A convicted serial killer known for taking the lives of more than 30 patients under his care as a nurse’s aide died Thursday following a brutal attack at an Ohio prison.

“He described family members in the rooms, that made you think that he must have thought about that later on, and perhaps enjoyed that sensation of taking that life because he remembered it in such detail,” former Commonwealth’s Attorney Tom Handy said, remembering the case of mass murderer Donald Harvey.

Thirty years ago, Harvey, known as the “Angel of Death,” pleaded guilty to 37 murders. On Thursday, Harvey, serving out multiple life sentences, died after being found badly beaten earlier this week inside his Toledo, Ohio prison cell. According to reports, the 64-year-old was beaten Tuesday by an unnamed person, based on a patrol report. 

Harvey’s killings began in London, Kentucky, while he was working in the 1970s and 1980s as a nurse’s aide at the now-demolished Marymount Hospital and in Cincinnati. Harvey was able to provide the names of several of the victims he murdered.

Handy recalls the whole case without pause. 

He remembers the defense coming to him saying, “We’ve got a guy willing to admit to killing members of the community if the Commonwealth does not elect to do the death penalty.”

Handy said that was no problem because at that time of the killings, the death penalty was ruled unconstitutional in Kentucky. 

According to Handy, an extensive investigation by the Commonwealth, former Laurel County, Kentucky, Sheriff Floyd Brummett and former London, Kentucky, Chief of Police Bill Smith was conducted before ever taking a statement from Harvey.  

“Ninety-something people died at the hospital during the time Harvey was there,” Handy said. “We got all the medical files of all those people and sent them to the state forensic lab. Out of the nearly 100 files, the examiner picked out 15 that could have been homicides.” 

Handy said the 13 individuals that Harvey admitted to killing were on the list of 15 provided by the medical examiner.

The Commonwealth had enough evidence to convict Harvey of nine out of the 13. 

“The whole thing is different from other cases,” Handy said. “A defense attorney calling you up and saying we’ve got a man that wants to confess to being a mass murderer in your community, you know from that point on it’s going to be strange.”

Laurel County, Kentucky, Circuit Judge Lewis Hopper sentenced Harvey to 8 life sentences plus 20 years. 

Once Harvey’s sentence was handed down in court, he was then sent to enter his guilty pleas in Ohio, leaving many people throughout the local community to remember the nine who were killed.

In Ohio, Harvey pleaded guilty to 25 more murders, 21 of which were patients under his care. At the time of his death, he was serving a total of 28 life sentences at the Toledo Correctional Institution in Ohio, which included the 8 he received in London, Kentucky.

Turner writes for the Corbin, Kentucky Times-Tribune.