(Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). Seven people in the Chicago area were killed that year by Tylenol that had been poisoned with potassium cyanide. . I think we ended up charging that guy with a misdemeanor, some disorderly conduct or some nonsense, he said. These packaging protections soon became the industry standard for all over-the-counter medications. 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. 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. Perhaps he traded homemade bombs for poisoned pills. Though the company expanded the recall the same day to cover the batch involved in McFarlands death, the piecemeal approach troubled Fahner. Pain in the neck, Hogberg said of his CPD counterparts. 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. Authorities already considered the womens deaths to be cyanide related by the time they contacted Fahner during his campaign event. A decadeslong investigation has centered around Massachusetts man James Lewis, 76, who was 36 at the time of the murders. What the hell is this? A lot of people who didnt like me or didnt like Thompson or my association were taking shots, Fahner said. Customers who had a problem, anybody that could make some money out of it.. Their opinion soured even further at their first meeting, when one of the lead investigators asked for a briefing on the Prince murder. It would likely be someone with gray hair. Nearly three weeks after the murders, for example, the FBI asked Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Greene to write a column about Mary Kellerman and include specific details such as the familys home address and the location of the little girls grave, with her parents permission. And lives were at risk. Joe Murphy told NBC Chicago last year. Nobody knew what to do with (the investigation) because it was all over the place, Fahner said. Tribune reporter Stacy St. Clair told NBC News correspondent Kathy Park on TODAY Friday that a number of law enforcement sources close to the investigation have told her that Lewis is the only person currently described as a target of the investigation. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). Chemists working for the Illinois Public Health Department in Chicago test the contents of Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules. We felt kind of creepy doing it, retired FBI agent Bob Gibson said of his graveyard duty. Members of the media the same people who were constantly pestering him for information nicknamed Fahner Tylenol Ty. It stuck. The arrests came as the result of an undercover FBI operation, and The Marquette 10 as the disgraced officers came to be known remain an enduring symbol of police corruption in Chicago. The effort was Herculean, said Jeremy Margolis, a former U.S. attorney who was assigned to the task force. 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. Among them was Lane, a well-respected federal agent who would help put away all kinds of criminals during his nearly 30-year career, including mob boss Sam Carlisi, former Illinois Gov. But before Sept. 29, 1982, consumer products had few defenses against a person bent on sabotage. Michael Petros, DrPH Wednesday, September 29, 1982 at 6:30am CDT, the nightmare that was to be known as the "Tylenol Murders" began 1. [[Para leer en espaol] Los asesinatos de Tylenol, parte 2: Tylenol mezclado con cianuro fue el arma homicida. 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. The 40-year-old Tylenol murder investigation remains at a standstill. No one has ever been charged with the murders. Local police departments and states attorneys offices have been trying to crack the case for 40 years. Illinois state police and FBI supervisors did most of the talking at that first meeting, several attendees told the Tribune. Fahner thought state officials needed to be even more aggressive, despite the consequences for the investigation. All Rights Reserved. The Tylenol murders launched a massive criminal investigation. Extra-Strength Tylenol, shown in a Tribune studio photograph, once was packaged in a paper box with an unglued lid. The bottle's cap was easily opened. If people threw out their Tylenol, authorities would never know the full extent of the tampering. Lewis, who now lives in the Boston area, has long denied any involvement in the murders and has never been charged. Roger Arnold worked at a jewel warehouse with the father of one of the victims named Mary Reiner. He held news conferences, sometimes twice a day, to meet the insatiable media demands. 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. Several suspects did too. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune), If you stopped a thousand people on the street, youd be lucky if one of them could tell you who Ty Fahner was. (Fred Jewell/AP). Introduction Heading link Copy link. Was Charles Dickens the first celebrity medical spokesman? 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. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). In 1989, the FDA established federal guidelines for manufacturers to make all such products tamper-proof. Thats because nobody was keeping track of who was buying cyanide, Wolnik said. Dr. Howard Markel. He hangs up, opens the door and we come in like gangbusters, Gildea said. Seven people between 12 and 35 died after ingesting cyanide-laced Tylenol pills in the Chicago area in 1982. Here's what to know about the history of the case and the latest developments. NBC News has not reviewed that evidence. he answered. The panic stemming from the Tylenol murders resulted in a permanent change in the packaging of medicine. 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. Now she's sharing her story for the first. And I would wake them up just to say good night, you know?. They can account for the differing DNA profiles. It marked the first mass recall in U.S. history, involving more than 31 million bottles. The man hurriedly told the Hormel operator that he had to go and he would call her back later. A casket is carried out of St. Hyacinth Roman Catholic Church after the funeral Mass for three members of the Janus family in 1982. That testing uncovered three more poisoned bottles: two turned in by customers in Wheaton and Chicago and one found on a Schaumburg pharmacy shelf. Stacy has a journalism degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia, with minors in American politics and Spanish. The first few days were spent talking to people closest to Prince and sifting through the many tips they received. Indeed, the Johnson & Johnson recall became a classic case study in business schools across the nation. The investigation would fork, taking the FBI and Chicago police down vastly different paths. Reports would be written in triplicate so each member would get a copy. Tainted capsules were discovered in early October in a few other grocery stores and drug stores in the Chicago area, but, fortunately, they had not yet been sold or consumed. What are the Tylenol murders? Investigators also collected more than 200 cyanide samples from Chicago-area businesses, facilities and institutions and sent them to an FDA research laboratory in Cincinnati. He investigated the Tylenol poisonings in the Janus family and later served as police chief in Island Lake. 