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. Mike Severns, a former Elk Grove Village police detective assigned to Mary Kellerman's murder, says it still bothers him that officials neglected to update her grieving parents in the early days of the investigation. A casket is carried out of St. Hyacinth Roman Catholic Church after the funeral Mass for three members of the Janus family in 1982. Every agency imaginable attended, many of them represented by their top leaders. They also started grumbling about politics overshadowing their work. Scott Stump is a staff reporter and the writer of the daily newsletter This is TODAY. 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. (Ovie Carter / Chicago Tribune). We also are still were looking at emerging forensic technology, Sgt. Christy Gutowski focuses her work on stories about criminal justice, public corruption and issues that impact the everyday man. These other men were all worried about his chances. I tell you, this wasnt a CSI show, he said. Dr. Howard Markel. The Tylenol Murders In 1982, seven innocent Chicago civilians were boldly murdered. Despite the passage of time and, in a way, because of it the bottles still may offer clues as to who poisoned the capsules. Photo by Yvonne Hemsey/Getty Images. It was so Dick Tracy to me, Steed said. He needed to be there, no matter how much he hated campaigning. And 35 years later, this murder mystery is still . And wherever they fell on the issue, that position hasnt changed much over the past four decades. 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. While acetaminophen the active ingredient in the top-selling pain reliever was a fine white powder, these were filled with a grainy, translucent substance. You understand? Ford said he told Stein. The first few days were spent talking to people closest to Prince and sifting through the many tips they received. The likelihood that the same person could have put cyanide into different batches manufactured at different times in different places was logistically zero.. Tylenol murders investigators pursue new charges in 40-year case. James Thompson, Illinois Secretary of State James Edgar and shook his head. Bottles that werent tossed out were sent to J&J, the FDA and various government laboratories for testing. 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. Male murderers are more likely, in general, to kill randomly and on a large scale. Local police departments and states attorneys offices have been trying to crack the case for 40 years. 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. Siekmann didnt wear gloves. Ford, a Vietnam veteran with a classic Chicago accent and an Irishmans love of storytelling, died of a heart attack a few days after speaking with the Tribune. You werent there. 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. 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. Daniel Walker and several Chicago aldermen convicted in Operation Silver Shovel. McNeil Consumer Products, a subsidiary of the health care giant, Johnson & Johnson, manufactured Tylenol. Six suburbanites had already died from cyanide poisoning by that time, but this was Chicagos first and, in the end, only victim. Siekmann drove to a state laboratory in the city with the bottle on the seat next to him. The panic stemming from the Tylenol murders resulted in a permanent change in the packaging of medicine. In those early days, the best leads came from the Tylenol bottles themselves. The agents didnt bother to pretend that labeling rules were their true motivation for getting involved. History's Greatest Mysteries looks into the theories regarding the Tylenol Murders in Chicago 1982. All of them, it turned out, took Tylenol shortly before they died. To this day, however, the perpetrators of these murders have never been found. ]. Some investigators on the case, including a few still involved with it, considered the rendered profile too vague to be of any real use. 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. 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. 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. 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. And you know, some agents are better than other agents and can really do a good job. Dr. Howard Markel The FBIs counterintelligence unit even reached out to their Soviet counterparts to see if they had any spy satellite images that could help, according to former FBI agent Grey Steed. The operation was primarily staffed by female agents who answered phone calls and assessed information while their male counterparts worked in the field. On that day, two unrelated things happened: A pub owner made a phone call to police, and an extortion letter arrived at a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary. What are you giving this story for? So they ran him off the stage and I got up there.. Extra-Strength Tylenol, shown in a Tribune studio photograph, once was packaged in a paper box with an unglued lid. Investigators took pictures of people who attended the victims funerals to see if they could capture anyone acting unusual. There was little evidence to go on, no inkling of a motive and five people dead. 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. Pero quin fue el asesino? 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. Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide that were sold in the Chicago suburbs were linked to the deaths of seven people, leading to a nationwide panic that had the Food and Drug Administration advising consumers across the country to stop taking Tylenol products. (James Mayo / Chicago Tribune). Though the company expanded the recall the same day to cover the batch involved in McFarlands death, the piecemeal approach troubled Fahner. 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. President Reagan wanted the FBI in the investigation, retired FBI Special Agent Roy Lane Jr. told the Tribune. 1996 - 2023 NewsHour Productions LLC. The Tylenol murders launched a massive criminal investigation. That wasnt there.. Sadly, the tragedies that resulted from the Tylenol poisonings can never be undone. 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. And only months later, it changed the way we purchase and consume over-the-counter medications. 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 . Halfway through the speeches, an aide tapped him on the shoulder and told him he needed to take an important call. Another tip involved a man who was threatening to poison Hormel food products. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune), If you stopped a thousand people on the street, youd be lucky if one of them could tell you who Ty Fahner was. I thought, well, this is rather impressive, Siekmann said. Unfortunately, each victim swallowed a Tylenol capsule laced with A lethal dose of cyanide. What was he like in school? Ford said Stein encouraged him to smell the pills, but the detective refused and pushed away the pathologists hand. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/tylenol-murders-1982, Why Eleanor Roosevelts civics book for kids is making a comeback. 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. With fears mounting, Johnson & Johnson recalled all over-the-counter Tylenol capsule products on Oct. 5, nearly a week after Mary Kellermans death. He would gravitate toward someone with a blue suit and red tie, the quintessential 1980s-style power suit. That evening, Illinois Attorney General Ty Fahner sat on a dais listening to stump speeches at the Kane County Republican Organizations annual dinner. He didnt fit that profile, Hogberg said. 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. 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. 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. Complaining of a sore throat and a stuffy nose, her parents gave Mary one Extra Strength Tylenol capsule and let her stay home from school. (Chicago Tribune), If you are the Tylenol killer, though, you may be harboring just the vaguest curiosity about the people on the other end of your plan: The people who were unfortunate enough to purchase the bottle you had touched, Greene wrote. See where the eight tainted Tylenol bottles were purchased or discovered. The victims had all taken Tylenol-branded acetaminophen capsules that had been laced with potassium cyanide. And he grabs the pills, picks them up in his hand, dumps a whole bunch of them in his hand and starts sniffing, Ford recalled. Jose Rosa, right, was one of hundreds of Chicago city employees and volunteers to distribute warnings about cyanide-laced Tylenol in fall 1982. The task force met each morning at the Des Plaines headquarters to discuss leads and get their assignments. I knew how to organize things.. Im absolutely sure about that. 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. 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. Records show law enforcement has spent the past several years dealing almost entirely with forensic evidence. Several victims families told the Tribune they didnt hear much from investigators after those initial interviews. Fahner, as head of the task force, quickly became the public face of the investigation. Extra-Strength Tylenol bottles, for example, came in a paper box with an unglued lid. 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. I dont know what he thought. You shove those up my nose again, youre going to get socked in the face. They would work the case in Chicago and send someone else to Des Plaines to play nice with the others. Fahner ordered his staff to work through the night, calling local police, sheriffs, coroners, the FBI, the FDA, prosecutors and public health officials. Hearing that threat, the detectives said, they banged on the door and announced themselves as police. 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. Among those questioned was a clerical worker who was fired for repeatedly missing work. 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. Manufacturer Johnson & Johnson recalled 31 million Tylenol bottles as panic spread nationwide following the deaths. In late September of 1982 seven people were killed after an unknown suspect placed cyanide laced Tylenol pills in store bottles. A decadeslong investigation has centered around Massachusetts man James Lewis, 76, who was 36 at the time of the murders. 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.. A long-planned meeting with DuPage prosecutors also was pushed back in the spring. IE 11 is not supported. . I always wear the blue suit and the red tie, Lane said. Security cameras were scarce in suburban Chicago in 1982, but investigators checked the images that existed. 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. The results came back positive for cyanide at 1:30 a.m. Chemists working for the Illinois Public Health Department in Chicago test the contents of Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules. Medicare Pharmacy employee Mary Butler, right, shows a box of Extra-Strength Tylenol to Officer Michael Miljan in Arlington Heights. Every Tylenol bottle had a lot number that offered specific details about the batch those capsules came from. It is something that altered the life of every person in the world, Janus, who had never before spoken publicly about her ordeal, told CNN. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration then cautioned the public against taking the pain reliever in capsule form. He bought a rancid ham at Jewel and when he opened it, it was spoiled. Illinois state police and FBI supervisors did most of the talking at that first meeting, several attendees told the Tribune. The couple were later pronounced dead, too. I thought he was perfect.. The bottle's cap was easily opened. I think hes nothing but a class act, said McQuaid, a retired state police captain. (Don Casper / Chicago Tribune), People were terrified, Fahner said. The prints, however, dont match the prime suspect. 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. I mean, theres 10,000 reasons why people compete with each other. (Josh Reynolds/AP) The investigation into the 1982 Tylenol murders was pretty dormant when an FBI . Arlington Heights police Chief Rodney Kath, second from left, works with other members of the Tylenol task force at its Des Plaines headquarters in 1982. he answered. 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. Investigators say new evidence may help finally solve the case of seven people who died after ingesting Tylenol laced with cyanide in the Chicago area in 1982. The Tylenol Murders Victims Mary Kellerman On September 29, 1982, 12 year old Mary Kellerman woke up feeling ill. The agencies, at times, clashed with each other. Im just being honest, Siekmann said. 