Jose Rosa, right, was one of hundreds of Chicago city employees and volunteers to distribute warnings about cyanide-laced Tylenol in fall 1982. Authorities believed they offered clues about who could and who could not have poisoned the capsules. I realized I was in the deep end of the pool, he 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. Stanley died that very day and Theresa died two days later. Tylenol murders: A nationwide panic, a family tragedy Transformed by tragedy Her dad, aunt and uncle died 40 years ago after taking poisoned Tylenol. Congress eventually criminalized tampering with medications and other consumer products, classifying that as a federal crime that could carry up to life imprisonment in cases involving a death. You know, because Ty was just a classy lawyer, and he never was a politician, he said. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration then cautioned the public against taking the pain reliever in capsule form. You know, boost exposure and stuff like that.. You understand? Ford said he told Stein. 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. Things were chaotic. That box had been turned in, along with an unused bottle, a couple weeks after the murders by the wife of a DuPage County judge. The task ahead was difficult. We felt kind of creepy doing it, retired FBI agent Bob Gibson said of his graveyard duty. Editors note: This report has been updated to remove the reported amount of cyanide used. The 40-year-old Tylenol murder investigation remains at a standstill. 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. Every Tylenol bottle had a lot number that offered specific details about the batch those capsules came from. Reports would be written in triplicate so each member would get a copy. But before Sept. 29, 1982, consumer products had few defenses against a person bent on sabotage. The prints, however, dont match the prime suspect. 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. Over the next few days, three more strange deaths occurred: 35-year-old Mary McFarland of Elmhurst, Illinois, 35-year-old Paula Prince of Chicago, and 27-year-old Mary Weiner of Winfield, Illinois.. And everyone in the meeting is aware of one undeniable truth: There is no physical evidence linking a suspect to the poisonings. He already had a new job. After just one or two task force meetings, Ford and Gildea told their boss they werent going back. Some expressed surprise at how casually other people treated the poisoned bottles. Subscribe to our Science Newsletter to explore the Investigators took pictures of people who attended the victims funerals to see if they could capture anyone acting unusual. Customers who had a problem, anybody that could make some money out of it.. 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. Before that she reported for the Daily Herald, the Dayton Daily News and The Topeka Capital-Journal. James Thompson, Illinois Secretary of State James Edgar and shook his head. (Charles Osgood / Chicago Tribune). What was he like in school? So he thought hed maybe get a lifetime supply of ham. I think hes nothing but a class act, said McQuaid, a retired state police captain. The White House, however, had ordered the FBI to find a way into the case amid growing public panic. Investigators took pictures of people who attended the victims funerals to see if they could capture anyone acting unusual. Our highest responsibility has always been the health and safety of our consumers," Johnson & Johnson said in a statement to NBC News. It marked the first mass recall in U.S. history, involving more than 31 million bottles. Reporters from the Chicago Tribune tracked down Lewis last month as part of the investigative podcast "Unsealed: The Tylenol Murders" and asked him if he has any theories on who the Tylenol Killer might be. Agents interviewed the victims families, neighbors, co-workers and friends about any known enemies. The first tainted Tylenol victim - Mary Kellerman, 12, of Elk Grove Village - collapsed and died on . Simply put, the feds entry into the investigation hinged on the admittedly preposterous notion that the manufacturer intentionally put poison in the pain reliever and then committed a misdemeanor crime by not including it on the label. September 22, 2022. But their deaths did inspire a series of important moves to make over-the-counter medications safer (albeit never 100 percent safe) for the hundreds of millions of people who buy them every year. Pain in the neck, Hogberg said of his CPD counterparts. Halfway through the speeches, an aide tapped him on the shoulder and told him he needed to take an important call. Mary was dead by 7 a.m. And neither does the DNA. So I stopped by the house on the way home, introduced myself and tried to answer any questions they had, he said. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). He investigated the Tylenol poisonings in the Janus family and later served as police chief in Island Lake. Several months have passed since the suburban detective made his pitch to the Cook County states attorneys office. Stores were pulling the product off shelves. The poisonings spanned multiple towns and two counties. Over the next few days, three more strange deaths occurred: 35-year-old Mary McFarland of Elmhurst, Illinois, 35-year-old Paula Prince of Chicago, and 27-year-old Mary Weiner of Winfield, Illinois. 