And soon, many medications and foods sold over store counters began being sold in tamper-proof, sealed packaging. And, in the decades since, scientific advances have allowed investigators to detect DNA profiles on at least three of the tainted bottles and the capsules inside. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). 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 so Dick Tracy to me, Steed said. The attorney general largely stopped campaigning after joining the task force, but his face was on TV every night. . The bottle's cap was easily opened. Chicago police Superintendent Richard Brzeczek talks about the Tylenol investigation on Oct. 7, 1982, about a week after the seven deaths. But thats not a problem, the investigators say. A lot of people who didnt like me or didnt like Thompson or my association were taking shots, Fahner said. Dr. Howard Markel. Severns worked on the case for three days before he realized no one had offered an update to young Mary Kellermans grieving parents. Tensions flared, even among law enforcement personnel sincerely dedicated to the job. In 2000, Joy Bergmann revisited the story in "A Bitter Pill" . 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 Tylenol Murders Victims Mary Kellerman On September 29, 1982, 12 year old Mary Kellerman woke up feeling ill. Daniel Walker and several Chicago aldermen convicted in Operation Silver Shovel. Members of the media the same people who were constantly pestering him for information nicknamed Fahner Tylenol Ty. It stuck. Manufacturer Johnson & Johnson recalled 31 million Tylenol bottles as panic spread nationwide following the deaths. 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. By 2011, the FBI was ready to reexamine the evidence. McNeil Consumer Products, a subsidiary of the health care giant, Johnson & Johnson, manufactured Tylenol. The task force questioned stock boys, managers, disgruntled former employees and problematic customers at the hot locations, the teams name for the stores that sold the tainted Tylenol. Though the company expanded the recall the same day to cover the batch involved in McFarlands death, the piecemeal approach troubled Fahner. Stanley Janus soon collapsed on his late brothers kitchen floor. 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. 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. Christy Gutowski focuses her work on stories about criminal justice, public corruption and issues that impact the everyday man. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). September 22, 2022. The Tylenol murders launched a massive criminal investigation. As the de facto leader of the task force, he would come to be known in the media as "Tylenol Ty.". 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. A photograph of a television screen shows the specific lot number for a batch of Extra-Strength Tylenol that was the first to be recalled. Next week: Police investigate a poor mans James Bond, and an eighth person dies. 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. 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. The victims had all taken Tylenol-branded acetaminophen capsules that had been laced with potassium cyanide. Here's what to know about the history of the case and the latest developments. Whats going on? 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. 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. In an attempt to paint a more detailed portrait of the killer, the FBI turned to a relatively new technique at the time called criminal profiling, in which agents try to identify the personality and behavioral characteristics of an offender based on an analysis of the crime. Im not saying that the task force didnt work or thats why the case was never solved, Severns said. The FBI and Chicago police performed separate, but largely parallel, investigations until Oct. 6. And my next thought was that there are too many cooks in the kitchen.. 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. We were getting flooded with calls, said John Fellmann, an Arlington Heights detective assigned to the case. . Testing found cyanide in the Extra-Strength Tylenol capsule on the right. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). Extra-Strength Tylenol, shown in a Tribune studio photograph, once was packaged in a paper box with an unglued lid. 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 FBIs involvement puzzled some because, as far as anyone knew, the federal agency didnt have jurisdiction in the case. Each participant has a packet of information that authorities use to explain their findings. Stanley died that very day and Theresa died two days later. Most came from a banking service that snapped a photograph of anyone writing a check. 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. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). Fahner looked at all the power brokers on the platform U.S. Sen. Charles Percy, Gov. 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. Former DuPage County Coroner Pete Siekmann, who in 1982 was a deputy coroner, handled the Tylenol bottles from Mary "Lynn" Reiner and Mary McFarland. With Molly Jean Brandenburg, Carter Roy. 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. 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. "While this tragic incident remains unsolved, this event resulted in important industry improvements to patient safety measures including the creation of tamper-resistant packaging.". The Chicago Tylenol murders were a series of poisoning deaths resulting from drug tampering in the Chicago metropolitan area in 1982. It wasnt a grab for authority. he answered. (Don Casper / Chicago Tribune), Obviously, Johnson & Johnson didnt put cyanide in their own product. 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. Deputy coroner Siekmann recalled going to Winfield to pick up the Tylenol collected from Reiners house a few hours after her death. As the de facto leader of the task force, he would come to be known in the media as "Tylenol Ty." 