None matched. I mean, it just got to me, Severns said. You know, boost exposure and stuff like that.. 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. The prints, however, dont match the prime suspect. 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. The coppers and the FBI guys that I knew all worked together. We were getting flooded with calls, said John Fellmann, an Arlington Heights detective assigned to the case. Police departments and fire stations began collecting bottles, as well. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration then cautioned the public against taking the pain reliever in capsule form. 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. A theory emerged: What if the Mad Poisoner was actually the Unabomber? She also laments that her dad never got to meet her and her husband, her son, her stepson and her step-grandson. Fahner thought state officials needed to be even more aggressive, despite the consequences for the investigation. Authorities were convinced the killer didnt know any of the victims. Tylenols parent company, Johnson & Johnson, also saw its stock price drop after the news about the tainted capsules broke. NBC News has not reviewed those documents. 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. 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. My theory is that Anna is a diabetic and had just come home from a . Forty years later, investigators still cant say with certainty. Meanwhile, a 12-year-old child named Mary Kellerman had also died suddenly in another Chicago suburb after taking an Extra-Strength Tylenol. . 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. 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 . 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. There wasnt that much tension, Fahner said. It was standing room only inside the Arlington Heights Police Department for the first meeting of what would become the Tylenol task force. 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. Investigators, however, are prepared should that question arise. The guy was a little wimpy, but his ham did stink.. 6 Amazon travel essentials for your next getaway, starting at $12. (Stan Policht / Chicago Tribune). 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. 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 the Tylenol murders? But others, including Lane, found it immensely helpful and from his perspective ultimately accurate. Lane would think of that line a year later when, without prompting, a suspect called him and offered to help solve the case. Authorities wont discuss the potential theories or suspects they have amid an investigation that they insist remains open and unforgotten. Dr. Howard Markel 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.. 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. In the end, it was decided that the state police would take the lead among the agencies and that investigators would be divided into nearly four dozen teams. But thats not a problem, the investigators say. 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. Police departments were working the murders in relative isolation, and each county had its own states attorney to oversee the case. Every agency imaginable attended, many of them represented by their top leaders. Thats being made out of whole cloth all these years later. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). It marked the first mass recall in U.S. history, involving more than 31 million bottles. He is the director of the Center for the History of Medicine and the George E. Wantz Distinguished Professor of the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan and the author ofThe Secret of Life: Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick and the Discovery of DNAs Double Helix (W.W. Norton, September 21). I was the detective at the scene. Seven people between 12 and 35 died after ingesting cyanide-laced Tylenol pills in the Chicago area in 1982. 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. 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. Investigators took pictures of people who attended the victims funerals to see if they could capture anyone acting unusual. Some expressed surprise at how casually other people treated the poisoned bottles. The program went far beyond any database previously used by law enforcement in Illinois. 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. Indeed, the Johnson & Johnson recall became a classic case study in business schools across the nation. Illinois state police and FBI supervisors did most of the talking at that first meeting, several attendees told the Tribune. The death toll now stood at five: Reiner, McFarland, Adam Janus of Arlington Heights, his brother Stanley Janus of Lisle and 12-year-old Mary Kellerman of Elk Grove Village. Police Officer Michael Miljan leaves an Arlington Heights pharmacy after making sure bottles of Extra-Strength Tylenol were being removed from shelves. [Para leer en espaol] Los asesinatos de Tylenol, parte 2: Tylenol mezclado con cianuro fue el arma homicida. 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. But no one has ever been arrested in connection with the spate of poisonings that shattered the families of Janus and the others. Even after he retired from the FBI in 1996, he didnt let it go. But something more sinister was afoot when Kasias paternal uncle Stanley Janus and his wife, Theresa Tarasewicz Janus, each took pills from the same Tylenol bottle that Adam had bought in an attempt to fight headaches. (Don Casper / Chicago Tribune), People were terrified, Fahner said. FBI agent Shari Kouba, one of the few women on the task force, ran the tips desk. Joe Murphy told NBC Chicago last year. Please check your inbox to confirm. And everyone in the meeting is aware of one undeniable truth: There is no physical evidence linking a suspect to the poisonings. 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. The bottles, however, needed to be tested before they could say with certainty. Following the same theory, investigators took pictures . Some of those interviews may have gone to an agent who didnt do a good job., Shari Kouba, shown in July at an FBI office in Mount Prospect where she used to work, ran a tips desk as part of the Tylenol task force. I thought he was perfect.. ]. Only really frivolous things went in that other pile, she said. Manufacturer Johnson & Johnson recalled 31 million Tylenol bottles as panic spread nationwide following the deaths. They knew the weapon. The Tylenol Murders" and asked him if he has any theories on who the Tylenol Killer might be. What are you giving this story for? So they ran him off the stage and I got up there.. 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. wide worlds of science, health andtechnology. They were particularly concerned that something happened during the manufacturing or the shipping or storage, Wolnik said. Chicagos doing what they want, so lets just give them something minor to do.. The latest Tribune poll showed he was down by about 20 points in the upcoming election. It wasnt a grab for authority. After just one or two task force meetings, Ford and Gildea told their boss they werent going back. He couldnt leave. The decision cost the company more than $100 million, an enormous amount in 1982. The city's most notorious unsolved murdersthe killing of seven people with cyanide-laced Tylenols in 1982is back in the news, as the seating of a grand jury is 1 2 The dire situation, both in terms of human life and business, made it imperative that the Johnson & Johnson executives respond swiftly and authoritatively. The 40-year-old Tylenol murder investigation remains at a standstill. Given the totality of the circumstances, some thought it unusual for the Illinois attorney general to lead the investigation. "As you can see, it is easy to place cyanideinto capsules sitting on store shelves," he wrote in the letter. 