I Knew a Serial Killer (murder, news, friend, creepy)

[Ibginnie]

In late 1991 I was a member of a volunteer rescue squad. A man named Michael Swango joined the squad. I ran no less than 15 calls with him. One day he just disappeared. He was a strange guy who was with the squad for only a month or so.

A few months later I received a phone call from someone claiming to be investigating Swango. The caller identified himself (Ed) and said he was from the FBI. He asked me many questions about Swango and then dropped it on me that Swango was under investigation for murder. He (Ed) asked me if I had ever felt "funny" when Swango was around. When I told him that I had an uneasy feeling about the guy Ed became more pointed telling me he wanted to know if I felt funny physically. I did remember that on a few shifts I felt quite ill. Hot flashes, nausea, diaphoretic, abdominal pain and very lethargic were the things that I told Ed. He set me up to get tested. Yes, I had been poisoned with arsenic. He was sprinkling it on food in the fridge that I brought from home. He also brought doughnuts a few times for the crew.

Swango, during the time I was exhibiting symptoms, would sit next to me and ask me how I was feeling. At that time I though he was just being concerned. I now know he was getting a rush from me describing how I felt.

I also had received some phone calls from a Mrs. Cooper. She is the mother of Kristen Kinney, Swango's fiancee that committed suicide in Newport News, VA. She was convinced that Swango was responsible for driving Kristen to suicide.

There is SO much to this story. Swango is in prison again. I don't think he'll be getting out this time. He is believed to be responsible for as many as 60 deaths.

There is a book about him called Blind Eye. It's a great read. One can also find quite a bit of info on line.

Here's a link to several articles from the local paper.

[Temeku]

Wow. I guess you never know what kind of people you see out on the street every day.

Neat post, one of the most interesting I've seen on here.

[Gerania]

That's pretty weird. People have done some unpleasant things to me, but no one has ever tried to poison me.

My school friend's brother was involved in a murder and was sent to prison. Her mom was one of our Brownie leaders. I can scarcely imagine how embarrassed they were when that happened. A lot of people like to blame mom and dad, but sometimes things are out of your control.

[MissTerri]

That is super creepy. It looks like he got away with poisoning people for a very long time.