User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
I went to college with the subject of this book, Michael Swango at Quincy University. When I knew him he seemed a normal person who worked long hours paying his way through college, and medical school.
This book highlights why the medical profession is not good at policing itself for problem doctors.
Rating: really liked it
This is a true crime story about a demented doctor who kills people on his hospital rounds by injecting them with poison. If you have a hospital appointment coming up you shouldn’t read this book! And he also put poison in his co-workers soft drinks and coffee. They didn’t die, but got quite sick for a week or so – and that’s how he was caught the first time.
There are two themes pursued by the author. One is our main culprit, Michael Swango. He was a real piece of work. He had a number of girlfriends and(view spoiler)
[ when the relationship started not going his way he would slowly start to poison them. One woman had a tragic life and ended up committing suicide. (hide spoiler)]After reading a number of true crime stories over the years its remarkable how adept and convincing these murderers
are at lying . Eventually Swango was wanted for fraud in fabricating his medical records. After exhausting his possibilities in the U.S. he went to Zimbabwe in Africa where he also had to leave because of the mounting deaths in the hospitals and the suspicions that it was Swango causing these. When he returned to the U.S., he was arrested on fraud charges and incarcerated. During this period the F.B.I. ramped up its efforts and he actually pleaded guilty to the deaths he had caused in the U.S. hospitals. As far as I can tell he is still in jail and hopefully will stay there. He is a psychopath beyond rehabilitation.
The other theme brought up by the author is that the medical profession protects its own. There were always misgivings about Swango in the various hospitals that he worked in (the states of Illinois, Ohio, South Dakota, and finally New York in Long Island). The doctors would not listen and take seriously the comments of the nurses and patients who saw him giving injections or adding doses to the IV lines – because, after all, they were not doctors. So what did they do – they relieved him of his duties and Swango was then free to apply for medical positions in other states.
The hospitals where he worked didn’t want a police investigation because of the bad status this would give them and the foundations supporting them. Also, hospitals and doctors are afraid of being sued for malpractice. So the tragic incidents that Swango made (either patients dying or becoming suddenly ill) were hushed up and hidden away as much as possible to avoid any public investigations. This would avoid financial complications.
It was the local press that caught onto the story (as in did you know that this doctor has a criminal record?)– and slowly Swango's name started to expand across the country.
There is now apparently a national database of doctor evaluations, but apparently most hospitals don’t make much use of it (this book was published in 1999). This national database would have alerted the doctors hiring Swango in South Dakota and New York that he had served time for the poisoning of co-workers, quite a significant crime for anyone, more so for a doctor.
While it is true that we don’t expect doctors to kill – there are some who are incompetent and receive bad evaluations – Swango was also of this category never fitting in well with the team. The database would be helpful for filtering poor doctors.
This book was certainly interesting and gripped me. There are a lot of details on the life of Swango. I would have liked to have known somewhat more as to why he pleaded guilty to murder, possibly because at that stage he knew that there was no way out – his “career” as a doctor was finished. The author was never able to interview Swango – and I suppose that is no surprise.
I found this in Wikipedia (view spoiler)
[
A week before the indictment was handed up, FBI agents interviewed Swango in prison. They told him that on the day he was due to be released, he would be extradited to Zimbabwe to face charges of murder and attempted murder. Knowing that he would likely face the death penalty for his crimes in Zimbabwe, Swango began talks for a plea agreement. Eventually, prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty and extradition off the table in return for Swango accepting a sentence of life in prison without parole.[12]
Swango was formally indicted on July 17, 2000 and pleaded not guilty.[15] 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. Had he not done so, he faced the possibility of the death penalty in both countries.[14] At his sentencing hearing, Swango admitted to causing three murders, lying about his role in causing a fourth death, and lying about his 1985 conviction.[16] (hide spoiler)]
Rating: really liked it
Alhough it gets tedious at times, James B. Stewart's BLIND EYE (1999) is a better-than-average account of one of the worst killer psychopaths: Dr. Michael Swango of Quincy, Illinois, who most likely poisoned three dozen patients or more (the FBI believes it could be as many as five dozen), and wounded quite a few more.
