Readers who have never heard of physicians ignoring or covering up the wrongdoing of other physicians will probably have trouble accepting "Blind Eye" as fact. Swango was born in Tacoma, Washington and raised in Quincy, Illinois, the middle child of Muriel and John Virgil Swango. "Do you think it was just coincidence?" -- Lance Morrow , , Stewart won a Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for his reporting on the stock market crash and insider trading. Award-winning author, James B. Stewart, has penned a riveting true-crime tale about golden-boy, Michael Swango, who seems destined for a successful career as a medical doctor. While he worked in Rhodes Hall at OSU, nurses noticed that apparently healthy patients began dying mysteriously with alarming frequency. Curiously, in the same yearbook he described his "ambition" as "to be an Illinois State Trooper. 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. As the Bulgarian crossed the busy Waterloo Bridge in central London in September 1978, he felt a faint pricking on his thigh. R. Z. Sheppard Time magazine James B. Stewart's Blind Eye is a persuasive case against Dr. Michael Swango. Soon after the FBI alerted the company, Swango was fired for lying on his job application. Blind Eye: The Terrifying Story Of A Doctor Who Got Away With Murder. Please try again later. 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. Previously sponsored memorials or famous memorials will not have this option. All photos uploaded successfully, click on the Done button to see the photos in the gallery. It is emotionally taxing, because patients needing neurosurgery are often in dire straits, and because deaths and catastrophic incidents on the operating table are probably more common than in any other area of practice. [2] Upon his return from Vietnam, John Swango became depressed and he and his wife Muriel divorced. On April 30, 1975, with the fall of Saigon, the Vietnam War ended and TCU, after adding more names to its Veterans Memorial, slipped back into normalcy. Others were killed in action, including the five TCU alum killed in Vietnam in 1967. He was eventually allowed to graduate the following year after completing several assignments on different specialties. Though most students sharing a neurosurgery specialty would observe each other's surgeries, Sweeney stayed away from Swango's he was horrified by the prospect of what he might see and Swango never showed up at Sweeney's, either.Zawodniak, though he was genial and friendly, also developed an aversion to Swango. Please try again. Early life. He didn't want Michael to become an antiwar activist like his older brother, Bob.Virgil needn't have worried; Michael seemed oblivious to the social and political upheavals sweeping the country. His fascination with death led him to poison colleagues and kill patients wherever he worked. During his time there, several employees sought medical attention with complaints of persistent and increasing stomach pains. Chillingly thorough.Wonderfully done.An elaborate journalistic reconstruction that has the fascination of an acutely observed and troubling novel. Swango dropped out of sight until mid-1994, when the FBI found out he was living in Atlanta and working as a chemist at a computer equipment company's wastewater facility. Notes and textbooks weren't allowed in the exam room.That didn't deter Swango, however, from using his notes during the exam. View popular celebrities life details, birth signs and real ages. He was sentenced in 2000 to three consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole, and is serving that sentence at the ADX Florence supermax prison near Florence, Colorado. Despite a very poor evaluation in his dean's letter from SIU, Swango got a surgical internship at Ohio State University Medical Center in 1983, to be followed by a residency in neurosurgery. He was so precocious that his clarinet teacher, who played in the Quincy Symphony and taught at Quincy College, recruited Michael for the Quincy College Wind Ensemble, which toured Illinois during Swango's senior year in high school.When Michael graduated from Christian Brothers in 1972, he was showered with honors: the "Outstanding Musician" and John Philip Sousa band awards (followed by a party for band members and their parents hosted by his mother); a citation as a National Merit Scholarship finalist; and the place of class valedictorian. Additionally, prosecutors found evidence that Swango lied about the death of Cynthia Ann McGee, a patient he treated during his internship at OSU. : There was a problem getting your location. Michael Swango, the middle child of Muriel and John Virgil Swango, was born in Tacoma, Washington, and grew up in Quincy, Illinois. He had transformed the hip region of his cadaver into an unrecognizable mess of tangled flesh and bone. John Swango was born circa 1841, at birth place, Kentucky, to Washington Swango and Lucinda Swango. He had just been arrested, though, at O'Hare International Airport after returning from overseas. As a result of suspicions of the medical director there, Dr. Zishiri, Swango was suspended. As his reputation at Stanford grew, he aspired to join the American Medical Association (AMA), which, via a thorough background check, came to know about his conviction in poisoning. But naturally, Swango's eagerness made a favorable impression on Wacaser, who found him remarkably pleasant and industrious. : For when his presentation finally came, and he unveiled his dissection, his fellow students gasped. Stewart began investigating. 