Blind Eye: How the Medical Establishment Let a Doctor Get Away with Murder - Hardcover

Stewart, James B.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684854848 ISBN 13: 9780684854847

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1999

Synopsis

An electrifying exploration of the exploits of serial killer Michael Swango shows how an apparently respectable young doctor murdered patients and poisoned co-workers while being consistently protected by an oblivious and dangerously secretive medical establishment. 300,000 first printing. Tour.

About this title

Review:

From the moment he entered medical school in the late 1970s, people around Michael Swango thought he was a little odd. But even though he expounded upon his obsessions with violent death and serial killings to anybody within earshot, almost nobody connected him to the string of deaths among patients under his care. When an investigation finally took place at the Ohio State medical center, hospital administrators sympathized with Swango--against the direct testimony of patients and nurses--and seemed more concerned with how revelations of a murderous doctor might affect their public image than with the safety of their clients. And, remarkably, even after being released from prison in Illinois, where he had been convicted of (nonfatally) poisoning several of his coworkers, Swango was able to obtain positions at hospitals in South Dakota and New York. When American authorities finally started to pursue his case, he fled the country and began plying his trade in Zimbabwe. In June 1998, after being captured during an attempt to reenter the United States, he was sentenced to 42 months in federal prison--on fraud charges related to his employment in New York.

The truly frightening aspect of Blind Eye is not the relentless chain of murders, but the ease with which Swango was able to repeatedly slip through the cracks in the medical system, simply by lying about the nature of his felony conviction. James B. Stewart methodically traces every step of Swango's career, laying out a straightforward narrative with all the suspense of a well-crafted thriller. Although attempts to "explain" Swango's behavior through psychopathology and a historical rise in the incidences of serial killing derail the ending somewhat, Blind Eye is still a must-read for true crime buffs--or anyone who enjoys good journalism. --Ron Hogan

About the Author:

Author Photograph by Sigrid Estrada.

James B. Stewart is the author of Follow the Story: How to Write Successful Nonfiction, Blood Sport and Den of Thieves. A former editor of The Wall Street Journal, Stewart won a Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for his reporting on the stock market crash and insider trading He is the regular contributor to The New Yorker and SmartMoney.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0684854848
• ISBN 13: 9780684854847
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 334