Here's the paragraph with some spoilers: on the surface Swango was an affable, kindly man, but he grew up in a rough household and apparently took out his frustrations on many of his patients. The old cynical statement that "Doctors bury their mistakes" doesn't really apply here, because Swango was rarely blamed for these deaths; instead, he became adept at attacking on the sly, then changing jobs (and at one point, his name), then hopscotching across the Central and Eastern U.S. and even going overseas. In order to hide years of patchwork job service and even some imprisonment, the youthful-looking Swango would accomplish feats like convincing people he was in hid mid-twenties when he was, in fact, crowding forty. Most people couldn't believe he had done what it seemed he had done -- leaving Swango free to move on. And files and computer-based systems designed to catch people like Swango somehow came up deficient time after time.
I get the distinct feeling that Swango's 2000 life imprisonment (see https://www.cbsnews.com/news/life-in-... ) finally came about because people had read this detailed 1999 book and finally could connect the heretofore-missing dots. BLIND EYE is a good solid book to read, and while I feel its 300 page length is justified, some more photographs would have been nice -- and at times a higher sense of drama would have helped its prose, I believe.
Rating: really liked it
If you want to rack up body count as a serial killer, the best way is to be a doctor or nurse. You can kill so many people before getting caught.
This book is about serial killer doctor Michael Swango. The whole story is crazy. You can't believe how long he gets away with it.
The book has a justified tone of anger at the medical establishment, which fails to police itself. Doctors close ranks, hospitals are more concerned with avoiding scandals then with investigating reports of murder. So many nurses and patients complained about Swango, only to be ignored.
But also, people are trusting by nature. You don't expect someone to be a psychopathic lying serial killer.
I would like to think health information exchanges have improved to the point where someone like Swango could at least be immediately blackballed via internet. If a doctor has felonies for poisoning patients on their records can you at least try not to hire them elsewhere?
More books on doctor/nurse serial killers:
The Good Nurse (Charlie Cullen)
Prescription for Murder (Harold Shipman)
Rating: really liked it
Author and Pulitzer Prize winner James B. Stewart puts together the story of Dr. Michael Swango, an attractive, pleasant and intelligent physician, who in reality is a serial killer. Swango practically bluffed his way through medical school; not because he wasn't qualified but because strange things happened to his patients when he was present....too many people with non-life threatening conditions were suddenly dying. This trend followed him into his residency and the medical schools involved turned a blind eye to what was happening. Testimony from nurses and patients was ignored as reputation and potential liability were put before patient safety. Swango moved to Zimbabwe (Africa) to escape investigation and the murders continued. He was finally brought back to the US to stand trial on lesser charges. The book ends here (it was written in 1999) but history tells us that the doctor was later charged with multiple murders and is now serving life without parole. It has been estimated his victim count is 35 but could possibly reach 60. A very chilling tale.
Rating: really liked it
I read so many sociopath books it's starting to look bad... If I were to ever be picked up by the police and they investigated my library record I would be locked up for sure.
Rating: really liked it
So I have never been a fan of doctors and I have pneumonia at the moment, so I have to deal with them. So may be it wasn't the best choice of book, because it tells the truly terrifying story of Michael Swango, a medical doctor and serial killer. It is estimated that he killed as many as 60 patients/colleagues with poison. But what is perhaps the even more terrifying story is how hierarchy within the medical community (doctor's word too often taken over that of nurses) and ineffective self policing allows someone like Swango to get away with murder for so many years.
Rating: really liked it
Interesting book. I found the beginning to be a bit dragged down in details to the point of being incredibly boring (after a dramatic introduction we are subjected to chapter after chapter on his childhood and how distant the father is etc) but after the story gets towards the crimes it's interesting. I hadn't heard of this serial murderer before reading this book and I find it chilling how the events progressed. I'm amazing at how uninteresting the writing is for the subject, though it is incredibly detailed and well-researched as far as I can tell.
From a story perspective many of the details given are completely irrelevant but I assume many of the people reading true crime want to know every last detail, which you will get here if you are looking for it.