0 cemeteries found in Quincy, Adams County, Illinois, USA. [14] The government used this time to amass a dossier of Swango's crimes. Mother. He ranked in the ninety-seventh percentile on his college aptitude tests. Some of his fellow students had suspected he had been faking checkups as early as his second year, but this was the first time he had been caught red-handed. Year should not be greater than current year. [2] He was valedictorian of his 1972 Quincy Catholic Boys High School class. He received an honorable discharge in 1980. To add a flower, click the Leave a Flower button. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations. Are you sure that you want to delete this memorial? American Criminals Libra Serial Killers Childhood & Early Life Joseph Michael Swango was born on October 21, 1954 in Tacoma, Washington to Muriel and John Virgil Swango. "Double-O Swango" meant License to Kill.Copyright 1999 James B. Stewart. Demand for doctors was so strong that lucrative careers awaited med school graduates. They also knew that they had a limited amount of time to amass that proof. Swango graduated from Quincy summa cum laude and was given the American Chemical Society Award. He is afraid of his friendshe is afraid of, Acclaimed for her "devastatingly accurate insight" (The New York Times Book Review) into the criminal mind, Ann Rule has chronicled the most fascinating cases of our time in her bestselling Crime, Now available as a three-volume paperback boxed set, E L Jamess. Some earned prestigious honors, like Colonel John V. Swango, professor of military science, who was awarded the Bronze Star. 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. Eventually, the school allowed him to graduate one year after his entering classmates, on condition that he repeat the OB/GYN rotation and complete several assignments in other specialties. Concerned colleagues quickly raise red flags of alarm, particularly nurses, but these issues are often dismissed, discounted or not investigated. : "Muriel proudly reported to family members that Michael had been accepted at several medical schools. John Virgil Swangomarried Muriel Dorothy Strubhart. "That's just what happens. Try again later. Michael Swango has been featured on the American crime show Unsolved Mysteries, the Oxygen series It Takes a Killer, and the National Geographic Channel episode Angel of Death. Stewart has produced an extraordinary book. His classmates observed that Swango was completing his entire rounds in less than an hour, sometimes spending what seemed like as little as five minutes with a patient. (Richard Kerkering, Muriel's son from a previous marriage, lived with his father.) He was forced out after being caught working on a scrapbook of disasters on work time. There was also no pathological test for the presence of ricin, which left no identifiable trace in the bloodstream or body. A ritual familiar to every medical student, the process bonds students and they usually remember it for the rest of their careers. Rosenthal and other students found this distasteful, almost as though Swango were celebrating the demise and wanted to call attention to it. Your new password must contain one or more uppercase and lowercase letters, and one or more numbers or special characters. He turned out the lights and noticed that another window in the adjacent dorm was still brightly lit.It was Rosenthal's classmate Michael Swango, wearing military fatigue pants and doing jumping jacks. During the episode, I made a few errors that I would like to correct here. On July 11, 2000, less than a week before he was due to be released from prison on the fraud charge, federal prosecutors on Long Island filed a criminal complaint charging Swango with three counts of murder, one count of assault and one count each of false statements, mail fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt. This memorial has been copied to your clipboard. Around this time, Swango met Kristin Lynn Kinney, a nurse at Riverside Hospital. He is a regular contributor to SmartMoney and The New Yorker. Discover today's celebrity birthdays and explore famous people who share your birthday. Neurosurgery, involving delicate operations on the brain and other parts of the nervous system, is one of medicine's most demanding (and highly paid) specialties. Because of the failure to perform adequate autopsies, no firm conclusions could be drawn. Michael was the second of Muriel and John Virgil Swango's three sons. Top subscription boxes right to your door, 1996-2023, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates, Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon. Swango was silent. His work in a hospital as an orderly would also have worked in his favor. Having abandoned music, he plunged into the sciences, earning a 3.89 grade-point average with a double major in chemistry and biology. As a result of suspicions of the medical director there, Dr. Christopher Zishiri, Swango was suspended. He crossed the border to Zambia and subsequently to Namibia, where he found temporary medical work. Knowing that he would likely face the death penalty for his crimes in Zimbabwe, Swango began talks for a plea agreement. Family (2) Spouse John Virgil Swango (? Judge Jacob Mishler sentenced him to three consecutive life terms, which he is serving at ADX Florence near Florence, Colorado. 