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. The program went far beyond any database previously used by law enforcement in Illinois. 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. Investigators quickly dismissed the possibility that the killer was targeting a single victim and the other bottles were contaminated to make it harder to solve that murder. She rarely heard how the tips panned out. 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. Forty years after that terrifying period in September 1982, investigators say new evidence and a potential motive may be enough to finally solve the case. The batch contained more than 1,800 pounds of cyanide, divided into packages of various sizes. Among them was Lane, a well-respected federal agent who would help put away all kinds of criminals during his nearly 30-year career, including mob boss Sam Carlisi, former Illinois Gov. 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. FBI agents carry boxes out of the apartment building in Cambridge, Mass., Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009. What are the Tylenol murders? With no apparent motive and little evidence to go on, it was a tough task. They knew the locations. Every night, I would come home after my kids were in bed, he said. His boss assigned him to the Janus murders two days earlier because the departments more seasoned detectives were working the fatal beating of a homeless man in a local park. So as we organized, there were about 10, 15 different avenues of investigations to pursue, like disgruntled employees, former employees, lawsuits, Lane said. I had people dropping dead all over the place.. Medicare Pharmacy employee Mary Butler, right, shows a box of Extra-Strength Tylenol to Officer Michael Miljan in Arlington Heights. 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. It wasnt a grab for authority. Police departments and fire stations began collecting bottles, as well. 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. Conspiracy theories about motives and suspects for all these heinous acts continue to be bandied about on the Internet to this day. Marquette 10 is one of a thousand reasons why theres tension, personal jealousy, personal ambition, jurisdictional turf fights. With absolute certainty, they can say the following: Records show at least four fingerprints were found during the initial investigation. [Para leer en espaol] Los asesinatos de Tylenol, parte 2: Tylenol mezclado con cianuro fue el arma homicida. They knew the weapon. As Fahners team made calls, a DuPage County deputy coroner named Pete Siekmann sat in an office at the Illinois Department of Public Healths toxicology lab in Chicago and waited to see if the Tylenol capsules taken by Mary Lynn Reiner and Mary Sue McFarland were poisoned. Seven people died in 1982 after taking painkillers from bottle someone police do not know who had slipped cyanide pills into. Oct. 2, 1982: CBS 2's Phil Walters reports on the investigation into the Tylenol poisonings. When that happened, the suspect would make contact with an investigator and offer to help solve the case. Joe Murphy told NBC Chicago last year. Unfortunately, each victim swallowed a Tylenol capsule laced with A lethal dose of cyanide. The results came back positive for cyanide at 1:30 a.m. A new book by a former Johnson & Johnson employee suggests the Tylenol poisonings, which killed seven people in the Chicago area in 1982, took place in the company's production or distribution. Three months earlier, 10 Chicago officers from the citys West Side were convicted of taking bribes to protect heroin rings. Every agency imaginable attended, many of them represented by their top leaders. Stacy St. Clair joined the Chicago Tribune in 2007. Forty years later, it still bothers him. 1996 - 2023 NewsHour Productions LLC. The Chicago Tylenol Murders: With Laurence Fishburne. President Reagan wanted the FBI in the investigation, retired FBI Special Agent Roy Lane Jr. told the Tribune. Beginning on Sept. 29, 1982, and over the next week, seven people were murdered in the Chicago area after unknowingly taking Tylenol pills that were spiked by a killer. Stores were pulling the product off shelves. Male murderers are more likely, in general, to kill randomly and on a large scale. They would work the case in Chicago and send someone else to Des Plaines to play nice with the others. An FBI agent stood up and started to give a rundown of Chicagos case. And they had a very good theory as to when they were placed. Finally, in late July, officials from both Cook and DuPage gather for a video conference. 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. He had never been better known in Illinois and was inching up in the polls too. FBI agent Shari Kouba, one of the few women on the task force, ran the tips desk. The Tylenol murders: How we reported this story. Theories The first suspect is 48 year old dock worker Roger Arnold, who said some suspicious things about the Tylenol murders at a bar one night. He was released in 1995 after serving only 13 years. That same day, a 27-year-old postal worker named Adam Janus of Arlington Heights, Illinois, died of what was initially thought to be a massive heart attack but turned out to be cyanide poisoning as well. The Tylenol task force may be no exception, he said, but the tensions didnt affect the overall effort. To this day, however, the perpetrators of these murders have never been found. The man shrugged off his dismissal when investigators asked, saying it was the nature of the business. Her parents gave permission. 