychopathic serial killersinvariably lack any capacity for
empathy In.
This deficit may have been mostevident in Swango's numerous
callous remarks about death, inhis delight in being the doctor

(01:00:13):
to inform relatives of the deathof a loved one, in his failure
to express any remorse afterbeing after people died what in
his care, and especially in hiscurious lack of emotional
reaction when he found out thatKristen Kinney, his girlfriend,
had died.
Yet many people found Swangocharming, attractive, personable

(01:00:39):
.
Numerous women dated him and atleast three loved him.
But this seem seem seemingparadox is almost common in the
psychopath.
Dr Smolden also explained thathe would imagine Swango as
profoundly deficient in hisability to connect emotionally

(01:00:59):
with other people, but probablyvery adept at exhibiting
counterfeit displays of emotionwhen he had perceived a purpose
in doing so, for example tomaintain a relationship that
provided sexual gratification.
The psychopathic personality isoften described as the mask of

(01:01:20):
sanity.
2 because it's superficial.
These people seem to have thenormal emotional equipment, but
it doesn't run deep.
They pantomime it, they don'tfeel it.
It appears Swango was obviouslyvery good at crafting a social
persona that would serve hisinterests.

(01:01:42):
Another telltale clue inSwango's behavior this is
strange relationship to foodEating the entire chocolate
cream pie his mother baked forhim, hoarding the cream cheese
pastries at the hospital inSouth Dakota and especially
obsessively wrapping and storingthe bacon sandwiches that he

(01:02:05):
prepared Mrs O'Hare's house.
Such obsessions are usuallycharacterized as aspects of an
attachment disorder, in attemptto overcome the deep insecurity
fostered by the failure to bondwith a parent.
It is, of course, easier todescribe a psychopath than it is

(01:02:26):
to explain one.
No doubt many people grow upwith an absent father and an
emotionally distant mother,aspire to be a policeman or a
marine, have a controllingpersonality and even hoard food.
Mercifully, few are psychopaths.
As Dr Smolden cautioned,nothing entirely explains

(01:02:48):
someone as an aberrant as Swango.
His good looks, his charm, hisintelligence, our varying
ability to predict or explainhis psychopathology are part of
what makes him so frightening.
Nearly all those who came intocontact with Michael Swango and
were viewed by him defendthemselves by pointing out that

(01:03:11):
he was such a skilledpsychopathic liar that they
could not have been expected todetect his deception and that
his behavior is so aberrant thatthe possibility of similar
occurrences is remote.
It would be comforting tobelieve that this is the case,
but all indications are to thecontrary.

(01:03:34):
The disturbing fact is thatserial killing, or mercifully
infrequent, is a contemporaryphenomenon.
We can see isolated examples inthe 19th century, like a Jack
the Ripper.
They were sub-severe murderersthat proliferated in the 1950s

(01:03:57):
and especially in the UnitedStates, but it will have.
The known instances of serialkilling in America since 1795
have occurred since 1970 whenthe raid soared exponentially.
It increased tenfold into the1970s alone.
There seems to be little doubtamong experts that serial

(01:04:20):
killing is a socially influencedphenomenon and that one
instance with its attendantpublicity encourages emulation,
especially on the part ofgrandiose, narcissistic
personalities determined togenerate a place of publicity
for themselves.
Swango he emerged as a physician, even though there were other

(01:04:46):
two other non-physicians cases,one in England, dr Thomas Neil
Kreme, and then Dr H H Holmes,who was mentioned in a lot of
the literature as probably thefirst serial killer in America,
and he committed.

(01:05:06):
They both committed theirmurders in the late 19th century
.
But serial killers within thehealthcare field well, they
remain relatively few haveincreased in an alarming rate
Even since Swango's arrest.
There have been two examples ofnational publicity or real

(01:05:27):
majors a nursing intensive careunit of a hospital in Indiana.
Efren Saldivar, respiratorytherapist, in Los Angeles.
Serial killers were discoveredin hospitals, in an harbor in
Michigan in 1975, in San Antonioin 1981.
Some killers have defendedtheir murders in a hospital

(01:05:49):
setting as mercy killings, butrelatively few of these claims
stand up to scrutiny.
Others seem to be random actsof serial murder.
From the point of view of adetermined serial killer, a
hospital is almost the idealsetting, since murder can so
easily be camouflaged as naturaldeath.