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. (Michael Budrys / Chicago Tribune). So he thought hed maybe get a lifetime supply of ham. 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. 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. Sadly, the tragedies that resulted from the Tylenol poisonings can never be undone. 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. The first tainted Tylenol victim - Mary Kellerman, 12, of Elk Grove Village - collapsed and died on . Nothing was being solved.. Records show law enforcement has spent the past several years dealing almost entirely with forensic evidence. [[Para leer en espaol] Los asesinatos de Tylenol, parte 2: Tylenol mezclado con cianuro fue el arma homicida. We also are still were looking at emerging forensic technology, Sgt. And there were a lot of bottles to come out of that lot.. 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. (Carl Wagner / Chicago Tribune). To its credit, the company took an active role with the media in issuing mass warning communications and immediately called for a massive recall of the more than 31 million bottles of Tylenol in circulation. 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. Oct. 2, 1982: CBS 2's Phil Walters reports on the investigation into the Tylenol poisonings. September 22, 2022. 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. In those early days, the best leads came from the Tylenol bottles themselves. Unfortunately, each victim swallowed a Tylenol capsule laced with A lethal dose of cyanide. Christy Gutowski focuses her work on stories about criminal justice, public corruption and issues that impact the everyday man. When Thompson, a Republican, became governor in 1977, Fahner followed him to Springfield to lead the Illinois state police. Product tampering would become a crime in 1983 as a result of these murders, but in 1982 there was no federal law against 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. We didnt get anything, but we were kicking around ideas like that.. To this day, however, the perpetrators of these murders have never been found. Others found Fahner the obvious choice. 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. 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. Pursuing the mission, however, eventually sent the FBI and the Chicago Police Department in two different directions. The task force knew the mechanism behind the murders, Fellmann said. Early on the morning of Sept. 29, 1982, a tragic, medical mystery began with a sore throat and a runny nose. We were looking for somebody that really looked like they didnt belong. When the family returned home, both Adam's brother Stanley and Stanely's wife Theresa took a Tylenol, resulting in both of their deaths. Subscribe to Heres the Deal, our politics The Chicago detectives shared that worry. Back then, bottles of pills did not have tamper-proof seals, just a cotton ball stuffed inside. The Tylenol case marked one of the earliest uses of the approach. The police investigation into the Tylenol murders has centered around prime suspect James Lewis for decades. The Illinois Department of Law Enforcement, now called the Illinois State Police, wanted him to help. 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 Tylenol murders have never been solved, though at one point, the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, was a suspect. He didnt fit that profile, Hogberg said. But if they kept the bottles in their medicine cabinets, more people could die. They knew the locations. "While this tragic incident remains unsolved, this event resulted in important industry improvements to patient safety measures including the creation of tamper-resistant packaging.". Fahner looked at all the power brokers on the platform U.S. Sen. Charles Percy, Gov. At the time just four, Janus recalls being with her father, Adam, in their Chicago suburb when he bought an Extra-Strength Tylenol bottle that someone had slipped cyanide pills into. We still receive tips that are being evaluated and investigated. Next week: Police investigate a poor mans James Bond, and an eighth person dies. He held news conferences, sometimes twice a day, to meet the insatiable media demands. 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. He told her no, then carried the memory of the Kellermans anguish with him for the rest of his time on the task force. John Fellmann at his home in Huntley in September. History's Greatest Mysteries looks into the theories regarding the Tylenol Murders in Chicago 1982. Tensions flared, even among law enforcement personnel sincerely dedicated to the job. Security cameras were scarce in suburban Chicago in 1982, but investigators checked the images that existed. You know, its a hackneyed phrase, but we left no stone unturned., Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy Margolis, shown in his Chicago office in July, was part of the original Tylenol task force in 1982. Medicare Pharmacy employee Mary Butler, right, shows a box of Extra-Strength Tylenol to Officer Michael Miljan in Arlington Heights. Within a week, her death would panic the entire nation. Many people who handled potential evidence in 1982 didnt wear gloves because it wasnt protocol at the time. Despite the passage of time and, in a way, because of it the bottles still may offer clues as to who poisoned the capsules. They would work the case in Chicago and send someone else to Des Plaines to play nice with the others. 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. Subscribe to our Science Newsletter to explore the It started in 1982, not long after the murders. Neither did the chemist who performed the cyanide test. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune), John Fellmann at his home in Huntley in September. Siekmann didnt wear gloves. I dont know what he thought. Ford said Stein encouraged him to smell the pills, but the detective refused and pushed away the pathologists hand. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. 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. In fact, so many big dogs were present, Fellmann said he couldnt find a free chair inside his own 60-seat roll call room. (Stan Policht / Chicago Tribune). Male murderers are more likely, in general, to kill randomly and on a large scale. Tylenol murders: A nationwide panic, a family tragedy Transformed by tragedy Her dad, aunt and uncle died 40 years ago after taking poisoned Tylenol. 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. With no apparent motive and little evidence to go on, it was a tough task. The panic stemming from the Tylenol murders resulted in a permanent change in the packaging of medicine. 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