Donald Harvey

Case record: Donald Harvey

Background

Donald Harvey was known as an American serial killer and a self-professed “Angel of Death.” He claimed to have murdered 87 people, while official estimates ranged from 36 to 57 deaths.

Harvey was born in Butler County, Ohio in 1952. After his birth, his parents relocated to Booneville, Kentucky. Goldie Harvey was his mother.

In an August 14, 1987 interview with Cincinnati Post reporter Nadine Louthan, Harvey’s mother, Goldie Harvey, recalled that her son was brought up in a loving family environment and said: “My son has always been a good boy.”

Martha D. Turner, who was principal of the elementary school Harvey attended for eight years, described him as a “very special child” and said: “Donnie was a very special child to me.” Turner also said: “He was always clean and well dressed with his hair trimmed.” Turner continued: “He was a happy child, very sociable and well-liked by the other children.” Turner added: “He was a handsome boy with big brown eyes and dark curly hair he always had a smile for me.” Turner stated: “There was never any indication of any abnormality.”

Former classmates described Harvey as a loner and a teacher’s pet. He rarely participated in extracurricular activities and instead read books and dreamed about the future. After graduating from Sturgeon Elementary School, he entered Booneville High School in 1968. He earned A’s and B’s in most classes with little effort but became bored and dropped out.

Harvey relocated to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he secured a job at a local factory. In 1970, work began to slow at the plant and he was laid off. His mother asked him to travel to Kentucky to visit his ailing grandfather, who was placed in a hospital there. Within days, Harvey set off for Marymount Hospital in London, Kentucky.

The offence

Harvey’s confessions and guilty pleas described hospital slayings and other killings, including the poisoning of a neighbor.

When John Powell died at Drake Memorial Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio, of cyanide poisoning, police targeted orderly Donald Harvey because he had been present at a March, 1987 poisoning of Powell and because many other patients had mysteriously passed away. Powell’s death was ruled a murder, and autopsy results placed lethal doses of cyanide in his system.

Harvey eventually admitted to killing more than fifty people throughout his life and later confessed to a larger total in connection with his plea negotiations. He claimed that he killed ill patients out of a sense of mercy and empathy, and he also admitted that some killings were done out of anger at the victim. He also described himself as considering himself an “angel of death” or mercy killer.

Harvey was reported to have used numerous methods to kill, including arsenic, cyanide, insulin, suffocation, poisons, morphine, turning off ventilators, administration of fluid tainted with hepatitis B and/or HIV (resulting in a hepatitis infection, but no HIV infection, and illness rather than death), and insertion of a coat hanger into a catheter causing an abdominal puncture and subsequent peritonitis.

His reported methods included administering cyanide and arsenic via food, injection, or IV, pressing a plastic bag and wet towel over the mouth and nose, sprinkling rat poison in a patient’s dessert, adding arsenic and cyanide to orange juice, injecting cyanide into an intravenous tube, and injecting cyanide into a patient’s buttocks.

The majority of Harvey’s crimes were reported to have taken place at Marymount Hospital in London, Kentucky; the Cincinnati V.A. Medical Hospital; and Cincinnati’s Drake Memorial Hospital.

Harvey was also described as having poisoned neighbor Diane Alexander after a quarrel by lacing her beverage with hepatitis serum, nearly killing her before physicians diagnosed and treated the infection. Harvey was also reported to have killed Helen Metzger by putting arsenic in one of her pies, with Metzger dying later that week at a local hospital.

Harvey was reported to have poisoned his live-in lover, Carl Hoeweler, after an argument. Hoeweler’s father, Henry, suffered a stroke and was remitted to Providence Hospital, where Harvey was reported to have placed arsenic in his pudding before leaving; Henry died later that night. Harvey was reported to have continued trying to kill Carl’s mother, Margaret, off and on for the next year but was unsuccessful. When Carl broke off the relationship and asked Harvey to move out, Harvey spent the next two years trying to kill Hoeweler with poisonous concoctions, and he also tried to kill a female friend of Hoeweler as a way to get revenge, though neither attempt worked.

A specific incident described during Harvey’s time in the Cincinnati V.A. Medical Center included his diary and notes, and it described his refining techniques by studying medical journals for underlying hints on concealing crimes.

Investigation

Authorities began focusing on hospital employees after John Powell’s death was linked to cyanide. Investigators were unable to find evidence or motive pointing toward Powell’s friends or family members, so they focused on hospital employees who had access to Powell’s room.

A hospital nickname, “Angel of Death,” was given to Harvey because he was always present around when someone died. Investigators began to focus their investigation on him.

In April 1987, after investigators secured a search warrant for Harvey’s apartment, they found jars of cyanide and arsenic, books on the occult and poisons, and a detailed account of the murder Harvey had written in a diary.

Arrest

In March 31, 1971, Harvey was arrested for burglary. While being questioned about the burglary, Harvey began babbling incoherently about murders he had committed. Arresting officers looked into his claims and questioned him extensively about them, but they were unable to find substantial evidence to back up his claims or charge him with any crime relating to them.

On July 18, 1985, security guards searched a suspicious satchel and found a .38-caliber pistol, hypodermic needles, surgical scissors and gloves, a cocaine spoon, two books of occult lore, and a biography of serial killer Charles Sobhraj. Federal officers cited him for bringing a weapon into the V.A. facility. He was fined $50 and forced to resign from his job.

Donald Harvey was arrested in April in connection with John Powell’s murder and held under $200,000 bond after filing a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.

Trial

On August 18, 1987, Donald Harvey pled guilty in Cincinnati on 24 counts of aggravated murder, four counts of attempted murder, and one count of felonious assault.