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. In 1989, the FDA established federal guidelines for manufacturers to make all such products tamper-proof. Not just the hours, but the frustration. Chicagos doing what they want, so lets just give them something minor to do.. Photo by Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images. It would likely be someone with gray hair. Im just being honest, Siekmann said. Fahners critics accused him of milking the Tylenol tragedy for his own benefit, and his opponents camp worried that he knew who the killer was and would make an arrest right before the November election. 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. Severns confronted people at both agencies, who blamed each other for keeping him in the dark. Pursuing the mission, however, eventually sent the FBI and the Chicago Police Department in two different directions. He needed to be there, no matter how much he hated campaigning. Some of the investigators started using it privately, too. Critics who had prematurely announced the death of the brand Tylenol were now praising the companys handling of the matter. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). Former Chicago police Detective Jimmy Gildea, shown at his Chicago home in July, investigated the death of Tylenol victim Paula Prince. 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. Dr. Howard Markel. the fact remains, the Tylenol murders of 1982 . 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. (Chicago Tribune), Look, like any other series of government bureaucracies, theres always tension between agencies, he said. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). Police Officer Michael Miljan leaves an Arlington Heights pharmacy after making sure bottles of Extra-Strength Tylenol were being removed from shelves. Seven people between the ages of 12 and 35 years old died in 1982 after ingesting extra-strength Tylenol capsules that were found to have been laced with. But the police chief of the Chicago suburb where Adam Janus lived, Joe Murphy, told CNN he hopes forensic technology used to analyze DNA could eventually produce the break they need to conclusively identify whoever was responsible for the Tylenol killings. And you know, some agents are better than other agents and can really do a good job. Pero quin fue el asesino? Here, he offers a Spanish-language flyer to Luisa Acevada. The tainted bottle from the Schaumburg pharmacy contained three partial prints on the capsules, but (they) were not suitable for comparison, the memo states. Thats being made out of whole cloth all these years later. In keeping with that theory, the task force contacted hospitals to ask about anyone treated for poison burns or symptoms, in case the killer became ill or injured during the spree. The substance was grainier than the untainted Tylenol on the left. Thank you. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune). Advances in technology have allowed investigators to determine the postmark date on the extortion letter written by Lewis that demands $1 million be wired to a bank account "if you want to stop the killing," according to the Chicago Tribune's review of the documents. Investigators express frustration, anger even. The Tylenol murders would soon spur the development of plastic seals and tamper-evident packaging. Product tampering would become a crime in 1983 as a result of these murders, but in 1982 there was no federal law against it. That thrill, however, would eventually diminish over time and the killer would seek more excitement, according to the profilers. The investigators would then return around 5 p.m. to update everyone on the days developments. Dr. Howard Markel writes a monthly column for the PBS NewsHour, highlighting momentous historical events that continue to shape modern medicine. Among the earliest priorities was 24-hour surveillance outside the victims homes, on the assumption that someone who killed anonymously would want to see the results of their work and might drive by the house. By days end, however, tainted capsules would be blamed for two deaths in neighboring DuPage County, broadening both the scope of the investigation and the threat to the public. Ford said Stein encouraged him to smell the pills, but the detective refused and pushed away the pathologists hand. By 2011, the FBI was ready to reexamine the evidence. Kasia said she long blamed herself for her fathers death, even though she was just in preschool when it happened. Early on the morning of Sept. 29, 1982, a tragic, medical mystery began with a sore throat and a runny nose. They looked at accused shoplifters, including a man charged with attempting to steal 28 Tylenol bottles from a Wheaton pharmacy in August. Extra-Strength Tylenol, shown in a Tribune studio photograph, once was packaged in a paper box with an unglued lid. Fahner, as head of the task force, quickly became the public face of the investigation. There was no clear leader. Photo by Yvonne Hemsey/Getty Images. 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