19-05-2025
Inside the chilling true story of hospital worker who murdered 87 patients to put them 'out of their misery'
When Donald Harvey was hired as an orderly in a Kentucky hospital in 1970, he appeared on the outside as an eager teen desperate to escape his poor upbringing and make a better life for himself.
But on the inside, he was a gruesome murderer looking for victims to prey on.
For 17 years, Donald brutally killed over 80 patients while working at various medical facilities.
He would slip poison into their food or drinks, inject them with morphine when no one was looking, smother them with a pillow in the middle of the night, or lace their coffee with fluid infected with HIV.
How he got away with it for nearly two decades is still a question that hasn't fully been answered, but when he was finally caught in 1987 he was not ashamed of what he had done.
In fact, Donald was quick to confess, and has since described his actions as 'mercy killings,' claiming he was simply putting sick victims 'out of their misery.'
His harrowing story completely captured the globe in the late 1980s, and his belief that he was actually helping dying patients earned him the nickname the 'Angel of Death' killer.
Here, FEMAIL takes a look back at Donald's tormented childhood, his 17-year killing spree, and his disturbing justification for the murders.
Donald grew up in the tiny Appalachian town of Booneville, Kentucky, and his parents were struggling tobacco farmers.
He admitted during an interview from behind bars years after his trial that he knew he was gay from a young age, but struggled with his identity because of his strict religious upbringing.
'Being very effeminate acting and being a homosexual was not ideal for eastern Kentucky,' he said.
'I knew there were other places to be where it was more acceptable, and it was very Baptist-oriented type community.'
He also claimed that he was sexually molested as a child by his uncle and a neighbor 'for about 13 years.'
He dropped out of school in the ninth grade, and started working as an orderly at the Marymount Hospital in London, Kentucky, at age 18.
In 1970, he committed his first murder: he smothered an innocent 88-year-old patient named Logan Evans who had been admitted to the hospital for a stroke.
And it sparked a gruesome, 17-year killing spree that saw him murder as many as 87 people.
Donald has claimed that he mostly killed out of 'mercy,' as he believed he was putting sick patients 'out of their misery.'
He said, 'Most of the patients, that I have killed - the families, they come to visit at first ... [but then] they no longer visit.
'They have no one, and it's terrible to lay in [the hospital] day after day... And that's why I put 'em out of their misery like I hope someone would put me out of my misery.'
But he also admitted that sometimes he would act out of anger, describing himself as a 'nice and caring person' who had a 'meanness in him' when 'provoked.'
Donald used various ways to kill his patients - poisoning them, turning off ventilators, giving them too much morphine, suffocating them with pillows, inserting a coat hanger into a catheter, or even giving them fluid tainted with hepatitis B or HIV.
And his murder victims didn't just include people at the hospital, as he also murdered his lover Carl Hoeweler after he began to suspect he was cheating.
He also poisoned one of his friend, Diana Alexander, by putting hepatitis in her coffee.
'She's supposed to've been friends of both Carl and I, and she did nothing but cause trouble for us,' he said of Diana.
'I guess I wanted to teach her a lesson. I was just mad, and I thought well...'
Donald got away with killing patients for nearly two decades, evading police by moving to different hospitals when people began to get suspicious.
But he was finally caught in 1987, after a patient named John Powell abruptly died in the hospital he worked at in Ohio.
An autopsy showed large amounts of cyanide in his system, and investigators began to pick apart the hospital and its staff.
They suspected Donald after noticing how often he had moved around and brought him in for questioning, where he confessed.
Donald's lawyer asked for a plea bargain - if the prosecution took the death penalty off the table he would accept a sentence of life without parole and confess to all his murders - which was accepted by the prosecution.
His exact number of killings is still unknown, but he has claimed to have killed 87 people in total - 37 of his victims have been confirmed.
As per the plea bargain, he pleaded guilty to all 37 murders and was sentenced to life plus 20 years. He was admitted to Toledo Correctional Institution in October 1987.
When asked if he regretted his killings, he told interviewers, 'Yes.'
'There are some of the mercy killings I feel if I had to do over again I would do. Some of them no,' he added.
'There's a lot of countries that believe in mercy killing, but by a qualified physician. I guess I'd still do the same thing over on some of the cases.
'I'm at peace with myself... I think once I can tell my story maybe I can help someone else out.
'They're maybe having the same kind of problems, and maybe they'll recognize and able to go out and maybe get the proper help. Then I'll feel like, well, maybe I've accomplished something.'
In March 2017, after 30 years behind bars, Donald, then 64, was beaten to death by a fellow inmate.
