The killer may have salted the bottles with cyanide-laced capsules while standing in the store aisle, investigators thought. He believed Thompson was behind the move, though Fahner denied it. With absolute certainty, they can say the following: Records show at least four fingerprints were found during the initial investigation. Relatives, including two who took polygraph tests, were quickly eliminated from suspicion. Authorities were convinced the killer didnt know any of the victims. Thank you. Who would be next? John Fellmann, whose last name was misspelled on his ID from 1980, was a young Arlington Heights police detective when he was assigned to the Tylenol murders. Roger Arnold worked at a jewel warehouse with the father of one of the victims named Mary Reiner. The panic stemming from the Tylenol murders resulted in a permanent change in the packaging of medicine. The tip line received more than 6,000 calls within the first few weeks. 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. Male murderers are more likely, in general, to kill randomly and on a large scale. Illinois Attorney General Ty Fahner talks about the Tylenol deaths on Oct. 1, 1982. Helena Tarasewicz, mother of Tylenol victim Theresa "Terri" Janus, weeps over the casket containing her daughter's body during graveside services at Maryhill Cemetery in Niles in 1982. This Oct. 18, 1982, column by Tribune columnist Bob Greene included specific details at the request of the FBI, such as the home address of Tylenol victim Mary Kellerman. Tensions flared, even among law enforcement personnel sincerely dedicated to the job. The Soviets were willing to assist, but their satellites werent trained on the Chicago suburbs at the time. Six suburbanites had already died from cyanide poisoning by that time, but this was Chicagos first and, in the end, only victim. You werent there. I knew how to organize things.. The bottle's cap was easily opened. (Don Casper / Chicago Tribune), People were terrified, Fahner said. It started in 1982, not long after the murders. And then there are agents who dont. The profilers believed the killer was likely to visit one of those named places to see the heartbreak he had caused. 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. Chemists working for the Illinois Public Health Department in Chicago test the contents of Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules. Most came from a banking service that snapped a photograph of anyone writing a check. Christy Gutowski focuses her work on stories about criminal justice, public corruption and issues that impact the everyday man. "As you can see, it is easy to place cyanideinto capsules sitting on store shelves," he wrote in the letter. Meanwhile, a 12-year-old child named Mary Kellerman had also died suddenly in another Chicago suburb after taking an Extra-Strength Tylenol. Seven people died in 1982 after taking painkillers from bottle someone police do not know who had slipped cyanide pills into. A decadeslong investigation has centered around Massachusetts man James Lewis, 76, who was 36 at the time of the murders. The man shrugged off his dismissal when investigators asked, saying it was the nature of the business. Former Chicago police Superintendent Richard Brzeczek, shown in September, says he felt Ty Fahner was chosen to head the task force for political reasons. The White House, however, had ordered the FBI to find a way into the case amid growing public panic. Within hours of finding cyanide in the capsules that killed three people in the northwest suburbs, the Cook County medical examiners office held a news conference on the morning of Sept. 30, 1982, to warn people about the potential poison in their medicine cabinets. The guy was a little wimpy, but his ham did stink.. 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.. In fact, so many big dogs were present, Fellmann said he couldnt find a free chair inside his own 60-seat roll call room. Several suspects did too. What happens in most cases, and certainly what happened here beyond any question, was a 100% selfless, unified devotion to a very important mission.. A theory emerged: What if the Mad Poisoner was actually the Unabomber? He hangs up, opens the door and we come in like gangbusters, Gildea said. Sadly, the tragedies that resulted from the Tylenol poisonings can never be undone. Their opinion soured even further at their first meeting, when one of the lead investigators asked for a briefing on the Prince murder. (James Mayo / Chicago Tribune). I mean, theres 10,000 reasons why people compete with each other. 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. Several months have passed since the suburban detective made his pitch to the Cook County states attorneys office. . We also are still were looking at emerging forensic technology, Sgt. The decision cost the company more than $100 million, an enormous amount in 1982. The evening marked an important shift in the tragedy, moving from a swiftly solved medical mystery into a massive criminal investigation. The pills were sold at stores in suburban Chicago, and bottles of Tylenol were immediately pulled from shelves to be tested by health departments for the presence of cyanide. That wasnt there.. 