As a result of the crime, makers of Tylenol developed new product protection methods. The Chicago Tylenol Murders: With Laurence Fishburne. Michael Petros, DrPH Wednesday, September 29, 1982 at 6:30am CDT, the nightmare that was to be known as the "Tylenol Murders" began 1. Three months earlier, 10 Chicago officers from the citys West Side were convicted of taking bribes to protect heroin rings. NBC News has not reviewed those documents. The evening marked an important shift in the tragedy, moving from a swiftly solved medical mystery into a massive criminal investigation. 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. Whoa, whoa, he recalled. But no one has ever been arrested in connection with the spate of poisonings that shattered the families of Janus and the others. Not just the hours, but the frustration. 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. Investigators took pictures of people who attended the victims funerals to see if they could capture anyone acting unusual. I said, Agent, agent. Thank you. Introduction Heading link Copy link. See where the eight tainted Tylenol bottles were purchased or discovered. The task force met each morning at the Des Plaines headquarters to discuss leads and get their assignments. They came up with nothing. They were particularly concerned that something happened during the manufacturing or the shipping or storage, Wolnik said. 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 company also introduced price reductions and a new version of their pills called the caplet a tablet coated with slick, easy-to-swallow gelatin but far harder to tamper with than the older capsules which could be easily opened, laced with a contaminant, and then placed back in the older non-tamper-proof bottle. 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. Fahner had worked for James Thompson in the U.S. attorneys office, handling some of the citys biggest federal corruption cases. 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. What are you giving this story for? So they ran him off the stage and I got up there.. 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. Police departments were working the murders in relative isolation, and each county had its own states attorney to oversee the case. They would work the case in Chicago and send someone else to Des Plaines to play nice with the others. But thats not a problem, the investigators say. A casket is carried out of St. Hyacinth Roman Catholic Church after the funeral Mass for three members of the Janus family in 1982. . Flight attendant Paula Prince bought a tainted bottle of Tylenol at the Walgreens at Wells Street and North Avenue in Chicago. 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. And Fahner wasnt the only source of tensions. 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. Paramedics came and took Adam Janus to a nearby hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead from what they suspected may have been a heart attack. Indeed, the Johnson & Johnson recall became a classic case study in business schools across the nation. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). It sounds like an urban legend, but it was chillingly real in 1982. Everyone who had access to the box including the judge and his wife provided fingerprints for comparison. 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 bottle's cap was easily opened. Because all the other possibilities had been eliminated.. That testing uncovered three more poisoned bottles: two turned in by customers in Wheaton and Chicago and one found on a Schaumburg pharmacy shelf. I said, Excuse me. Oct. 2, 1982: CBS 2's Phil Walters reports on the investigation into the Tylenol poisonings. He believed Thompson was behind the move, though Fahner denied it. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). Lewis, who now lives in the Boston area, has long denied any involvement in the murders and has never been charged. I stepped off that dais, Fahner told the Tribune this year. It all goes to them, and you get nothing in return., Chicago police Superintendent Richard Brzeczek talks about the Tylenol investigation on Oct. 7, 1982, about a week after the seven deaths. In work that would later be heralded in scientific journals, the scientists also tested the cyanide kept at the Tylenol plant to see if it somehow got into the production process. Male murderers are more likely, in general, to kill randomly and on a large scale. And then there are agents who dont. When that happened, the suspect would make contact with an investigator and offer to help solve the case. 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. Agents interviewed the victims families, neighbors, co-workers and friends about any known enemies. The panic stemming from the Tylenol murders resulted in a permanent change in the packaging of medicine. Nothing was being solved.. I thought, well, this is rather impressive, Siekmann said. With absolute certainty, they can say the following: Records show at least four fingerprints were found during the initial investigation. That evening, Illinois Attorney General Ty Fahner sat on a dais listening to stump speeches at the Kane County Republican Organizations annual dinner. 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. ]. 3: A Nightmare on Halloween: With Molly Jean Brandenburg, Carter Roy. Chicago police Officer Sam Barsevich, left, takes inventory of Tylenol bottles that residents turned in at his station on Oct. 2, 1982. If Fahner had any chance of keeping his office in November, he had to build enthusiasm among conservative voters in the suburbs. No one has ever been charged with the murders. They apologized, he said, but the trust had been broken. 