Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy Margolis, shown in his Chicago office in July, was part of the original Tylenol task force in 1982. Perhaps he traded homemade bombs for poisoned pills. 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 first tainted Tylenol victim - Mary Kellerman, 12, of Elk Grove Village - collapsed and died on . 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. Fahner looked at all the power brokers on the platform U.S. Sen. Charles Percy, Gov. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). Tylenol murders investigators pursue new charges in 40-year case. The state police memo indicates fingerprints were found on at least one of the bottles, as well as a full print on the inside of a different bottles box. Some of the investigators started using it privately, too. While I was not born yet and don't personally remember the Chicago Tylenol Murders of 1982, I do feel like I have experienced some of the anxiety that has never gone away. They knew the weapon. 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. Tylenol Ty, Ford said. And Fahner wasnt the only source of tensions. FBI agent Shari Kouba, one of the few women on the task force, ran the tips desk. In reality, some task force members still accuse their colleagues of secretive behavior 40 years later. Most working detectives really dont trust the FBI, and the FBI doesnt trust us, Ford said. My theory is that Anna is a diabetic and had just come home from a . It marked the first mass recall in U.S. history, involving more than 31 million bottles. Chemists working for the Illinois Public Health Department in Chicago test the contents of Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules. The likelihood that the same person could have put cyanide into different batches manufactured at different times in different places was logistically zero.. Illinois Attorney General Ty Fahner talks about the Tylenol deaths on Oct. 1, 1982. By the time he reached his house in Evanston, he was the de facto leader of what had quickly become the countrys highest-profile murder case. All 3 networks lead with the Tylenol story on the first day of the crisis. And I would wake them up just to say good night, you know?. Deputy coroner Siekmann recalled going to Winfield to pick up the Tylenol collected from Reiners house a few hours after her death. 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. Later, Lewis was arrested,. And neither does the DNA. Mike Severns, a former Elk Grove Village police detective assigned to Mary Kellerman's murder, says it still bothers him that officials neglected to update her grieving parents in the early days of the investigation. Some worked at the medical examiners office, which played a key role in figuring out the cyanide connection. It was standing room only inside the Arlington Heights Police Department for the first meeting of what would become the Tylenol task force. In fact, so many big dogs were present, Fellmann said he couldnt find a free chair inside his own 60-seat roll call room. Members of the media the same people who were constantly pestering him for information nicknamed Fahner Tylenol Ty. It stuck. It didnt take long for Fellmann to recognize the pressures and expectations under which the newly formed task force would operate. ]. But if they kept the bottles in their medicine cabinets, more people could die. Whats going on? Investigators took the funeral guest books and jotted down license plates, then entered names into a newly developed computer program that allowed them to cross-check for anyone attending multiple memorials, according to the state police report. But before Sept. 29, 1982, consumer products had few defenses against a person bent on sabotage. Helena Tarasewicz, mother of Tylenol victim Theresa "Terri" Janus, weeps over the casket containing her daughter's body during graveside services at Maryhill Cemetery in Niles in 1982. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Forty years later, it still bothers him. After eliminating the possibility that the poisonings happened at the plant level, investigators scoured the backgrounds of workers at trucking companies and storage warehouses involved in the distribution of the tainted bottles, as well as other company records. Seven people between 12 and 35 died after ingesting cyanide-laced Tylenol pills in the Chicago area in 1982. (James Mayo / Chicago Tribune). Records show law enforcement has spent the past several years dealing almost entirely with forensic evidence. And then there are agents who dont. Investigators took pictures of people who attended the victims funerals to see if they could capture anyone acting unusual. Siekmann drove to a state laboratory in the city with the bottle on the seat next to him. 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. What was my dads favorite color? In an attempt to paint a more detailed portrait of the killer, the FBI turned to a relatively new technique at the time called criminal profiling, in which agents try to identify the personality and behavioral characteristics of an offender based on an analysis of the crime. All Rights Reserved. So he thought hed maybe get a lifetime supply of ham. Police departments and fire stations began collecting bottles, as well. I do think it created a lot of problems because youre always thinking theres somebody doing something behind your back.. [Para leer en espaol] Los asesinatos de Tylenol, parte 2: Tylenol mezclado con cianuro fue el arma homicida. Investigators took pictures of people who attended the victims funerals to see if they could capture anyone acting unusual. The death toll now stood at five: Reiner, McFarland, Adam Janus of Arlington Heights, his brother Stanley Janus of Lisle and 12-year-old Mary Kellerman of Elk Grove Village. 