Rating: really liked it
Wow. This was a chilling encounter my medical student informed me of since "Dr. Death" began his killing at THE Ohio State. Stewart neatly chronicles this nearly unbelievable story well- it boggled my mind to read the first hand accounts of this psychopath's actions. Hiding behind gallows humor and the idea that a good bedside manner is optional for a good physician this guy slinked through med school by the skin of his teeth. It's even more terrifying how his charm was directed in such a self-serving manner as he ingratiated himself with whomever would advance his twisted directives. Stewart avoids over-moralizing about how the medical profession protects its own to a fault. He also didn't delve too deeply into the sociopathy but merely provided a rich background of his subject that was open to conjecture (describing Swango's absent father, loveless mother, life of unswerving perfection, a morbid fascination with death). Overall, I'm glad I read it but now I am double checking the locks on my doors at night. It reminded me that psychopaths hide by feigning normality until that last second their cheerfully giving you a "shot" to make you feel better.
Rating: really liked it
This was truly a 5-star read -- a well-written, well-researched and utterly frightening true story. The story never dragged for a minute, even when the author was describing the CYA politics of the medical profession and the many hands the evidence passed through without anyone ever noticing the glaring fact that people were being murdered under their noses. A rather sly comment the author made towards the end -- stating essentially that MDs see themselves as fundamentally different from other people and thus above suspicion -- really summed it all up for me. the book hit me even harder because I read it so close on the heels of Paralyzing Summer: The True Story of the Ann Arbor V.A. Hospital Poisonings and Deaths, a case mentioned in this book as well.
Rating: really liked it
We had to read this book for work and it is creepy (I work in a Medical Staff Office at a Hospital). Makes you realize that your job is very important!
Rating: really liked it
****SPOILERS! ****
Read the hardback version. I'm not fascinated by
murderers or serial killers. However I am fascinated
by how the good guys (police, FBI, prosecutors etc)
follow the clues and apprehend the perp.
Dr. Michael Swango MD grew up as the son of a career
military man, Virgil, & the family made 16 moves to
follow him. Michael as a youth seemed nearly obsessed
by guns, car crashes, thrillers, true crime, poison. And
as an adult, the Waco cult and fire, serial killers. Upon
Virgil's death, his wife discovered a violent death news
clippings scrapbook.
The author Stewart considered Swango a psychopath. No
one suspected intelligent, charming, hard-working, good
-looking Swango of these crimes. Swango chose Southern
Illinois University (SIL) for medical school- a 3 yr program
(4yrs being typical) from whence he eventually graduated.
Stewart followed Swango's medical career from Illinois,
Ohio, Virginia, W. Va., So. Datoka, New York, to Zimbobwe.
In some states he served as a medical resident & paramedic
at the same time! He had several internships in neurology,
psychiatry etc. At one pt Swango was convicted/ sent to
prison for 5 yrs (out in 2) for aggravated assault: poisoning
via food and beverages of 5 fellow paramedics. All 5 survived.
Swango legally changed his name upon his release.
Swango, seemingly perfect on his later resume, refused to
complete his SIL ob/gyn rotation, so he wasn't permitted to
graduate, eventually he completed it and graduated. He
next went to OSU medical school. A student nurse observed
Swango inject a chemical into a patient's IV ( nurses had IV
responsibility) & a patient and her roommate reported a
similar tale. The chemical injected into the patient's IV:
caused the pt to become paralyzed & required CPR. Swango,
alone w/ several patients, injected the chemical, the person
'coded,' needed CPR, then died. OSU did a superficial investi-
gation, didn't preserve evidence IE syringes or tubing, inval-
idated nurses etc Then concluded allegations against Swango
were unfounded.
Stewart shared at the time of this book's 1999 publication,
experts estimated 3-5% of all licensed MDs in the US were
impaired w/ substance abuse, senility, mental illness (and
unreliable), felonies, or lacked clinical skills to do the job.
In 1986, the National Practioner Data Bank became law &
in operation in Sept. 1990. Thereafter impaired licensed
physicians could be reported for disciplinary actions such
as suspension or termination as a MD or a revoked state
MD license.
The FBI estimated Swango murdered 60 patients, via adding
toxic arsenic or nicotine to a patient's IV. It became difficult
to prove w/ the passage of time b/c evidence was destroyed,
few witnessed him commit this crime,& did poisoning con-
tribute to the primary cause of the patient's death? The FBI
apprehended Swango @the Chicago airport (arriving from
Africa), charged him with a lessor crime, and he received a
sentence to a federal prison. Beyond the time period covered
in this book, he was convicted of murder.