(01:06:10):
A shilling counterpart to Swangoemerged in 1987 when a medical
examiner in Cincinnati sawcyanide in the stomach cavity of
a man believed to have diedfrom injuries suffered in a
motorcycle accident.
The cyanide poison was tracedto a quiet 35-year-old nurse,
nurse's aide at Drake MemorialHospital, his name Dona Harvey.

(01:06:35):
When Harvey was confronted, headmitted to poisoning the
accident victim and to killing akilling spree that spanned 16
years and four hospitals,including the Veterans
Administration Hospital inCincinnati where he worked for
10 years.
He admitted that he killed atleast 52 times and eventually

(01:07:02):
pleaded guilty to 25 Ohiomurders and nine in Kentucky.
He did this in return to bespared the death penalty.
He was sentenced to multipleconsecutive life sentences and
will be 95 by the time he'seligible for parole.

(01:07:24):
But in as in many such cases,it is hard to know precisely how
many victims Harley actuallykilled.
Harvey confessed that he didn'talways poison people to kill.
Fearful that his lover wascheating on him, Harvey slips
small doses of arsenic into theman's food so that he would

(01:07:47):
become sick and have to stayhome.
When a tenant quarrel with hislover over utility bills, he put
arsenic and the topping on apiece of pie he gave him.
Harvey's arrest and confessionshocked people, people who knew
him.
He was religious, he was polite, he was a reliable employee.

(01:08:09):
A family friend told the pressthat he was such a good boy, a
good Christian man.
But Harvey had a troubledchildhood and had attempted
suicide on several occasions totry to stop himself from killing
.

(01:08:30):
Harvey described the thrill thathe experienced when he escaped
detection.
He said that, quote I felt afeeling of power.
I was able to pull one over onthe doctors.
I had plenty of common sense.
It made me feel smart that apathologist couldn't catch me.
Plus, to show that doctors areprone to mistakes.
End quote.

(01:08:51):
So given the rise in serialkillings generally, in hospitals
specifically, it seemsinedivable that more swangles
were surfaced and that it seemsall the more critical that
criminal physicians be monitoredand prevented from having

(01:09:13):
access to patients.
When Judge Cashman spoke to theAmerican Medical Association
officials after learning ofswango's arrest, he demanded to
know how swango could have beenhired at two university teaching
hospitals after being convictedof poisoning.
He was assured that, whateverthe explanation, it couldn't

(01:09:36):
happen again because a newnational monitoring system had
gone into effect in 1990.
The system is called theNational Practitioner Data Bank.
But how then, the judge wonder,could swango have been accepted
at the State University of NewYork in Stony Brook in 1993?

(01:10:02):
That means that that nationalpractitioner data bank already
existed, and yet he was acceptedinto this medical school.
So what he found out was thatneither Stony Brook nor at South
Dakota had officials check withthe data bank.
Such a step was optional underthe Wyden legislation In any

(01:10:28):
event.
Nor it is obvious that the databank would have reported
anything on swango, since thereis no indication that anyone
reported swango to the data bankin the first place.
So the reporter, mr Stewart,called the data bank to find out
if he had any information onswango, and they told him that

(01:10:51):
any such information, evenwhether his name appeared in the
data bank, was confidential.
So Dr Salem, who acceptedswango's application in South
Dakota, insisted to the reporterthat he was familiar with the
data bank and its operations.
He said that medical residentswere exempt from its

(01:11:12):
requirements, but others,including administrators at
Stony Brook, seemed to be onlyvaguely aware of its existence
and some had never heard of it.
So even without swango'sexample, it is perfectly plain
that the data bank is notprotected in the public.

(01:11:35):
So that is interesting Now.
In short, the performance ofthis data bank at that point,
its failure to warn of swango,wasn't undermissed.

(01:11:57):
As Judge Ketchman put it, it wasa national scandal, and at
times the judge felt that it maybe his life's mission to check
on swango's career, not justbecause the FBI has warned him
that swango might come after himafter he's again released from

(01:12:18):
prison.
But Ketchman's obsession almostof keeping swango in check is
in large part directed at themedical profession, because in
his view, hospitaladministrators and doctors were
so concerned about potentialliability that they refused to

(01:12:40):
acknowledge evidence of wrongfuldeaths And it became swango's
unlikely allies.
Particularly in Ohio State.
They did nothing, so swangoshould have been prosecuted in
Ohio.
No one would cooperate, becausethere is an unwritten rule in

(01:13:00):
the medical profession Ineptdoctors do not get reported,
just get them out of town.
Even in the most cursory plansat the medical profession's
treatment of swango appears tosupport Judge Cashman's
assertion.
Michael Swango performed poorlyat Southern Illinois University

