Poison Doctor, Swango, Indicted

G A R D E N  C I T Y, N.Y., July 11 -- Michael Swango, a former doctor longsuspected of poisoning patients from Ohio to Zimbabwe, was chargedtoday with killing three patients in 1993 at a Long Islandveterans hospital.

Federal prosecutors announced the new charges — which couldcarry the death penalty — days before Swango was to be releasedfrom a Colorado prison. He had been held there after confessing tolying about his criminal history on a job application, a chargeprosecutors brought in part to buy them time to build the murdercase.

Swango, said U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch, was “exactly the kindof doctor you would want to avoid. The problem is, his appearance,his mannerisms and everything he did was designed to draw people inand make them trust him — when they should not have.”

Prosecutors suspect that soon after graduating from SouthernIllinois University Medical School in 1983, Swango set off on across-country, then intercontinental spree of poisoning patientsand co-workers for more than a decade.

Poison, and DeathSwango, 45, is completing a 42-month prison sentence for lyingon an application for a residency at Stony Brook University MedicalCenter. He admitted failing to disclose that he had spent 30 monthsin jail and lost his medical license in 1985 for poisoning sixco-workers in Quincy, Ill.

None of the people died in that case.

But after Swango was hired by Stony Brook, three patients diddie in his care at the Veterans Administration Hospital run by theuniversity in Northport, prosecutors said.

Swango is suspected of killing all three patients by injectingthem with toxins. In two of the cases, the doctor is accused offalsely telling associates that the patients’ families had issued“do not resuscitate” orders.

The patients died between July and October 1993.

More Charges LeviedProsecutors also believe a fourth patient was poisoned, butthere wasn’t enough evidence to prove the injection led to death.Swango is charged with assault in that case.