Blind Eye: The Terrifying Story of a Doctor Who Got Away With Murder (19 page)

But there was little in the report about accountability, potentially the most sensitive issue. No blame for what had happened was apportioned, nor were any disciplinary measures or personnel moves suggested. Meeks concluded that the “lawyers relied on the doctors” and the “doctors relied on the lawyers,” and thus, no one was really at fault. Herdt and Boyanowski, among others, felt that
the report papered over what they saw as the real problem: Tzagournis’s leadership. They saw the emphasis on police-hospital relations as a red herring.

Dickson, in particular, who had triggered the hospital investigation, was dismayed that the doctors claimed she hadn’t brought the patient deaths to their attention, and that Meeks was skeptical of her recollection. “I knew I’d done the right thing,” she later recalled. “I never, ever doubted I’d done what I should have. Yet no one ever came to me and said, ‘You were right.’ The dean and the doctors are a fellowship. They always close ranks. I’m used to this.”

T
HE
trial of Michael Swango on seven counts of aggravated battery began on April 22, 1985, in the Adams County courthouse in Quincy, a modern redbrick-and-glass replacement for an ornate old courthouse that had been damaged beyond repair by a tornado. Perhaps fearing that local passions had already been aroused by the case, Swango’s lawyer, Dan Cook, had moved unsuccessfully for a change of venue. Swango had waived his right to a trial by jury, so the judge assigned to the case, Dennis Cashman, would both preside over the trial and render a verdict.

Cashman, forty, had been a prominent local attorney before being elected to the bench as a Republican. He was well known in Quincy, both as the son of a prominent family—his father was president of a local savings and loan—and as the former city golf champion. Tall and sandy-haired, he hadn’t changed all that much since his days as a star golfer at the University of Illinois. His demeanor was calm and measured, but he ran his courtroom with a firm grip. Sheriff’s deputies, assistant state’s attorneys, and defense lawyers alike had from time to time experienced his impatience and, occasionally, his wrath. Although Adams County voters tend to be conservative on matters of law and order, Judge Cashman was, if anything, known as being tough on law enforcement officers, keeping a close eye in particular on the sheriff’s office.

The second-floor courtroom, the largest in the building, was packed that morning with local press and curious members of the public. Muriel had returned from Florida to stay with Ruth Miller, and was seated in the front row, just behind Swango and Cook at the defense table. Next to Muriel was Rita Dumas, who’d gotten off
work at the Ohio State Hospitals in order to attend the trial. Swango’s brothers didn’t attend. Ed Morgan, the prosecutor from Columbus, sat inconspicuously near the rear.

Some of Swango’s former colleagues among the paramedics, especially Krzystofczyk, worried that Swango was too smart to be convicted. The case was largely circumstantial: no one had seen Swango put anything in the doughnuts, the sodas, or the tea. The tea that had been tested for arsenic had languished in a locker over a weekend and had then been handled by several people before it found its way to the lab. It could easily have been tampered with. Chet Vahle, the assistant state’s attorney in charge of trying the case, had already conceded in court that the paramedics were “a bunch of amateurs who were trying to do their own undercover investigation.” And health department investigators had initially diagnosed the paramedics’ illness as a viral infection, not poisoning.

Vahle opened the trial. “Mr. Cook, your honor, the People of the State of Illinois will show by the testimony of witnesses and introduction of evidence that between September 14, 1984, and October 19, 1984, the defendant, Michael Swango, administered a deadly poison, arsenic, to certain members of the Adams County Health Department ambulance crews . . . . After consuming the offered food or drink, the victims became violently ill within 30 to 45 minutes. The illnesses, which included the immediate symptoms of nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, dry heaves, a feeling of weakness, hot flashes, and thereafter symptoms of resounding headaches and general malaise were common to all of the victims.” Vahle continued that the sample of tea had tested positive for arsenic, and that a hair sample taken from paramedic Brent Unmisig, who had been poisoned twice, “contained a level of arsenic which is indicative of an unnatural accumulation.”

