Suspect In 1982 Tylenol Murders Dies; Case Changed Pill Safety Worldwide
Seven people died after consuming Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide. The nationwide panic that ensued led to the industrywide use of tamper-resistant pill containers with packaging that allowed people to see if bottles had been opened or altered. No one was ever officially charged in the slayings.
Chicago Tribune:
James Lewis, Sole Suspect In 1982 Tylenol Murders, Has Died
James Lewis, the lone suspect in the 1982 Tylenol murders, was found dead Sunday at his home in suburban Boston, multiple law-enforcement sources confirmed to the Tribune. His death comes after 40 years of intense scrutiny from law enforcement, in which Lewis played a cat-and-mouse game with investigators. Local authorities questioned him as recently as September as part of a renewed effort to bring charges in the case. With the investigation’s only suspect dead, it now seems unlikely that charges will ever be brought in poisonings that killed seven people and caused a worldwide panic. (Gutowski and St. Clair, 7/9)
Today:
Tylenol Murders: New Efforts To Solve The 40-Year-Old Case
It sounds like an urban legend, but it was chillingly real in 1982. 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. No one has ever been charged with the murders. (Stump, 9/23/22)
The crime fundamentally changed medicine safety —
The New York Times:
How An Unsolved Mystery Changed The Way We Take Pills
Odds are that you have had moments of frustration trying to open new bottles of aspirin or other over-the-counter medications. Perhaps your fingernails are not up to the task of breaking the seal on the plastic wrap. Or maybe the pop-up cap is a challenge, seemingly designed to be not only childproof but also adultproof. The foil covering the lip of the bottle may defy neat tearing. Then you struggle to remove every wisp of the cotton wad standing between you and the medicine. (Haberman, 9/16/18)
PBS NewsHour:
How The Tylenol Murders Of 1982 Changed The Way We Consume Medication
Early on the morning of Sept. 29, 1982, a tragic, medical mystery began with a sore throat and a runny nose. 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. They gave her one extra-strength Tylenol capsule that, unbeknownst to them, was laced with the highly poisonous potassium cyanide. Mary was dead by 7 a.m. Within a week, her death would panic the entire nation. And only months later, it changed the way we purchase and consume over-the-counter medications. (9/29/2014)
How the murders unfolded —
Chicago Tribune:
The Tylenol Murders: Read The Tribune Investigation
The 1982 poisonings left seven people dead and panicked the nation. Widely regarded as an act of domestic terrorism — a term not in the country’s vernacular at the time — the murders led to tamper-evident packaging, copycat killings and myths about tainted Halloween candy. (Gutowski and St. Clair, 10/27/2022)
Chicago Tribune:
The Tylenol Murders: How Johnson & Johnson Saved The Brand
Ty Fahner, then the Illinois attorney general and head of the multiagency task force investigating the poisonings, described J&J as “a wonderful, willing partner” with law enforcement. “They couldn’t have been better,” Fahner said of company executives. (St. Clair and Gutowski, 10/27, 2022)