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. 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. Halfway through the speeches, an aide tapped him on the shoulder and told him he needed to take an important call. 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. Even after he retired from the FBI in 1996, he didnt let it go. 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. (Stan Policht / Chicago Tribune). His brother and sister-in-law, Stanley, 25, and Theresa, 19, of Lisle, Illinois, rushed to his home to console their loved ones. Editors note: This report has been updated to remove the reported amount of cyanide used. "Ladies, you ever been harassed for something for 40 years that you had nothing to do with?" Former Chicago police Detective Jimmy Gildea, shown at his Chicago home in July, investigated the death of Tylenol victim Paula Prince. 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. Many of the task force members interviewed by the Tribune recounted difficulties as more than 100 people tried to work as a team. Come to 1425 Armstrong Lane.. We were looking for somebody that really looked like they didnt belong. The Kellerman and Janus bottles contained Tylenol from lot MC2880, manufactured in Pennsylvania on April 26, 1982. Fahner ordered his staff to work through the night, calling local police, sheriffs, coroners, the FBI, the FDA, prosecutors and public health officials. That thrill, however, would eventually diminish over time and the killer would seek more excitement, according to the profilers. Subscribe to Here's the Deal, our politics newsletter. When Ford and Gildea arrived at the North Side flophouse where the man lived, he was still on the phone with a company operator and was promising to punish Hormel just like he had in the Tylenol case. The final Tylenol death was confirmed on the evening of Oct. 1, when 35-year-old flight attendant Paula Prince was found dead in her Old Town condominium. Former Chicago police Superintendent Richard Brzeczek told the Tribune he believed Fahners selection was purely political, done specifically because of the November election. The attorney general largely stopped campaigning after joining the task force, but his face was on TV every night. 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. Photo by Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images. Still, in his opinion, Fahner was exactly what the task force needed. And neither does the DNA. The Illinois State Police told NBC News the investigation remains ongoing. He brought personal knowledge (as the former state police director) and experience regarding a criminal investigation. There wasnt that much tension, Fahner said. NBC News has not reviewed those documents. So I stopped by the house on the way home, introduced myself and tried to answer any questions they had, he said. We didnt get anything, but we were kicking around ideas like that.. He bought a rancid ham at Jewel and when he opened it, it was spoiled. 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. They knew the weapon. But if they kept the bottles in their medicine cabinets, more people could die. The Unsolved Tylenol Murders of 1982: The Unabomber Theory Written by C.W.S. 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. With no apparent motive and little evidence to go on, it was a tough task. Another tip involved a man who was threatening to poison Hormel food products. 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. 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. Jose Rosa, right, was one of hundreds of Chicago city employees and volunteers to distribute warnings about cyanide-laced Tylenol in fall 1982. Mary was dead by 7 a.m. James Thompson, Illinois Secretary of State James Edgar and shook his head. Stanley Janus soon collapsed on his late brothers kitchen floor. History's Greatest Mysteries looks into the theories regarding the Tylenol Murders in Chicago 1982. It sounds like an urban legend, but it was chillingly real in 1982. 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. All 3 networks lead with the Tylenol story on the first day of the crisis. Some worked at the medical examiners office, which played a key role in figuring out the cyanide connection. Given the totality of the circumstances, some thought it unusual for the Illinois attorney general to lead the investigation. Investigators, however, are prepared should that question arise. Severns confronted people at both agencies, who blamed each other for keeping him in the dark. 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. 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. I stepped off that dais, Fahner told the Tribune this year. Thats just human nature. It was so Dick Tracy to me, Steed said. Photo by Yvonne Hemsey/Getty Images. Here, he offers a Spanish-language flyer to Luisa Acevada. The program went far beyond any database previously used by law enforcement in Illinois. 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. And there were a lot of bottles to come out of that lot.. FBI agents carry boxes out of the apartment building in Cambridge, Mass., Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009. 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. Wherever they stand, everyone wishes they had achieved a different result. Investigators express frustration, anger even. And you know, some agents are better than other agents and can really do a good job. He goes, It smells like burnt almonds. . Forty years later, these earliest days remain a point of pride for some and a source of frustration for others. President Reagan wanted the FBI in the investigation, retired FBI Special Agent Roy Lane Jr. told the Tribune. Nothing was being solved.. 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. (Don Casper / Chicago Tribune), People were terrified, Fahner said. 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. I mean, theres 10,000 reasons why people compete with each other. 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. (Stan Policht / Chicago Tribune). 