Tylenol murders investigators pursue new charges in 40-year case. Tylenol murders: A nationwide panic, a family tragedy Transformed by tragedy Her dad, aunt and uncle died 40 years ago after taking poisoned Tylenol. Former Chicago police Detective Jimmy Gildea, shown at his Chicago home in July, investigated the death of Tylenol victim Paula Prince. Every agency imaginable attended, many of them represented by their top leaders. Testing found cyanide in the Extra-Strength Tylenol capsule on the right. NBC News reached out to Lewis and did not receive a response. (Stacey Wescott / 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. Despite the passage of time and, in a way, because of it the bottles still may offer clues as to who poisoned the capsules. 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. 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. Rosen's theory is that the tampering did not happen on store shelves, but at the manufacturing plant before the product was shipped out. 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. It was standing room only inside the Arlington Heights Police Department for the first meeting of what would become the Tylenol task force. (Don Casper / Chicago Tribune), Obviously, Johnson & Johnson didnt put cyanide in their own product. 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. 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. 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. The attorney general largely stopped campaigning after joining the task force, but his face was on TV every night. Before that she reported for the Daily Herald, the Dayton Daily News and The Topeka Capital-Journal. 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. 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. 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. Agents interviewed the victims families, neighbors, co-workers and friends about any known enemies. You know, boost exposure and stuff like that.. The Chicago detectives shared that worry. Most came from a banking service that snapped a photograph of anyone writing a check. There wasnt that much tension, Fahner said. 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. It was so Dick Tracy to me, Steed said. The tips were written up on 3x5 index cards. Chicago police Superintendent Richard Brzeczek talks about the Tylenol investigation on Oct. 7, 1982, about a week after the seven deaths. 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. He investigated the Tylenol poisonings in the Janus family and later served as police chief in Island Lake. Deputy coroner Siekmann recalled going to Winfield to pick up the Tylenol collected from Reiners house a few hours after her death. 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. Jose Rosa, right, was one of hundreds of Chicago city employees and volunteers to distribute warnings about cyanide-laced Tylenol in fall 1982. Subscribe to our Science Newsletter to explore the (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune). All 3 networks lead with the Tylenol story on the first day of the crisis. 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. The Tylenol murders: The story of a 40-year-old unsolved case begins with a terrifying medical mystery. He already had a new job. 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. As the de facto leader of the task force, he would come to be known in the media as "Tylenol Ty." What are you giving this story for? So they ran him off the stage and I got up there.. With absolute certainty, they can say the following: Records show at least four fingerprints were found during the initial investigation. 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. There was no clear leader. They gave her one extra-strength Tylenol capsule that, unbeknownst to them, was laced with the highly poisonous potassium cyanide. Every Tylenol bottle had a lot number that offered specific details about the batch those capsules came from. 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. My theory is that Anna is a diabetic and had just come home from a . Within hours of finding cyanide in the capsules that killed three people in the northwest suburbs, the Cook County medical examiners office held a news conference on the morning of Sept. 30, 1982, to warn people about the potential poison in their medicine cabinets. The 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. In late September of 1982 seven people were killed after an unknown suspect placed cyanide laced Tylenol pills in store bottles. And they would remain apart for the next four decades. The more she . Local police departments and states attorneys offices have been trying to crack the case for 40 years. In all, the task force had only eight bottles to offer clues to where and when the tampering could have taken place. In keeping with that theory, the task force contacted hospitals to ask about anyone treated for poison burns or symptoms, in case the killer became ill or injured during the spree. 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. Investigators took pictures of people who attended the victims funerals to see if they could capture anyone acting unusual. The Tylenol task force may be no exception, he said, but the tensions didnt affect the overall effort. Or, at the very least, get them to remember his name. [Para leer en espaol] Los asesinatos de Tylenol, parte 2: Tylenol mezclado con cianuro fue el arma homicida. Several suspects did too. He said Marys mother, Jeanna, asked him if she should have noticed that someone had tampered with the bottle. 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. Given the totality of the circumstances, some thought it unusual for the Illinois attorney general to lead the investigation. 