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- [00:00]
Vanessa Richardson
Foreign. This is Crime House. We've all heard the phrase, fake it till you make it. The idea is, if you just act confident, you'll eventually be confident. It's pretty good advice for overcoming fears or learning new skills. But some people take this advice way too literally. Michael Swango was one of these people. In the late 1980s and early 90s, Michael faked his medical knowledge. He lied about his credentials so he could keep treating patients and dole out deadly poisons. Thankfully, federal investigators eventually caught on to his act. But even with the authorities on his tail, Michael kept going. He was willing to travel to the farthest reaches of the globe to fulfill his twisted desires. And nobody was going to stop him. The human mind is powerful. It shapes how we think, feel, love and hate. But sometimes it drives people to commit the unthinkable. This is Killer Minds, a Crime House original. I'm Vanessa Richardson.
- [01:33]
Dr. Tristan Engels
And I'm Dr. Tristan Engels. Every Monday and Thursday, we uncover the darkest minds in history. Analyzing what makes a killer Crime House.
- [01:42]
Vanessa Richardson
Is made possible by you. Please rate, review and follow Killer Minds to enhance your listening experience with ad. Free early access to each two part series and bonus content. Subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts before we get started, be advised this episode contains descriptions of violence and murder. Today we're concluding our deep dive on Michael Swango, a doctor and serial killer who used his position to harm and kill numerous patients. For years, Michael evaded detection, leaving a trail of death and unanswered questions in his wake.
- [02:22]
Dr. Tristan Engels
As Vanessa goes through the story, I'll be talking about things like Michael's growing coldness and fearlessness as a killer, odd breaks in his behavior, and clues that his personal relationships provide about his methods and motives.
- [02:38]
Vanessa Richardson
And as always, we'll be asking the question, what makes a killer?
- [02:47]
Nicole Lapman
Hey there, it's Nicole Lapman. This week on Crime House, it's a brand new episode of Scams, Money and Murder, diving into Wolf of Wall street himself. Want to get deeper into these unbelievable stories? Catch our recent episode with journalist Jessica Pressler, the reporter who uncovered the real story of Anna Delvey. Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. Buying a car in Carvana was so easy, I was able to finance it through them. I just.
- [03:16]
Vanessa Richardson
Whoa, wait, you mean finance? Yeah, finance.
- [03:18]
Nicole Lapman
Got pre qualified for a Carvana auto loan, entered my terms and shot from thousands of great car options all within my budget. That's cool.
- [03:24]
Vanessa Richardson
But financing through Car Carvana was so easy.
- [03:27]
Nicole Lapman
Financed, done, and I get to pick up my car from their Carvana vending machine tomorrow.
- [03:31]
Vanessa Richardson
Financed, right?
- [03:32]
Nicole Lapman
That's what they said. You can spend time trying to pronounce financing, or you can actually finance and buy your car today on Carvana financing. Subject to credit approval. Additional terms and conditions may apply at Capella University.
- [03:43]
Capella University Representative
Learning online doesn't mean learning alone. You'll get support from people who care about your success, like your enrollment counselor who gets to know you and the goals you'd like to achieve. You'll also get a designated academic coach who's with you throughout your entire program. Plus, career coaches are available to help you navigate your professional goals. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more at capella. Edu.
- [04:15]
Vanessa Richardson
For his entire life, Michael Swango had a grim fascination with death. That fascination quickly grew into an urge to kill, and he realized that the perfect cover was to become a doctor. In the spring of 1984, 29 year old Michael completed his neurosurgery internship at Ohio State University. But he wasn't invited back for a residency because the medical staff believed he was responsible for at least five patient deaths. However, they thought it was due to incompetence, not malice. So Michael was free to continue his deadly mission elsewhere. After leaving osu, Michael returned to his hometown of Quincy, Illinois. He got his own apartment and found work as a paramedic. Within a few months at his new job, his co workers noticed his obsession with violence and death. They quickly got fed up with his disturbing behavior and in September 1984 they told him to stop talking about it. This wasn't the first time Michael's peers rejected him. Usually he brushed it off and moved on, but this time something inside him snapped. That evening, Michael left work and went to the grocery store. He bought a dozen donuts and a box of ant poison. When he got home, Michael scraped the icing off the donuts. He put it in a bowl, dipped, mixed in the ant poison, and put the deadly concoction back on the pastries. The next morning, he brought the donuts to work and offered them to his co workers.
