Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “Angel of Death” Donald Harvey Pt. 2

Episode Date: June 9, 2022

After settling into the gay community of Cincinnati, Donald Harvey did his best to live a normal life. He moved in with a boyfriend and held a steady job. But deep down, that urge to control others still pulled at him. And he satisfied that impulse with poison. Parcasters, we have exciting news! Our first book hits bookshelves July 12th. Don’t miss this chilling summer read that takes you deep into the darkest sides of human nature. Learn more and grab your copy at www.parcast.com/cults! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, listeners, it's Vanessa. For years, Parcast has worked tirelessly to bring you an unprecedented look at history's most radical true crime events. Your support has not only allowed us to keep exploring these stories, but has driven us to keep expanding as well. So as a thank you to the Parcast listeners, I am honored to announce the release of our first book, Cults, Inside the World's Most Notorious Groups, and Understanding the People Who Join Them. It's available on July 12th and you can pre-order it today at parcast.com slash cults. The Branch Davidians, the Ant Hill Kids, Heaven's Gate and more. Cults combs through the terrifying details never explored in any of Parcast series before. This is a passion project only made possible by you. So we

truly hope you'll enjoy it. Visit parcast.com slash cults to pre-order your copy of Cults inside the world's most notorious groups and understanding the people who join them. Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of murder, domestic violence, and elder abuse. We advise extreme caution for children under 13.

Donald Harvey loved to cook. The process relaxed him. He loved carefully measuring out the ingredients one by one, checking on a stew, gurgling out a low simmer, and listening for the timer, alerting him that a dish in the oven was ready. Maybe his passion for the kitchen was because there'd never been enough food in the house when he was growing up.

As an adult, it felt like a luxury that he could buy the ingredients and spend an entire Saturday afternoon baking or cooking. But Harvey knew well the joy of cooking is best shared with others, and he liked to make meals for just about anyone, his partner, Carl, their friends, and especially their neighbor, Helen Metzker. Helen was in her 60s, but she seemed much older. Though she'd once been an active and outgoing person, she was rapidly losing her eyesight,

and it was hard for her to buy groceries for herself, never mind cooking meals. Harvey was only too happy to help out. Whenever he made dinner for himself and Carl, he cooked an extra portion or two for Helen. Today, though, he decided to bake her an entire pie. In his mind, it was no less than she deserved. He'd just finished making the crust by hand,

mixing cold butter and flour with water until he had a perfectly malleable dough. Now it was time for the filling. Harvey cast an eye over the kitchen counter, eggs, sugar, milk, cornstarch, whipping cream for the topping. And one secret ingredient that wasn't in the recipe. To anyone else, the white powder might look like baking soda, but it was actually arsenic, a highly toxic substance, which, over the years, has left a tree. trail of death in its wake. Hi, I'm Greg Paulson.

This is Serial Killers, a Spotify original from Parcast. Every episode, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. Today, we're continuing our three-part series about Donald Harvey, a.k.a. The Angel of Death. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of Serial Killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. Last time, we chronicled Harvey's abusive childhood in rural Kentucky and the homophobia he faced

at school and in the Air Force. We also explored how his feelings of rage and powerlessness pushed him to start killing hospital patients. Today, we'll dig into the period of Harvey's life when he'd stopped killing patients. We'll discuss how he found love for the first time, then turned his murderous impulses towards his partner. Unfortunately, he didn't stop there. We've got all that and more coming up. Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. Whether you're hiring for a role or searching for a killer, the hunt can be exhausting. When detectives looked and searched to find any kind of evidence to find the person they

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That's ZipRecruiter.com slash killers. Meet your match on ZipRecruiter. This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Bonnie and Clyde, the Lonely Hearts Killers, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. These are infamous criminal duels, but you don't need to break any laws to find your perfect business partner because you have Shopify. It's the commerce platform that can help you with literally everything, website design, marketing, shipping, and more.

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Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. In 1979, 27-year-old Donald Harvey was, finally experiencing the carefree youth he'd never had. He was living in Cincinnati, where he could be openly gay for the first time in his life. Cincinnati held its first pride celebration six years earlier, and by the time Harvey arrived, the city's LGBTQ-plus community was thriving.