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. He regaled reporters with all kinds of stories during that final interview, but none seemed to amuse him more than the unhappy Hormel ham man. The operation was primarily staffed by female agents who answered phone calls and assessed information while their male counterparts worked in the field. Police Officer Michael Miljan leaves an Arlington Heights pharmacy after making sure bottles of Extra-Strength Tylenol were being removed from shelves. Scott Stump is a staff reporter and the writer of the daily newsletter This is TODAY. Was Charles Dickens the first celebrity medical spokesman? (Earl Gustie / Chicago Tribune). In those early days, there were so many agencies involved, so many people desperate to solve the case. (Stan Policht / Chicago Tribune). But I didnt have the gray hair yet.. Other task force members, it should be noted, werent particularly fond of Chicagos efforts either. 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. I was the detective at the scene. 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. No one has ever been charged with the murders. Ted Kaczynski had proven he was a revenge-seeking terrorist, and he had connections to Chicago. 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. The Tylenol Murders Pt. The Tylenol Murders Pt. 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. Marquette 10 is one of a thousand reasons why theres tension, personal jealousy, personal ambition, jurisdictional turf fights. See where the eight tainted Tylenol bottles were purchased or discovered. 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. 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. Medicare Pharmacy employee Mary Butler, right, shows a box of Extra-Strength Tylenol to Officer Michael Miljan in Arlington Heights. The agents didnt bother to pretend that labeling rules were their true motivation for getting involved. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). Neither did the chemist who performed the cyanide test. And you had a lot of very experienced, very intelligent, very resourceful people thinking about this all the time, thinking about angles, thinking about ideas, testing them and implementing them wherever we possibly could. 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. Investigators assumed the culprit was a man, though records indicate they didnt automatically rule out anyone based on gender. 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. 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. 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 Tylenol Murders" and asked him if he has any theories on who the Tylenol Killer might be. He needed to be there, no matter how much he hated campaigning. 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. Daniel Walker and several Chicago aldermen convicted in Operation Silver Shovel. So as we organized, there were about 10, 15 different avenues of investigations to pursue, like disgruntled employees, former employees, lawsuits, Lane said. So, the theory was the tampering took place at the store, said FBI agent Lane. Police grasped for suspects who might be the so-called "Mad Poisoner." I said, Agent, agent. 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. 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. As a result of the crime, makers of Tylenol developed new product protection methods. What happens in most cases, and certainly what happened here beyond any question, was a 100% selfless, unified devotion to a very important mission.. Now Fahner had to win the job for himself, and he faced a formidable opponent in Democrat Neil Hartigan, a vote magnet from Chicagos North Side. He didnt fit that profile, Hogberg said. 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. The Tylenol murders launched a massive criminal investigation. In reality, some task force members still accuse their colleagues of secretive behavior 40 years later. All Rights Reserved. The substance was grainier than the untainted Tylenol on the left. They also started grumbling about politics overshadowing their work. Meanwhile, a 12-year-old child named Mary Kellerman had also died suddenly in another Chicago suburb after taking an Extra-Strength Tylenol. Bottles that werent tossed out were sent to J&J, the FDA and various government laboratories for testing. 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. Medicare Pharmacy employee Mary Butler, right, shows a box of Extra-Strength Tylenol to Officer Michael Miljan in Arlington Heights. Elmhurst police Detective Herb Hogberg interviewed a chemist who had been laid off from the company in recent months. He investigated the Tylenol poisonings in the Janus family and later served as police chief in Island Lake. The Tylenol case marked one of the earliest uses of the approach. They were particularly concerned that something happened during the manufacturing or the shipping or storage, Wolnik said. Kasia said she still remembers hearing her mother scream when she couldnt wake her father up the next day, 29 September 1982. Now she's sharing her story for the first. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). The agencies, at times, clashed with each other. Fahner, as head of the task force, quickly became the public face of the investigation. DNA evidence wasnt part of police work at the time, but it would become a factor in the case a quarter-century later. Investigators soon confirmed there was lethally poisonous cyanide inside the Tylenol capsules in question. I knew how to organize things.. 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. 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). Only really frivolous things went in that other pile, she said. 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.
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