- [05:56]
Dr. Tristan Engels
This is a deviation from his usual methods in many ways. Firstly, it doesn't involve patients and it's not directly related to practicing medicine. And secondly, it involves colleagues. So why this deviation? Well, he was once again rejected. Similar to his reaction to previous rejections, he's possibly experiencing another narcissistic injury. The fact that he was mocked and isolated wounded his ego, but it was compounded by the setback of losing his residency and having to Deviate back to being an emt. That alone was a rejection, especially because it interfered with his access to victims. So now he has to actively find new ones, and he set his sights on his co workers. This was about control, revenge, and a desire to punish that rejection. The decision to poison indicates that he wants total power without the risk, which isn't uncommon from his previous murders. Those were done with minimal risk, in the sense that he chose methods that could be explained by incompetence, accident, or a misunderstanding. This is also a method that allows for him to watch as his colleagues grew sicker. So he still derives satisfaction and pleasure from it. And once again, as Michael is escalating, so too is his confidence. He's becoming bolder, he's testing more boundaries, and he's no longer content with passive complicity like he was by refusing to render aid during a medical crisis. He reminds me of the teacup poisoner, Graham Young. When we did those two episodes on.
- [07:32]
Vanessa Richardson
Him, well, Michael's co workers weren't sure what to make of the donuts. He never brought in food to share before, but he said he'd bought them fresh that morning. It seemed like he was genuinely trying to make amends. Four of his colleagues took him up on it and grabbed a donut. Within half an hour, they were all flushed, dizzy and vomiting. The sick medics went to the emergency room, but the doctor thought it was food poisoning. And he seemed to be right because the sick medics all got better within a few days. But over the next two weeks, Michael's co workers kept getting sick. Coincidentally, it happened every time he offered them something to drink, usually something sweet, like a soda. A few of them caught on to the suspicious pattern and even reported it to their boss. He waved off their fears and apparently said Michael would never do something like that. Just like in medical school, Michael knew how important it was to charm the authority figures in his life, leaving him free to continue his deadly experiment. On October 12, about a month after the donut incident, two medics brewed some unsweetened tea, poured themselves each a cup, then darted off on a call before they could drink it. While they were gone, Michael snuck into the room and poured poison into their cups. When the medics got back, they went back to their mugs and each took a sip. They were surprised that the tea tasted sweet. They hadn't put any sugar in it. There was no denying it any longer. Someone was putting something in their drinks, and they were certain that Michael was behind it. Later that day, when Michael was out on A call. The medics unzipped his duffel bag and looked through it. They found a shopping bag from a nearby garden supply store with two boxes of ant poison inside it. The medics read the label and saw that the main ingredient was arsenic, formulated with sucrose, a sugar. The symptoms of arsenic poisoning mirrored their symptoms to a T. Severe headaches, stomach cramps, and violent vomiting. It had all started the day Michael brought those donuts.
- [09:48]
Dr. Tristan Engels
Because this is ongoing and it doesn't seem that he's giving them a lethal dose in one, it does make you wonder if he was actively trying to kill them or if it was just a sick game. And I think the answer is that it's likely both. Because when we conceptualize Michael, he loved to watch suffering and was pleasure in extending this as long as he could. He was engaging in premeditated harm with the risk of death, and he was okay with either of the outcomes. So it was a sick game, but with very real stakes. And Michael thrived off of that because he lacks empathy, he's emotionally detached, he's calloused and sadistic.
