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. A casket is carried out of St. Hyacinth Roman Catholic Church after the funeral Mass for three members of the Janus family in 1982. They told stories of information hoarding, turf wars and glory seeking even when there was none to be had. Before that she reported for the Daily Herald, the Dayton Daily News and The Topeka Capital-Journal. I always wear the blue suit and the red tie, Lane said. I do think it created a lot of problems because youre always thinking theres somebody doing something behind your back.. Forty years later, investigators still cant say with certainty. Wherever they stand, everyone wishes they had achieved a different result. (Charles Knoblock / AP). IE 11 is not supported. Michael Petros, DrPH Wednesday, September 29, 1982 at 6:30am CDT, the nightmare that was to be known as the "Tylenol Murders" began 1. He brought personal knowledge (as the former state police director) and experience regarding a criminal investigation. The company, however, did not keep records of where the products were shipped. Tensions flared, even among law enforcement personnel sincerely dedicated to the job. 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. Stanley died that very day and Theresa died two days later. Fahner had worked for James Thompson in the U.S. attorneys office, handling some of the citys biggest federal corruption cases. And only months later, it changed the way we purchase and consume over-the-counter medications. 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. Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy Margolis, shown in his Chicago office in July, was part of the original Tylenol task force in 1982. They gave her one extra-strength Tylenol capsule that, unbeknownst to them, was laced with the highly poisonous potassium cyanide. Authorities wont discuss the potential theories or suspects they have amid an investigation that they insist remains open and unforgotten. But for something like this, for looking at a pill, it never would even cross our mind., Former DuPage County Coroner Pete Siekmann, who in 1982 was a deputy coroner, handled the Tylenol bottles from Mary "Lynn" Reiner and Mary McFarland. Flight attendant Paula Prince bought a tainted bottle of Tylenol at the Walgreens at Wells Street and North Avenue in Chicago. Manufacturer Johnson & Johnson recalled 31 million Tylenol bottles as panic spread nationwide following the deaths. Ford said he told the renowned pathologist the bottle was on the vanity, and Stein, who wasnt wearing gloves, went to grab it. Manufacturer Johnson & Johnson recalled 31 million Tylenol bottles as panic spread nationwide. As the de facto leader of the task force, he would come to be known in the media as "Tylenol Ty." 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. As a result of the crime, makers of Tylenol developed new product protection methods. So whatever fits or doesnt fit the storyline, that didnt happen. 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. We still receive tips that are being evaluated and investigated. Pero quin fue el asesino? Local police departments and states attorneys offices have been trying to crack the case for 40 years. Ford and Gildea arrived at the campus with hopes of a break in the case, only to find out the so-called professor was a high school boy pretending to work at UIC so he could pick up college girls. Nobody knew what to do with (the investigation) because it was all over the place, Fahner said. Following the same theory, investigators took pictures . 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. 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 cyanide, a deadly chemical. 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. I stepped off that dais, Fahner told the Tribune this year. The Chicago Tylenol murders were a series of poisoning deaths resulting from drug tampering in the Chicago metropolitan area in 1982. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). 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 bottle's cap was easily opened. 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. Studies have found women who kill use poison more often than men do, but they typically target people they know. You werent there. Forty years later, it still bothers him. Elk Grove Village Detective Michael Severns said investigators were so intent on chasing leads that they at times lost sight of the grieving families. 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. Left: Dr. Howard Markel Each participant has a packet of information that authorities use to explain their findings. His brother and sister-in-law, Stanley, 25, and Theresa, 19, of Lisle, Illinois, rushed to his home to console their loved ones. Early on the morning of Sept. 29, 1982, a tragic, medical mystery began with a sore throat and a runny nose. He didnt get in our way. Police Officer Michael Miljan leaves an Arlington Heights pharmacy after making sure bottles of Extra-Strength Tylenol were being removed from shelves. The dire situation, both in terms of human life and business, made it imperative that the Johnson & Johnson executives respond swiftly and authoritatively. Most working detectives really dont trust the FBI, and the FBI doesnt trust us, Ford said. (Michael Budrys / Chicago Tribune). 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 fact, so many big dogs were present, Fellmann said he couldnt find a free chair inside his own 60-seat roll call room. The Tylenol murders launched a massive criminal investigation. Illinois Attorney General Ty Fahner talks about the Tylenol deaths on Oct. 1, 1982. The first tainted Tylenol victim - Mary Kellerman, 12, of Elk Grove Village - collapsed and died on . When Thompson, a Republican, became governor in 1977, Fahner followed him to Springfield to lead the Illinois state police. Siekmann, who had been working since 8 a.m., believed some capsules were tainted from the first time he laid eyes on them. Tylenol Ty, Ford said. (Chicago Tribune archive). The Tylenol case marked one of the earliest uses of the approach. Every Tylenol bottle had a lot number that offered specific details about the batch those capsules came from. It was so Dick Tracy to me, Steed said. Security cameras were scarce in suburban Chicago in 1982, but investigators checked the images that existed. Stacy St. Clair joined the Chicago Tribune in 2007. Only really frivolous things went in that other pile, she said. In those early days, there were so many agencies involved, so many people desperate to solve the case. But when she opened the . You know, because Ty was just a classy lawyer, and he never was a politician, he said. Authorities already considered the womens deaths to be cyanide related by the time they contacted Fahner during his campaign event. 