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. The prints, however, dont match the prime suspect. Another theory was that whoever poisoned the medication did it at home or in a car, then placed the bottles back on the shelves. Rosen's theory is that the tampering did not happen on store shelves, but at the manufacturing plant before the product was shipped out. The man hurriedly told the Hormel operator that he had to go and he would call her back later. After just one or two task force meetings, Ford and Gildea told their boss they werent going back. 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. He didnt get in our way. Medicare Pharmacy employee Mary Butler, right, shows a box of Extra-Strength Tylenol to Officer Michael Miljan in Arlington Heights. McNeil Consumer Products, a subsidiary of the health care giant, Johnson & Johnson, manufactured Tylenol. In 2010, DuPage County prosecutors filed a sealed affidavit stating investigators had found DNA on three bottles and the capsules inside, according to documents obtained by the Tribune. 3: A Nightmare on Halloween: With Molly Jean Brandenburg, Carter Roy. 6 Amazon travel essentials for your next getaway, starting at $12. With no apparent motive and little evidence to go on, it was a tough task. Was Charles Dickens the first celebrity medical spokesman? On Friday afternoon, doctors removed Stanley Janus wife, Terri, from life support. If you are curious, come to a small house on a quiet, winding street in Elk Grove Village. The Tylenol case, however, would loom largest over his professional life. (Stan Policht / Chicago Tribune). John Fellmann, whose last name was misspelled on his ID from 1980, was a young Arlington Heights police detective when he was assigned to the Tylenol murders. According to the state police memo obtained by the Tribune, the FDAs work traced the cyanide from the tainted capsules to Fisher Scientific, a Massachusetts-based lab supply company, which distributed that particular batch in 1978. Many people who handled potential evidence in 1982 didnt wear gloves because it wasnt protocol at the time. History's Greatest Mysteries looks into the theories regarding the Tylenol Murders in Chicago 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. Dr. Howard Markel. 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. "Ladies, you ever been harassed for something for 40 years that you had nothing to do with?" And there were a lot of bottles to come out of that lot.. He needed to be there, no matter how much he hated campaigning. 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.. Authorities believed they offered clues about who could and who could not have poisoned the capsules. And lives were at risk. Testing found cyanide in the Extra-Strength Tylenol capsule on the right. What was my dads favorite color? She also laments that her dad never got to meet her and her husband, her son, her stepson and her step-grandson. Early on, the task force decided to instruct the public to get rid of their Tylenol by either turning it in to police departments or throwing it away. The police investigation into the Tylenol murders has centered around prime suspect James Lewis for decades. He would gravitate toward someone with a blue suit and red tie, the quintessential 1980s-style power suit. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). The 50-count bottle, which the woman told police she purchased at Franks Finer Foods in Wheaton, contained seven capsules filled with potassium cyanide, records show. Dr. Howard Markel 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. The results came back positive for cyanide at 1:30 a.m. 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. One man, James Lewis, claiming to be the Tylenol killer wrote a ransom letter to Johnson & Johnson demanding $1 million in exchange for stopping the poisonings. Chicago police Detective Charlie Ford, assigned to the Prince murder, recalled being stunned when Cook County Medical Examiner Robert Stein showed up at the victims Old Town condo and immediately asked to see the Tylenol. The Tribune has spoken with several people who have been asked to provide DNA samples within the last decade all men who had access to poisoned bottles found in Cook County. Police departments were working the murders in relative isolation, and each county had its own states attorney to oversee the case. (Earl Gustie / Chicago Tribune). He investigated the Tylenol poisonings in the Janus family and later served as police chief in Island Lake. When the family returned home, both Adam's brother Stanley and Stanely's wife Theresa took a Tylenol, resulting in both of their deaths. They would work the case in Chicago and send someone else to Des Plaines to play nice with the others. Former DuPage County Coroner Pete Siekmann, who in 1982 was a deputy coroner, handled the Tylenol bottles from Mary "Lynn" Reiner and Mary McFarland. Subscribe to Here's the Deal, our politics newsletter. Adam Janus, a 27-year-old postal worker, wasnt feeling well and without having any way to know the mortal peril that the bottle posed for him, he took a pill from it before going to sleep that day. The bottles traveled to various warehouses, including a final storage stop at a Jewel facility in suburban Franklin Park, before being delivered to different grocery stores on different days before the poisonings. There, research chemist Karen Wolnik and her colleagues established a trace element pattern a sort of chemical fingerprint for each sample to determine whether it was identical to the poison used in the Tylenol killings. The coppers and the FBI guys that I knew all worked together. 