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. Rosen's theory is that the tampering did not happen on store shelves, but at the manufacturing plant before the product was shipped out. There, research chemist Karen Wolnik and her colleagues established a trace element pattern a sort of chemical fingerprint for each sample to determine whether it was identical to the poison used in the Tylenol killings. 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. Manufacturer Johnson & Johnson recalled 31 million Tylenol bottles as panic spread nationwide following the deaths. But I didnt have the gray hair yet.. 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. 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. He needed to be there, no matter how much he hated campaigning. Elmhurst police Detective Herb Hogberg interviewed a chemist who had been laid off from the company in recent months. Stores were pulling the product off shelves. 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. He believed Thompson was behind the move, though Fahner denied it. The Soviets were willing to assist, but their satellites werent trained on the Chicago suburbs at the time. Dr. Howard Markel writes a monthly column for the PBS NewsHour, highlighting momentous historical events that continue to shape modern medicine. On Friday afternoon, doctors removed Stanley Janus wife, Terri, from life support. Siekmann didnt wear gloves. The couple were later pronounced dead, too. 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. 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. Extra-Strength Tylenol, shown in a Tribune studio photograph, once was packaged in a paper box with an unglued lid. Simply put, the feds entry into the investigation hinged on the admittedly preposterous notion that the manufacturer intentionally put poison in the pain reliever and then committed a misdemeanor crime by not including it on the label. Im not saying that the task force didnt work or thats why the case was never solved, Severns said. (Charles Knoblock / AP). The substance was grainier than the untainted Tylenol on the left. Tylenol Ty, Ford said. Despite the passage of time and, in a way, because of it the bottles still may offer clues as to who poisoned the capsules. Everyone who had access to the box including the judge and his wife provided fingerprints for comparison. In fact, so many big dogs were present, Fellmann said he couldnt find a free chair inside his own 60-seat roll call room. I mean, it just got to me, Severns said. Every agency imaginable attended, many of them represented by their top leaders. 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. Ted Kaczynski had proven he was a revenge-seeking terrorist, and he had connections to Chicago. Before that she reported for the Daily Herald, the Dayton Daily News and The Topeka Capital-Journal. We also are still were looking at emerging forensic technology, Sgt. Police grasped for suspects who might be the so-called "Mad Poisoner." Forty years ago, cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules led to the deaths of seven people all around the Chicago area. 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. They told stories of information hoarding, turf wars and glory seeking even when there was none to be had. the fact remains, the Tylenol murders of 1982 . 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. 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. 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. 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. I dont know what he thought. The Illinois Department of Law Enforcement, now called the Illinois State Police, wanted him to help. Its a one-way street for information back and forth. The bottles, however, needed to be tested before they could say with certainty. (Chicago Tribune archive). The Tylenol case marked one of the earliest uses of the approach. 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. 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. According to the state police memo obtained by the Tribune, the FDAs work traced the cyanide from the tainted capsules to Fisher Scientific, a Massachusetts-based lab supply company, which distributed that particular batch in 1978. DNA evidence wasnt part of police work at the time, but it would become a factor in the case a quarter-century later. John Fellmann at his home in Huntley in September. Stanley died that very day and Theresa died two days later. I think its pretty important, the aide replied. Things were chaotic. You know, boost exposure and stuff like that.. The FBI put about three dozen agents on the case, under the premise that the agency needed to determine whether Johnson & Johnson had violated federal law by failing to list potassium cyanide among the active ingredients in Tylenol. 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. 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. Ford said Stein encouraged him to smell the pills, but the detective refused and pushed away the pathologists hand. She would be the seventh and final person to die from taking the poisoned medication. No, Oscar Wilde probably didnt die of syphilis. I was the detective at the scene. 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). There was little evidence to go on, no inkling of a motive and five people dead. He told her no, then carried the memory of the Kellermans anguish with him for the rest of his time on the task force. I had people dropping dead all over the place.. Unfortunately, each victim swallowed a Tylenol capsule laced with A lethal dose of cyanide. Do not use it.. And then there are agents who dont. The Tylenol Murders Pt. The most promising leads involved people doing curious things with chemicals. 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. Former Chicago police Detective Jimmy Gildea, shown at his Chicago home in July, investigated the death of Tylenol victim Paula Prince. And only months later, it changed the way we purchase and consume over-the-counter medications. Back then, bottles of pills did not have tamper-proof seals, just a cotton ball stuffed inside. 3: A Nightmare on Halloween: With Molly Jean Brandenburg, Carter Roy. The batch contained more than 1,800 pounds of cyanide, divided into packages of various sizes. So as we organized, there were about 10, 15 different avenues of investigations to pursue, like disgruntled employees, former employees, lawsuits, Lane said. Her parents gave permission. But others, including Lane, found it immensely helpful and from his perspective ultimately accurate. 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