Here's what to know about the history of the case and the latest developments. Daniel Walker and several Chicago aldermen convicted in Operation Silver Shovel. They understood the tension between the FBI and local law enforcement some of them shared those same resentments but they thought Chicago didnt even try to be team players. Stores were pulling the product off shelves. Agents interviewed the victims families, neighbors, co-workers and friends about any known enemies. Customers who had a problem, anybody that could make some money out of it.. In a surveillance still photo, you can see a man who looks remarkably similar to Lewis standing in the background as one of the victims, Paula Prince, checks out. Joe McQuaid, a task force investigator with the state police who had worked for Fahner when he was director, acknowledged it was an unorthodox setup. Some investigators on the case, including a few still involved with it, considered the rendered profile too vague to be of any real use. Someone, police hypothesized, must have taken bottles off the shelves of local grocers and drug stores in the Chicago area, laced the capsules with poison, and then returned the restored packages to the shelves to be purchased by the unknowing victims. Details about the seven victims, how they obtained the tainted bottles and their final moments were outlined in a confidential police memo obtained by the Tribune. (Michael Budrys / Chicago Tribune). It was 1982. Security cameras were scarce in 1982, but investigators checked the images that existed, including this photograph from a drugstore camera showing Paula Prince, center, buying a bottle of tainted Tylenol. Tylenols parent company, Johnson & Johnson, also saw its stock price drop after the news about the tainted capsules broke. Police Officer Michael Miljan leaves an Arlington Heights pharmacy after making sure bottles of Extra-Strength Tylenol were being removed from shelves. Six suburbanites had already died from cyanide poisoning by that time, but this was Chicagos first and, in the end, only victim. We didnt get anything, but we were kicking around ideas like that.. Written by a high-ranking Illinois state police supervisor in April 1983, the document describes the wide net authorities cast in the hopes of solving the mystery. Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy Margolis, shown in his Chicago office in July, was part of the original Tylenol task force in 1982. The agents didnt bother to pretend that labeling rules were their true motivation for getting involved. Three of the deaths occurred in Arlington Heights, where police told NBC Chicago last year that they still have the pills, bottles and boxes as evidence. Subscribe to Heres the Deal, our politics He investigated the Tylenol poisonings in the Janus family and later served as police chief in Island Lake. Fahner thought state officials needed to be even more aggressive, despite the consequences for the investigation. The poisonings spanned multiple towns and two counties. And lives were at risk. Lewis admitted to the FBI that he sent a ransom letter at the time to Tylenol's parent company, Johnson & Johnson, according to reporting by The Chicago Tribune. The task ahead was difficult. In 1989, the FDA established federal guidelines for manufacturers to make all such products tamper-proof. He believed Thompson was behind the move, though Fahner denied it. They can do it, in part, by revisiting the earliest days of the Tylenol investigation, a time when evidence was not always handled according to todays careful standards. Do not use it.. Some of those interviews may have gone to an agent who didnt do a good job., Shari Kouba, shown in July at an FBI office in Mount Prospect where she used to work, ran a tips desk as part of the Tylenol task force. With fears mounting, Johnson & Johnson recalled all over-the-counter Tylenol capsule products on Oct. 5, nearly a week after Mary Kellermans death. Its a one-way street for information back and forth. Before that she reported for the Daily Herald, the Dayton Daily News and The Topeka Capital-Journal. As the de facto leader of the task force, he would come to be known in the media as "Tylenol Ty." Forty years later, investigators still cant say with certainty. Extra-Strength Tylenol, shown in a Tribune studio photograph, once was packaged in a paper box with an unglued lid. The Unsolved Tylenol Murders of 1982: The Unabomber Theory Written by C.W.S. The profilers believed the killer was likely to visit one of those named places to see the heartbreak he had caused. The substance was grainier than the untainted Tylenol on the left. Tylenol murders: A nationwide panic, a family tragedy Her dad, aunt and uncle were killed in the notorious unsolved poisonings that terrorized Chicago. READ: The awful work of the real doctors