- [10:31]
Vanessa Richardson
Well, now that Michael's co workers were certain that he was behind their illnesses, they knew they had to stop him. But to prove he was poisoning them, they had to catch Michael in the act. About a week later, on October 19, 1984, the two medics whose tea Michael had poisoned made another batch. They did the same thing as before and left their cups out while they responded to a call. When they came back, they each took a small taste and found that it was suddenly sweet. They poured the tea into a plastic container, then brought it to the Illinois Bureau of Investigation. And the authorities performed a heavy metals analysis and confirmed that there was arsenic in the tea. The bureau alerted the Adams County Sheriff's office, and on October 26, they arrested Michael and brought him into the station. Michael wouldn't make a statement without a lawyer present. Although he gave the officers permission to search his apartment. They went there right away, and what they found was shocking. Inside the apartment, Michael had been operating a makeshift secret laboratory, and its contents were incredibly disturbing.
- [11:52]
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- [12:23]
Vanessa Richardson
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- [12:23]
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- [12:43]
Nicole Lapman
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- [12:54]
Vanessa Richardson
October 1984, police officers in Quincy, Illinois went to search 30 year old Michael Swango's apartment. When they entered the home, they immediately noticed a coll collection of disturbing items spread out on the living room table. The first thing that caught their eye was a large book with a skull and crossbones on the COVID It was titled the Poor Man's James Bond. One of the officers flipped through the pages and discovered that the book was filled with do it yourself guides to lethal poisoning. The book had instructions on how to get certain chemicals from the grocery store, and many of those chemicals were also in labeled bottles and syringes on Michael's table, like nicotine, botulin, and cyanide, plus boxes of ant poison containing arsenic. Michael had left handwritten poison recipes scattered everywhere, as well as his scrapbooks of deadly disasters. And as the officers searched through the mess, they uncovered something even stranger. Michael owned a collection of books on the occult. They explored dark topics like ceremonial magic, witchcraft, and necromancy. Within the pages, Michael had stashed his own handwritten spells and incantations.
- [14:13]
Dr. Tristan Engels
This just speaks more to his need to control. When someone like Michael consents to a police search, knowing full well that incriminating materials will be found, it often reflects a psychological blend of arrogance, control, and detachment. We're not looking at someone who's simply careless or naive. We're looking at someone who believes that they're either untouchable or playing a game that they can still win. And that has been the standard. The latter part he's won every time so far. For individuals with psychopathic traits like Michael, there's often a deep rooted need to feel superior to authority. Agreeing to a search could be his way of silently asserting, I know what you're doing and I'm still one step ahead. In his mind, it wasn't Necessarily about getting away with it. It was about staging control over the situation even as it unraveled. And there's also the possibility that he wanted to be caught on some level, not out of guilt, but out of a desire for recognition. For someone like Michael, who built an identity around their dark obsessions, the idea of being quote, discovered can be thrilling. It validates their belief that they're extraordinary, that they've done something shocking or brilliant, no matter how horrific that something might have been.
- [15:36]
Vanessa Richardson
Well, whatever Michael was thinking when he agreed to that search, it didn't go well for him. With all this evidence, the authorities were able to charge him with seven counts of aggravated battery. About seven months later, in May of 1985, he was found guilty on all but one. As punishment, Michael was sentenced to five years in prison. During his incarceration, he was on his best behavior. And in August 1987, 32 year old Michael was released early after only two years behind bars. But as always, his contrition was just an act. As soon as Michael reentered society, he was ready to kill. He still thought the best way to do that was through medicine, although he was no longer licensed to practice in Illinois or Ohio. So Michael packed up and moved to Virginia. But it wasn't that easy. When the state's licensing committee found out about Michael's felony conviction, they denied his application. After that, Michael spent the next few years working as a career counselor, helping students get into medical school. And it wasn't long before he started poisoning his co workers again. At some point while he was working at the career center, three of Michael's colleagues came down with severe headaches, cramps and vomiting. They quickly traced their illnesses back to Michael and contacted the authorities. When Michael learned he was being investigated, he quit his job. And although he never faced charges, he knew it was time to get out of town. Michael figured it was time to give medicine a try again. So in May 1991, the 36 year old applied for a residency program in West Virginia. In this time he got in. However, there was still no escaping his past. The hospital did its due diligence and it wasn't long before the chief of medicine, Dr. Jeffrey Schultz, learned about Michael's criminal history. But Michael wasn't about to give up. He forged documents making it look like his aggravated battery conviction was for a bar room brawl. There was even a fake pardon to go along with it.