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. A theory emerged: What if the Mad Poisoner was actually the Unabomber? The Tylenol case marked one of the earliest uses of the approach. He has been a regular contributor for TODAY.com since 2011, producing news stories and features across the trending, pop culture, sports, parents, pets, health, style, food and TMRW verticals. Police departments were working the murders in relative isolation, and each county had its own states attorney to oversee the case. What happens in most cases, and certainly what happened here beyond any question, was a 100% selfless, unified devotion to a very important mission.. These packaging protections soon became the industry standard for all over-the-counter medications. Arlington Heights police Chief Rodney Kath, second from left, works with other members of the Tylenol task force at its Des Plaines headquarters in 1982. We were looking for somebody that really looked like they didnt belong. On Friday afternoon, doctors removed Stanley Janus wife, Terri, from life support. Some expressed surprise at how casually other people treated the poisoned bottles. 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. Other task force members, it should be noted, werent particularly fond of Chicagos efforts either. The profilers believed the killer was likely to visit one of those named places to see the heartbreak he had caused. Later that morning, Siekmann drove to the northwest suburbs to share what he had learned with a group of law enforcement officials assembled by Fahners team. Our property guy, he couldnt keep up with it., Chicago police Officer Sam Barsevich, left, takes inventory of Tylenol bottles that residents turned in at his station on Oct. 2, 1982. 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. The killer may have salted the bottles with cyanide-laced capsules while standing in the store aisle, investigators thought. It was 1982. He couldnt leave. He held news conferences, sometimes twice a day, to meet the insatiable media demands. 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. Jose Rosa, right, was one of hundreds of Chicago city employees and volunteers to distribute warnings about cyanide-laced Tylenol in fall 1982. In 2000, Joy Bergmann revisited the story in "A Bitter Pill" . As a state crime, murder fell under the purview of local law enforcement. We were getting flooded with calls, said John Fellmann, an Arlington Heights detective assigned to the case. She also laments that her dad never got to meet her and her husband, her son, her stepson and her step-grandson. It wasnt a grab for authority. The poisonings spanned multiple towns and two counties. It started in 1982, not long after the murders. 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. Others found Fahner the obvious choice. If people threw out their Tylenol, authorities would never know the full extent of the tampering. For example, Johnson & Johnson developed new product protection methods and ironclad pledges to do better in protecting their consumers in the future. Perhaps he traded homemade bombs for poisoned pills. We had gloves in our car and basically used them on decomposed bodies. Severns, who had two young children, heard the undeserved guilt in her voice. As the 40th anniversary of the 1982 Tylenol murders approaches, investigators are working with prosecutors on a now-or-maybe-never effort to hold a longtime suspect responsible for the. Manufacturer Johnson & Johnson recalled 31 million Tylenol bottles as panic spread nationwide. 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. 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. 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. Severns confronted people at both agencies, who blamed each other for keeping him in the dark. He hangs up, opens the door and we come in like gangbusters, Gildea said. Tensions flared, even among law enforcement personnel sincerely dedicated to the job. 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. Investigators first considered whether the tampering could have occurred at the manufacturing plants. 1: Poisoning the Well: Directed by Travis Clark. Whats going on? Arlington Heights police Chief Rodney Kath, second from left, works with other members of the Tylenol task force in an old state police bunker in Des Plaines. In reality, some task force members still accuse their colleagues of secretive behavior 40 years later. (Phil Greer / Chicago Tribune). He said Marys mother, Jeanna, asked him if she should have noticed that someone had tampered with the bottle. September 22, 2022. The Tylenol Murders" and asked him if he has any theories on who the Tylenol Killer might be. And everyone in the meeting is aware of one undeniable truth: There is no physical evidence linking a suspect to the poisonings. Tylenol Ty, Ford said. The state police memo indicates fingerprints were found on at least one of the bottles, as well as a full print on the inside of a different bottles box. The Tylenol task force may be no exception, he said, but the tensions didnt affect the overall effort. The CPD set up its own tip line and organized 35 detectives to work out of what was then Area 6 Headquarters at Belmont and Western. My theory is that Anna is a diabetic and had just come home from a . The Unsolved Tylenol Murders of 1982: The Unabomber Theory Written by C.W.S. 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. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune), John Fellmann at his home in Huntley in September. Chicago police Superintendent Richard Brzeczek talks about the Tylenol investigation on Oct. 7, 1982, about a week after the seven deaths. By 2011, the FBI was ready to reexamine the evidence. 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. A native of the south suburbs, Gutowski received a master's degree in public affairs reporting from the University of Illinois at Springfield and is a graduate of Southern Illinois University. Neither did the chemist who performed the cyanide test. (Don Casper / Chicago Tribune), Obviously, Johnson & Johnson didnt put cyanide in their own product. 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. Authorities believed they offered clues about who could and who could not have poisoned the capsules. Pain in the neck, Hogberg said of his CPD counterparts. Police grasped for suspects who might be the so-called "Mad Poisoner." 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. Thats clear, Margolis told the Tribune. 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