Much of the queer nightlife was concentrated in Clifton, a neighborhood just a couple of minutes from the VA hospital where Harvey worked. After he finished his long shifts at the morgue, he'd head out to one of Clifton's many gay bars, to strike up conversations with other young men. Now that he was finally away from his homophobic father and the bullies at school, any shyness left over from his youth evaporated. As a result, Harvey did well for himself at the bars.

According to his own recollection, he had a lot of sexual partners, sometimes as many as five in a night. One of Harvey's regular hookups in the late 1970s was a man named Doug Hill. As William Whalen and Bruce Martin write in their book, defending Donald Harvey. The two had a lot in common, including an interest in the occult and matching hot tempers. Though their relationship was casual, they argued a lot, and sometimes those fights turned ugly. One night, just after leaving a bar in Clifton, Harvey refused to get into Doug's car and started walking away from the vehicle. In response, Doug revved the engine and chased him.

As Doug's headlights got closer, Harvey started to run. but he wasn't fast enough. Doug scraped against Harvey, knocking him to the ground. Pain seared through Harvey's leg. As soon as Doug realized that Harvey was injured, it seems he came back to his senses. He apologized, and Harvey pretended to forgive him, but inside he was seething.

It was embarrassing to be made so powerless, and Harvey wasn't about to just let that go. But Doug wasn't one of his patients. He couldn't just hook him up to a faulty oxygen tank. or smother him with a pillow and make it look like a natural death. And in any case, Harvey didn't want to kill Doug. He just wanted to hurt him. At the VA hospital sometime back, Harvey had learned about arsenic.

The white powder was easy to hide, and it took very little to cause someone harm. At some stage, he made the decision that that would be how he got back at Doug. Once Harvey had procured some, all he needed to do was wait for the right moment. One night soon after the parking lot incident, Harvey and Doug were enjoying a quiet night in. Harvey headed to the kitchen to get them each a bowl of ice cream. It seemed like a thoughtful gesture, but when Doug wasn't looking, Harvey sprinkled a tiny pinch of arsenic onto his serving of ice cream. It wasn't enough to kill him, just enough to make him very sick and weak. It's interesting that Harvey chose to use poison because it's not a method he used during his initial killing spree

when he murdered at least a dozen patients. It's also not a common method for male killers in general. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. Please note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but we've done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg. According to the FBI, poison isn't a common method of murder in general. And while men commit murder more often than women

in every category of weapons due to the fact that they commit the vast majority murders, women are more likely to choose poison when they do decide to kill. In fact, women are seven times more likely to kill using poison than men. There are some clear societal reasons for this. Women have traditionally been responsible for most, if not all, of the cooking and other housework within families. Even today, these outdated dynamics persist, so it's easy to see how food preparation can become a valuable source of power over other people.

In this case, Harvey had spent many years in a caregiving profession. He'd been entrusted with taking care of vulnerable people and had gotten a thrill out of exploiting that trust. And even though he was no longer killing at work, he found a new way to feel that rush, this time over his lover. Based on what we know about arsenic poisoning, about an hour after he finished the ice cream, Doug likely started to experience excruciating stomach pain and nausea so bad he could hardly stand. After that, his body grew warm like his skin was on fire. All of these symptoms would have

set off alarm bells for Doug, and he soon found his way to the hospital. However, doctors attributed Doug's symptoms to appendicitis, not arsenic poisoning. So when he made a full recovery, there was no reason to think otherwise. This was a turning point for Harvey. It was the first time he'd ever harmed someone who wasn't a patient in his care. He'd done exactly what he hoped to do, caused dog pain, and he got away with it. And though he might have been tempted to try it again, he was soon distracted by a new romance. 38-year-old Carl Hoeller was also a regular at the Clifton bars.

Roughly 11 years older than Harvey, he ran a successful local salon and owned a duplex nearby. In short, he was financially stable in a way that Harvey's family never had been. At first, their relationship was casual, just like all of Harvey's previous ones. But after Harvey's father, Ray, died in 1979. Things changed.