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. It didnt take long for Fellmann to recognize the pressures and expectations under which the newly formed task force would operate. 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. Seven people died in 1982 after taking painkillers from bottle someone - police do not know who - had slipped cyanide pills into Ramon Antonio Vargas Sun 2 Oct 2022 02.00 EDT Forty years after the. Here, he offers a Spanish-language flyer to Luisa Acevada. They told stories of information hoarding, turf wars and glory seeking even when there was none to be had. Unfortunately, each victim swallowed a Tylenol capsule laced with A lethal dose of cyanide. In reality, some task force members still accuse their colleagues of secretive behavior 40 years later. And soon, many medications and foods sold over store counters began being sold in tamper-proof, sealed packaging. The FBIs involvement puzzled some because, as far as anyone knew, the federal agency didnt have jurisdiction in the case. (Stan Policht / Chicago Tribune). What was he liked as a boss?, She added: Good and bad, I want to hear those stories, because its a reflection of who I am., Hurricane Ian: South Carolina and Florida comb wreckage to assess deadly toll, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. President Reagan wanted the FBI in the investigation, retired FBI Special Agent Roy Lane Jr. told the Tribune. Many of the task force members interviewed by the Tribune recounted difficulties as more than 100 people tried to work as a team. Reports would be written in triplicate so each member would get a copy. Forty years later, Ford shook his head at the memory. newsletter for analysis you wont find anywhereelse. Im not saying that the task force didnt work or thats why the case was never solved, Severns said. Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy Margolis, shown in his Chicago office in July, was part of the original Tylenol task force in 1982. Police Officer Michael Miljan leaves an Arlington Heights pharmacy after making sure bottles of Extra-Strength Tylenol were being removed from shelves. Nobody knew what to do with (the investigation) because it was all over the place, Fahner said. I realized I was in the deep end of the pool, he said. By the time he reached his house in Evanston, he was the de facto leader of what had quickly become the countrys highest-profile murder case. Records show law enforcement has spent the past several years dealing almost entirely with forensic evidence. She has received numerous national honors for her work. Some investigators on the case, including a few still involved with it, considered the rendered profile too vague to be of any real use. We didnt get anything, but we were kicking around ideas like that.. Left: And you had a lot of very experienced, very intelligent, very resourceful people thinking about this all the time, thinking about angles, thinking about ideas, testing them and implementing them wherever we possibly could. (Charles Osgood / Chicago Tribune). The substance was grainier than the untainted Tylenol on the left. Chicago police Officer Sam Barsevich, left, takes inventory of Tylenol bottles that residents turned in at his station on Oct. 2, 1982. The 20-year-old would be buried alongside her husband and her brother-in-law Adam in a triple funeral made even more heartbreaking when relatives had to pull Terris mother off her daughters casket before it was lowered into the ground. So, the theory was the tampering took place at the store, said FBI agent Lane. "While this tragic incident remains unsolved, this event resulted in important industry improvements to patient safety measures including the creation of tamper-resistant packaging.". I was the detective at the scene. In late September of 1982 seven people were killed after an unknown suspect placed cyanide laced Tylenol pills in store bottles. Now she's sharing her story for the first. 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. 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. Its a one-way street for information back and forth. For example, Johnson & Johnson quickly established that the cyanide lacing occurred after cases of Tylenol left the factory. 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. America was gripped by paranoia and fear. 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. 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. ]. All Rights Reserved. And 35 years later, this murder mystery is still . The Tylenol Murders Victims Mary Kellerman On September 29, 1982, 12 year old Mary Kellerman woke up feeling ill. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). Eight of them would be three-member squads composed of a federal agent, a state investigator and a suburban detective from one of the towns where the victims lived or tainted bottles were discovered. It was standing room only inside the Arlington Heights Police Department for the first meeting of what would become the Tylenol task force. The task force opted to work out of an Illinois state police bunker in Des Plaines, a central location that would be home to a tip line, twice-a-day investigator briefings and news conferences for the scores of reporters camped outside the building. (Josh Reynolds/AP) The investigation into the 1982 Tylenol murders was pretty dormant when an FBI . Investigators pulled library records to see who had checked out books on cyanide. But no one has ever been arrested in connection with the spate of poisonings that shattered the families of Janus and the others. The program went far beyond any database previously used by law enforcement in Illinois. 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. The operation was primarily staffed by female agents who answered phone calls and assessed information while their male counterparts worked in the field. He regaled reporters with all kinds of stories during that final interview, but none seemed to amuse him more than the unhappy Hormel ham man. I dont think that bore fruit at all.. The best suspect for the Tylenol murders has always been James William Lewis, who sent an extortion letter to Johnson & Johnson demanding $1 million to stop the murders. Within a year, and after an investment of more than $100 million, Tylenols sales rebounded to its healthy past and it became, once again, the nations favorite over-the-counter pain reliever. They looked at accused shoplifters, including a man charged with attempting to steal 28 Tylenol bottles from a Wheaton pharmacy in August. The Tylenol murders have never been solved, though at one point, the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, was a suspect. Thats clear, Margolis told the Tribune. Marquette 10 is one of a thousand reasons why theres tension, personal jealousy, personal ambition, jurisdictional turf fights. They also started grumbling about politics overshadowing their work. Thats just human nature. Come to 1425 Armstrong Lane.. His task force partners the FBI and state police had blindsided the Elk Grove Village detective, and he was angry. And I want people to know that, yeah, this was my family, and it has changed all of us.. We still receive tips that are being evaluated and investigated. 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. Agents interviewed the victims families, neighbors, co-workers and friends about any known enemies. Tylenol murders investigators pursue new charges in 40-year case. And they would remain apart for the next four decades. NBC News has not reviewed that evidence. Following the same theory, investigators took pictures of everyone who attended the victims funerals and set up time-lapse cameras at grave sites to see if they could capture anyone acting unusual. The task force didnt know who or why.. In those early days, the best leads came from the Tylenol bottles themselves. You shove those up my nose again, youre going to get socked in the face. These packaging protections soon became the industry standard for all over-the-counter medications. 40 years later, Kasia Janus is sharing. Severns, who had two young children, heard the undeserved guilt in her voice. Members of the media the same people who were constantly pestering him for information nicknamed Fahner Tylenol Ty. It stuck. I think we ended up charging that guy with a misdemeanor, some disorderly conduct or some nonsense, he said. As a result of the crime, makers of Tylenol developed new product protection methods. The publication reported this week that it has obtained video and thousands of documents outlining law enforcement's current case and a possible motive for the killings. The Tylenol Murders Pt. It wasnt a grab for authority. Each participant has a packet of information that authorities use to explain their findings. Authorities already considered the womens deaths to be cyanide related by the time they contacted Fahner during his campaign event. What are the Tylenol murders? 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. In 1989, the FDA established federal guidelines for manufacturers to make all such products tamper-proof. James Thompson, Illinois Secretary of State James Edgar and shook his head. It was so Dick Tracy to me, Steed said. 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. The gelatin-based capsules were especially popular because they were slick and easy to swallow. Testing found cyanide in the Extra-Strength Tylenol capsule on the right. The bottle's cap was easily opened. 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. Tamper-resistant pill containers were introduced with packaging that allows consumers to notice if a bottle of pills or medication has been opened or altered. 