- [17:55]
Dr. Tristan Engels
Michael has told some pretty bold lies in the past, and this one is pretty extreme. The fact that he forged an entire legal backstory, complete with a fake pardon tells us that he didn't just want to be believed, he wanted to manipulate reality itself. And that's an indication of someone with strong narcissistic and psychopathic traits, which we've already outlined are very prominent here with Michael. There's a profound sense of entitlement. And these lies weren't subtle, they were grandiose. Which also signaled that this wasn't just about self preservation, it was about self image. Michael saw himself as someone too brilliant or too exceptional to be stopped by bureaucracy or morality. These were strategic manipulations from someone with no remorse and who truly believed he could distort outcomes through deception.
- [18:47]
Vanessa Richardson
In your professional opinion, is this a sign of confidence or delusion or maybe both or something else that I don't know about?
- [18:55]
Dr. Tristan Engels
Well, in Michael's case, confidence and delusion are pretty, you know, tightly interwoven, so it's certainly both. But it's also very significant for malignant narcissism. I've never evaluated Michael, so this is purely educational. I'm not doing a formal diagnosis by any means. But generally speaking, a person with a narcissistic pathology often convinces themselves that their lies are justified or that they are still the victim even when they are the one orchestrating the lie. So it's not deluding delusional in a psychotic sense, but rather a self delusion that is secondary to personality traits more than anything.
- [19:35]
Vanessa Richardson
Well, as bold as this lie was, it didn't work. Dr. Schultz showed the fake documents to the authorities in Illinois and they confirmed the papers were fake. Michael wasn't allowed to begin the residency program, but nobody took legal action against him. So he kept trying the same strategy at other hospitals around the country. And eventually a program at the University of South Dakota fell for it. In the spring of 1992, 37 year old Michael made his way to the city of Sioux Falls. And he wasn't alone. A few months before, Michael had met a 26 year old intensive care nurse named Kristen Kinney. At the time, Kristen was engaged to a doctor at her hospital. But Michael pursued her relentlessly and convinced Kristen to break off her engagement. The relationship moved quickly from there. Not only did Kristen agree to move to South Dakota with Michael, they got engaged. Although she'd heard rumors about his dark past, Kristen didn't know all the details and Michael wasn't sharing them with her. In fact, he seemed like a couple completely new person. One who was friendly, sociable and kind. When they arrived in Sioux Falls, Kristen got a job in the ICU at the same Hospital where Michael was completing his residency. She quickly befriended her new co workers, and they all loved Michael. They thought he was nicer and more knowledgeable than the other residents. Plus, he never shied away from an emergency. He always came, came running when a code was called. Michael eventually left the ICU for his other rotations, and everywhere he went, his colleagues seemed to like him.
- [21:23]
Dr. Tristan Engels
It is very significant that he suddenly has a fiance that he relentlessly pursued. After experiencing rejection after rejection in his residency, he was once again attempting to change his Persona to one that others would admire or one that would serve a purpose for personal gain. Kristin was a social pawn intended to help put on the mask of sanity and help him appear more, quote, normal than he had in his other rotations. This is not uncommon for serial killers. I mean, think about Ted Bundy. He was successful, he was in law school, and he had a longtime girlfriend. Serial killers often do have a family or they attempt to have a family. And of course, there are exceptions. But the reason that they do this is so that they can hide in plain sight. Their families, their partners, are strictly part of their coverage.
- [22:15]
Vanessa Richardson
Is it at all possible that being in a healthy relationship could stabilize someone like Michael?
- [22:20]
Dr. Tristan Engels
No, not in a meaningful way. Someone like Michael doesn't form relationships the way that most people do. There's no true empathy, no emotional reciprocity. And for Michael, relationships, even a romantic one, is just about control, utility, and image. The structure of this relationship was actually shielding him even more from accountability or suspicion. He got into this relationship to help him maintain his new craft and image and therefore maintain his position as a doctor. He is hoping it will make him appear more trustworthy and dependable to others.