We don't have many details about what happened to Ray or what his relationship with Harvey was like in the years before his death, but the loss surely had an impact on Harvey. Though Ray had been tough on his son, calling him weak and shaming him for his sexuality, Harvey had always craved his father's approval. Perhaps Ray's death made Harvey latch onto Carl even harder. His stability and maturity were suddenly deeply appealing to Harvey, and he wanted more than a casual fling. So he and Ray made things official. In August of 1980, less than a year after they met, Harvey moved into Carl's apartment with him.

The couple reportedly began to dress alike, and though they weren't legally able to get married, they both wore wedding bands. Carl showed his affection by buying Harvey expensive gifts, while Harvey showed his in the kitchen. He was happy to spend hours making a perfect dinner for his partner. At last, Harvey's life was stable. He was well liked by his colleagues at the VA hospital, and he had a happy relationship to go home to. And it seems Carl had no idea about the dark impulses that lurked in his partner. It's possible Harvey told him about his history of suicide attempts.

Perhaps he even opened up about his time of the psych ward and how he was given electroconvulsive therapy to treat his depression. Then again, he may have chosen. to keep these memories to himself. After all, the last thing he wanted was for Carl to see him as weak. Despite the early success, Harvey and Carl's relationship began to deteriorate in the early 1980s. The first ripple seems to have been when Carl was arrested for indecent public exposure. According to authors William Whalen and Bruce Martin, that was how Harvey discovered that on his days off, Carl had been visiting the park and hooking up with other men.

Harvey was furious. This is a curious reaction, since according to Harvey's colleagues, he talked openly about picking up other men on the side. It's unclear if this was the case throughout the relationship, or if the cheating only started once they were settled. But regardless, it doesn't seem like non-monogamy was something they'd strictly agreed on. Once he found out that Carl was cheating on him, Harvey began plotting a way to make sure it never happened again. Since Harvey was the cook in the relationship, he had easy access to Carl's meals, and he planned to slowly poison his partner with arsenic. To make sure he got the dosage right, Harvey experimented on himself first.

He didn't use anywhere close to a lethal dose, but he was playing with fire. Less than one-eighth of a teaspoon can be fatal to a healthy adult. Once he'd figured out the correct amount, he gave Carl just enough to make him too sick to leave their apartment. That way, he'd have his boyfriend all to himself on their days off work. Once he'd begun sprinkling the arsenic into Carl's food, all Harvey had to do was sit back and wait for the poison to take effect. Chronic arsenic poisoning, which develops over a sustained period, causes different symptoms from acute poisoning. In addition to abdominal pain and nausea, it can also cause numbness in the extremities,

skin pigmentation and thickening, and even liver disease. Over the next few months, Carl experienced many of these symptoms, and Harvey was by his side through it all. He feigned sympathy for his partner and took pleasure in nursing him back to health every time he fell ill. During this time, Carl underwent test after test, trying to figure out what was causing his symptoms. Eventually, doctors concluded that his illness was caused by exposure to chemicals at the salon he owned. Hairdressers at the time used all kinds of chemicals, and it seemed plausible that Carl's work could be making him sick. Harvey was thrilled that the doctors seemed to have no suspicions about the poisoning. He'd effectively disabled his partner, and no one had a clue.

On its surface, this may seem like a totally different kind of crime than the murders Harvey committed when he was an orderly. Then he was supposedly killing patients because they were helpless. Here, he was making Carl helpless so that he could save him. But both actions could be manifestations of the same desperate desire for control. In both scenarios, Harvey got to pull the strings. According to forensic psychiatrist Carol Lieber, Hartman's definitions. Harvey's actions towards his boyfriend can potentially be seen as those

of a malignant hero, which is a killer who harms a victim so they can swoop in and save the day. This is also typical of a condition called Factitious Disorder imposed on another, which was previously known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy. Per the DSM-5, this disorder involves the intentional production or faking of symptoms in another person. factitious disorder isn't well understood, it's often considered to be attention-seeking behavior since the sick person and people around them receive sympathy and support. That said, there's no indication that Harvey had much interest in attention from people outside his relationship.

