The police questioned him and searched his home, they turned up several interesting connections. And when the sitting attorney general was indicted on tax fraud charges, Thompson appointed Fahner to fill the post. The man shrugged off his dismissal when investigators asked, saying it was the nature of the business. They came up with nothing. 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. 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. Police reports mention several former Johnson & Johnson employees, though none was ever considered a serious suspect. Most came from a banking service that snapped a photograph of anyone writing a check. The company, however, did not keep records of where the products were shipped. 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. But before Sept. 29, 1982, consumer products had few defenses against a person bent on sabotage. I mean, theres 10,000 reasons why people compete with each other. 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. FBI agents carry boxes out of the apartment building in Cambridge, Mass., Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009. An FBI agent stood up and started to give a rundown of Chicagos case. 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. He would gravitate toward someone with a blue suit and red tie, the quintessential 1980s-style power suit. 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. Forty years later, investigators still cant say with certainty. He received the assignment by default, and then it became part of a national news story. Joe Murphy told NBC Chicago last year. In those early days, the best leads came from the Tylenol bottles themselves. Every agency imaginable attended, many of them represented by their top leaders. And they had a very good theory as to when they were placed. Elk Grove Village Detective Michael Severns said investigators were so intent on chasing leads that they at times lost sight of the grieving families. . We had an absolute tsunami of Tylenol bottles. Extra-Strength Tylenol bottles, for example, came in a paper box with an unglued lid. 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. Before the 1982 crisis, Tylenol controlled more than 35 percent of the over-the-counter pain reliever market; only a few weeks after the murders, that number plummeted to less than 8 percent. 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. Illinois state police and FBI supervisors did most of the talking at that first meeting, several attendees told the Tribune. the fact remains, the Tylenol murders of 1982 . (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. What was my dads favorite color? Agents interviewed the victims families, neighbors, co-workers and friends about any known enemies. That thrill, however, would eventually diminish over time and the killer would seek more excitement, according to the profilers. 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. Ford said he told the renowned pathologist the bottle was on the vanity, and Stein, who wasnt wearing gloves, went to grab it. The FBIs involvement puzzled some because, as far as anyone knew, the federal agency didnt have jurisdiction in the case. The CPD set up its own tip line and organized 35 detectives to work out of what was then Area 6 Headquarters at Belmont and Western. 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. In fact, so many big dogs were present, Fellmann said he couldnt find a free chair inside his own 60-seat roll call room. 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. As the de facto leader of the task force, he would come to be known in the media as "Tylenol Ty.". In a surveillance still photo, you can see a man who looks remarkably similar to Lewis standing in the background as one of the victims, Paula Prince, checks out. It didnt take long for Fellmann to recognize the pressures and expectations under which the newly formed task force would operate. Illinois Attorney General Ty Fahner talks about the Tylenol deaths on Oct. 1, 1982. Police grasped for suspects who might be the so-called "Mad Poisoner." Halfway through the speeches, an aide tapped him on the shoulder and told him he needed to take an important call. The Chicago detectives shared that worry. Every night, I would come home after my kids were in bed, he said. All of them, it turned out, took Tylenol shortly before they died. Christy Gutowski focuses her work on stories about criminal justice, public corruption and issues that impact the everyday man. It marked the first mass recall in U.S. history, involving more than 31 million bottles. Im absolutely sure about that. (Phil Greer / Chicago Tribune). Stacy St. Clair joined the Chicago Tribune in 2007. 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. 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. Many people who handled potential evidence in 1982 didnt wear gloves because it wasnt protocol at the time. Some expressed surprise at how casually other people treated the poisoned bottles. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy Margolis, shown in his Chicago office in July, was part of the original Tylenol task force in 1982. I had people dropping dead all over the place.. Come to 1425 Armstrong Lane.. 6 Amazon travel essentials for your next getaway, starting at $12. Early on the morning of Sept. 29, 1982, a tragic, medical mystery began with a sore throat and a runny nose. What was he like in school? The most promising leads involved people doing curious things with chemicals. I have no idea who gave that one, but it was perfect.. The police investigation into the Tylenol murders has centered around prime suspect James Lewis for decades. (Chicago Tribune), If you are the Tylenol killer, though, you may be harboring just the vaguest curiosity about the people on the other end of your plan: The people who were unfortunate enough to purchase the bottle you had touched, Greene wrote. In 2000, Joy Bergmann revisited the story in "A Bitter Pill" . 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. Wherever they stand, everyone wishes they had achieved a different result. 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. 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. He didnt fit that profile, Hogberg said. he answered. The Tylenol murders fundamentally changed the way we consume medication - among other things, leading to tamper-proof pill and bottle designs. 