40 years later, Kasia Janus is sharing. The red cap was easily flipped open, with nothing but a little piece of cotton left to cover the capsules. There was no clear leader. And it took over my life.. It was standing room only inside the Arlington Heights Police Department for the first meeting of what would become the Tylenol task force. The Kellerman and Janus bottles contained Tylenol from lot MC2880, manufactured in Pennsylvania on April 26, 1982. Many people who handled potential evidence in 1982 didnt wear gloves because it wasnt protocol at the time. The Tylenol murders: The story of a 40-year-old unsolved case begins with a terrifying medical mystery. Neither did the chemist who performed the cyanide test. The first few days were spent talking to people closest to Prince and sifting through the many tips they received. 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. (Don Casper / Chicago Tribune), Obviously, Johnson & Johnson didnt put cyanide in their own product. We locked him up.. The Tribune interviewed nearly two dozen members of the task force, many of whom confirmed the reports veracity and added their own perspective. In the meantime, Kasia Janus has said shes dealt with occasionally overwhelming sadness because of the graduations her father couldnt attend. And there were a lot of bottles to come out of that lot.. And when the sitting attorney general was indicted on tax fraud charges, Thompson appointed Fahner to fill the post. And my next thought was that there are too many cooks in the kitchen.. An FBI agent stood up and started to give a rundown of Chicagos case. 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. Siekmann didnt wear gloves. Tylenol murders victims Among the victims there were three from the same family, as Adam Janus, aged 27 collapsed after ingesting extra-strength Tylenol and was rushed to the hospital where he died. I think its pretty important, the aide replied. 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. CBS put a human face on the story which contained the following: "When 12 year-old Mary Kellerman of Elk Grove Village, Ill., awoke at dawn with cold symptoms; her parents gave her one Extra-Strength Tylenol and sent her back to bed. These packaging protections soon became the industry standard for all over-the-counter medications. I think hes nothing but a class act, said McQuaid, a retired state police captain. He couldnt leave. Things were chaotic. They also started grumbling about politics overshadowing their work. And I want people to know that, yeah, this was my family, and it has changed all of us.. 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. (Stan Policht / Chicago Tribune). I dont think that bore fruit at all.. The killer may have salted the bottles with cyanide-laced capsules while standing in the store aisle, investigators thought. Lewis, who now lives in the Boston area, has long denied any involvement in the murders and has never been charged. Their departments relationship with the FBI had been rocky for decades, but it was at a particularly low point in September 1982. He said Marys mother, Jeanna, asked him if she should have noticed that someone had tampered with the bottle. The substance was grainier than the untainted Tylenol on the left. Given the totality of the circumstances, some thought it unusual for the Illinois attorney general to lead the investigation. Authorities believed they offered clues about who could and who could not have poisoned the capsules. So as we organized, there were about 10, 15 different avenues of investigations to pursue, like disgruntled employees, former employees, lawsuits, Lane said. Oct. 2, 1982: CBS 2's Phil Walters reports on the investigation into the Tylenol poisonings. 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. The Tylenol murders: How we reported this story. And as soon as we got the word out that Tylenol had been laced, people said, What do we do? I said, Well, if youve got any in your medicine cabinet either put it in a plastic bag and keep it or throw it away. 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. Not just the hours, but the frustration. Their opinion soured even further at their first meeting, when one of the lead investigators asked for a briefing on the Prince murder. Extra-Strength Tylenol, shown in a Tribune studio photograph, once was packaged in a paper box with an unglued lid. I realized I was in the deep end of the pool, he said. Severns, who had two young children, heard the undeserved guilt in her voice. 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. DNA evidence wasnt part of police work at the time, but it would become a factor in the case a quarter-century later. 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. 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. September 22, 2022. Police grasped for suspects who might be the so-called "Mad Poisoner." A casket is carried out of St. Hyacinth Roman Catholic Church after the funeral Mass for three members of the Janus family in 1982. 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. . Subscribe to our Science Newsletter to explore the I said, Excuse me. In 1989, the FDA established federal guidelines for manufacturers to make all such products tamper-proof. Deputy coroner Siekmann recalled going to Winfield to pick up the Tylenol collected from Reiners house a few hours after her death. (Charles Osgood / Chicago Tribune). Former Chicago police Superintendent Richard Brzeczek told the Tribune he believed Fahners selection was purely political, done specifically because of the November election. Some of the investigators started using it privately, too. It would likely be someone with gray hair. The tainted bottle from the Schaumburg pharmacy contained three partial prints on the capsules, but (they) were not suitable for comparison, the memo states. After a lengthy cat and mouse game, police and federal investigators determined that Lewis lived in New York and had no demonstrable links to the Chicago events. Here, you go, Pete, the police chief said, passing the bottle to him without the type of evidence bag that would now be standard in any investigation. Chemists working for the Illinois Public Health Department in Chicago test the contents of Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules. 