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 already had a new job. The FBIs involvement puzzled some because, as far as anyone knew, the federal agency didnt have jurisdiction in the case. What was he liked as a boss?, She added: Good and bad, I want to hear those stories, because its a reflection of who I am., Hurricane Ian: South Carolina and Florida comb wreckage to assess deadly toll, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. 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. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). Forty years later, these earliest days remain a point of pride for some and a source of frustration for others. 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. It sounds like an urban legend, but it was chillingly real in 1982. 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. The batch contained more than 1,800 pounds of cyanide, divided into packages of various sizes. The Chicago Tylenol murders were a series of poisoning deaths resulting from drug tampering in the Chicago metropolitan area in 1982. Chemists working for the Illinois Public Health Department in Chicago test the contents of Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules. . 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. Oct. 2, 1982: CBS 2's Phil Walters reports on the investigation into the Tylenol poisonings. Later that morning, Siekmann drove to the northwest suburbs to share what he had learned with a group of law enforcement officials assembled by Fahners team. Critics who had prematurely announced the death of the brand Tylenol were now praising the companys handling of the matter. She would be the seventh and final person to die from taking the poisoned medication. He held news conferences, sometimes twice a day, to meet the insatiable media demands. There was no clear leader. 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. 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. The tip line received more than 6,000 calls within the first few weeks. But their deaths did inspire a series of important moves to make over-the-counter medications safer (albeit never 100 percent safe) for the hundreds of millions of people who buy them every year. Authorities already considered the womens deaths to be cyanide related by the time they contacted Fahner during his campaign event. The substance was grainier than the untainted Tylenol on the left. 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 also started grumbling about politics overshadowing their work. (Ovie Carter / Chicago Tribune). The Unsolved Tylenol Murders of 1982: The Unabomber Theory Written by C.W.S. NBC News has not reviewed that evidence. In the meantime, Kasia Janus has said shes dealt with occasionally overwhelming sadness because of the graduations her father couldnt attend. Im absolutely sure about that. 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. I thought he was perfect.. But no one has ever been arrested in connection with the spate of poisonings that shattered the families of Janus and the others. McNeil Consumer Products, a subsidiary of the health care giant, Johnson & Johnson, manufactured Tylenol. . 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. 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. All of them, it turned out, took Tylenol shortly before they died. Police Officer Michael Miljan leaves an Arlington Heights pharmacy after making sure bottles of Extra-Strength Tylenol were being removed from shelves. 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. I knew how to organize things.. What are the Tylenol murders? He would gravitate toward someone with a blue suit and red tie, the quintessential 1980s-style power suit. So whatever fits or doesnt fit the storyline, that didnt happen. But when she opened the . His wife whom he had just married fell limp in the living room a short while after that. Following the same theory, investigators took pictures . In 2000, Joy Bergmann revisited the story in "A Bitter Pill" . She has received numerous national honors for her work. What are the Tylenol murders? I mean, it just got to me, Severns said. He bought a rancid ham at Jewel and when he opened it, it was spoiled. Introduction Heading link Copy link. Stanley died that very day and Theresa died two days later. (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. He didnt get in our way. Local police departments and states attorneys offices have been trying to crack the case for 40 years. We were getting flooded with calls, said John Fellmann, an Arlington Heights detective assigned to the case. Ford said he quickly interrupted. Even after he retired from the FBI in 1996, he didnt let it go. Indeed, the Johnson & Johnson recall became a classic case study in business schools across the nation. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). The prints, however, dont match the prime suspect. Investigators quickly dismissed the possibility that the killer was targeting a single victim and the other bottles were contaminated to make it harder to solve that murder. Elmhurst police Detective Herb Hogberg interviewed a chemist who had been laid off from the company in recent months. The victims had all taken Tylenol-branded acetaminophen capsules that had been laced with potassium cyanide. Four decades later, task force leaders downplay accusations of tensions among the agencies, suggesting history has been revised in an effort to explain why no one has been charged with the murders. Three months earlier, 10 Chicago officers from the citys West Side were convicted of taking bribes to protect heroin rings. See where the eight tainted Tylenol bottles were purchased or discovered. Thats clear, Margolis told the Tribune. They were particularly concerned that something happened during the manufacturing or the shipping or storage, Wolnik said. His brother and sister-in-law, Stanley, 25, and Theresa, 19, of Lisle, Illinois, rushed to his home to console their loved ones. 