In his own mind, he wasn't doing this for selfish reasons at all. The poisoning was all for Carl's own good and for the sake of their relationship. After all, if Carl was home, he wouldn't be out getting into trouble. And Harvey got an extra thrill out of flummoxing Carl's doctors. He'd always felt inferior to the medical staff at his hospital jobs, but now he was outsmarting them. He was outsmarting everyone. And now that Harvey had realized how much power he had, nobody around him was safe. In a moment, Carl's family gets caught in the crosshairs. Hi listeners, it's Vanessa. On behalf of Parcast, I'd like to thank you for your continued support. Your loyalty has allowed us to keep expanding even beyond podcasts. That's why I'm

so thrilled to share some special news with you all, something we've never done before and made possible only because of you. On July 12th, we're releasing our first book titled Cults, inside the world's most notorious groups and understanding the people who joined them, and you can pre-order it today at Parchast.com slash cults. Those of you who've been with Parchast, since the beginning, know that it's a labor of love for us to bring you these powerful stories. As long as you keep listening, we keep creating. So with the benefit of years of research and insights, we've put together a comprehensive narrative that tries to make sense of mysterious groups such as nexium, heaven's gate, the Manson family, and more,

exposing how shared beliefs can have deadly results, and taking you deeper into the dark side of human nature than ever before. You won't want to miss this book. Visit parcast.com slash cults to pre-order your copy of cults inside the world's most notorious groups and understanding the people who join them. That's parkast.com slash cults.

Thank you again for listening. We can't wait for you to dive in. Exema is unpredictable. But you can flare less with ebbglis. A once-monthly treatment for moderate to severe eczema. After an initial four-month- or longer dosing, phase, about four and 10 people taking ebbglis, achieved itch relief and clear or almost clear skin at 16 weeks. And most of those people maintain skin that's still more clear at one year with

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Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with ebbglis. Before starting, Epgless, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. Ask your doctor about ebbglis and visit ebglis.com or call 1800 LilyRX or 1-800-545-99. Now back to the story. In the early 1980s, 30-year-old Donald Harvey

had discovered a whole new way to feel in control. Poisoning Carl had. worked just as he'd hoped, now his boyfriend rarely left the apartment on his days off. He continued periodically giving Carl's small doses of arsenic, but only enough to maintain his symptoms. He didn't want to make him any sicker than that. And now that he discovered how easy it was to mess with someone through their food, Harvey was eager to find new victims. The next person who crossed him, he decided, would get what was coming to them. And he didn't have to wait long. In the spring of 1983, Carl's

neighbor, 63-year-old Helen Metzger, was going blind from glaucoma and was becoming more physically limited. So Harvey often brought her leftovers and even when grocery shopping for her sometimes. But that spring, Helen became a problem. She started asking questions about the way Carl managed the building. Her incessant pestering soon began to grate on Harvey. In his mind, Helen was threatening Carl, and by extension threatening him. So one night, Harvey added a dash of arsenic to some stew he'd set aside for Helen, and he didn't stop there. Later, he slipped some into a jar of mayonnaise, which he then gave to Helen.

These monstrous acts tally with Harvey's track record, targeting elderly people who couldn't defend themselves. But they also echo a pattern from Harvey's childhood. As a kid, Harvey's family was reportedly so poor that he often went searching for food in other places, and he quickly learned that his neediness would be taken advantage of. One neighbor made him do housework in exchange for food. Another neighbor sexually abused him, as did his uncle.

So at a young age, Harvey learned that any weakness was fair game. Helen's encroaching blindness meant that she needed Harvey's help, and that help came at a terrible price. A few days later, Harvey escalated his tactics. He baked a pie for her and put a much larger dose of arsenic in it. According to Harvey, he wanted to make Helen sick and teach her a lesson, but whether intentionally or not, he did a lot more than that. After eating a few slices of the pie, Helen lost the ability to move her feet.