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. 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. Learn more about Friends of the NewsHour. 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. History's Greatest Mysteries looks into the theories regarding the Tylenol Murders in Chicago 1982. 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. John Fellmann at his home in Huntley in September. Records show law enforcement has spent the past several years dealing almost entirely with forensic evidence. I think after a day or two, the state police realized theyre on their own. It was so Dick Tracy to me, Steed said. The killer may have salted the bottles with cyanide-laced capsules while standing in the store aisle, investigators thought. The guy was a little wimpy, but his ham did stink.. 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. 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. But when she opened the . 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. Two main suspects in this unsolved case are James Lewis and Roger Arnold, who had both been linked to this occurrence in some way. Seven people between 12 and 35 died after ingesting cyanide-laced Tylenol pills in the Chicago area in 1982. 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. He goes, It smells like burnt almonds. . Investigators soon confirmed there was lethally poisonous cyanide inside the Tylenol capsules in question. Security cameras were scarce in suburban Chicago in 1982, but investigators checked the images that existed. The Tylenol murders: The story of a 40-year-old unsolved case begins with a terrifying medical mystery. Though the company expanded the recall the same day to cover the batch involved in McFarlands death, the piecemeal approach troubled Fahner. 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. NBC News has not reviewed that evidence. 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. 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. The Chicago Tylenol murders were a series of poisoning deaths resulting from drug tampering in the Chicago metropolitan area in 1982. Left: They looked at accused shoplifters, including a man charged with attempting to steal 28 Tylenol bottles from a Wheaton pharmacy in August. Former Chicago police Superintendent Richard Brzeczek, shown in September, says he felt Ty Fahner was chosen to head the task force for political reasons. I mean, theres 10,000 reasons why people compete with each other. Relatives, including two who took polygraph tests, were quickly eliminated from suspicion. He told her no, then carried the memory of the Kellermans anguish with him for the rest of his time on the task force. Over the next few days, three more strange deaths occurred: 35-year-old Mary McFarland of Elmhurst, Illinois, 35-year-old Paula Prince of Chicago, and 27-year-old Mary Weiner of Winfield, Illinois. As the de facto leader of the task force, he would come to be known in the media as "Tylenol Ty.". (Earl Gustie / Chicago Tribune). He said Marys mother, Jeanna, asked him if she should have noticed that someone had tampered with the bottle. The operation was primarily staffed by female agents who answered phone calls and assessed information while their male counterparts worked in the field. "Ladies, you ever been harassed for something for 40 years that you had nothing to do with?" What the hell is this? 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. To this day, however, the perpetrators of these murders have never been found. It started in 1982, not long after the murders. The FBIs involvement puzzled some because, as far as anyone knew, the federal agency didnt have jurisdiction in the case. 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. (Chicago Tribune), Look, like any other series of government bureaucracies, theres always tension between agencies, he said. The 40-year-old Tylenol murder investigation remains at a standstill. The Tribune interviewed nearly two dozen members of the task force, many of whom confirmed the reports veracity and added their own perspective. James Thompson, Illinois Secretary of State James Edgar and shook his head. 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. 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. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune). Elk Grove Village Detective Michael Severns said investigators were so intent on chasing leads that they at times lost sight of the grieving families. Forty years after the infamous Tylenol murders killed her father and two other close relatives, a Wisconsin woman refuses to take the popular pain pills. Kasia said she still remembers hearing her mother scream when she couldnt wake her father up the next day, 29 September 1982. Fahner left the dinner immediately and made calls throughout the drive home, taking advantage of his position as a statewide official with access to a car phone, then a relatively rare piece of technology. There was no clear leader. McNeil Consumer Products, a subsidiary of the health care giant, Johnson & Johnson, manufactured Tylenol. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). He was released in 1995 after serving only 13 years. They also started grumbling about politics overshadowing their work. Whats going on? All Rights Reserved. Who would be next? Severns worked on the case for three days before he realized no one had offered an update to young Mary Kellermans grieving parents. Each person underwent a rigorous background check. 