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. Why was this happening? The task force met each morning at the Des Plaines headquarters to discuss leads and get their assignments. Whoa, whoa, he recalled. As a state crime, murder fell under the purview of local law enforcement. In those early days, there were so many agencies involved, so many people desperate to solve the case. The company, however, did not keep records of where the products were shipped. He hangs up, opens the door and we come in like gangbusters, Gildea said. His brother and sister-in-law, Stanley, 25, and Theresa, 19, of Lisle, Illinois, rushed to his home to console their loved ones. John Fellmann at his home in Huntley in September. No, Oscar Wilde probably didnt die of syphilis. The Tylenol Murders Pt. 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. He needed to be there, no matter how much he hated campaigning. Siekmann drove to a state laboratory in the city with the bottle on the seat next to him. NBC News has not reviewed those documents. 3: A Nightmare on Halloween: With Molly Jean Brandenburg, Carter Roy. 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. But no one has ever been arrested in connection with the spate of poisonings that shattered the families of Janus and the others. 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. These other men were all worried about his chances. You know, boost exposure and stuff like that.. 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 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. And everyone in the meeting is aware of one undeniable truth: There is no physical evidence linking a suspect to the poisonings. 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. In fact, so many big dogs were present, Fellmann said he couldnt find a free chair inside his own 60-seat roll call room. Pero quin fue el asesino? Jose Rosa, right, was one of hundreds of Chicago city employees and volunteers to distribute warnings about cyanide-laced Tylenol in fall 1982. Meanwhile, a 12-year-old child named Mary Kellerman had also died suddenly in another Chicago suburb after taking an Extra-Strength Tylenol. The Tylenol investigation began as a loose collaboration among detectives in Arlington Heights and Elk Grove Village, the towns where the first three deaths were identified. The Unsolved Tylenol Murders of 1982: The Unabomber Theory Written by C.W.S. He didnt fit that profile, Hogberg said. We also are still were looking at emerging forensic technology, Sgt. Because all the other possibilities had been eliminated.. Chicagos doing what they want, so lets just give them something minor to do.. Scott Stump is a staff reporter and the writer of the daily newsletter This is TODAY. We were looking for somebody that really looked like they didnt belong. I thought, well, this is rather impressive, Siekmann said. Editors note: This report has been updated to remove the reported amount of cyanide used. Four decades later, task force leaders downplay accusations of tensions among the agencies, suggesting history has been revised in an effort to explain why no one has been charged with the murders. In 1989, the FDA established federal guidelines for manufacturers to make all such products tamper-proof. Manufacturer Johnson & Johnson recalled 31 million Tylenol bottles as panic spread nationwide. (Chicago Tribune), Look, like any other series of government bureaucracies, theres always tension between agencies, he said. Pursuing the mission, however, eventually sent the FBI and the Chicago Police Department in two different directions. So as we organized, there were about 10, 15 different avenues of investigations to pursue, like disgruntled employees, former employees, lawsuits, Lane said. Testing found cyanide in the Extra-Strength Tylenol capsule on the right. That evening, Illinois Attorney General Ty Fahner sat on a dais listening to stump speeches at the Kane County Republican Organizations annual dinner. Many of the task force members interviewed by the Tribune recounted difficulties as more than 100 people tried to work as a team. Ford said Stein encouraged him to smell the pills, but the detective refused and pushed away the pathologists hand. The Chicago Tylenol Murders: With Laurence Fishburne. (James Mayo / Chicago Tribune). You shove those up my nose again, youre going to get socked in the face. 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. 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. After just one or two task force meetings, Ford and Gildea told their boss they werent going back. President Reagan wanted the FBI in the investigation, retired FBI Special Agent Roy Lane Jr. told the Tribune. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/tylenol-murders-1982, Why Eleanor Roosevelts civics book for kids is making a comeback. With absolute certainty, they can say the following: Records show at least four fingerprints were found during the initial investigation. The bottle's cap was easily opened. And lives were at risk. An FBI agent stood up and started to give a rundown of Chicagos case. Its a one-way street for information back and forth. Relatives, including two who took polygraph tests, were quickly eliminated from suspicion. 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. 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. The man hurriedly told the Hormel operator that he had to go and he would call her back later. Other task force members, it should be noted, werent particularly fond of Chicagos efforts either. There was no clear leader. 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. 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. Now she's sharing her story for the first. That same day, a 27-year-old postal worker named Adam Janus of Arlington Heights, Illinois, died of what was initially thought to be a massive heart attack but turned out to be cyanide poisoning as well. (Josh Reynolds/AP) The investigation into the 1982 Tylenol murders was pretty dormant when an FBI . 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. Police reports mention several former Johnson & Johnson employees, though none was ever considered a serious suspect. Fahners critics accused him of milking the Tylenol tragedy for his own benefit, and his opponents camp worried that he knew who the killer was and would make an arrest right before the November election. All 3 networks lead with the Tylenol story on the first day of the crisis. The Kellerman and Janus bottles contained Tylenol from lot MC2880, manufactured in Pennsylvania on April 26, 1982. 