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. Early on the morning of Sept. 29, 1982, a tragic, medical mystery began with a sore throat and a runny nose. The tips were written up on 3x5 index cards. He was released in 1995 after serving only 13 years. After eliminating the possibility that the poisonings happened at the plant level, investigators scoured the backgrounds of workers at trucking companies and storage warehouses involved in the distribution of the tainted bottles, as well as other company records. In this op-ed, he reflects on his experiences leading the public health response to the Tylenol murders of 1982. I had people dropping dead all over the place.. In work that would later be heralded in scientific journals, the scientists also tested the cyanide kept at the Tylenol plant to see if it somehow got into the production process. The Kellerman and Janus bottles contained Tylenol from lot MC2880, manufactured in Pennsylvania on April 26, 1982. (Fred Jewell/AP). The Tylenol murders launched a massive criminal investigation. 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. But on this unseasonably warm October morning, during a separate meeting between the FBI and state police, Lane was one of several investigators who gathered to brainstorm possible motives behind the crime. 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. She also told CNN she had invited many people to a memorial service and celebration of life luncheon honoring her father in hopes that shed learn things she never got the chance to because of the murder. As a state crime, murder fell under the purview of local law enforcement. Every night, I would come home after my kids were in bed, he said. You understand? Ford said he told Stein. And wherever they fell on the issue, that position hasnt changed much over the past four decades. [Para leer en espaol] Los asesinatos de Tylenol, parte 2: Tylenol mezclado con cianuro fue el arma homicida. Pero quin fue el asesino? Thompson put him in charge of the investigation to get TV time. Manufacturer Johnson & Johnson recalled 31 million Tylenol bottles as panic spread nationwide following the deaths. Indeed, the Johnson & Johnson recall became a classic case study in business schools across the nation. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. We had an absolute tsunami of Tylenol bottles. 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. (Stan Policht / Chicago Tribune). the fact remains, the Tylenol murders of 1982 . He also would have a history of animal cruelty, Lane told the Tribune. His brother and sister-in-law, Stanley, 25, and Theresa, 19, of Lisle, Illinois, rushed to his home to console their loved ones. Ford and his partner Jimmy Gildea both said they tried to stop him because evidence technicians hadnt been to the scene yet, but Stein brushed off their concerns. The task force met each morning at the Des Plaines headquarters to discuss leads and get their assignments. I mean, it just got to me, Severns said. Nothing has come of that January 2022 meeting. We were looking for somebody that really looked like they didnt belong. It was at this point, early October of 1982, that investigators made the connection between the poisoning deaths and Tylenol, the best-selling, non-prescription pain reliever sold in the United States at that time. The likelihood that the same person could have put cyanide into different batches manufactured at different times in different places was logistically zero.. From the start, Detectives Ford and Gildea didnt understand the purpose of driving out to Des Plaines each day in rush hour traffic when they had a murder to solve back in the city. Tylenol murders: A nationwide panic, a family tragedy Her dad, aunt and uncle were killed in the notorious unsolved poisonings that terrorized Chicago. We had gloves in our car and basically used them on decomposed bodies. What are the Tylenol murders? Despite the passage of time and, in a way, because of it the bottles still may offer clues as to who poisoned the capsules. Tylenols parent company, Johnson & Johnson, also saw its stock price drop after the news about the tainted capsules broke. Photo by Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images. 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. Most working detectives really dont trust the FBI, and the FBI doesnt trust us, Ford said. 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Chicago suburb after taking painkillers from bottle someone police do not know who had tylenol murders theories pills! Fellmann to recognize the pressures and expectations under which the newly formed task meetings! Her back later like they didnt belong solved medical mystery into a criminal. Tips were written up on 3x5 index cards nature of the investigation to get TV time became the standard! The capsules male counterparts worked in the letter Tracy to me, Steed said talks about tainted! The evening marked an important shift in the case a briefing on the left a jewel warehouse with father... Received more than 100 people tried to work as a team suspect placed laced!
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