- [22:58]
Vanessa Richardson
Whatever was motivating Michael's attitude change, it seems like he really thought he was in the clear. While he was in South Dakota, Michael applied to join the American Medical association, the largest professional organization for advancing medical research. Joining the AMA is a huge resume booster for any doctor. Michael was looking forward to the added credential, but he'd gotten too comfortable. Because unlike the University of South Dakota, the AMA looked into Michael's past. Not only did they learn about his convictions from the poisonings in Illinois, but they also found out about the internal investigation at Ohio State after he was suspected of killing patients. Needless to say, Michael's application to join the AMA was denied. And once the organization alerted Michael's hospital in Sioux Falls, his residency was suspended in late November 1992. Over the next couple of weeks, the University of South Dakota reviewed all of Michael's patient files. They didn't find anything suspicious, but they were still able to dismiss him from the program due to the forged documents he'd used in his application. Michael was officially kicked out on December 4, 1992, but he stayed in town since his fiance, Kristen, was still working at the hospital. She seemingly believed Michael when he said it was all a big misunderstanding, especially after the university found no evidence that he'd hurt anyone. But now Michael's uncertain future was putting a strain on their relationship. He became angry and withdrawn, nothing like the kind, pleasant man she'd fallen in love with. Not only that, but he didn't look for another job, so Kristen was responsible for financially supporting them. Then one day in January 1993, things got even more troubling. Kristen was cleaning up around the house when she found recipes for making homemade poisons. When she asked Michael about it, he said the recipes had belonged to his father. Despite her better judgment, Kristin believed him. She had no idea what he was really planning, and no one was safe. Not even her. Psst.
- [25:26]
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- [25:55]
Vanessa Richardson
Your burger is served. And this is our finest Pepsi Zero Sugar. Its sweet profile perfectly balances the savory notes of your burger.
- [26:04]
Nicole Lapman
That is one perfect combination.
- [26:08]
Dr. Tristan Engels
Burgers deserve Pepsi.
- [26:10]
Karina Beemersderfer
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- [26:55]
Vanessa Richardson
In the winter of 1993, 39 year old Michael Swango was dismissed from his residency program at the University of South Dakota after they learned about his past convictions for poisoning his co workers. And although Michael insisted he he'd changed his ways, his fiance, 27 year old Kristen Kinney found a recipe for homemade poisons in their home. Michael told Kristen the recipes had belonged to his dad. She believed him. But before long, Kristen started experiencing intense headaches. And within a couple of weeks, things got worse. Kristen also started feeling nauseous and dizzy. Once her symptoms got so bad, she fainted. Nothing like this had ever happened to her before. And she couldn't help but think back to that recipe she'd found. But Kristin didn't want to ask Michael about it directly because he'd been so irritable lately. Instead, she told him she was getting worried about how sick she was getting. Michael didn't seem to care. In fact, he got mad at her for complaining when he was going through his own struggles. He even, even threatened to leave her. After that, Kristen didn't bring it up again.
- [28:10]
Dr. Tristan Engels
Let's talk about the emotional manipulation occurring here because it's a textbook tactic used by individuals with antisocial and narcissistic traits. He's invalidating her pain, redirecting the attention to his own so called struggles, and then punishing her emotionally for even raising the issue. He even threatens to abandon her, knowing she's already feeling off balance and physically weak. And essentially what he's doing is something called avoidance conditioning. He is responding in severe ways in order to condition her to avoid approaching him about this in the future if she doesn't want to experience that kind of severity of punishment. And it works. And the message he's sending is your suffering doesn't matter. Your job is to comfort me and me only. And over time, that kind of dynamic affects a person and sense of reality. Kristen's instincts were screaming that something was wrong. But Michael's manipulation made her doubt herself and ultimately silenced her. That's dangerous, especially in the hands of someone who has a history of harming others and who apparently is harming her.
- [29:23]
Vanessa Richardson
What does it say about Michael that he's willing to poison his own fiance?
- [29:27]
Dr. Tristan Engels
Well, Michael saw Kristen not as a partner, but as an object. It's a total detachment from humanity. Kristin existed in his life not because he cared about her, but because she served a function. And the moment she became inconvenient, he was willing to poison her like anyone else. And all for his own satisfaction and need for control.