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. Forty years later, investigators still cant say with certainty. Bottles that werent tossed out were sent to J&J, the FDA and various government laboratories for testing. She also laments that her dad never got to meet her and her husband, her son, her stepson and her step-grandson. Still, in his opinion, Fahner was exactly what the task force needed. Before that she reported for the Daily Herald, the Dayton Daily News and The Topeka Capital-Journal. Marquette 10 is one of a thousand reasons why theres tension, personal jealousy, personal ambition, jurisdictional turf fights. 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. In 1983, the U.S. Congress passed what was called the Tylenol bill, making it a federal offense to tamper with consumer products. Fahner thought state officials needed to be even more aggressive, despite the consequences for the investigation. Halfway through the speeches, an aide tapped him on the shoulder and told him he needed to take an important call. His task force partners the FBI and state police had blindsided the Elk Grove Village detective, and he was angry. I mean, theres 10,000 reasons why people compete with each other. 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. Seven people in the Chicago area were killed that year by Tylenol that had been poisoned with potassium cyanide. Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy Margolis, shown in his Chicago office in July, was part of the original Tylenol task force in 1982. It was 1982. 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. They knew the locations. Former Chicago police Detective Jimmy Gildea, shown at his Chicago home in July, investigated the death of Tylenol victim Paula Prince. Both experienced throbbing headaches, a not uncommon response to a death in the family and each took a Tylenol extra-strength capsule or two from the same bottle Adam had used earlier in the day. 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. The investigators would then return around 5 p.m. to update everyone on the days developments. Every night, I would come home after my kids were in bed, he said. I had people dropping dead all over the place.. While acetaminophen the active ingredient in the top-selling pain reliever was a fine white powder, these were filled with a grainy, translucent substance. (Stan Policht / Chicago Tribune). And only months later, it changed the way we purchase and consume over-the-counter medications. It was then that Mary Kellerman, a 12-year-old girl from Elk Grove Village, a suburb of Chicago, told her mother and father about her symptoms. Several people had died within the last day in the Chicago suburbs after ingesting Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide and the situation needed attention. Among the earliest priorities was 24-hour surveillance outside the victims homes, on the assumption that someone who killed anonymously would want to see the results of their work and might drive by the house. The attorney general had no authority to intervene, but Fahner had been an outstanding federal prosecutor, a well-liked director of the state police and an effective leader of major criminal investigations. Among those questioned was a clerical worker who was fired for repeatedly missing work. Several months have passed since the suburban detective made his pitch to the Cook County states attorneys office. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. 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. He received the assignment by default, and then it became part of a national news story. Each person underwent a rigorous background check. Several suspects did too. I thought he was perfect.. 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 Tylenol case, however, would loom largest over his professional life. (Charles Osgood / Chicago Tribune). 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. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration then cautioned the public against taking the pain reliever in capsule form. Roger Arnold worked at a jewel warehouse with the father of one of the victims named Mary Reiner. Investigators first considered whether the tampering could have occurred at the manufacturing plants. 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. The White House, however, had ordered the FBI to find a way into the case amid growing public panic. What are you giving this story for? So they ran him off the stage and I got up there.. He would gravitate toward someone with a blue suit and red tie, the quintessential 1980s-style power suit. Severns, who had two young children, heard the undeserved guilt in her voice. (Earl Gustie / Chicago Tribune). Lane would think of that line a year later when, without prompting, a suspect called him and offered to help solve the case. 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. Given the totality of the circumstances, some thought it unusual for the Illinois attorney general to lead the investigation. Their departments relationship with the FBI had been rocky for decades, but it was at a particularly low point in September 1982. 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. That said, he was charged with extortion and sentenced to 20 years in prison. I always wear the blue suit and the red tie, Lane said. The Tylenol murders: How we reported this story. 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. Medicare Pharmacy employee Mary Butler, right, shows a box of Extra-Strength Tylenol to Officer Michael Miljan in Arlington Heights. 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. 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. The likelihood that the same person could have put cyanide into different batches manufactured at different times in different places was logistically zero.. Three of the deaths occurred in Arlington Heights, where police told NBC Chicago last year that they still have the pills, bottles and boxes as evidence. We still receive tips that are being evaluated and investigated. She has received numerous national honors for her work. Police Officer Michael Miljan leaves an Arlington Heights pharmacy after making sure bottles of Extra-Strength Tylenol were being removed from shelves. 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