who inspired M*A*S*H. The case continued to be confusing to the police, the drug maker and the public at large. The discovery, so far, has been more of a curse than a blessing for present-day investigators, who have spent years obtaining DNA samples from investigators, public health officials, scientists and medical professionals who came in contact with the poisoned Tylenol. Studies have found women who kill use poison more often than men do, but they typically target people they know. Nearly three weeks after the murders, for example, the FBI asked Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Greene to write a column about Mary Kellerman and include specific details such as the familys home address and the location of the little girls grave, with her parents permission. The Tribune interviewed nearly two dozen members of the task force, many of whom confirmed the reports veracity and added their own perspective. Former Illinois Attorney General Ty Fahner stands on the former site of the Tylenol task force headquarters in Des Plaines, now an empty parking lot. He goes, It smells like burnt almonds. . (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune), John Fellmann at his home in Huntley in September. I said, Agent, agent. In an attempt to paint a more detailed portrait of the killer, the FBI turned to a relatively new technique at the time called criminal profiling, in which agents try to identify the personality and behavioral characteristics of an offender based on an analysis of the crime. And I want people to know that, yeah, this was my family, and it has changed all of us.. Seven people between 12 and 35 died after ingesting cyanide-laced Tylenol pills in the Chicago area in 1982. Most came from a banking service that snapped a photograph of anyone writing a check. I had people dropping dead all over the place.. Male murderers are more likely, in general, to kill randomly and on a large scale. Before the 1982 crisis, Tylenol controlled more than 35 percent of the over-the-counter pain reliever market; only a few weeks after the murders, that number plummeted to less than 8 percent. Nothing has come of that January 2022 meeting. Within a week, her death would panic the entire nation. Thank you. Their departments relationship with the FBI had been rocky for decades, but it was at a particularly low point in September 1982. Indeed, the Johnson & Johnson recall became a classic case study in business schools across the nation. But something more sinister was afoot when Kasias paternal uncle Stanley Janus and his wife, Theresa Tarasewicz Janus, each took pills from the same Tylenol bottle that Adam had bought in an attempt to fight headaches. Fahner left the dinner immediately and made calls throughout the drive home, taking advantage of his position as a statewide official with access to a car phone, then a relatively rare piece of technology. It started in 1982, not long after the murders. Former Illinois Attorney General Ty Fahner stands on the former site of the Tylenol task force headquarters in Des Plaines, now an empty parking lot. Meanwhile, a 12-year-old child named Mary Kellerman had also died suddenly in another Chicago suburb after taking an Extra-Strength Tylenol. There wasnt that much tension, Fahner said. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/tylenol-murders-1982, Why Eleanor Roosevelts civics book for kids is making a comeback. John Fellmann at his home in Huntley in September. (Michael Budrys / Chicago Tribune). Come to 1425 Armstrong Lane.. The police investigation into the Tylenol murders has centered around prime suspect James Lewis for decades. Deputy coroner Siekmann recalled going to Winfield to pick up the Tylenol collected from Reiners house a few hours after her death. They can account for the differing DNA profiles. We still receive tips that are being evaluated and investigated. Kasia Janus also always verifies products are properly sealed before she buys anything at stores, she said in a recently published series of interviews with CNN that described the gut-wrenching legacy left behind for her by the unsolved Tylenol killings, which made tampering with medications as well as other consumer goods a federal crime but remain unsolved. Tribune reporter Stacy St. Clair told NBC News correspondent Kathy Park on TODAY Friday that a number of law enforcement sources close to the investigation have told her that Lewis is the only person currently described as a target of the investigation. The bottles, however, needed to be tested before they could say with certainty. You werent there. The final Tylenol death was confirmed on the evening of Oct. 1, when 35-year-old flight attendant Paula Prince was found dead in her Old Town condominium. By 2011, the FBI was ready to reexamine the evidence. newsletter for analysis you