- [29:50]
Vanessa Richardson
Well, even if Kristen believed Michael's lies, she realized she couldn't be around him anymore. In late March of 1993, three months into Kristen's mysterious illness, she went home to Virginia to see her parents. Thank goodness. While she was there, all of her symptoms started to improve. And not just her physical ones. Kristen's mood also brightened. She decided to permanently move back and got her own place close to her parents. When Michael found out, he panicked. Not because he loved Kristen, but because he couldn't afford rent without her. He tracked her down in Virginia and sweet talked his way back into her life. He told Kristen he was reapplying to residency programs and was focused on getting his career back back on track. In fact, he'd been accepted at a residency program at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Of course, he didn't mention that he'd used forged documents again and that he'd left his stint in South Dakota off his resume. So Kristen agreed to give Michael another chance. Although she wouldn't move to New York with him. It wasn't a very happy reunion. Once Michael was back in her life, Kristin's health took a turn for the worse. Her parents believed that the financial and emotional strain of supporting Michael was wearing Kristen down. In June 1993, he headed off to New York by himself, and Kristen's parents were glad to see him go. Michael was also glad to leave. Back in South Dakota, he'd been on his best behavior, but now he was ready to once again unleash hell on his patients. Upon his arrival, Michael was assigned to a Veterans affairs hospital affiliated with Stony Brook. One of his first patients was a World War II veteran named Dominic Bufalino. Dominic was admitted in late June for some minor lung congestion. He was only there so doctors could help prevent pneumonia. On July 1, Michael entered Dominic's room. Within hours, Dominic's health took a serious turn for the worse. By the following morning. Morning, only one day after interacting with Michael, he was dead. Surprisingly, no one at the hospital suspected Michael a foul play, even though Dominic had been stable up until Michael saw him. If anything, Michael's new colleagues were sympathetic toward him. Not just because of what happened to his patient, but because on July 14, a few days after treating Dominic, he got the news that Chris Till Kristen had been found dead. She had taken her own life. In a series of notes she left behind, Kristen said she felt trapped and alone. She told her parents how much she loved them and that all of her money and belongings should go to Michael. Michael went to Virginia for the funeral. While he was there, he barely showed any emotion. He didn't really seem to care that Kristen was dead. He simply demanded the money she had left him. Him about $200, then went back to New York.
- [33:04]
Dr. Tristan Engels
Well, Michael's coldness is expected. I mean, we've Already talked about how Michael's wanting to control others through death. And we covered how he had an interest in the occult and necromancy, which suggests he wants to be able to control them even after death as well. And with Kristin, he'd been previously poisoning her. She moved back in with her parents, got better, and then took her own life. And the fact that she did that means she took that from him. But that's only assuming that her taking her own life is true, because it wouldn't surprise me if this was staged and he actually had killed her. But ultimately, Kristin served her purpose. She wasn't coming to New York with him to help him maintain a cover of a loving, charming, and dependable partner. And therefore, the only need that he had for her was a financial one, which he came to collect. And this is also suggestive of another psychopathic trait known as parasitic lifestyle, where they exploit or use others financially. And the fact that he's able to switch between charm and cruelty. That is also a hallmark of high functioning psychopathy. And it's what makes individuals like Michael so dangerous.