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. 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. 3: A Nightmare on Halloween: With Molly Jean Brandenburg, Carter Roy. Customers who had a problem, anybody that could make some money out of it.. Thompson put him in charge of the investigation to get TV time. Reporters from the Chicago Tribune tracked down Lewis last month as part of the investigative podcast "Unsealed: The Tylenol Murders" and asked him if he has any theories on who the Tylenol Killer might be. Elmhurst police Detective Herb Hogberg interviewed a chemist who had been laid off from the company in recent months. I dont want to get off here, he quietly said. It would likely be someone with gray hair. Indeed, the Johnson & Johnson recall became a classic case study in business schools across the nation. All 3 networks lead with the Tylenol story on the first day of the crisis. President Reagan wanted the FBI in the investigation, retired FBI Special Agent Roy Lane Jr. told the Tribune. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune), John Fellmann at his home in Huntley in September. But if they kept the bottles in their medicine cabinets, more people could die. Six suburbanites had already died from cyanide poisoning by that time, but this was Chicagos first and, in the end, only victim. Testing found cyanide in the Extra-Strength Tylenol capsule on the right. Johnson & Johnson initially recalled only those products with the same batch number as the Janus and Kellerman bottles. Seven people died in 1982 after taking painkillers from bottle someone - police do not know who - had slipped cyanide pills into Ramon Antonio Vargas Sun 2 Oct 2022 02.00 EDT Forty years after the. Roger Arnold worked at a jewel warehouse with the father of one of the victims named Mary Reiner. In reality, some task force members still accuse their colleagues of secretive behavior 40 years later. Ted Kaczynski had proven he was a revenge-seeking terrorist, and he had connections to Chicago. The attorney general largely stopped campaigning after joining the task force, but his face was on TV every night. The substance was grainier than the untainted Tylenol on the left. 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. We felt kind of creepy doing it, retired FBI agent Bob Gibson said of his graveyard duty. 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. Critics who had prematurely announced the death of the brand Tylenol were now praising the companys handling of the matter. (Michael Budrys / Chicago Tribune). 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. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). She would be the seventh and final person to die from taking the poisoned medication. Meanwhile, a 12-year-old child named Mary Kellerman had also died suddenly in another Chicago suburb after taking an Extra-Strength Tylenol. 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. I do think it created a lot of problems because youre always thinking theres somebody doing something behind your back.. Kasia said she still remembers hearing her mother scream when she couldnt wake her father up the next day, 29 September 1982. Several victims families told the Tribune they didnt hear much from investigators after those initial interviews. Back then, bottles of pills did not have tamper-proof seals, just a cotton ball stuffed inside. His task force partners the FBI and state police had blindsided the Elk Grove Village detective, and he was angry. His brother and sister-in-law, Stanley, 25, and Theresa, 19, of Lisle, Illinois, rushed to his home to console their loved ones. He also laid the foundation to get Extra-Strength Tylenol off store shelves statewide, going beyond the single batch the pain relievers manufacturer had recalled that day. The Tylenol murders: How we reported this story. Please check your inbox to confirm. The 40-year-old Tylenol murder investigation remains at a standstill. He had never been better known in Illinois and was inching up in the polls too. 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. (Charles Knoblock / AP). 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. That testing uncovered three more poisoned bottles: two turned in by customers in Wheaton and Chicago and one found on a Schaumburg pharmacy shelf. Dr. Howard Markel writes a monthly column for the PBS NewsHour, highlighting momentous historical events that continue to shape modern medicine. And Fahner wasnt the only source of tensions. The agencies, at times, clashed with each other. 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. By 2011, the FBI was ready to reexamine the evidence. The Tylenol murders have never been solved, though at one point, the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, was a suspect. So he thought hed maybe get a lifetime supply of ham. 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 White House, however, had ordered the FBI to find a way into the case amid growing public panic. Tensions flared, even among law enforcement personnel sincerely dedicated to the job. They knew the weapon. I always wear the blue suit and the red tie, Lane said. 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. Some worked at the medical examiners office, which played a key role in figuring out the cyanide connection. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. He didnt get in our way. Forty years ago, cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules led to the deaths of seven people all around the Chicago area. These packaging protections soon became the industry standard for all over-the-counter medications. 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. (Don Casper / Chicago Tribune), Obviously, Johnson & Johnson didnt put cyanide in their own product. We used every single technique available to us. They also started grumbling about politics overshadowing their work. (Stan Policht / Chicago Tribune). The couple were later pronounced dead, too. You shove those up my nose again, youre going to get socked in the face. By days end, however, tainted capsules would be blamed for two deaths in neighboring DuPage County, broadening both the scope of the investigation and the threat to the public. 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. 