At first, she may have put it down to aging, but soon the paralysis spread, and she became worried. Eventually, the paralysis spread to her upper body, and then she started to have trouble breathing. Finally, on April 10th, a team of medics raced to her home. Her symptoms mystified the emergency workers. They did everything they could to save her. But it was no use. Helen hemorrhaged after receiving a tracheotomy and lost consciousness. Never to wake again.

After her death, doctors attributed her symptoms to Guillain Barre syndrome, a severe autoimmune disorder that can cause paralysis. Nobody ever suspected that Helen had been poisoned, but why would they? As far as her family knew, Harvey was a kind neighbor who'd brought Helen groceries and meals whenever she needed them. And after she died, he went out of his way to offer the Metzger's support. Harvey even served as the pallbearer at her funeral. Just like when Carl got sick, Harvey feigned sadness, grief, and shock. But inwardly, Harvey was ecstatic.

The arsenic had worked perfectly. Whether he'd intended to kill Helen or not, her death gave him a feeling. of power that he hadn't experienced in years, and he wanted more. That same month, Carl's 82-year-old father, Henry Hoeller, was admitted to Cincinnati's Mercy Franciscan Hospital, at the time known as Providence Hospital. He'd been unwell for some time, and in addition to having a history of kidney disease, he needed round-the-clock treatment for congestive heart failure. Carl and Harvey visited Henry on several occasions, usually together, but near the end of May 1983, Harvey visited him alone.

In his hospital room, Henry told Harvey that he was miserable and wanted to die. At least, that's what Harvey said happened. Harvey jumped at the opportunity. He slipped Carl's father a fatal dose of arsenic. Two days later, Henry suffered a massive stroke and died shortly afterward. Carl was devastated by his father's death. Though the family knew it was coming, they'd expected to have more time with Henry.

Even through their grief, Harvey wasn't finished with the Hoheller family just yet. According to news reports, Harvey started giving small, non-lethal doses of arsenic to Carl's mother, Margaret. It's not clear how he did this or what her symptoms were. Perhaps Harvey volunteered to bring the grieving widow groceries and cooked meals. Just as he had with Henry and Helen, he took advantage of her vulnerability. Harvey was learning that even when he wasn't wearing a hospital uniform, people were quick to trust him. For him, it was obvious that the world was full of easy marks, people too exhausted or unwell to turn down any offer of help.

When he first poisoned Carl, Harvey convinced himself that he was doing it to save their relationship, and he supposedly poisoned Helen because she was threatening Carl. But it's clear that these justifications were just hollow excuses for atrocious behavior. Though he claimed to be endlessly devoted to Carl, some people who knew the couple thought this wasn't the case. One of Harvey's co-workers, Cynthia Walker, claims Harvey was drawn to Carl for his generosity, not because he actually liked him. In fact, she said she didn't think Harvey, quote, had any kind of personal feelings toward

anybody. The Cincinnati Inquirer article that quotes her doesn't give further details that might clarify Cynthia's comments, but it's interesting that she picked up on a lack of emotion from Harvey. He was generally well-liked by his coworkers, but maybe that was only true of the ones who didn't look too closely. Superficial charm, along with a lack of empathy and feeling for others, can be a hallmark of antisocial personality disorder. This condition is also marked by disregard for and violation of the rights of others. As far as we know, Harvey was never formally diagnosed with APD, although several experts have suggested that he displayed psychopathic

behaviors, which is an outdated way to describe his actions. And if that's the case, he likely saw no contradiction in loving Carl even as he poisoned him. He felt no remorse as he ingratiated himself with the Holwellers, then abused their trust. After going through so many difficult moments with Carl's family, the Wholewellers may have considered Harvey part of the family. On Christmas Eve, 1983, Harvey was busy cleaning some newly installed windows and his and Carl his apartment using methanol to remove a sticky adhesive label from the glass. For some reason, the methanol was stored in a vodka bottle, and after Harvey was done, he left the bottle out in a storage area near the bar.