- [34:19]
Vanessa Richardson
Well, Michael definitely didn't seem to be grieving Kristen's death. Once he got back to New York, he focused all his energy towards finding another victim. And on September 29, 1993, a man named Baron Harris came into the hospital for respiratory issues. Like Dominic Bufalino, Barron was initially stable. But over the next few days, it became harder for him to stay awake. On a few occasions, Barron's wife noticed Michael injecting something directly into her husband's neck. She asked Michael what it was, and he told told her it was vitamins. However, Barron soon stopped waking up at all. He fell into a coma and died a few weeks later. At first, nobody suspected Michael of any wrongdoing. But shortly after Barron's passing, one of Kristen's friends from South Dakota contacted the hospital. They couldn't shake the feeling that Michael was somehow involved with her death. And when they heard he was in another residency program, they wrote to his supervisors in New York. Their letter contained all the details of Michael's past, including the suspected patient deaths in Ohio and his jail time in Illinois for poisoning his co workers. Michael's supervisors were horrified and immediately looked through his patient files. They quickly realized that he was the common denominator between Dominic Bufalino and Baron Harris's mysterious deaths. It was clear that Michael Swango was no doctor. He was a killer. On October 25, 1993, a physician at Stony Brook called the Department of Veterans affairs and asked for the Special Agent in charge Bruce Sackman. She explained everything, and Agent Sackman immediately got in his car. By the time he made the 50 mile drive from his office in Manhattan to the VA hospital, the local police were already holding Michael in a small study room in the resident dormitory. Michael insisted it was all a misunderstanding, and Sackman pretended to believe him. But deep down, he knew he was staring into the eyes of a madman. For the moment, though, there was nothing to hold him on, so Michael was free to go. However, that didn't mean Sackman was done with him. As soon as he got back to his office, he requested a court order to search Michael's dorm room. He was sure it would be full of incriminating evidence, but Michael was one step ahead of him. By the time the search warrant was executed two days later, Michael had packed his things and vanished without a trace. Sackman joined forces with the FBI, and they filed federal fraud charges against Michael for fabricating documents and illegally dispensing controlled substances. But they weren't able to track him down. They had no idea that Michael had left the country. He was in Zimbabwe. He'd forged more documents, this time medical credentials and travel paper papers to work with a company that assigned English speaking doctors in foreign countries.
- [37:38]
Dr. Tristan Engels
This is also another trait of psychopathy, because he's very criminally versatile. All these forging of documents we've got military, medical and travel. That suggests high criminal versatility. And that is another very dangerous trait.
- [37:54]
Vanessa Richardson
For the time being, though, Agent Sackman and his team were more concerned with understanding just how much damage Michael had caused throughout the years. With cooperation from every hospital where he'd ever worked, Sackman's team poured through 147 patient records. It was a long process that took about a year. And when they finished in 1995, they discovered that Michael had likely killed dozens of people. He primarily used injectable paralytics, including one known as succinylcholine, which is typically used as a muscle relaxant during surgery. But used as a murder weapon, it would cause a slow, painful death.
- [38:37]
Dr. Tristan Engels
The choice to use injectable paralytics, especially in a medical setting, says a lot about Michael's psychological makeup. Paralytics mimic natural medical decline, and most disturbingly, the victim is often fully conscious but unable to move or scream. And that. That, once again tells us Michael didn't just want people to die. He wanted them to suffer silently while he maintained complete control. And that's critical, because with psychopathic personalities, murder isn't always about rage. It's often about Domination and about power. Paralytics gave Michael the ability to become godlike in those moments, the one who decided who lived, who died and how. And because he was a doctor, someone trusted to heal, he could do this in plain sight under the COVID of medical care.
- [39:29]
Vanessa Richardson
What does Michael's choice in poisons say about him versus other medical killers? We've seen like Elizabeth Wetlaufer insulin overdoses or Graham Young who used poisons.
- [39:40]
Dr. Tristan Engels
Elizabeth used insulin and her killings were emotionally driven and even chaotic at times. She was very emotionally unstable and her killings were often in response to an emotion. Graham, on the other hand, was obsessed with poisons. He studied toxicology and he was driven by intellectual obsession. He was documenting as people suffered almost in a scientific, intellectual way. Poison allowed him to distance and detach. It gave him time to watch the suffering unfold. That voyeuristic quality, the desire to see pain without getting too close, defined him. And that is very similar to Michael. Except Michael killed systematically and was driven by dominance. He wasn't just hiding behind his role as a physician, he was weaponizing his role as a physician. And that level of precision and cold calculation puts him in a category that is arguably more dangerous than the others. And that's because of the deliberate psychological control he exercised over every element of the murders. He was researching and manufacturing poisons. Michael's case is truly one of the most disturbing examples of medical homicide that I've ever heard.