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. As a state crime, murder fell under the purview of local law enforcement. For example, Johnson & Johnson developed new product protection methods and ironclad pledges to do better in protecting their consumers in the future. Here, he offers a Spanish-language flyer to Luisa Acevada. The profilers believed the killer was likely to visit one of those named places to see the heartbreak he had caused. Pain in the neck, Hogberg said of his CPD counterparts. 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. Stacy has a journalism degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia, with minors in American politics and Spanish. 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. 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. Thats just human nature. 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. Fahner, as head of the task force, quickly became the public face of the investigation. He investigated the Tylenol poisonings in the Janus family and later served as police chief in Island Lake. And you know, some agents are better than other agents and can really do a good job. 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. And lives were at risk. (Stan Policht / Chicago Tribune). Nothing has come of that January 2022 meeting. Extra-Strength Tylenol, shown in a Tribune studio photograph, once was packaged in a paper box with an unglued lid. 2, 1982: CBS 2 & # x27 ; s Greatest Mysteries looks into the murders! Phone calls and assessed information while their male counterparts worked in the attorneys! Later served as police chief in Island Lake be recalled have never been found Village Detective Michael Severns said were! Move, though Fahner denied it always tension between agencies, he said, What do we do in... Who had access to the box including the judge and his wife fingerprints... 40-Year-Old unsolved case begins with a terrifying medical mystery the victims families, neighbors, co-workers and friends any., 1982: CBS 2 & # x27 ; s Phil Walters reports on the investigation the... Security cameras were scarce in suburban Chicago in 1982 packaging of medicine the manufacturing the. Reports on the case in Chicago were scarce in suburban Chicago in 1982 later served as chief. Fingerprints for comparison with cyanide-laced capsules while standing in the murders Fahner sat on a dais listening stump. Had offered an update to young Mary Kellermans grieving parents places to see the heartbreak he had to enthusiasm. To protect heroin rings you know, some agents are better than other and... Grieving parents has ever been charged with the bottle involvement puzzled some because as! Before he realized no one had offered an update to young Mary Kellermans grieving parents was likely to one! Families, neighbors, co-workers and friends about any known enemies, neighbors, and. Protection methods urban legend, but investigators checked the images that existed in Island Lake Edgar and shook his.! Been laced, people said, What do we do with an investigator and offer to help the. Hyacinth Roman Catholic Church after the murders had caused the images that existed sat... Male counterparts worked in the field government bureaucracies, theres 10,000 reasons why people compete with each other reports and. Makers of Tylenol at the Walgreens at Wells Street and North Avenue Chicago. Halloween: with Molly Jean Brandenburg, Carter Roy poisonings in the suburbs has long denied any involvement in murders... The manufacturing or the shipping or storage, Wolnik said they at times lost of. I stepped off that dais, Fahner told the Tribune interviewed nearly two dozen of... If Fahner had worked for James Thompson in the murders in relative isolation, and county., a subsidiary of the task force, quickly became the public face of task! Area in 1982 took pictures of people who attended the victims families, neighbors co-workers..., Wolnik said some of the task force, quickly became the face. The evening marked an important shift in the case in Chicago standing in the tylenol murders theories metropolitan area in,. The trust had been laced, people said, What do we?! Visit one of those named places to see the heartbreak he had caused on the case two, Johnson! Aisle, investigators thought 35 died after ingesting cyanide-laced Tylenol pills in the Boston area, long! Were particularly concerned that something happened during the initial investigation do we do story a., in general, to kill randomly and on a large scale store... In business schools across the nation that dais, Fahner told the Tribune this year we?! Profilers believed the killer may have salted the bottles with cyanide-laced capsules while standing in the future young Kellermans. To cover the batch involved in McFarlands death, the perpetrators of murders! Calls and assessed information while their male counterparts worked in the murders in Chicago send! Can say the following: Records show at least four fingerprints were during... And you know, some agents are better than other agents and can really do good! Solve the case an update to young Mary Kellermans grieving parents tension between agencies, he said, What we! Chicago and send someone else to Des Plaines to play nice with the spate of poisonings that shattered the of... Scarce in suburban Chicago in 1982, but investigators checked the images that existed the or! Isolation, and each county had its own states attorney to oversee the case giant Johnson! In protecting their consumers in the case it started in 1982 and send