The "Dr. X" killings were a series of suspicious deaths by

curare Curare ( /kʊˈrɑːri/ or /kjʊˈrɑːri/; ''koo-rah-ree'' or ''kyoo-rah-ree'') is a common name for various alkaloid arrow poisons originating from plant extracts. Used as a paralyzing agent by indigenous peoples in Central and South ...

poisoning, in 1966 at a

Bergen County, New Jersey Bergen County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. A newspaper investigation during the mid-1960s led to the indictment of an

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

-born physician, Mario Enrique Jascalevich (August 27, 1927 — September 1984), in 1976. He was acquitted at trial in 1978.

Career

Jascalevich was born in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South Am ...

on August 27, 1927. After completing his medical training in Argentina, he came to the United States to perform an

internship An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and gover ...

at Passaic General Hospital in 1955, setting up his practice in New Jersey. He was hired as a surgeon by Riverdell Hospital in

Oradell, New Jersey Oradell is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the borough's population was 8,244,, an increase of 266 from the 2010 census count of 7,978."Dr. Mario E. Jascalevich Dies; Jersey Surgeon in 'Dr. X' Case"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', April 3, 1985. Accessed October 19, 2009. At the time of his murder trial, he was a resident of

Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey Englewood Cliffs is a borough in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, whose population at the 2010 United States census was 5,281.Bergen County, New Jersey Bergen County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Guy W. Calissi, launched an investigation of nine suspicious deaths at Riverdell Hospital in Oradell. The patients had been admitted to the hospital for surgery and died of unrelated causes, before or after routine surgical procedures. The investigation was commenced on November 1, 1966, after eighteen vials of curare – most nearly empty – were found in a locker assigned to Dr. Mario Jascalevich. When confronted, he explained that he had been experimenting with dogs. No motive could be ascertained for homicide. Ten years passed before the state charged Jascalevich with five counts of murder, in May 1976.

Newspaper investigation

The case had lain dormant for a decade when ''

'' received a letter from a woman claiming that as many as 40 patients had been murdered at a hospital by its chief surgeon. The letter handed to reporter M. A. Farber offered no information as to where the alleged murders had occurred or who the murderer was, if there was anything at all to the letter.Farber, Myron
"On Not Naming Names "
'' Smithsonian'', September 2005. Accessed October 19, 2009. Farber pursued the case by speaking with someone in the forensic toxicology field who was able to recall a case at Riverdell Hospital, a private medical facility that had since closed. Further investigation led to the identification of Dr. Mario Jascalevich as the hospital's chief surgeon. While Jascalevich's surgical patients routinely survived, those of a new surgeon were dying at a significantly high rate. This new surgeon, together with directors of the hospital, opened Jascalevich's locker on October 31, 1966 and found 18 near empty vials of

, a powerful muscle relaxant that could cause death if not administered in conjunction with artificial respiration. The hospital reported their findings to the

Bergen County, New Jersey Bergen County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Guy W. Calissi. Farber was given the opportunity to review the files from the 1966 investigation, and found a comment from Calissi that said that "someone is lying". Though Calissi's suspicions were strong, he and his assistant Fred C. Galda had come to the conclusion at the time that hard evidence did not exist to move further with the case. When Farber contacted Calissi in 1975, Calissi called the claim that the circumstances of the deaths were plausible to be "horsesh-t" and remained convinced that his suspicions in the case were accurate that there had been criminal actions involved in the deaths. Farber's investigations led him to try to contact the families of the potential victims, in some cases notifying relatives for the first time that the deaths had been deemed suspicious. His attempts to contact Jascalevich, then in private practice, were all unsuccessful despite repeated letters, phone calls and even attempts to approach him outside of his offices. Farber tried to follow up on Jascalevich's statement in his 1966 deposition that the curare had been used in experiments on dying dogs, but was unable to get any confirmation that dogs had been supplied to him as described. The results of Farber's investigation were first published in ''The Times'' in January 1976, referring to the unidentified physician as "Dr. X", and caused a media stir. '' The Record'', the largest paper in the area, picked up the story, covering it with as many as 13 reporters. Other papers nationwide picked up the story as well. Bergen County Prosecutor Woodcock opened an independent investigation, exhuming the bodies of five possible victims, none of whom had been administered curare during their surgical procedures. Using new technologies, investigators found traces of curare in three of the bodies.