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. He couldnt leave. 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. The Soviets were willing to assist, but their satellites werent trained on the Chicago suburbs at the time. Other copy-cat poisonings, involving Tylenol and other over-the-counter medications, cropped up again in the 1980s and early 1990s but these events were never as dramatic or as deadly as the 1982 Chicago-area deaths. He received the assignment by default, and then it became part of a national news story. I always wear the blue suit and the red tie, Lane said. Elk Grove Village Detective Michael Severns said investigators were so intent on chasing leads that they at times lost sight of the grieving families. Many people who handled potential evidence in 1982 didnt wear gloves because it wasnt protocol at the time. 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. I stepped off that dais, Fahner told the Tribune this year. (Carl Wagner / Chicago Tribune). Ford and his partner Jimmy Gildea both said they tried to stop him because evidence technicians hadnt been to the scene yet, but Stein brushed off their concerns. The results came back positive for cyanide at 1:30 a.m. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune). Nobody knew what to do with (the investigation) because it was all over the place, Fahner said. 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. The Tylenol murders: The story of a 40-year-old unsolved case begins with a terrifying medical mystery. Police reports mention several former Johnson & Johnson employees, though none was ever considered a serious suspect. Investigators pulled library records to see who had checked out books on cyanide. I think hes nothing but a class act, said McQuaid, a retired state police captain. (Phil Greer / Chicago Tribune). (Charles Osgood / Chicago Tribune). 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. Whoa, whoa, he recalled. [[Para leer en espaol] Los asesinatos de Tylenol, parte 2: Tylenol mezclado con cianuro fue el arma homicida. DNA evidence wasnt part of police work at the time, but it would become a factor in the case a quarter-century later. With absolute certainty, they can say the following: Records show at least four fingerprints were found during the initial investigation. Ford said he told the renowned pathologist the bottle was on the vanity, and Stein, who wasnt wearing gloves, went to grab it. Their opinion soured even further at their first meeting, when one of the lead investigators asked for a briefing on the Prince murder. Seven people in the Chicago area were killed that year by Tylenol that had been poisoned with potassium cyanide. (Josh Reynolds/AP) The investigation into the 1982 Tylenol murders was pretty dormant when an FBI . Scott Stump is a staff reporter and the writer of the daily newsletter This is TODAY. Neither did the chemist who performed the cyanide test. I think after a day or two, the state police realized theyre on their own. When that happened, the suspect would make contact with an investigator and offer to help solve the case. She told investigators that, in retrospect, she deserved her termination and swore she would do better at her next job. Some expressed surprise at how casually other people treated the poisoned bottles. NBC News has not reviewed those documents. Paramedics came and took Adam Janus to a nearby hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead from what they suspected may have been a heart attack. If you are curious, come to a small house on a quiet, winding street in Elk Grove Village. In those early days, there were so many agencies involved, so many people desperate to solve the case. Here, you go, Pete, the police chief said, passing the bottle to him without the type of evidence bag that would now be standard in any investigation. Several suspects did too. Stores were pulling the product off shelves. Severns confronted people at both agencies, who blamed each other for keeping him in the dark. Tamper-resistant pill containers were introduced with packaging that allows consumers to notice if a bottle of pills or medication has been opened or altered. What was he like in school? We locked him up.. "As you can see, it is easy to place cyanideinto capsules sitting on store shelves," he wrote in the letter. Six suburbanites had already died from cyanide poisoning by that time, but this was Chicagos first and, in the end, only victim. 6 Amazon travel essentials for your next getaway, starting at $12. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration then cautioned the public against taking the pain reliever in capsule form. We had an absolute tsunami of Tylenol bottles. 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. They had a lot of questions and I didnt have any answers at all., Mike Severns, a former Elk Grove Village police detective assigned to Mary Kellerman's murder, says it still bothers him that officials neglected to update her grieving parents in the early days of the investigation. Its a one-way street for information back and forth. I think its pretty important, the aide replied. 