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10 Things to Know About Serial Killer Donald Harvey

Donald Harvey, also referred to as the “Angel of Death,” was a serial murderer who murdered numerous patients who were in his care in the 1970s and early 1980s. Because of the crimes he perpetrated, he was recognised as one of the most notorious serial killers in the United States. The fact that he felt no guilt for them and insisted that he was helping the patients by putting an end to their misery is even more horrifying. To help the reader understand who this serial killer actually was, this piece will examine the ten facts they need know about him

1. He was a medical killer

He worked in the medical industry most of his life and his first job was in 1970 at Marymount Hospital in London, Kentucky. He made his first kill the year he joined the industry. He killed Logan Evans by smothering him with blue plastic and a pillow. After killing him, he cleaned him up and notified the nurse on duty as if he had no part in the murder. This was the beginning of his long series of homicides.

2. He committed murder after murder

After murdering Logan Evans on May 30, 1970, his next kill, though started by accident, was the next day. Harvey murdered a man named James Tyree using the wrong-size catheter. Donald Harvey then proceeded to insert the catheter into the patient and held him down until he started vomiting blood and died minutes later. At this point, he was not caught with two deaths tight beneath the noses of all his colleagues.

3. He was sexually abused and raped

While growing up, Donald Harvey experienced a lot of trauma at the hands of sexual predators. He was sexually abused when he was a child and this heavily impacted him while he was growing up. Furthermore he was sexually exploited by his uncle Wayne whenever he visited his grandmother as a child. He was also raped by his roommate in 1970 when he was 18 years old the same year of his first kill.

4. He is believed to be born a killer

Unlike most killers who killed to taste the waters and return years later, he was unusually comfortable and immediately natural when it came to killing people. Perhaps it was because he was spared the unpleasant task of dealing with bloody carnage and disposing of the bodies. He killed his third victim less than a month after his first two killings. He killed a woman called Elizabeth Wyatt by cutting off her oxygen supply and watching her to death. The lady had been praying for death and he went on saying that it was his first mercy killing.

5. The hospital gave him the perfect cover

One of the hospital staff is reviewing the medical charts of a patient in the ICU. , , via Wikimedia Commons

Harvey’s method of killing was quiet and his lust for blood was seemingly insatiable. He was completely comfortable in his skin operating and murdering within the confines of the hospital. Since he worked at a hospital where deaths were something that happened quite often, it gave him the perfect cover if death occurred it would not seem like something out of the ordinary. After Eugene Mcqueen, Harvey killed six more people without raising suspicion and by the end of 1970, he had his victim count to ten which is a quite high number.

6. He was in a cult

Harvey began a relationship with a married man named Vernon Midden. Midden was an undertaker in a cult and exposed Donald to it though he didn’t let him participate because he wasn’t a member. Their relationship lasted for only seven months. Later in 1977, Harvey claimed to meet a spirit named Duncan who he said helped him to choose his victims.

7. He bathed his victim

Less than 20 days after killing Elizabeth Wyatt, he murdered a man named Eugene Mcqueen. Mcqueen was not supposed to be laid on his stomach due to his medical condition but Donald ignored it and rolled Mcqueen over making him die by drowning in his own body fluids. He decided to bathe his victim and told the nurse that Eugene was not looking good. The nurse however told him to continue. He did this to cover up his murder.

8. Donald killed people close to his lovers

A picture of arsenic. Harvey poisoned some of his victims with arsenic. , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Donald would claim the lives of many in the hospitals where he worked. After ten years of killing in hospital settings, he began another romantic relationship with a man named Doug Hill. Their relationship was filled with fights. Hill was the first person Harvey tried to kill by attempting to poison him by putting arsenic in his food. Donald Harvey even went ahead and poisoned his lover after he discovered that he had been sleeping with other men as a form of revenge. Furthermore, Donald Harvey would attempt to hurt and kill anyone who got close to or between him and his lovers.

9. He used various methods to kill his victims

Donald murdered his victims using different methods like suffocation, and hooking them up to faulty oxygen tanks like what he did to Harvey Williams. He also experimented with other methods and was a keen user of poisons like cyanide and arsenic which he normally carried from home. He would even try other methods and sometimes failed like injecting them with hepatitis or HIV.

10. He made random confessions

Donald Harvey was found beaten up in his prison cell and he died two days later. , , via Wikimedia Commons

Donald would ultimately make two confessions up until each point of all the murders he had committed. When he was arrested on March 31, 1971, for burglary while insanely drunk, he confessed to his murders until that point but he was not arrested because the police didn’t believe him. In 1987, after being apprehended and facing mounting evidence, he made his second confession. He received a life sentence after being found guilty. He was found lying in his cell after being beaten severely by another inmate on March 28, 2017. He died two days later.

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