Vahle also addressed the issue of motive, noting that the police investigation “established that the defendant was captivated and entranced by injury and death, by mass trauma of unsuspecting victims.” He mentioned Swango’s reaction to the McDonald’s massacre, and pointed out that Swango had said it would be “nice to walk into the emergency room and start blowing people away.” He cited Swango’s admiration for suspected serial killer Henry Lee
Lucas. Finally, he quoted Swango’s remark to Grover that “sometimes I feel I have an evil purpose in life.”

“We believe that the evidence will show that the defendant’s statement was accurate, and that he’s guilty of the offenses of aggravated battery as charged,” Vahle concluded.

In Swango’s defense, Cook emphasized that it was the obligation of the state to prove Swango guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. He stressed that no one could directly link Swango to the tainted tea, no one had seen him tamper with it, and no one had even seen Swango inside the hospital the day the paramedics became suspicious the tea had been poisoned. “The issue cannot be based upon guesses, hunches and baseless opinions,” Cook concluded.

The prosecution’s star witnesses were the paramedics, who testified in detail about the events of the previous September, and how suspicion of someone they had initially considered a colleague and friend slowly took root. Unmisig, the first witness, described Swango’s actions and his illness, and told of witnessing Swango’s reaction to the McDonald’s killings and his description of the “ultimate call.” “He had a serious look to him, and [was] in a hyper state,” Unmisig recalled.

Greg Myers testified that when Swango returned from Ohio State, he was “more unsettled, more apprehensive.” Lonnie Long said he was “more on edge, more stressful,” adding “he was truly intrigued by violent trauma and death.” Krzystofczyk described the scrapbooks, quoting Swango to the effect that “it just snowballed to the point where it was an obsession, and he didn’t feel like he could stop.” Another paramedic, Michael Alcorn, testified that he had detected resentment on Swango’s part toward the poisoned paramedics and that Swango had told him, “Those guys need to be taken down a notch.”

Just outside the courtroom, in the corridor leading to the judge’s chambers, was an ice machine, which Swango passed each day as he came into the courtroom. As the testimony continued, and the evidence of poisoning and Swango’s morbid interests mounted, Judge Cashman ordered that the machine be padlocked.

Then the trial shifted to the investigative trail. Quincy police detective Billy Meyer described the search of Swango’s apartment, and the discovery of the array of poisons and the numerous bottles
of Terro ant poison, many with their warning labels removed. One bottle of ant poison had been diluted, and the degree of dilution exactly matched the concentration found in the paramedics’ hair samples. A clerk at Keller’s garden and feed store pointed to Swango as the man who had purchased the ant poison, wearing a paramedic’s uniform.

Gasser described his positive test for heavy metals. Dr. Jeorg Pirl, from the Illinois toxicology laboratory at the University of Illinois medical school in Chicago, testified that the tea sample contained arsenic, and that Unmisig’s hair sample had a high concentration of arsenic. Although tests for arsenic in the other paramedics’ hair samples were inconclusive, Pirl testified that heavy vomiting had likely reduced the residue of arsenic in their systems. The victims’ symptoms were all consistent with arsenic poisoning.

But the most important witness was Swango himself. He had been scribbling notes furiously throughout the trial, avoiding eye contact with his former colleagues. Now he took the stand in his own defense, waiving his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. He was neatly dressed in jacket and tie, as he was throughout the trial. His delivery was measured and earnest. He described his background, his outstanding record in high school and at Quincy College, and his promising medical career. Swango flatly denied poisoning or attempting to poison anyone. The linchpin of his defense was that he had experienced a serious ant and roach problem in his apartment, and had purchased the ant poison both in Columbus and Quincy for the purpose of eradicating the pests. He testified that they were an unusual “reddish-type ant.”

The other items in his apartment, he said, simply reflected his interest in chemistry. He’d purchased an advanced chemistry set while in Columbus, and most of the materials came from that. He read the books on terrorism and paramilitary actions, he said, to better understand his father’s work in Vietnam. Swango said that his father had been involved in “guerrilla warfare” there. He had collected the castor beans and articles on ricin for his college paper on the murder of the Bulgarian exile.