It suprised me how gullible MDs & other allied medical
professionals acted toward Swango. Swango worked longer
hours than required, came in on his days off (!), and treated
patients not assigned to him. He required little sleep. All
"red flags."
Rating: really liked it
Sometimes people placed in positions of public trust turn out to be the bad guys - rogue cops, pedophile teachers, baby-stealing nurses. When we hear stories about these individuals, perhaps we pause a minute in wonder or just pass it off as a failure somewhere in The System.
What we don't often hear about is a doctors. Except for patient fondling by a few dentists and a handful of shrinks, doctors enjoy a pretty respected position high above other trusted figures. Maybe it's the commitment to so many grueling hours of school - who would risj all that? Or perhaps the bad ones wash out early and find other, easier professions.
So when one hears about a doctor who not only kills patients, but kills them at random, and then hides behind his position of trust and service, it seems particularly evil.
James B. Stewart, the Pulitzer Prize winner, hunted down enough dirt on Dr. Michael Swango to put together a complete and scary book. Blind Eye takes the reader through Swango's early years in high school through a career as a physician-serial killer. If H.H. Holmes (see Depraved by Harold Schechter) was America's first serial killer, Michael Swango could very well our most prolific. And both were physicians, curiously.
Stewart's estimate that Swango killed 60 people. This beats out Donald "the Angel of Death" Harvey, the Cincinnati nurse's aid who admitted to killing 52 people over his 16-year career; Henry Lee Lucas, a hero of Swango's evidently, who claims as many as 600 murders (police deny this is possible); and even Ted Bundy, thought the count of 26 victims is considered very conservative.
What makes Stewart's book so good, though, isn't the "ooh, isn't this gory" aspect, but rather his excellent research and tight writing that puts the reader there. You see "Dr. Mike" injecting lethal poison into the IV lines of his trusting patients. You see him denying involvement in tampering with food his co-workers later become violently ill from eating. The guy is scary.
He describes what I'd call the White Wall of Silence. Like the Blue one the cops enjoy, it appears that doctors build an even higher, more impenetrable one. And it's this that allows Swango to go on practicing as a doctor in one state after another until he's finally brought down.
Read this book. It's sobering and riveting.
Rating: really liked it
A simply horrifying story of a doctor who may have killed up to 60 patients .... and yet was hired time and again by various hospitals around the world. Even back in medical school. Michael Swango raised suspicion from his fellow students, yet the school would not listen and did not act. OSU (Ohio State University) basically stonewalled law enforcement authorities and gave Swango recommendations so he was hired at other hospitals.
He served 5 years in prison, had a long history of dubious behavior .... yet hospitals could not be bothered to follow-up on his forged recommendations and lies in explaining his past. The National Practitioner Data Base is supposed to be a resource showing disciplinary actions against physicians, yet as of the writing of this book (1999) very few medical institutions were providing information.
As of 2000, Swango is serving a life time in ADX Florence, but any number of medical institutions doing the most basic due diligence could have stopped him back in the 1980's. While I found the story mesmerizing, Stewart's writing style felt very disorganized and the middle of the book bogs down discussing Swango's childhood endlessly, while actually skimming over details like Swango's five year prison term. I kept wishing Ann Rule had covered this story because all the details would have been crystal clear (IMHO). 3 stars.
Visit my new blog "I Love True Crime Books"
Rating: really liked it
Fascinating story about an oddball misfit who somehow got into medical school, remained weird and aloof, began killing patients in ways that allowed him to be there pronouncing time of death, but just kept getting away with it. Most troubling and revealing was the way that the medical school stymied the investigative and reporting efforts of the few students who gradually became convinced "Dr. Death" (as they'd nicknamed him) was killing patients. What had tipped the students off was the man's complete lack of compassion or even interest in patients. All he seemed interested in was the dead and dying, even taking an extra job as an EMT because he got such a rush from arriving on the scene of horrible accidents or murders. His fellow EMTS likewise grew suspicious, but it was years before justice caught up with the man.
The fact that this is a true story just makes it that much scarier.
Besides the murdering, this is an excellent picture of a man who conned everyone and used people, somehow hiding his utter disregard for them on any level other than what they could do for him.
Interesting indictment of the "thin white line" of the medical community and its tendency to protect its own.
