Some of you may remember this...

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In the early morning of Wednesday, September 29, 1982, 12-year old Mary Kellerman of Elk Grove Village died after taking a capsule of Extra Strength Tylenol. Adam Janus of Arlington Heights, died in the hospital shortly thereafter. His brother, Stanley (of Lisle) and his wife Theresa died after gathering to mourn, taking pills from the same bottle. By October 1, 1982, the poisoning had also taken the lives of Paula Prince of Chicago, Mary Reiner of Winfield, and Mary McFarland of Elmhurst. Investigators soon discovered the Tylenol link. Urgent warnings were broadcast, and police drove through Chicago neighborhoods issuing warnings over loudspeakers.

As the tampered bottles came from different factories, and the seven deaths had all occurred in the Chicago area, the possibility of sabotage during production was ruled out. Instead, the culprit was believed to have entered various supermarkets and drug stores over a period of weeks, pilfered packages of Tylenol from the shelves, adulterated their contents with solid cyanide compound at another location, and then replaced the bottles. In addition to the five bottles which led to the victims' deaths, three other tampered bottles were discovered.

Johnson & Johnson, the parent company of McNeil, distributed warnings to hospitals and distributors and halted Tylenol production and advertising. On October 5, 1982, it issued a nationwide recall of Tylenol products; an estimated 31 million bottles were in circulation, with a retail value of over US$100 million. The company also advertised in the national media for individuals not to consume any products that contained Tylenol. When it was determined that only capsules were tampered with, they offered to exchange all Tylenol capsules already purchased by the public with solid tablets.

The crime has never been solved, although an opportunistic extortionist with no connection to the deaths had made a money demand. This person, James W. Lewis, was arrested and ended up serving 13 years of a 20-year prison term for the extortion.

Snopes link for more info...

I'm sure that gave a lot of people paranoia at the time.

Oh yeah . . I remember the Tylenol incidents, a lot of people were tossing out their pain relievers.

Shows you how we take for granted that medicine we buy is fine hey? Wonder who did it?

too bad i dont take tylenol

Its a cowardly way to kill people...filthy!

Whoever did that is very evil! I'd like that guy to hang him/herself!

Ibuprofen is your friend.

This is from distant recall, but I thought one of the victims spouses ended up being found guilty of the crimes; he poisoned his wife and then planted the others to throw everyone off his tracks...

I always thought it was cool that the company pulled the entire stock right off the bat no questions asked. It was immediate...instead of trying to figure out what city or region or state, they werent going to take any chances...

Yes, I remember this as well...it was discovered to be a cover for a fellow 'doing in' his wife, how sick.

Here's the original suspect..
James W Lewis



mmmmh looks sane...

That's it. That's the sensible to way to decide who's a criminal.

Should he be put to death just for looking like a criminal too? How draconian.

Actually.. im all for putting criminals to death..

I'm not. Besides read my post again. I said 'just for looking like a criminal'. I was playing on the meaning of the word Draconian.

So THAT's what a criminal mastermind looks like. LOL

Ignorance blinds me.. i see now

What I remember most about this is that many people whom I'd always considered completely unflappable were going around and warning everybody, even complete strangers, not to buy ANYTHING in drug stores
"for at least the next several weeks."

And there were no problems at all in my area of the country.

Yes I remember this and I still rarely take any medications. I know it's stupid. Someone could just as well put something in your food or drink but it was scarey. And yes I remember the man finally being arrested but I don't remember what happened to him. Is he still in prison or was he executed? What happened?

I just googled this. You were right. This crime was never solved. And there have been quite a few copycat crimes since then.

So true, its all the military will give you at the doctors, 800mg. Doesn't matter for what. You have cramps, 800mg. You broke your leg, 800mg. Your head's come off, 800mg.

dang I remember that, and still think about it at times.

wouldn't stop me from taking it if I thought I needed it, but still... amazing what we take for granted.

Back then, there wasn't much tamper-proof product packaging in food or medicine.

"Sealed for your protection"

Yeah, th at is kinda cool. Now a days, they just tell you the last four numbers of the code for a contaminated product and hope that you think to look. Like that whole peanut butter recall, or the cat food recall. Who really takes the time to look at those numbers? And by time they get the recalls out, the jar is half gone!

Tell me about it. I had one of those jars of peanut butter. I'd had it for about a month and hadn't opened it yet. I brought it back to the store and had a hard time returning it because I didn't have the receipt! Who keeps their grocery receipts?! I finally had to get something else to exchange because I didn't have my receipt. But I don't know if that was the employee who didn't have a clue.

It was the Tylenol Murders which caused shrink wrapping, safety seals, and "don't use if seal broken" to come in big time.

The 1982 Chicago Tylenol Murders were never solved. As for everyone else they were also not the reason tamper proof bottle legislation was enacted. Not until Stella Nickell who in 1986 murdered her husband by lacing his Excedrin and also went back to lace five other bottles in which someone else died. Only after this was legislation enacted. Two different cases slightly related because of the modus operandi but after the second case enough was enough. There also was a few other incidents but these two are the most infamous.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_Chicago_Tylenol_murders
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stella_Nickell

Pardon, but I wasn't speaking of "legislation." Many responsible drug companies re-designed their packages almost immediately and didn't wait for the laws to demand those changes.

Oh, I remember that!

It was scary, I'm still paranoid about opening bottles of pills!

800 mg of ibuprofen if your head comes off, huh?

BTW, there was a show on TV about the Stella Nickell case just the other day, did anyone else see it?

She still insists that she's innocent, but I dunno...I don't think I'd want to eat anything she'd cooked. Just in case, you know.

Wow I just read about that Stella person. That was quite a plan. It said her daughter told on her. So the daughter knew about the whole thing? And she got a reward for telling? Was she in on it? Did her mother tell her about the whole thing?

The amusing thing is I was reading a True Crime book called 'The Anatomy of Motive' written by one of the men who was on this case. (although the facts of the case itself only comprise a part of a single chapter)

Still, coincidences are amusing are they not?

From the psychological profile given by John Douglas in his examination of the facts of the case, and then encountering Mr. Lewis, well, a lot of his attributes fit perfectly with the profile Mr. Douglas had come up with.

Still, that fit but there was little coroborative evidence...though it is amazing the effects one or two people who are mad at the world (or just one person) can have on national policy, hm?