- [41:02]
Vanessa Richardson
Whatever Michael's reasoning was, learning his methods was a major breakthrough. It wasn't enough to charge him with murder just yet, although it was a promising start. But in order for Sackman and his team to hold Michael accountable, they had to find him. And over three and a half years after Sackman first questioned him, Michael finally resurfaced in Zimbabwe. Michael had continued to go after patients. Multiple nurses claimed they'd seen him inject sleeping patients with a mysterious substance. Not long after those patients died, government officials exhumed their bodies and realized that Michael had killed them. He was charged with murder, but escaped to Saudi Arabia before they could arrest him. He got a new job there, but in order to work, he had to get a Saudi visa. And to do that, he had to go back to the U.S. on June 27, 1997, 42 year old Michael flew into O' Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois. When he stepped through the gate, he handed an airport employee his passport for them to verify. It's possible. Possible he was using real documentation. Or maybe he didn't know the American authorities were still after him. Either way, when the employee entered Michael's passport number, they saw he was wanted on federal fraud charges. Michael was quickly arrested and informed of the charges he was facing. The authorities said he had two choices. He could be extradited to Zimbabwe, where he'd probably be sentenced to death for his crimes there, or he could plead guilty to fraud and go to an American prison. Instead, Michael chose the latter. He was sentenced to three and a half years, which gave the US Authorities valuable time to build a murder case against him. And Agent Sackman's team quickly got to work. Out of the 60 people Michael was suspected of killing around the world, Sackman was focused on on three patients from the VA hospital, including Dominic Bufalino and Baron Harris. He thought their cases gave him the best chance of getting Michael convicted. The process of exhuming those patients and testing their bodies took months, but in the end, the team found traces of succinylcholine in each of them. About three years later, in July of 2000, just days before, before Michael was supposed to be released, he was charged with three counts of murder. His trial began one month later. Michael didn't try very hard to defend himself. The evidence against him was overwhelming. And when prosecutors read an entry from his diary, it was clear that he was nothing short of a monster. The entry said, quote, when I kill someone, it is because I. I want to. It's the only way I have of reminding myself that I am still alive.
- [44:06]
Dr. Tristan Engels
This is an indication to me that even Michael knew that. He knew there was a void where emotion should be and that he turned to murder to feel something, anything at all, rather than emotional deadness.
- [44:22]
Vanessa Richardson
In the end, he was sentenced to life without parole. As of this recording, he's still alive, incarcerated at the Florence Supermax prison in Colorado. Although he was only convicted of those three murders, the FBI has linked him to as many as 60 deaths, including his fiance, Kristen Kinney. When Kristin died, her mother kept a lock of her hair. Agent Sackman's team tested that lock of her hair and found high amounts of arsenic in it. This led them to believe that Michael slowly poisoned Kristen to the point of completely destroying her mental health and ultimately causing her death. As far as we know, she was the only person close to Michael that he was ever believed to have killed. But we'll never fully understand why that that secret is locked away with Michael deep in a prison he'll never escape. And it's one of his own making. Thanks so much for listening. Come back next time for a deep dive into the mind of another killer. Of the many sources we used when researching this episode, the one we found the most credible and helpful was Blind Eye by James B. Stewart Killer Minds.
- [45:59]
Dr. Tristan Engels
Is a Crime House original Powered by Pave Studios. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media rimehouse and don't forget to rate, review and follow Killer Minds wherever you get your podcasts.
- [46:17]
Vanessa Richardson
And to enhance your listening experience, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode of Killer Minds ad free, along with early access to each thrilling two part series and exciting bonus content. Killer Minds Killer Minds is hosted by me, Vanessa Richardson and Dr. Tristan Engels and is a Crime House original. Powered by Pave Studios. This episode was brought to life by the Killer Minds team. Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benedon, Lori Marinelli, Natalie Pertzofsky, Sarah Camp, Sarah Batchelor, Sarah Tardiff, and Keri Murphy. Thank you for listening.
- [47:05]
Nicole Lapman
Hey there, it's Nicole Lappin. For your next listen, check out Scams, Money and Murder. This week we dive into the true story of the Wolf of Wall street himself. And don't miss our recent episode with Jessica Pressler. That's the journalist who uncovered the truth behind fake heiress Anna Delphi. Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your favorite podcasts.