wont find anywhereelse. In the first year alone, the task force used it to track more than 35,000 individuals and 15,000 companies contacted as part of the investigation. As everyone left that first meeting Friday morning, DuPage deputy coroner Siekmann, who hadnt slept in more than 24 hours, looked around the room and wondered how it would all work. Perhaps he traded homemade bombs for poisoned pills. Only really frivolous things went in that other pile, she said. All Rights Reserved. . But I didnt have the gray hair yet.. Police reports mention several former Johnson & Johnson employees, though none was ever considered a serious suspect. And we were able to analyze the cyanide and show that it was not the same (cyanide at the plant) as cyanide in the capsules., Lab technicians Nlada Marzette, left, and Lynn Pilaggi inspect the contents of Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules for cyanide contamination at the Illinois Department of Public Health in 1982. The Soviets were willing to assist, but their satellites werent trained on the Chicago suburbs at the time. Several victims families told the Tribune they didnt hear much from investigators after those initial interviews. That wasnt there.. The man hurriedly told the Hormel operator that he had to go and he would call her back later. It didnt take long for Fellmann to recognize the pressures and expectations under which the newly formed task force would operate. The most promising leads involved people doing curious things with chemicals. Severns confronted people at both agencies, who blamed each other for keeping him in the dark. At first, the story focused in the Chicago/Cook County . And by days end, flight attendant Paula Princes body would be discovered and tests would show that a Tylenol bottle inside her home contained four cyanide-laced capsules. Tainted capsules were discovered in early October in a few other grocery stores and drug stores in the Chicago area, but, fortunately, they had not yet been sold or consumed. Kasia said she still remembers hearing her mother scream when she couldnt wake her father up the next day, 29 September 1982. Many of the task force members interviewed by the Tribune recounted difficulties as more than 100 people tried to work as a team. (Stan Policht / Chicago Tribune). I realized I was in the deep end of the pool, he said. You know, because Ty was just a classy lawyer, and he never was a politician, he said. And so the Department of Justice just looked up a law and by a little bit of a hook and a crook said the FBI has jurisdiction because of an FDA law (about) truth in labeling.. They came up with nothing. Police departments and fire stations began collecting bottles, as well. It wasnt a grab for authority. He needed to be there, no matter how much he hated campaigning. The task force investigating the Tylenol killings doubted that James Lewis would be reckless enough to stay in Manhattan after mailing an extortion letter to Johnson & Johnson demanding $1 million . As a result of the crime, makers of Tylenol developed new product protection methods. And Fahner wasnt the only source of tensions. Investigators first considered whether the tampering could have occurred at the manufacturing plants. What was my dads favorite color? Authorities already considered the womens deaths to be cyanide related by the time they contacted Fahner during his campaign event. He also laid the foundation to get Extra-Strength Tylenol off store shelves statewide, going beyond the single batch the pain relievers manufacturer had recalled that day. However, investigators believe circumstantial evidence is enough to make this a "chargeable" case, but that decision would have to come from prosecutors, according to documents reviewed by the Chicago Tribune. Dr. Howard Markel writes a monthly column for the PBS NewsHour, highlighting momentous historical events that continue to shape modern medicine. The Tylenol murders: The story of a 40-year-old unsolved case begins with a terrifying medical mystery. The Chicago Tylenol murders were a series of poisoning deaths resulting from drug tampering in the Chicago metropolitan area in 1982. NBC News reached out to Lewis and did not receive a response. Every agency imaginable attended, many of them represented by their top leaders. Thats being made out of whole cloth all these years later. In one instance, someone reported that a chemistry professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago had been bragging about access to labs with cyanide. Christy Gutowski focuses her work on stories about criminal justice, public corruption and issues that impact the everyday man. Or, at the very least, get them to remember his name. Within 48 hours of the murders, the task force used this information to conclude publicly that the pills could not