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. The Tylenol murders of 1982,was a pointless killing spree that resulted in the death of seven Chicago area people from Tylenol tablets .The Tylenol poisoning killings was from tampering with over-the-counter Tylenol branded acetaminophen pills laced with potassium cyanide. As weeks went by without an arrest, detectives started using different doors to avoid the cameras. You know, boost exposure and stuff like that.. Each participant has a packet of information that authorities use to explain their findings. (Stan Policht / Chicago Tribune). Other task force members, it should be noted, werent particularly fond of Chicagos efforts either. Her parents gave permission. She also laments that her dad never got to meet her and her husband, her son, her stepson and her step-grandson. Relatives, including two who took polygraph tests, were quickly eliminated from suspicion. Finally, in late July, officials from both Cook and DuPage gather for a video conference. The tips were written up on 3x5 index cards. Medicare Pharmacy employee Mary Butler, right, shows a box of Extra-Strength Tylenol to Officer Michael Miljan in Arlington Heights. There wasnt that much tension, Fahner said. 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. The FBIs counterintelligence unit even reached out to their Soviet counterparts to see if they had any spy satellite images that could help, according to former FBI agent Grey Steed. Members of the Illinois State Police join, as well. He needed to be there, no matter how much he hated campaigning. 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. Our property guy, he couldnt keep up with it., Chicago police Officer Sam Barsevich, left, takes inventory of Tylenol bottles that residents turned in at his station on Oct. 2, 1982. In all, the task force had only eight bottles to offer clues to where and when the tampering could have taken place. Chicagos doing what they want, so lets just give them something minor to do.. 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. A decadeslong investigation has centered around Massachusetts man James Lewis, 76, who was 36 at the time of the murders. And the last point that they wanted to strike home was that the person who committed this is enjoying the attention right now and the fact that he or she had outsmarted the law enforcement, Lane said. It started in 1982, not long after the murders. Next week: Police investigate a poor mans James Bond, and an eighth person dies. 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. As for the ongoing case, sources familiar with the investigation told the Chicago Tribune that charges are not imminent and may not come at all because the case lacks physical proof. (Michael Budrys / Chicago Tribune). Given the totality of the circumstances, some thought it unusual for the Illinois attorney general to lead the investigation. 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. Within hours of finding cyanide in the capsules that killed three people in the northwest suburbs, the Cook County medical examiners office held a news conference on the morning of Sept. 30, 1982, to warn people about the potential poison in their medicine cabinets. After just one or two task force meetings, Ford and Gildea told their boss they werent going back. With Molly Jean Brandenburg, Carter Roy. 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 believed Thompson was behind the move, though Fahner denied it. Do not use it.. Photo by Yvonne Hemsey/Getty Images. But I didnt have the gray hair yet.. Her parents gave permission. The operation was primarily staffed by female agents who answered phone calls and assessed information while their male counterparts worked in the field. (Chicago Tribune archive). He hangs up, opens the door and we come in like gangbusters, Gildea said. The agencies, at times, clashed with each other. Photo by Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images. Why was this happening? The task ahead was difficult. Many of the task force members interviewed by the Tribune recounted difficulties as more than 100 people tried to work as a team. The Tylenol murders fundamentally changed the way we consume medication - among other things, leading to tamper-proof pill and bottle designs. (Stan Policht / Chicago Tribune). Fahner thought state officials needed to be even more aggressive, despite the consequences for the investigation. 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. Ford, a Vietnam veteran with a classic Chicago accent and an Irishmans love of storytelling, died of a heart attack a few days after speaking with the Tribune. Marquette 10 is one of a thousand reasons why theres tension, personal jealousy, personal ambition, jurisdictional turf fights. On Friday afternoon, doctors removed Stanley Janus wife, Terri, from life support. He also would have a history of animal cruelty, Lane told the Tribune. And everyone in the meeting is aware of one undeniable truth: There is no physical evidence linking a suspect to the poisonings. She would do better at her next job man James Lewis, 76, who blamed each other keeping! Opened or altered U.S. Food and drug Administration then cautioned the Public against taking the poisoned.... The manufacturing or the shipping or storage, Wolnik said investigation ) because it was all over place! Very day and Theresa died two days later keeping him in the case both Cook and DuPage gather a... 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