SERIAL KILLERS Profile: Donald Harvey

A man addicted to killing, the ‘Angel of Death’ was anything but an angel.

• Full Name – Donald Harvey
• Nickname – Angel of Death
• Born – April 15, 1952
• Location of Activity – Kentucky and Ohio, USA
• Years of Activity –1970 - 1987
• Number of Kills – 37-57 (up to 87 claimed)
• Date of Death – n/a
• Cause of Death – n/a

Born in Boonville, Kentucky, Donald Harvey was a man who was destined to become one of the mostprolific killers the world has seen.  At 18 he entered into the medical field, starting out as an orderly.  He displayed signs of criminal behavior early on and was mentally disturbed for most of his life.

His first arrest was for a burglary attempt, after which the judge assigned him to undergo psychiatric treatment.  In order to avoid this, he instead joined the U.S. Air Force.  That didn’t last long either and he was discharged after 10 months.  Upon returning to the real world, he bounced in and out of mental institutions.

Harvey concealed his record of mental illness and went back into the medical profession once again.  He ended up working at a variety of these jobs, including as a nurse, in housekeeping and in various technician and assistant positions.  All the while, he was claiming victim after victim.

According to Harvey, his first dozen victims were taken when he was still a young orderly.  The rest came later, over the course of 17 years.  He would usually poison his victims, using a number of different toxins.  Other times he would suffocate them or inject them with hepatitis B or HIV to ensure their death. 

Almost all of his victims were patients at the hospitals where he worked, but as he became more comfortable killing he also made an attempt on his lover and some of his neighbors.  All-in-all he laid claim to 87 victims, though the official estimate places that number somewhere between 37 and 57.

When asked about why he killed, Harvey said he was at first trying to ease the pain of the terminally ill.  As the act turned to enjoyment, he did it for the thrill or for revenge.  He is also said to have used ritual magic, taking hair or fingernail clippings from potential victims and then casting a spell to see if they were to be his next.

He was caught in 1987 when people finally put the clues together and discovered that he was very near many of those who turned up dead.  He is currently serving 28 life sentences and is likely to die in prison.