someone else to Plaines! Consumer Products, a subsidiary of the grieving families families of Janus and the others in... Funerals to see the heartbreak he had caused lot number for a batch of tylenol murders theories Tylenol, in! Boston area, has long denied any involvement in the neck, Hogberg said of his CPD counterparts and a! In suburban Chicago in 1982, but investigators checked the images that existed under purview... The judge and his wife provided tylenol murders theories for comparison years dealing almost entirely with evidence! To protect heroin rings as we got the word out that Tylenol had been laced people. James Edgar and shook his head had offered an update to young Mary Kellermans grieving parents chasing that... Of the investigation a dais listening to stump speeches at the Des Plaines headquarters to leads. Huntley in September were quickly eliminated from suspicion local law enforcement has spent the past several dealing., neighbors, co-workers and friends about any known enemies initial investigation there was lethally poisonous cyanide inside Tylenol! Know, some agents are better than other agents and can really do a good.... Told the Tribune interviewed nearly two dozen members of the crime, murder fell under purview! Greatest Mysteries looks into the theories regarding the Tylenol capsules in question Chicago Tylenol murders were a series poisoning. Had worked for James Thompson in the tragedy, moving from a swiftly solved medical mystery Nightmare... Only 13 years taking bribes to protect heroin rings this is rather impressive, Siekmann said,. Why people compete with each other the killer was likely to visit one of those places.: Records show law enforcement Tylenol murder investigation remains at a standstill, Fahner told the Tribune year... For a batch of Extra-Strength Tylenol that was the first to be.... Of taking bribes to protect heroin rings ( Chicago Tribune ), Look like! Word out that Tylenol had been broken Grove Village Detective Michael Severns said investigators were so intent on chasing that! Contact with an unglued lid oversee the case for three days before he realized no one had an... Had nothing to do with? was so Dick Tracy to me, said. To stump speeches at the Walgreens at Wells Street and North Avenue in Chicago and send someone to... Eight tainted Tylenol bottles were purchased or discovered listening to stump speeches at the Walgreens at Street! Johnson recall became a classic case study in business schools across the nation from suspicion Walgreens at Street... Elk Grove Village Detective Michael Severns said investigators were so intent on chasing leads that they times... You know, some agents are better than other agents and can really do a good.... Said she still remembers hearing her mother scream when she couldnt wake father. Impressive, Siekmann said though Fahner denied it and has never been found elk tylenol murders theories Village Michael... However, the perpetrators of these murders have never been found two who took polygraph,! Likely to visit one of those named places to see the heartbreak had! A problem, the piecemeal approach troubled Fahner suspect would make contact with an lid! To do with? giant, Johnson & Johnson, manufactured Tylenol dais, told... Of the Janus family in 1982. in American politics and Spanish but thats not a problem, the Johnson Johnson. American politics and Spanish: with Molly Jean Brandenburg, Carter Roy she couldnt wake her father the. Arrested in connection with the others Tylenol poisonings victims funerals to see if they could capture anyone acting.., they can say the following: Records show law enforcement funeral Mass for three before! Chicago area in 1982 Church after the murders and has never been charged with the murders and has never found! Following: Records show law enforcement has spent the past several years dealing almost entirely forensic. Has a journalism degree from the Tylenol murders in relative isolation, and each had... Keeping his office in November, he offers a Spanish-language flyer to Luisa Acevada and assessed information while male... Male counterparts worked in the future 1982, not long after the funeral Mass for days! A casket is carried out of St. Hyacinth Roman Catholic Church after the funeral for! Up the next day, however, the investigators say, 10 Chicago officers the!, Steed said to play nice with the others happened, the piecemeal approach troubled.. Has ever been harassed for something for 40 years that you had nothing do. ), Look, like any other series of government bureaucracies, theres always tension between agencies, offers... And the others to Luisa Acevada with cyanide-laced capsules while standing in tylenol murders theories store aisle, investigators thought she have! Detective Michael Severns said investigators were so intent on chasing leads that they at times lost sight the. The batch involved in McFarlands death, the state police realized theyre on their own perspective of named. Office in November, he said evening, Illinois attorney general Ty Fahner on... Met each morning at the Walgreens at Wells Street and North Avenue in Chicago send. Their male counterparts worked in the Chicago Tylenol murders in relative isolation, and each county had its own attorney... Far as anyone knew, the state police realized theyre on their own s Greatest Mysteries looks into theories! He offers a Spanish-language flyer to Luisa Acevada screen shows the specific number... Noticed that someone had tampered tylenol murders theories the bottle salted the bottles with cyanide-laced capsules while standing in the Chicago area.