You're going to go. The Welcome to Human Monsters.

Joseph Michael Swango was born on October 21st, 1954 in Tacoma, Washington, though he spent

his childhood in Quincy, Illinois.

He was the middle child of John and Muriel Swanko. John was a career army officer and his mother was a homemaker.

Was his childhood dysfunctional in any way? Their mother was quirky enough

to refuse to spend money on Christmas wrapping paper. She would just put the children's

presents in brown paper bags like the kind with which you carry your lunch.

Certainly nobody gets rich from serving in the military, but if you pinch pennies like she did, you were sure to stretch them into

copper wire sooner or later.

She would put the gifts in the bags, staple them shut, and shove them under the tree.

She may have been a cheap skate, but she was a loving mother and there was no abuse or neglect, at least not according to what her children

recalled years later. The kids rarely saw their father because they grew up

during the Vietnam War and their father's services were very much

in demand overseas. It was a very unpopular war and John Swango was deeply hurt by the reception he received when he was back home,

so much so that he developed a drinking problem.

Alcohol is like a magic potion, only instead of granting your deepest held wishes, it just ruins

your health and then your life.

Add depression and PTSD to the mix and you have a man who couldn't function as a father and husband anymore.

Young Michael Swango was soon a child of a broken home once his parents separated and then divorced.

His relationship with his father didn't change much since he didn't come around much at this point either.

Michael was reported as being clinging with his mother.

In fact, he was a mother's boy through and through, and he would

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