COURTTV.COM INDEPTH

Additional material for Court TV's documentary,
"Michael Swango: License to Kill"


	Mugshot from Quincy, IL Police Department. Swango was arrested on October 26,1984 for battery for poisoning co-workers at the Adams County, IL, Ambulance Service.		Page from Southern Illinois University, School of Medicine yearbook. Swango received his MD in 1983. (Click here for the full page)

October 21, 1954	Born, Tacoma, Washington.
April 15, 1980	Honorably discharged from the U.S. Marine Corps.
April 1983	Graduates Southern Illinois University School of Medicine with a Doctor of Medicine Degree.
July 1983	Enters Internship program at Ohio State University Hospital (OSUH).
June 30, 1984	Terminated from OSUH. (In 2000 he confessed to administering a lethal dose of potassium to OSUH patient, Cynthia McGee.)
July 1984	Becomes Emergency Medical Service (EMS) technician for the Illinois Ambulance Service in Adams County.
October 26,1984	Arrested by Quincy, IL Police Dept. and charged with battery for poisoning his co-workers at the Adams County Ambulance Service with snack food laced with arsenic.
1985	Ohio authorities investigate Swango's activities at OSUH, but no charges are filed.
August 23, 1985	Convicted for aggravated battery for poisoning co-workers at the Adams County Ambulance Service. Receives a 5 year sentence. Document: Court notes from the pre-trial hearing, the trial, and the sentencing.
1991	Two forgeries used by Swango at the time he was applying to residency programs. Document: A forged Illinois Department of Corrections "Fact Sheet" dated August 23, 1988, that Swango used to con residency programs into believing his felony conviction was for a minor offense. The forgery states that Swango was convicted of battery for getting into a fight (instead of poisoning) and was sentenced to 6 months in prison (instead of the actual 5 years). Document: A "restoration of civil rights" from the Governor of Virginia (undated) and used by Swango in application to residency programs.
May 20, 1991	Document: Using an alias, David J. Adams, Swango applies to a residency program in West Virginia. (This letter refers to two previous documents.)
July 1, 1992	Starts working as resident at Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
December 1992	Discharged after authorities received reports of his activities at Ohio State University Hospital.
June 1, 1993	Admitted to the residency program at the Northport Veterans Administration Medical Center administered by the State University of New York Medical School at Stony Brook.
July 1, 1993	Begins residency program with a rotation in Internal Medicine.
July 12-26, 1993	Document: Swango's 'Progress Notes' for patient George Siano at the Northport VA Hospital. (Siano dies on July 26, 1993.) Document: Toxicology lab results (dated July 5, 2000) on the exhumed body of Siano, concluding poisoning by epinephrine.
September 23, 1993	Document: FBI report on the poisoning of Northport VA Hospital patient, Aldo Serini.
October 4, 1993	Northport VA Hospital patient, Thomas Sammarco, dies. Document: Toxicology lab results on the exhumed body of Sammarco (dated July 5, 2000), concluding poisoning by the paralytic neuromuscular blocking agent, succinyl choline.
October 13, 1993	The Dean of Stony Brook School of Medicine receives a call from the Dean of the University of South Dakota Medical School, describing the circumstances of Swango's 1992 dismissal. Swango is relieved of clinical duties.
October 19, 1993	Swango is discharged from the residency program for falsifying residency information.
October 25, 1993	Document: Dean of the School of Medicine at Stony Brook writes a letter to 125 medical schools and 1,500 teaching hospitals detailing Swango's history (the dean, at this time, was not aware of any poisoning) and warns them that Swango may use aliases and guile to gain admittance to their programs.
November 1994	Accepted by the Zimbabwe Association of Christian Hospitals and assigned to Mnene Hospital in Zimbabwe, Africa.
May 14, 1995	Mnene Hospital patient, Kenias Muzezewa, found poisoned. Document: FBI report (dated November 12, 1997) on the poisoning of Muzezewa.
July 7,1995	Mnene Hospital patient, Virginia Sibanda, found poisoned. Document: FBI report (dated November 12, 1997) on the poisoning of Sibanda.
July 21, 1995	Suspended from practice at Mnene Hospital.
March 19, 1997	Documents: Contents of application packet sent to the Royal Hospital, Dharan, Saudi Arabia. Includes cover letter, application form and false resume.
May 1997	Obtains employment as a physician at the Royal Hospital in Dharan.
June 1997	Stopping off in Chicago on his way from Africa to Saudi Arabia, arrested by Federal authorities for false statement and controlled substance charges.
March 1998	Pleads guilty to false statement charge.
June 12, 1998	Sentenced to three and a half years in prison by U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York. Document: U.S. District Court sentencing document. The text of the sentence includes a warning to keep Swango away from food and drug preparation and distribution jobs.
July 11, 2000	Indicted on Federal charges by U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York for three murders at the Northport VA Hospital. Document: Nine-count Grand Jury indictment, giving detailed history of Swango's illegal activities.
September 6, 2000	Swango pleads guilty to fraud charges and to the murders of Siano, Serini and Sammarco at VA Medical Center at Northport. Sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

From the Crime Library:
Michael Swango: Doctor of Death An in-depth look at this story by Joseph Geringer.

Online interview transcript:
Online chat with journalist James Stewart, author a book about the Swango case.