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. Again, his patients began dying mysteriously. Best of 2022 Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Top 250 TV Shows Most Popular TV Shows Most Popular Video Games Most Popular Music Videos Most Popular Podcasts. He attended Millikin University in Decatur, where he did well academically. He was also a mass serial killer and a talented con artist. Among his classmates, the decision to become a doctor formed a large part of their getting-acquainted conversations. A former Page-One editor at The Wall Street Journal, Stewart won a Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for his reporting on the stock market crash and insider trading. Please complete the captcha to let us know you are a real person. You can customize the cemeteries you volunteer for by selecting or deselecting below. A few years later, his mother divorced his father, who had become alcoholic and suffered from depression upon his return from Vietnam. That summer, he enlisted in the Marines, and didn't return for his junior year. In looking into his background, Stewart learned that Swango, the second of three sons born to Muriel and John Virgil Swango, had made the honor roll every year at a rigorous private high school, winding up as valedictorian. Expand. In March 1997, he applied for a job at the Royal Hospital in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, using a false rsum. Who Speaks for You? During his suspension, Swango hired lawyer David Coltart to enable him to return to clinical practice. Continuing with this request will add an alert to the cemetery page and any new volunteers will have the opportunity to fulfill your request. Stewart, who has written books exposing Wall Street corruption ("Den of Thieves") and presidential chicanery ("Blood Sport"), this time persuasively dissects the medical Establishment. Translation on Find a Grave is an ongoing project. Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2019. Reprinted by permission. 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. He was a talented pianist and spent many evenings playing classical music for his mother. These staffers soon realized what Swango was doing, but no one on the faculty complained. [14] In his book Blind Eye, Quincy native James B. Stewart estimated that counting the suspicious deaths at SIU, circumstantial evidence links Swango to 35 suspicious deaths. The hospital maintained a large blackboard on which were written patient names and treatment remarks. In July 1998, he was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison. Swango's father was a career U.S. Army officer who served in the Vietnam War, was listed in Who's Who in Government 1972-1973, and was troubled by alcoholism. "That's the heart, Mike," Folce said, sarcastically emphasizing the word "heart." Enabling JavaScript in your browser will allow you to experience all the features of our site. With patients, he sometimes used poisons as well, but usually, he administered an overdose of whichever drug the patient had been prescribed, or wrote unnecessary prescriptions for dangerous drugs. Following his graduation, Swango went to medical school at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine (SIU). Quickly see who the memorial is for and when they lived and died and where they are buried. , Simon & Schuster; First Printing edition (June 15, 2000), Language It was the first medical school in the country to create a written set of criteria for the medical degree, criteria derived from an extensive survey of medical educators. Finally Chandra Banerjee, the first-year professor of pulmonary medicine, admonished his students: "Goddammit, no Swangoing." Oops, something didn't work. Paul F. Boller, Jr: An United States Navy Japanese Translator. In 1991, Swango legally changed his name to "Daniel J. Adams" and tried to apply for a residency program at Ohio Valley Medical Center in Wheeling, West Virginia. All rights reserved. While Bob listened to Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones, Michael's favorite popular music group was the brother-sister duo the Carpenters. 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. Thomesen's conversation focused on Swango lying on his government application to work at the VA, where he prescribed narcotic medications. He graduated summa cum laude in 1979 and won the American Chemical Society's award for academic excellence.Competition for admission to any accredited American medical school in the spring of 1979 was intense, as it had been ever since the baby boom generation began graduating from college in the late sixties and applying in droves to professional schools. or don't show this againI am good at figuring things out. This browser does not support getting your location. Crime can exist in any profession, but is particularly egregious in a medical environment where vulnerability and trust are so closely intertwined. John Virgil Swango also liked the strict ethical and moral foundation of the Catholic curriculum. Yes, Jim Stewart's books always are. Are you sure that you want to delete this photo? He studied prodigiously, working late into the night at the college library or in the science labs. 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. He decided to pursue chemistry and biology at Quincy University, where he provided wrong information about himself, stating that he had earned a Bronze Star and the Purple Heart in the Marines. His fellow students were dumbfounded, and some were disgruntled. Swango then found a job as a laboratory technician for ATICoal in Newport News, now Vanguard Energy, a division of CITA Logistics. Resend Activation Email. That is incorrect. The family wasn't Catholic (his father once described his religion as "the brotherhood of man"), but Christian Brothers was perceived as academically superior to the public schools. , money, salary, income, and assets. Though that meant Sweeney and Swango had to see each other virtually every day, they avoided each other as much as possible. 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