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.