Donald Harvey
Donald Harvey (born April 15, 1952 ; died March 30, 2017 ) was an American serial killer who claimed to have murdered 87 people, although the official estimates are between 37 and 57 victims. Harvey said he started killing to relieve patients' pain. Over time, he began to enjoy it more and more and became a self-proclaimed "angel of death". Harvey was sentenced to 28 life sentences in the Toledo Correctional Institution in Toledo , Ohio after pleading guilty to murder in order to avoid the death penalty .
history
Donald Harvey, a self-proclaimed "Old Plymouth Boy", worked as a paramedic at Marymount Hospital in London, Kentucky from the age of 18 . He later confessed that he had killed at least a dozen patients in the ten months he worked in the hospital . His second victim was killed in the presence of Danny George, a twelve year old child. Harvey insisted that he kill only out of compassion for the suffering of those who were terminally ill. He also admitted that many of the murders he committed were due to anger at the victim. Harvey prevented his crimes from coming to light for over 17 years.
The true extent of his crimes may never come to light because so much of his crimes went undetected for a long time. Harvey used many methods to kill his victims, such as administration of arsenic , cyanide and insulin , suffocation , administration of various poisons and morphine , by turning off respirators , administration of fluids contaminated with hepatitis B and / or HIV (which too a hepatitis infection , but no HIV infection and illness instead of death), insertion of a clothes hanger into a catheter , which led to an abdominal puncture and subsequent peritonitis . Cyanide and arsenic were his most common methods, with Harvey giving them through food, injection, or intravenously. The bulk of Harvey's crimes occurred at Marymount Hospital (now Saint Joseph Hospital) in London, Kentucky, the Cincinnati VA Medical Hospital, and the Cincinnatis Drake Memorial Hospital.
Harvey's victims weren't just helpless hospital patients. When he suspected his lover and roommate Carl Hoeweler of being unfaithful, he poisoned his food with arsenic so that he became too sick to leave the apartment. He poisoned two of his neighbors. Diane Alexander fell ill after adding hepatitis serum to her drink. Helen Metzger was killed by putting arsenic in her cake. He also killed Hoeweler's father Henry with arsenic.
Harvey was incarcerated in the Toledo Correctional Institution, where he was admitted on October 26, 1987. His first parole hearing was scheduled for April 2013.
On March 28, 2017, authorities reported that Harvey had been found badly beaten in his cell. He died on March 30, 2017. On May 3, 2019, his fellow inmate James Elliott was charged with gross murder and other charges related to the death of Donald Harvey.
See also
- Niels Högel , former German nurse convicted of multiple murders
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Harvey, Donald |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American serial killer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 15, 1952 |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 30, 2017 |