It didnt take long for the Tylenol murders to become national news. 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 mean, it just got to me, Severns said. Product tampering would become a crime in 1983 as a result of these murders, but in 1982 there was no federal law against it. Whoa, whoa, he recalled. Stanley Janus soon collapsed on his late brothers kitchen floor. These packaging protections soon became the industry standard for all over-the-counter medications. It marked the first mass recall in U.S. history, involving more than 31 million bottles. And then there are agents who dont. 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. 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. 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. Unfortunately, each victim swallowed a Tylenol capsule laced with A lethal dose of cyanide. (Don Casper / Chicago Tribune), Obviously, Johnson & Johnson didnt put cyanide in their own product. Do not use it.. Authorities were convinced the killer didnt know any of the victims. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). They looked at accused shoplifters, including a man charged with attempting to steal 28 Tylenol bottles from a Wheaton pharmacy in August. Marquette 10 is one of a thousand reasons why theres tension, personal jealousy, personal ambition, jurisdictional turf fights. And I would wake them up just to say good night, you know?. Thats clear, Margolis told the Tribune. Christy Gutowski focuses her work on stories about criminal justice, public corruption and issues that impact the everyday man. There was little evidence to go on, no inkling of a motive and five people dead. The coppers and the FBI guys that I knew all worked together. Congress eventually criminalized tampering with medications and other consumer products, classifying that as a federal crime that could carry up to life imprisonment in cases involving a death. The FBIs involvement puzzled some because, as far as anyone knew, the federal agency didnt have jurisdiction in the case. Several victims families told the Tribune they didnt hear much from investigators after those initial interviews. Editors note: This report has been updated to remove the reported amount of cyanide used. Former Chicago police Detective Jimmy Gildea, shown at his Chicago home in July, investigated the death of Tylenol victim Paula Prince. So I stopped by the house on the way home, introduced myself and tried to answer any questions they had, he said. He also would have a history of animal cruelty, Lane told the Tribune. The Tylenol Murders Victims Mary Kellerman On September 29, 1982, 12 year old Mary Kellerman woke up feeling ill. Investigators pulled library records to see who had checked out books on cyanide. 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. 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. 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. (Stacey Wescott / 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. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). They gave her one extra-strength Tylenol capsule that, unbeknownst to them, was laced with the highly poisonous potassium cyanide. The attorney general largely stopped campaigning after joining the task force, but his face was on TV every night. Forty years later, Ford shook his head at the memory. Or, at the very least, get them to remember his name. They were particularly concerned that something happened during the manufacturing or the shipping or storage, Wolnik said. Medicare Pharmacy employee Mary Butler, right, shows a box of Extra-Strength Tylenol to Officer Michael Miljan in Arlington Heights. We also are still were looking at emerging forensic technology, Sgt. The new timeline suggests Lewis wrote the letter before the public knew the deaths were linked to the tainted Tylenol pills, according to the Chicago Tribune. By 2011, the FBI was ready to reexamine the evidence. As everyone left that first meeting Friday morning, DuPage deputy coroner Siekmann, who hadnt slept in more than 24 hours, looked around the room and wondered how it would all work. Every Tylenol bottle had a lot number that offered specific details about the batch those capsules came from. Testing found cyanide in the Extra-Strength Tylenol capsule on the right. America was gripped by paranoia and fear. Subscribe to Here's the Deal, our politics newsletter. Here, he offers a Spanish-language flyer to Luisa Acevada. Among those questioned was a clerical worker who was fired for repeatedly missing work. What happens in most cases, and certainly what happened here beyond any question, was a 100% selfless, unified devotion to a very important mission.. 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. Im not saying that the task force didnt work or thats why the case was never solved, Severns said. newsletter for analysis you wont find anywhereelse. Six suburbanites had already died from cyanide poisoning by that time, but this was Chicagos first and, in the end, only victim. Chicago police Detectives Jimmy Gildea. (Fred Jewell/AP). (Phil Greer / Chicago Tribune). 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. And neither does the DNA. And there were a lot of bottles to come out of that lot.. Fahner ordered his staff to work through the night, calling local police, sheriffs, coroners, the FBI, the FDA, prosecutors and public health officials. 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. 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. Because all the other possibilities had been eliminated.. 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. Members of the Illinois State Police join, as well. 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.. Left: We were looking for somebody that really looked like they didnt belong. The White House, however, had ordered the FBI to find a way into the case amid growing public panic. [[Para leer en espaol] Los asesinatos de Tylenol, parte 2: Tylenol mezclado con cianuro fue el arma homicida. Fahner had worked for James Thompson in the U.S. attorneys office, handling some of the citys biggest federal corruption cases. 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. Agents interviewed the victims families, neighbors, co-workers and friends about any known enemies. 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. Learn more about Friends of the NewsHour. You know, because Ty was just a classy lawyer, and he never was a politician, he said. The latest Tribune poll showed he was down by about 20 points in the upcoming election. 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. With no apparent motive and little evidence to go on, it was a tough task. Pero quin fue el asesino? He was released in 1995 after serving only 13 years. The task force met each morning at the Des Plaines headquarters to discuss leads and get their assignments. 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. Investigators first considered whether the tampering could have occurred at the manufacturing plants. And they would remain apart for the next four decades. Elmhurst police Detective Herb Hogberg interviewed a chemist who had been laid off from the company in recent months. But others, including Lane, found it immensely helpful and from his perspective ultimately accurate. Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy Margolis, shown in his Chicago office in July, was part of the original Tylenol task force in 1982. Forty years later, these earliest days remain a point of pride for some and a source of frustration for others. Other task force members, it should be noted, werent particularly fond of Chicagos efforts either. I had people dropping dead all over the place.. The 20-year-old would be buried alongside her husband and her brother-in-law Adam in a triple funeral made even more heartbreaking when relatives had to pull Terris mother off her daughters casket before it was lowered into the ground. Police Officer Michael Miljan leaves an Arlington Heights pharmacy after making sure bottles of Extra-Strength Tylenol were being removed from shelves. What are the Tylenol murders? The Tylenol case marked one of the earliest uses of the approach. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. 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. Photo by Yvonne Hemsey/Getty Images. Each person underwent a rigorous background check. September 22, 2022. Studies have found women who kill use poison more often than men do, but they typically target people they know. Kasia Janus also always verifies products are properly sealed before she buys anything at stores, she said in a recently published series of interviews with CNN that described the gut-wrenching legacy left behind for her by the unsolved Tylenol killings, which made tampering with medications as well as other consumer goods a federal crime but remain unsolved. 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. My theory is that Anna is a diabetic and had just come home from a . And wherever they fell on the issue, that position hasnt changed much over the past four decades. The Tylenol Murders In 1982, seven innocent Chicago civilians were boldly murdered. It was at this point, early October of 1982, that investigators made the connection between the poisoning deaths and Tylenol, the best-selling, non-prescription pain reliever sold in the United States at that time. . 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. All Rights Reserved. Security cameras were scarce in suburban Chicago in 1982, but investigators checked the images that existed. He said Marys mother, Jeanna, asked him if she should have noticed that someone had tampered with the bottle. 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 bottle's cap was easily opened. Fahner, as head of the task force, quickly became the public face of the investigation. What was he like in school? 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. Manufacturer Johnson & Johnson recalled 31 million Tylenol bottles as panic spread nationwide following the deaths. Severns confronted people at both agencies, who blamed each other for keeping him in the dark. Her parents gave permission. McNeil Consumer Products, a subsidiary of the health care giant, Johnson & Johnson, manufactured Tylenol. 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. Neither did the chemist who performed the cyanide test. Stores were pulling the product off shelves. We didnt get anything, but we were kicking around ideas like that.. You understand? Ford said he told Stein. Despite the passage of time and, in a way, because of it the bottles still may offer clues as to who poisoned the capsules. If people threw out their Tylenol, authorities would never know the full extent of the tampering. Investigators took pictures of people who attended the victims funerals to see if they could capture anyone acting unusual. 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. But on Oct. 1, 1982, he had been a detective for only a year. 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. Jose Rosa, right, was one of hundreds of Chicago city employees and volunteers to distribute warnings about cyanide-laced Tylenol in fall 1982. For example, Johnson & Johnson quickly established that the cyanide lacing occurred after cases of Tylenol left the factory. In this op-ed, he reflects on his experiences leading the public health response to the Tylenol murders of 1982. 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. They apologized, he said, but the trust had been broken. 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. And everyone in the meeting is aware of one undeniable truth: There is no physical evidence linking a suspect to the poisonings. The company, however, did not keep records of where the products were shipped. Scott Stump is a staff reporter and the writer of the daily newsletter This is TODAY. The man hurriedly told the Hormel operator that he had to go and he would call her back later. "Ladies, you ever been harassed for something for 40 years that you had nothing to do with?" 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. These other men were all worried about his chances. That said, he was charged with extortion and sentenced to 20 years in prison. And it took over my life.. Authorities wont discuss the potential theories or suspects they have amid an investigation that they insist remains open and unforgotten. The task force didnt know who or why.. Thats just human nature. In those early days, the best leads came from the Tylenol bottles themselves. The Tylenol Murders Pt. The killer may have salted the bottles with cyanide-laced capsules while standing in the store aisle, investigators thought. I stepped off that dais, Fahner told the Tribune this year. Investigators express frustration, anger even. 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. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). 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 wide worlds of science, health andtechnology. Come to 1425 Armstrong Lane.. Prince was officially declared dead by the Medical Examiner's office at 6:45 p.m. Investigators discovered a bottle of Extra-Strength Tylenol in her bathroom with one capsule missing and a. Beginning on Sept. 29, 1982, and over the next week, seven people were murdered in the Chicago area after unknowingly taking Tylenol pills that were spiked by a killer. They understood the tension between the FBI and local law enforcement some of them shared those same resentments but they thought Chicago didnt even try to be team players. Police reports mention several former Johnson & Johnson employees, though none was ever considered a serious suspect. In late September of 1982 seven people were killed after an unknown suspect placed cyanide laced Tylenol pills in store bottles. Dr. Howard Markel Seven people between 12 and 35 died after ingesting cyanide-laced Tylenol pills in the Chicago area in 1982. 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 U.S. Food and Drug Administration then cautioned the public against taking the pain reliever in capsule form. A lot of people who didnt like me or didnt like Thompson or my association were taking shots, Fahner said. I always wear the blue suit and the red tie, Lane said. The Illinois State Police told NBC News the investigation remains ongoing. Early on the morning of Sept. 29, 1982, a tragic, medical mystery began with a sore throat and a runny nose. Lane would think of that line a year later when, without prompting, a suspect called him and offered to help solve the case. The substance was grainier than the untainted Tylenol on the left. 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