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. It was standing room only inside the Arlington Heights Police Department for the first meeting of what would become the Tylenol task force. Stanley Janus soon collapsed on his late brothers kitchen floor. Studies have found women who kill use poison more often than men do, but they typically target people they know. Many of the task force members interviewed by the Tribune recounted difficulties as more than 100 people tried to work as a team. 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. And my next thought was that there are too many cooks in the kitchen.. Im just being honest, Siekmann said. 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. 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. I dont know what he thought. In 2010, DuPage County prosecutors filed a sealed affidavit stating investigators had found DNA on three bottles and the capsules inside, according to documents obtained by the Tribune. What happens in most cases, and certainly what happened here beyond any question, was a 100% selfless, unified devotion to a very important mission.. The profilers believed the killer was likely to visit one of those named places to see the heartbreak he had caused. If you are curious, come to a small house on a quiet, winding street in Elk Grove Village. They can account for the differing DNA profiles. Left: We were looking for somebody that really looked like they didnt belong. . Every Tylenol bottle had a lot number that offered specific details about the batch those capsules came from. I stepped off that dais, Fahner told the Tribune this year. She told investigators that, in retrospect, she deserved her termination and swore she would do better at her next job. I think its pretty important, the aide replied. (Josh Reynolds/AP) The investigation into the 1982 Tylenol murders was pretty dormant when an FBI . Chicagos doing what they want, so lets just give them something minor to do.. Ford said he quickly interrupted. 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. But I didnt have the gray hair yet.. 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. Extra-Strength Tylenol, shown in a Tribune studio photograph, once was packaged in a paper box with an unglued lid. You understand? Ford said he told Stein. 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. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). Extra-Strength Tylenol, shown in a Tribune studio photograph, once was packaged in a paper box with an unglued lid. The results came back positive for cyanide at 1:30 a.m. The task force didnt know who or why.. The Tylenol case marked one of the earliest uses of the approach. 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. He goes, It smells like burnt almonds. . She has received numerous national honors for her work. Unfortunately, each victim swallowed a Tylenol capsule laced with A lethal dose of cyanide. 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. Everyone who had access to the box including the judge and his wife provided fingerprints for comparison. 1996 - 2023 NewsHour Productions LLC. As weeks went by without an arrest, detectives started using different doors to avoid the cameras. Medicare Pharmacy employee Mary Butler, right, shows a box of Extra-Strength Tylenol to Officer Michael Miljan in Arlington Heights. Stanley died that very day and Theresa died two days later. 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. Pain in the neck, Hogberg said of his CPD counterparts. I said, Agent, agent. 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. And I want people to know that, yeah, this was my family, and it has changed all of us.. 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. The victims had all taken Tylenol-branded acetaminophen capsules that had been laced with potassium cyanide. And I would wake them up just to say good night, you know?. On that day, two unrelated things happened: A pub owner made a phone call to police, and an extortion letter arrived at a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary. As a state crime, murder fell under the purview of local law enforcement. 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. Photo by Yvonne Hemsey/Getty Images. Following the same theory, investigators took pictures . 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. Whats going on? 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. 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. Pero quin fue el asesino? 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. Former Chicago police Detective Jimmy Gildea, shown at his Chicago home in July, investigated the death of Tylenol victim Paula Prince. The Tribune interviewed nearly two dozen members of the task force, many of whom confirmed the reports veracity and added their own perspective. Finally, in late July, officials from both Cook and DuPage gather for a video conference. 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. When that happened, the suspect would make contact with an investigator and offer to help solve the case. James Thompson, Illinois Secretary of State James Edgar and shook his head. Lane would think of that line a year later when, without prompting, a suspect called him and offered to help solve the case. 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. Despite the passage of time and, in a way, because of it the bottles still may offer clues as to who poisoned the capsules. The more she . . (Michael Budrys / Chicago Tribune). 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. 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. Subscribe to Here's the Deal, our politics newsletter. Investigators first considered whether the tampering could have occurred at the manufacturing plants. Hear much from investigators after those initial interviews had connections to Chicago Janus soon collapsed on his late kitchen... About tylenol murders theories Tylenol murders has centered around prime suspect James Lewis for decades angry... Then, bottles of pills did not keep records of where the products were shipped prematurely announced the of...: with Molly Jean Brandenburg, Carter Roy the Deal, our politics newsletter specific! Local law enforcement personnel sincerely dedicated to the box including the judge and his wife fingerprints! 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