Later that day, Carl's brother-in-law, Howard Vedder, came over for some festive drinks. Carl made Howard a couple of cocktails to help him get into the Christmas spirit. A little later, everyone went to bed, looking forward to continuing the celebration the next day. But within the next couple of days, Howard experienced severe pains. The cocktails he'd drunk on Christmas Eve had contained methanol, which Carl picked up, thinking it was vodka. After methanol's ingested, the body metabolizes it into formaldehyde, which can reach toxic levels.

The early symptoms of methanol poisoning include drowsiness and a lack of coordination, which soon progress into vomiting, headaches, abdominal pain, and sometimes blindness, Because the symptoms take a while to show up and can be easily mistaken for other conditions, methanol poisoning is often reported late. That was what happened to Howard. He was sick for a week before he finally went into the hospital for tests. And by then, it was too late. On New Year's Eve, he suffered a heart attack and never regained consciousness.

His death was ruled an accident, but it's not clear what type of accident the doctors thought it was. Perhaps they'd realized that he'd ingested methadol and chalked it up as a tragic mistake. Regardless, yet again, nobody had any reason to suspect that Harvey was at least partly to blame. And this time, according to Harvey, he hadn't intended to kill Howard. But given that he'd already poisoned Carl's father, mother, and neighbor, it seems like a pretty big coincidence. That said, there's no way to know for sure what really happened here. So much of what we know about his crimes is based on. on his own retelling. And Harvey Long claimed that he acted out of mercy. But even if you buy that

explanation, it doesn't work here. Most of the people Harvey killed during this time period were already sick. Helen's blindness had seriously impacted her quality of life, and Carl's father, Henry, was not expected to recover from his illness. So Harvey could probably rationalize killing them both as an act of kindness. But Howard was different. He was relatively young and appeared to be in good health. Perhaps Harvey didn't want to admit to murdering him because it would contradict his view of himself as a mercy killer. It's also possible that Harvey put the methanol into the vodka bottle and left it out just to see what would happen. He had no way of knowing for sure that Carl would use it to make Howard a drink, but he at least knew it was possible. If this is what happened,

he was essentially playing Russian roulette with other people's lives. And that wasn't the only time he did so. That very same Christmas, Carl told Harvey that he wanted to throw a dinner party for the staff of his salon. Harvey was happy to play host for the event. He heated up a large batch of beef stroganoff for the party, but just before serving the dish, he sprinkled a small amount of arsenic on top. Later that night, everybody at the party came down with gastrointestinal symptoms. The only ones who didn't get sick were Harvey and Carl. They hadn't eaten any of the stroganoff. Harvey had been careful with the amount of arsenic he used, so nobody who attended the party got seriously ill. That meant that they all chalked up their symptoms to a weird coincidence and nothing more.

If only someone thought to question the strange illness, they might have seen what was coming. But as it was, only Donald Harvey knew what he planned to do next. Up next, Harvey's Campaign of Terror escalates. Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is California's number one entertainment destination for today's superstars. Catch the Jonas Brothers return to the Yamava Theater stage on April 30th, the powerful vocals of Demi Lovato

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Now back to the story. On New Year's Day of 1984, For, 31-year-old Donald Harvey could hardly contain his good mood. Accidentally or otherwise, he'd just indirectly killed his boyfriend's brother-in-law, and nobody had the faintest idea. Though he now killed close to 20 people, according to some estimates. He never tired of getting away with it. But he knew he had to be careful.

He couldn't risk looking too happy around Carl, who just lost his father, his neighbor, and now his brother-in-law in a single year. Carl's own health was also still shaky. Thanks to the small amounts of arsenic, Harvey was periodically feeding him. He'd had a rough year altogether and had been leaning on Harvey a lot for support, but also on his best friend, Diane Alexander. Like Carl, Diane was a hairdresser. She worked as an assistant manager at the salon,

and the two had been inseparable for years. At first, Harvey slotted easily into their friendship. Carl and Harvey went to her place for dinner at least once a week. and vice versa. But at some point the relationship between Harvey and Diane soured. According to authors William Waylon and Bruce Martin, they became jealous of each other, competing for Carl's attention, and often sniped back and forth during dinner. Harvey noticed that Diane was friendly to him in front of Carl, but turned chilly when it was just the two of them. To Harvey, it felt like Diane wanted to get rid of him, that she would turn Carl against him. So he struck first, before,