(01:13:22):
and was the subject ofinvestigations both there and at
Ohio State.
Each institution made itpossible for him to procure a
license to practice medicine inits states and did nothing that
prevented him from being hiredin South Dakota and New York,
let alone in a foreign country.
Ohio State doctors actuallyrecommended that Swango be

(01:13:46):
licensed During myopia seemslittle short of astonishing.
Repeatedly, doctors atrespected hospitals and medical
schools were willing to believethat a fellow physician, even
when they knew him to be acriminal, and in some cases they
went so far as to recommendthat he would be hired elsewhere

(01:14:09):
.
How could a felon convicted ofpoisoning or even of a less
sensational form of battery begranted an interview, let alone
obtain a position?
Most doctors are affrightenedand are upstanding people, but

(01:14:29):
some consider themselves to bemembers of an elite and treat
one another accordingly, andthis loyalty among physicians
makes police officers famousblue wall of silence a little by
comparison.
This loyalty and thecorresponding distrust of

(01:14:49):
outsiders have only beenintensified by decades of
personal liability and medicalmalpractice litigation.
That has left doctors as agroup feeling beleaguered and
unappreciated, suspicious andfearful of outside regulation.
Many physicians, often withsome justification, have come to
view lawyers and indeed theentire legal system with

(01:15:12):
distrust, if not outrighthostility.
In such a climate, somephysicians seem willing to take
the word of almost any doctorrather than accept the rulings
of the courts.
Now there is the assistant USattorney, and her name was

(01:15:34):
Cecilia Gardner, and as shepounded the swango case she
faced a quandary.
It was she who had thought ofobtaining a warrant on fraud
charges.
She and the FBI now believethat they had a murderer in
custody, but the only crime thatcould prove against him was

(01:15:55):
making a false statement.
Under federal sentencingguidelines, perjury doesn't
carry a mandatory prison term.
Gardner was convinced that assoon as swango was out of
custody he would again find aposition as a physician,
probably in a foreign country.
She either had to give the FBItime to develop a stronger case,

(01:16:17):
a murder case, by deline thetrial, or she had to strain the
government's case by expandingthe charges.
Attorney Gardner moved from bothfronts.
Since swango had had access todrugs demarcotics, which are
controlled substances within thefederal criminal code, she

(01:16:42):
amended the indictment toinclude charges of fraudulent
access to and distribution ofcontrolled substances.
Conviction on these countscarry a maximum prison term of
three years.
She also persuaded swango'slawyer, randy Chavez, a court
appointed public defender, toagree to delay proceedings while

(01:17:06):
Gardner traveled to Africa toseek evidence of similar bad
acts.
Such evidence will beadmissible to prove that
swango's actions on non-islandwere part of a consistent
pattern.
So Gardner traveled to Zimbabwein the 4th 1997 and there she
gathered evidence of thefraudulent representation swango

(01:17:30):
had made to the Lutheran Churchand to the health ministries of
Zimbabwe and Zambia, and thisincluded a forged letter dated
May 19, 1994 from an executivevice president of the Federation
of State Medical Boards sayingthat swango was in good standing
with the Federation.
The document was notarized byswango's friend, bert Guy, as

(01:17:55):
were all swango's applicationdocuments.
Swango also said that he hadbeen working as a chemical soil
analyst with Guy Enterprises,which Guy later said meant
swango had turned the soil for awarm farm, he maintained in his
basement.
The resume swango used toobtain employment in Saudi

(01:18:17):
Arabia maintained that from 1990to 1995 he was an emergency
room physician in the UnitedStates in large urban inner city
hospitals and that he was aphysician with the US government
from 1984 to 1990, whichincludes the time when he was

(01:18:40):
actually in prison.
His employment application saidhe had never been convicted of
a criminal offense and hissolemn declaration to the
Zimbabwe Health ProfessionsCouncil stated that he had never
been debarred from practice onthe grounds of professional
misconduct.
On March 16, 1998, rather thanface a trial that would include

(01:19:06):
an extended inquiry into hisactivities in Africa.
Swango agreed to plead guiltyand accept a prison sentence of
42 months, but even after hisplea he tried to deceive the
federal probation officerpreparing his pre-sentencing
report.
Though he was required todisclose all previous employment

(01:19:28):
, he did not mention that he hadworked at Arti Co in Virginia,
where workers had come down withsymptoms of poisoning, and at
photo circuits outside Atlantawhere he had access to the
city's water supply.
On June 12, swango appeared inthe federal courthouse in Union
Dillon Island for sentencing andhe still looked younger than

(01:19:55):
his 43 years, although he couldhardly have passed for a 28 year
old.
There were few spectators, nofriends or family members were
in the court and the courthouse.
He took notes throughout theproceeding, as he had had at his
trial in Quincy 13 years before, and he would confer frequently

(01:20:16):
with his lawyer, mr Chavez.
Mr Chavez said that, despiteswango's guilty plea, her client
wanted or, mrs Chavez, i shouldsay her client wanted to lodge
an empathic denial of anypoisoning deaths, and then she
added that he denied having anypoison making abilities.