He stressed that while others might find his reading habits or sense of humor distasteful, it was a free country and he shouldn’t be on trial for his thoughts or reading material. His remarks about the
McDonald’s massacre were “a joke.” The “ultimate call” was a “gross exaggeration” of what he’d said, which in any event reflected a “gallows-type black humor.” His fantasy about killing children in a pediatrics ward, too, was “the gallows, black humor type that I have already described regarding going up to the—I believe the pediatrics ward—I’m not sure if it was specifically that hospital—and I believe killing babies with a .357 magnum, sir.” His interest in violent death simply reflected the fact that “I myself would want to participate in the bad calls I’ve noted because I feel that I would be as capable as anyone handling that call.” He said he had no memory of telling Monty Grover that he had an “evil purpose” in life.

When Swango completed his testimony, Cook called one other crucial witness for the defense: Kevin O’Donnell, president of O’Donnell’s Termite and Pest Control, a local Quincy exterminator. The inspector said that at the request of Swango’s lawyer, he had inspected Swango’s apartment on Eighteenth Street and had indeed detected numerous of the “reddish-type” ants Swango had described.

There was only one problem with what at first seemed to be independent corroboration for the most important element of Swango’s defense. On cross-examination, the inspector said that the species of ant in Swango’s apartment wasn’t native to central Illinois—or, indeed, to any northern part of the country. It was found only in the Southern states, particularly Florida. In any event, the species was never found indoors, unless someone deliberately put it there.

At Christmas, Swango had visited his mother and half brother in Florida.

Each day after the trial, Muriel Swango had returned to Ruth’s house and given her a detailed account of that day’s proceedings. She had been shocked by much of what she heard, but she insisted that she believed Michael when he said that these stories were gross exaggerations and he was innocent. Anyone could have tampered with the tea or poisoned the paramedics’ drinks and food, she maintained. But gradually her defense of her son had become less impassioned, less certain. After hearing Michael’s defense and listening to the testimony of the exterminator, she returned to Ruth’s house and said simply, “I know now he’s guilty.” Muriel didn’t cry or otherwise
express any emotion, but Ruth could tell that her world had collapsed.

The prosecution and defense rested on May 2 at four
P.M
. Judge Cashman deliberated overnight, and then summoned the participants the next morning for the verdict. “This is a difficult case,” Judge Cashman began. “No question about it. It’s difficult from the standpoint of the People. It’s difficult from the standpoint of the Defendant, and Lord knows it’s difficult from my standpoint.” After reviewing the elements of the case that had to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, the judge continued, “I do not want to make this seem dramatic because it’s not my intention to do so, and rather than leave the outcome in doubt, I’m going to state my findings as to each charge.”

Swango folded his hands tightly together and closed his eyes.

“[The] first thing I’ll say is that I have considered all the physical evidence and the testimony of the witnesses, and I have assessed their credibility as to each charge . . . . I have looked at all the evidence from every angle, I assure you of that. I have looked at it from every perspective. I have determined that certainly in this case all the evidence is not circumstantial. There is direct evidence.” With that, Judge Cashman announced that on count 1, aggravated battery of Mark Krzystofczyk, “I find the defendant, Michael Swango, not guilty.” A murmur went through the courtroom. Krzystofczyk groaned to himself—this was just what he had feared.

“As to count 2, aggravated battery of Allen Dingerson [another paramedic who became ill], I find the defendant, Michael Swango, guilty.”

Swango covered his face with his left hand, and kept it there while the judge continued with the remaining five counts of aggravated battery. As to Brent Unmisig: guilty on two counts. Greg Myers: guilty. Fred Bennett: guilty. When he finished, the judge said, “To recapsulize, I found the defendant not guilty on one count. As to all the other charges, I find the defendant guilty.”

Judge Cashman made clear that the only reason he found Swango innocent of the charge related to Krzystofczyk was because his illness was less severe, and thus less certainly the result of arsenic poisoning. “The bottom line in this case,” the judge concluded, “is there are many tracks, and every track leads to the
defendant’s door, and I’m convinced beyond a reasonable doubt on those charges that I found him guilty of that he is in fact guilty, and on the one I found him not guilty of, I’m not necessarily convinced that he’s not guilty, but I certainly have an obligation, and I have carried out that obligation, and the defendant is found not guilty on that one because the People failed to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.