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. Sadly, the tragedies that resulted from the Tylenol poisonings can never be undone. Several victims families told the Tribune they didnt hear much from investigators after those initial interviews. No, Oscar Wilde probably didnt die of syphilis. The prints, however, dont match the prime suspect. What the hell is this? The couple were later pronounced dead, too. It was the first of two such trips he made that day, initially with the Reiner bottle and later with the one that killed McFarland. 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. Margolis, who later became director of the Illinois State Police, says multiagency efforts always endure allegations of infighting and spotlight stealing. 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 most promising leads involved people doing curious things with chemicals. 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. 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. 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. Come to 1425 Armstrong Lane.. The FBI and Chicago police performed separate, but largely parallel, investigations until Oct. 6. Forty years later, Ford shook his head at the memory. They can account for the differing DNA profiles. The Tylenol murders fundamentally changed the way we consume medication - among other things, leading to tamper-proof pill and bottle designs. 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. Members of the media the same people who were constantly pestering him for information nicknamed Fahner Tylenol Ty. It stuck. Chicago police Superintendent Richard Brzeczek talks about the Tylenol investigation on Oct. 7, 1982, about a week after the seven deaths. 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. Extra-Strength Tylenol, shown in a Tribune studio photograph, once was packaged in a paper box with an unglued lid. 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. Dr. Howard Markel writes a monthly column for the PBS NewsHour, highlighting momentous historical events that continue to shape modern medicine. He held news conferences, sometimes twice a day, to meet the insatiable media demands. The guy was a little wimpy, but his ham did stink.. I mean, theres 10,000 reasons why people compete with each other. He hangs up, opens the door and we come in like gangbusters, Gildea said. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). Investigators took the funeral guest books and jotted down license plates, then entered names into a newly developed computer program that allowed them to cross-check for anyone attending multiple memorials, according to the state police report. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration then cautioned the public against taking the pain reliever in capsule form. He received the assignment by default, and then it became part of a national news story. They had a lot of questions and I didnt have any answers at all., 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. Other copy-cat poisonings, involving Tylenol and other over-the-counter medications, cropped up again in the 1980s and early 1990s but these events were never as dramatic or as deadly as the 1982 Chicago-area deaths. 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. But on Oct. 1, 1982, he had been a detective for only a year. Kasia said she still remembers hearing her mother scream when she couldnt wake her father up the next day, 29 September 1982. There was little evidence to go on, no inkling of a motive and five people dead. The Tylenol task force may be no exception, he said, but the tensions didnt affect the overall effort. Reports would be written in triplicate so each member would get a copy. 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. It was 1982. Investigators assumed the culprit was a man, though records indicate they didnt automatically rule out anyone based on gender. 1996 - 2023 NewsHour Productions LLC. In Illinois, some towns began pulling bottles from the store shelves and sent police officers down the street with bullhorns encouraging people to throw out their Tylenol. Seven people in the Chicago area were killed that year by Tylenol that had been poisoned with potassium cyanide. Among those questioned was a clerical worker who was fired for repeatedly missing work. 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. Product tampering would become a crime in 1983 as a result of these murders, but in 1982 there was no federal law against it. 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. Another tip involved a man who was threatening to poison Hormel food products. 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. In this op-ed, he reflects on his experiences leading the public health response to the Tylenol murders of 1982. 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. (Chicago Tribune), Look, like any other series of government bureaucracies, theres always tension between agencies, he said. 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. Editors note: This report has been updated to remove the reported amount of cyanide used. All of them, it turned out, took Tylenol shortly before they died. 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 cyanide, a deadly chemical. He investigated the Tylenol poisonings in the Janus family and later served as police chief in Island Lake. The Tylenol murders of 1982,was a pointless killing spree that resulted in the death of seven Chicago area people from Tylenol tablets .The Tylenol poisoning killings was from tampering with over-the-counter Tylenol branded acetaminophen pills laced with potassium cyanide. 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. Six suburbanites had already died from cyanide poisoning by that time, but this was Chicagos first and, in the end, only victim. Three months earlier, 10 Chicago officers from the citys West Side were convicted of taking bribes to protect heroin rings. Scott Stump is a staff reporter and the writer of the daily newsletter This is TODAY. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune). 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