(01:20:37):
Judge Michael Mischlerpronounced the agree-upon-prince
prison sentence 42 monthsstipulating that while in prison
, swango shall not engage in anyduties that directly or
indirectly require thepreparation or delivery of foods

(01:20:57):
or dispensation of medicationor pharmaceuticals.
The judge asked swango if hehad anything to say and swango
decided not to.
He remained silent.
There was no glimmer ofsatisfaction on swango's face as
he left the courtroom escortedby two federal marshals, but on

(01:21:20):
some level he must have felt asense of triumphs, for despite
the guilty plea, despite thedire hints of trouble in Africa,
he again evaded murder charges.
Cecilia Garner resigned from thejustice department shortly
after swango's plea.
Despite her efforts at delay,the FBI had failed to complete

(01:21:43):
its investigation and was nomore close to a provable murder
case.
The obstacles to bureau facewere formidable.
The deaths at SIU and OhioState linked to swango were now
so old and so much evidence haddecayed or been lost or
destroyed that the likelihood offinding admissible physical

(01:22:06):
evidence was remote.
Morgan, the prosecutor in Ohio,had tried and failed to do so
more than 10 years earlier.
Officials in South Dakota andon Long Island had a very rushed
two-poor claim that they havefound no evidence of suspicious
death of patients on doswangoscare, which hardly enhanced the

(01:22:27):
possibility of finding evidencethere.
That left Africa symbol fromSimbaway officials.
They considered that thecountry lacked the technology
and the expertise to test forthe sophisticated substances

(01:22:48):
likely to have been used byswango and his victims.
In any event, even had Simbawaysought swango's extradition
under a recently completedtreaty between the two countries
, the United States doesn'textradite citizen to foreign
countries that, like Simbaway,have the death penalty, even

(01:23:08):
though the United States mayimpose the death penalty itself,
the FBI concluded that it hadto find physical evidence of at
least one American murder tomake a case against swango If
they could then introduceevidence of swango's activities

(01:23:30):
in Africa to show a pattern ofserial murder, much as Gardner
had used evidence from Africa toestablish a pattern of fraud.
To that end, agents reexaminedthe records of every patient
swango treated at the NorthportVA hospital his more recent US
employer, looking for symptomsconsistent with the kinds of

(01:23:54):
poisons already linked to swango, among them arsenic, nicotine,
ricin, potassium chloride andsuscicoline.
The process was tedious andlengthy but, despite the hasty
reassurances issued by StonyBrook officials, the suspicions
were strongly aroused by some ofthe evidence.

(01:24:15):
Eventually, three bodies wereexhumed on Rungn Island.
In addition, autopsy remainswere preserved from two
potential victims, like BaronHarris, who had lapsed into a
coma and then died after aninjection by swango.
One of those exhumed wasDominic Bofolino, the retired

(01:24:38):
Grunman employee.
Tissue and hair samples werecollected, sent to the FBI
laboratory in DC for analysis.
Agents also obtained a sampleof Kristen Keeney's hair from
the log saved by her mother.
Tests to determine the presenceof poisons are labor intensive

(01:25:02):
and time consuming, and even thesuspected Lung Island victims
had been dead for over fiveyears.
Many potentially lethalsubstances decay and disappear
in that length of time.
But only a few months afterswango sentencing Andrew
Bofolino, dominic's brotherheard from one of the federal

(01:25:24):
investigators who said he didn'twant to call Teresa, dominic's
widow, because his news mightupset her.
So he asked him was Dominic asmoker by any chance?
and Andrew said no, no, he quitsmoking more than 15 years ago.
Why, and the investigators toldhim.
Well, the reason I ask you ifhe was a smoker is because the

(01:25:49):
test results show an extreme andthat's the word he used extreme
level of nicotine in hisbrother's body, a level
consistent with nicotinepoisoning.
Thank you for listening to themurder book.
Have a great week.