she had the chance. One of Harvey's responsibilities at the morgue where he worked was disposing of biological waste, including blood. In January of 1984, he stole and smuggled home a sample of clear blood serum that he knew was infected with hepatitis B. The next time Diane came over for dinner, he slipped the sample into her salad dressing. Later that year, she developed hepatitis B, and just like Carl, she endured weeks of medical tests, as doctors tried to determine what was wrong with her. She was misdiagnosed with a gallbladder

condition, then with pancreatitis. Once again, Harvey Fane concerned. He might have even offered to use his connections at the VA hospital to get Diane better doctors, but behind his sympathetic smile, he was thrilled that he'd managed to fool so many medical professionals. It's not clear how long it took for Diane to finally be diagnosed, or what the course of her illness looked like. Hepatitis B is a viral liver infection spread through bodily fluids. Some people experience only a brief, acute infection before recovering. But for others, hepatitis B develops into a chronic, lifelong disease. This is probably what Harvey hoped would happen to Diane. But as Diane recovered, Harvey grew bitter. He didn't want her suffering to end, and he knew he needed to step up his game.

Later that year, Harvey poured acrylic acid into Diane's iced tea. This is a high highly corrosive substance, and when it's swallowed, it can cause ulceration and burning. In Diane's case, ingestion of the acid was apparently followed by swelling in her hands and feet, which would have made her job difficult, if not impossible. Hairdressers spend hours on their feet during appointments, standing behind clients for six to eight-hour shifts, which would be excruciating for someone with swollen limbs, and Diane's hands were one of her best assets. Her job required dexterity and ease of most of her. in her hands, both of which would have been difficult given her condition.

When she went to see doctors, they weren't able to pin down what was causing her swelling, which likely made treatment extremely difficult. Even though Harvey had made his friend's life miserable, the acrylic acid still wasn't doing the kind of damage he craved. He wanted to make Diane suffer in a way that would make her life unbearable. So later that spring, Harvey swiped another sample from the hospital laboratory. This time, it was infected with a much deadlier human immunodeficiency virus, otherwise known as HIV. In 1984, the HIV-AIDS epidemic was gathering steam in the United States. Two years earlier, scientists had labeled the still mysterious illness as, quote-unquote,

a gay-related immune deficiency or gay cancer because it seemed to mainly affect queer men. Though the outbreak was still in its early stages and public awareness was patchy, it had already claimed more than 3,000 lives in queer communities across the United States. As a gay man, Harvey would have been profoundly aware of just how devastating the illness was. Yet he slipped this infected blood sample into Diane's food, hoping to make her HIV positive. The fact that he would knowingly try to infect another person with an incurable condition, which was widely seen as a death sentence at the time is yet more evidence of how little empathy he had.

It also makes his claims of mercy even harder to believe. But this time, his twisted scheme was unsuccessful. Diane did not become HIV positive. And for Harvey, this seemed to mark the end of his vendetta. Maybe it was that nothing seemed to work the way he wanted, so he gave up trying to make Diane suffer. Then again, perhaps his attention was just elsewhere, because in May of 1984, Harvey's work situation changed abruptly.

After working in the pathology department, Harvey was transferred to the cardiac catheterization lab, where he'd serve as a technician. A cardiology technician is expected to run diagnostic tests on patients to measure their heart health and functioning. In many cases, the cardiotech is also the patient's first point of contact when they're brought in for testing. This means that good bedside manner is key. A tech is often tasked with explaining procedures and reassuring anxious patients or family members. All that to say, Harvey's head spun as he absorbed the news of his transfer. For the first time in almost a decade, he'd be working directly with living patients again.