Four days later, a 25th guilty plea earned him a total of four consecutive 20-years-to-life sentences, and the court also levied $270,000 in fines against Harvey.

Harvey was indicted in Kentucky on September 7, 1987, where he confessed to committing 12 murders while employed at Marymount Hospital. In November, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to eight life terms plus 20 years.

In February 1988, he entered guilty pleas on three additional Cincinnati homicides and three attempted murders, receiving three life sentences plus three terms of seven to 25 years on the attempted murder charges.

Sentencing

Harvey was sentenced to life in prison in Ohio in August 1987.

He received additional life terms in Kentucky in November 1987. He was sentenced to eight life terms plus 20 years.

He later received three life sentences plus three terms of seven to 25 years in February 1988.

Harvey was described as serving four consecutive life sentences at a correctional facility in Ohio, with an inmate number of A-199449. His first scheduled parole hearing was set for 2047, and he would be 95 at the time of that hearing.

Appeals

No appeal proceedings were described.

Outcome

Harvey’s admissions and guilty pleas resulted in multiple consecutive life sentences and additional terms as described above.

Harvey was also noted as being rated number one among the worst serial killers in the United States in an Associated Press article dated July 23, 2001.

Investigators closed the investigation into the remaining deaths two years later after determining there was not enough evidence to pursue them.

Aftermath

In a 1991 interview with a reporter from the Columbus Dispatch, Harvey stated:

“Why did you kill?” “Well, people controlled me for 18 years, and then I controlled my own destiny. I controlled other people's lives, whether they lived or died. I had that power to control.” “What right did you have to decide that?” “After I didn't get caught for the first 15, I thought it was my right. I appointed myself judge, prosecutor and jury. So I played God.”

In a televised interview, Donald Harvey discussed his fascination with black magic and pointedly refused to discuss his views on Satanism.

Other details

Harvey claimed to have murdered 87 people, while official estimates ranged from 36 to 57 deaths.

A spokesman for the Cincinnati prosecutor’s office said: “This man is sane, competent, but is a compulsive killer. He builds up tension in his body, so he kills people.”

During questioning, Harvey had been held under $200,000 bond before it was revoked two days later with new charges filed, after his confession and as psychiatric tests were employed and scrutinized by experts.

On August 11, 1987, 35-year-old Harvey confessed to committing 33 murders over the past 17 years; the number eventually grew to 70 in all.

The record described Harvey as homosexual and an occultist, and it stated that he attached himself to the medical profession at age eighteen.

Harvey worked as an orderly at Marymount Hospital in London, Kentucky, from May 1970 through March 1971, and his duties included changing bedpans, inserting catheters, and passing out medications.

A later interview described Harvey’s account of an early killing. In a 1997 interview with Cincinnati Post reporter Dan Horn, Harvey said:

“The next thing I knew, I'd smothered him,” he said. “It was like it was the last straw. I just lost it. I went in to help the man and he wants to rub that in my face.”

In the same interview, Harvey said:

“No one ever questioned it,” he said.

Harvey had enlisted in the United States Air Force after a guilty plea to petty theft following the March 31, 1971 burglary arrest. He served less than a year and received a general discharge in March 1972. The discharge grounds were unspecified, and it was described that he was prematurely discharged on unspecified grounds.

Harvey was committed to the Veteran’s Administration Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky, twice: once from July 16 to August 25, and again from September 17 to October 17. His mother ascribed the committals to mental disorders, and he was kept in restraints. His lawyers later referred to a bungled suicide attempt.

Harvey received 21 electroshock therapy treatments and emerged with no visible improvement in his morbid condition.

Harvey found work as a part-time nurse’s aide at Cardinal Hill Hospital in Lexington between February and August 1973. In June 1973, he added a second nursing job at Good Samaritan Hospital in Lexington, remaining in that position through January 1974. From August 1974 to September 1975, he worked as a telephone operator in Lexington and then as a clerk at St. Luke’s Hospital in Fort Thomas, Kentucky.

Harvey moved back to Cincinnati in September 1975 and began working the night shift at the Cincinnati V.A. Medical Hospital. He worked as a nursing assistant, housekeeping aide, cardiac-catheterization technician, and autopsy assistant.

While working in the morgue, Harvey sometimes stole tissue samples from the morgue and took them home “for study.”

The record described him as keeping a precise diary of his crimes and taking notes on each victim, including the described methods. It also described his refining concealment techniques by studying medical journals.

Harvey acquired the nickname “The Angel of Death” noted for being present around a number of patients who later died.

Harvey was described as prematurely discharged in March 1972 and later committed and treated in 1972; released on October 17, 1972; and continued to change jobs through 1975.

The record described him as being caught leaving work with a suspicious satchel on July 18, 1985 and being fined $50 and forced to resign from his job after federal citation.

In February 1986, he was hired as a part-time nurse’s aide at Cincinnati’s Drake Memorial Hospital, and he worked to full-time position.

The record stated that during his 13 months before his ultimate arrest he murdered 23 patients, including by disconnecting life support equipment or injecting them with mixtures of arsenic, cyanide, and a petroleum-based cleanser.

Outside work, the record described him poisoning his live-in lover, Carl Hoeweler, after an argument and nursing him back to health; it described poisoning Hoeweler’s mother with an outcome where she was killed while the father survived.

The record stated that in April 1987 authorities became suspicious of Harvey after John Powell recovered from being comatose for several months and then died; the assistant coroner noticed a faint scent of almonds during autopsy.

In August 1987, Harvey entered the courtroom on August 18 and pled guilty; the court levied $270,000 in fines in addition to life terms.

In a seven- to 25-year context, the record stated that attempted murder charges received terms of seven to 25 years.