Trial

The Bergen County grand jury issued an indictment on May 18, 1976, charging Jascalevich with the deaths of five patients – Emma Arzt (age 70), Frank Biggs (age 59), Margaret Henderson (age 26), Carl Rohrbeck (age 73) and Nancy Savino (age 4) – and having injected them with curare to kill them. Once brought to trial, two of the murder counts were dismissed. The prosecution was led by Sybil Moses, an assistant prosecutor who was four years out of law school. Jascalevich was represented by attorney Raymond A. Brown.Berger, Joseph
"Raymond A. Brown, Civil Rights Lawyer, Dies at 94"
''

'', October 11, 2009. Accessed October 12, 2009. At trial, in 1978, two of the murder counts were dismissed for lack of evidence. Brown filed a subpoena requesting that Farber turn over all of his notes and other writings related to 193 potential witnesses in the case, what Farber would later call "the broadest subpoena ever issued to an American reporter". After 34 weeks of testimony, Jascalevich was acquitted by jurors on October 24, 1978.

Possible victims

Possible victims include: * Carl Rohrbeck, age 73, died December 13, 1965 * Nancy Savino, age 4, March 21, 1966. * Margaret Henderson, 26, April 23, 1966. * Edith Post, age 62, May 17, 1966. * Ira Holster, age 64, July 29, 1966. * Frank Biggs, age 59, August 27, 1966 * Mary Muentener, age 80, September 1, 1966. * Emma Arzt, age 70, September 23, 1966. * Eileen Shaw, 36, October 23, 1966.

Post-acquittal

In October 1980, the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners revoked Jascalevich's license to practice medicine in the State of New Jersey, finding by a vote of 11–0 that Jascalevich was guilty of "gross malpractice or gross negligence and failure of good moral character". Jascalevich had voluntarily surrendered his license in 1976 after being indicted in the criminal case for which he was later acquitted. The state found fraudulently prepared operation records in one case, and in another that he had made a diagnosis of cancer that "he knew or should have known" was false. Both patients had been admitted to Christ Hospital and had been from

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Yor ...

with a valid New York State license. In January 1982,

Governor of New Jersey The governor of New Jersey is the head of government of New Jersey. The office of governor is an elected position with a four-year term. There is a two consecutive term term limit, with no limitation on non-consecutive terms. The official res ...

Brendan Byrne Brendan Thomas Byrne (April 1, 1924 – January 4, 2018) was an American politician, statesman, and prosecutor, serving as the 47th governor of New Jersey from 1974 to 1982. A member of the Democratic Party, Byrne started his career as a privat ...

issued a pardon to reporter M.A. Farber and ordered that $101,000 in fines be returned to ''The Times''. The paper's attorney,

Floyd Abrams Floyd Abrams (born in July 9, 1936) is an American attorney at Cahill Gordon & Reindel. He is an expert on constitutional law and has argued in 13 cases before the Supreme Court of the United States. Abrams represented '' The New York Times'' ...

, was planning efforts to file for return of the additional $185,000 that had been assessed in civil contempt fines. In June 1984, Riverdell Hospital on Kinderkamack Road in Oradell was demolished. A former administrator of the hospital told a newspaper reporter that admissions had dropped significantly once the hospital and doctor were identified in the media, and that the hospital's ability to attract qualified physicians had been severely harmed. The 80-bed hospital changed its name to Northern Community Hospital in 1979. By 1981 the decision was made to close the hospital, as only a third of its patient beds were filled and the hospital was losing a quarter of a million dollars annually. Efforts to turn the site into an alcohol rehabilitation center were turned down and the site became a target of vandalism. A 300-bed nursing home was proposed to fill the empty site of the demolished building.Parisi, Albert J
"ORADELL HOSPITAL IS RAZED"
''

'', June 24, 1984. Accessed October 19, 2009.

Death

After losing his license to practice medicine, Jascalevich returned to Argentina. He died in September 1984 in

Mar del Plata Mar del Plata is a city on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the seat of General Pueyrredón district. Mar del Plata is the second largest city in Buenos Aires Province. The name "Mar del Plata" is a sh ...

from a

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

, aged 57, although the death was not reported to the public for several months, until an obituary appeared in ''The New York Times''. The deaths at Riverdell remain unsolved although Jascalevich is assumed by some to have been guilty.

References

{{Reflist 1966 murders in the United States Murder in New Jersey Serial murders in the United States