have been poisoned during production. Unfortunately, each victim swallowed a Tylenol capsule laced with A lethal dose of cyanide. Several people had died within the last day in the Chicago suburbs after ingesting Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide and the situation needed attention. And it took over my life.. And they talked to veterinarians about any unusual animal poisonings, thinking the murderer may have tested the chemical on pets first. They told stories of information hoarding, turf wars and glory seeking even when there was none to be had. Some of the investigators started using it privately, too. Bottles that werent tossed out were sent to J&J, the FDA and various government laboratories for testing. We also are still were looking at emerging forensic technology, Sgt. In late September of 1982 seven people were killed after an unknown suspect placed cyanide laced Tylenol pills in store bottles. Retired FBI agent Roy Lane Jr., shown in August, is the only member of law enforcement who has been part of the Tylenol investigation in its entirety. We were getting flooded with calls, said John Fellmann, an Arlington Heights detective assigned to the case. Our highest responsibility has always been the health and safety of our consumers," Johnson & Johnson said in a statement to NBC News. And the last point that they wanted to strike home was that the person who committed this is enjoying the attention right now and the fact that he or she had outsmarted the law enforcement, Lane said. Photo by Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images. In theory, the plan would prevent anyone from griping about being kept out of the loop. I thought, well, this is rather impressive, Siekmann said. Local police departments and states attorneys offices have been trying to crack the case for 40 years. Stores were pulling the product off shelves. The White House, however, had ordered the FBI to find a way into the case amid growing public panic. (Josh Reynolds/AP) The investigation into the 1982 Tylenol murders was pretty dormant when an FBI . (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). NBC News has not reviewed that evidence. See where the eight tainted Tylenol bottles were purchased or discovered. She rarely heard how the tips panned out. Security cameras were scarce in suburban Chicago in 1982, but investigators checked the images that existed. Investigators express frustration, anger even. Thompson put him in charge of the investigation to get TV time. They apologized, he said, but the trust had been broken. Several suspects did too. No one has ever been charged with the murders. Was Charles Dickens the first celebrity medical spokesman? The Chicago detectives shared that worry. The Tylenol task force may be no exception, he said, but the tensions didnt affect the overall effort. Kouba reviewed each as it came in, deciding which needed a field agents attention and which could be placed in a bin with other ludicrous claims. McNeil Consumer Products, a subsidiary of the health care giant, Johnson & Johnson, manufactured Tylenol. When the column ran, Severns knew instantly that the authorities had planted the story. In all, the task force had only eight bottles to offer clues to where and when the tampering could have taken place. It would likely be someone with gray hair. Stacy has a journalism degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia, with minors in American politics and Spanish. (James Mayo / Chicago Tribune). Siekmann drove to a state laboratory in the city with the bottle on the seat next to him. If you are curious, come to a small house on a quiet, winding street in Elk Grove Village. Ford said he quickly interrupted. I knew how to organize things.. In 1983, the U.S. Congress passed what was called the Tylenol bill, making it a federal offense to tamper with consumer products. I mean, theres 10,000 reasons why people compete with each other. What are the Tylenol murders? In the years that followed, Fellmann would rise through the ranks of the Arlington Heights Police Department and eventually become police chief of far north suburban Island Lake. Product tampering would become a crime in 1983 as a result of these murders, but in 1982 there was no federal law against it. J.J. Bittenbinder a tough-talking, mustachioed detective who would later gain fame as a TV safety expert served as a liaison to Fahners task force in Des Plaines. (Stan Policht / Chicago Tribune). Later, Lewis was arrested,. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). We were looking for somebody that really looked like they didnt belong. While I was not born yet and don't personally remember the Chicago Tylenol Murders of 1982, I do feel like I have experienced some of the anxiety that has never gone away. They were particularly concerned that something happened during the manufacturing or the shipping or storage, Wolnik said. The batch contained more than 1,800 pounds of cyanide, divided into packages of various sizes. In the end, it was decided that the state police would take the lead among the agencies and that investigators would be divided into nearly four dozen teams. Subscribe to Here's the Deal, our politics newsletter. Former Chicago police Detective Jimmy Gildea, shown at his Chicago home in July, investigated the death of Tylenol victim Paula Prince. He had never been better known in Illinois and was inching up in the polls too. (Don Casper / Chicago Tribune), People were terrified, Fahner said. They knew the locations. The original theory behind the crimes was a culprit who took the Tylenol bottles from drug and grocery stores in the Chicago area over a period of weeks, opened the capsules and added potassium cyanide, after which the culprit would return the bottles to the stores to be purchased. In those early days, the best leads came from the Tylenol bottles themselves. Seven people in the Chicago area were killed that year by Tylenol that had been poisoned with potassium cyanide. Whoa, whoa, he recalled. The Tylenol Murders Victims Mary Kellerman On September 29, 1982, 12 year old Mary Kellerman woke up feeling ill. The Tylenol investigation began as a loose collaboration among detectives in Arlington Heights and Elk Grove Village, the towns where the first three deaths were identified. The FBI put about three dozen agents on the case, under the premise that the agency needed to determine whether Johnson & Johnson had violated federal law by failing to list potassium cyanide among the active ingredients in Tylenol. Next week: Police investigate a poor mans James Bond, and an eighth person dies. Employees of the Chicago City Health Department continue to test Tylenol medication for the presence of deadly cyanide at the Department's lab on Oct. 7, 1982. Chicago police Detectives Jimmy Gildea. Security cameras were scarce in 1982, but investigators checked the images that existed, including this photograph from a drugstore camera showing Paula Prince, center, buying a bottle of tainted Tylenol. The 18-page investigative summary also provides key evidence, including the names of the three main suspects, during the first seven months of the case. Lane would think of that line a year later when, without prompting, a suspect called him and offered to help solve the case. The lot numbers for the McFarland, Reiner and Prince bottles indicated they were manufactured in Round Rock, Texas, and went to different warehouses in the Chicago area before ending up on store shelves. He hangs up, opens the door and we come in like gangbusters, Gildea said. Paramedics came and took Adam Janus to a nearby hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead from what they suspected may have been a heart attack. (Fred Jewell/AP). That said, he was charged with extortion and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Stacy St. Clair joined the Chicago Tribune in 2007. The red cap was easily flipped open, with nothing but a little piece of cotton left to cover the capsules. Stanley Janus soon collapsed on his late brothers kitchen floor. Fahner, as head of the task force, quickly became the public face of the investigation. Both experienced throbbing headaches, a not uncommon response to a death in the family and each took a Tylenol extra-strength capsule or two from the same bottle Adam had used earlier in the day. Working with FDA officials, they introduced a new tamper-proof packaging, which included foil seals and other features that made it obvious to a consumer if foul play had transpired. Ford said he told the renowned pathologist the bottle was on the vanity, and Stein, who wasnt wearing gloves, went to grab it. Many people who handled the evidence in 1982 told the Tribune they didnt wear gloves because it wasnt part of their agencys protocol at the time. Seven people died in 1982 after taking painkillers from bottle someone police do not know who had slipped cyanide pills into. Forty years after the infamous Tylenol murders killed her father and two other close relatives, a Wisconsin woman refuses to take the popular pain pills. The Tylenol Murders Remain One of the Nation's Biggest Unsolved Mysteries Popular belief is that the killer was James Lewis, the man imprisoned for 13 years for extorting Johnson & Johnson in the. He didnt get in our way. No, Oscar Wilde probably didnt die of syphilis. But she said years of therapy and yoga have helped her overcome her anger and guilt, and shes hopeful there will be justice in the killings of her father as well as her aunt and uncle. Every night, I would come home after my kids were in bed, he said. 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