Once he started the job, he discovered there was a steep learning curve. His patient-facing skills were rusty, and the job required using a lot of equipment he was unfamiliar with. For the first few months, his new position had kept him so busy, that he had no time to think about harming anyone. He did kill a patient that fall, but it was seemingly an accident. Hiram Prophet was in his 50s when he came in for a routine cardiac procedure on September 19th. Harvey was responsible for giving him a blood thinner beforehand. As a technician, it's strange that Harvey was given this task,

which should be performed by doctors or nurses only, and the patient paid dearly for this oversight. When Haram bled to death in the operating room, Harvey realized that he'd accidentally given him five times the standard dose. He didn't report his mistake, and it seems it wasn't discovered at the time. Even if this was an accident, as he claimed, the mistake reawakened something in Harvey. Now that he was around patients again, he remembered just how easy it was to decide who lived and who died.

Still, he wasn't sure he was ready to start doing this regularly again. He'd been at the VA hospital for close to a decade, and, they'd been good to him. He didn't want to risk that stability. But that fall, something happened to change his mind. In early November, James Paluso came into the hospital for a procedure and was probably happy to see Harvey when he was admitted. James had been a regular hookup of Harvey's before he met Carl, so the familiar face must have been a comfort. James' heart was failing. When he came into the hospital, he apparently told Harvey that he wasn't interested in palliative care. If his condition worsened to the point where he couldn't take care of himself,

he supposedly didn't want to be kept alive for the sake of it. That was no kind of life. And according to Harvey, James told him that if it ever came to that, he wanted Harvey to, quote, help him out. Harvey took those words to heart. He believed that James was asking for a quick, painless death. And he could deliver, at least in part. So on November 10th, Harvey slipped a dose of arsenic into James pudding.

Within hours, James fell seriously ill. Given his cardiac problems, his death may not have come as a surprise to the staff, but it did affect one person at the hospital in a very big way. Killing James gave Harvey an old, familiar rush, made even more intense by their intimate history. He had a God complex that manifested itself in different ways. With Carl, he wanted to be the savior, nursing his partner back to health. With patients like James, he wanted to be in a new. angel of mercy, ending their suffering through a quick death. Both fulfilled his deep, bottomless need

for control, and working with the living once more gave him access to countless opportunities to exercise that power. Though he was now back to killing at work, Harvey didn't stop looking for victims during his downtime. In fact, he barely had to look at all. The upstairs apartment, which had been vacant for more than a year since Helen's death, was about to be rented. And Harvey couldn't wait to meet the new neighbor. It had been a while since he had anyone new to cook for. Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers, where we'll chronicle Harvey's most prolific years as a serial killer at another hospital in Cincinnati. We'll also explain how we slipped up and finally got himself caught. For more information on Donald Harvey,

amongst the many sources we used, we found the book Defending Donald Harvey by William Whalen and Bruce Martin, extremely helpful in our research. You can find all episodes of Serial Killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. We'll see you next time. Have a Killer Week. Serial Killers is a Spotify original from Parcast. Executive producers include Max and Ron Cutler, sound designed by Juan Borda, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Trent Williamson, Carly Madden, and Joshua Kern.

This episode of Serial Killers was written by Emma Dibdin, with writing assistance by Amber Hurley and Joel Callan, fact-checking by Bennett Logan, and research by Brian Petrus and Chelsea Wood. Serial Killers stars Greg Poulson and Vanessa. Hi listeners, it's Vanessa. Exciting news, Parcast's first book, Cults Inside the World's Most Notorious Groups, and understanding the people who join them, is now available for pre-order at parcast.com slash cults. Thanks to your support, we've compiled years of research, insights, and a catalog of case

studies to expose more about these cults and the people behind them than ever before. Details which haven't even been explored in our cults podcast. Visit pardast.com slash cults to pre-order your copy of cults inside the world's most notorious groups and understanding the people who join them. Ryan Reynolds here for MintMobil. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities, so do like I did and have one of your assistants assistants to switch you to MintMobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com slash switch. Up front payment of $45 for three-month plan equivalent to $15 per month required.

Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra, fee full terms at MintMobile. mobile.com. A beloved 75-year-old man washing up getting ready for bed is brutally beaten and killed. Despite an exhaustive investigation, the killer avoids arrest and then strikes again. I'm global news crime reporter Nancy Hicks. You might listen to a lot of true crime podcast this year, but they're not crime beat. Search for and follow the award-winning podcast Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts.