His wife whom he had just married fell limp in the living room a short while after that. Rosen's theory is that the tampering did not happen on store shelves, but at the manufacturing plant before the product was shipped out. 6 Amazon travel essentials for your next getaway, starting at $12. 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. In Illinois, some towns began pulling bottles from the store shelves and sent police officers down the street with bullhorns encouraging people to throw out their Tylenol. In the meantime, Kasia Janus has said shes dealt with occasionally overwhelming sadness because of the graduations her father couldnt attend. CBS put a human face on the story which contained the following: "When 12 year-old Mary Kellerman of Elk Grove Village, Ill., awoke at dawn with cold symptoms; her parents gave her one Extra-Strength Tylenol and sent her back to bed. The more she . (James Mayo / Chicago Tribune). The task force didnt know who or why.. Fahner had worked for James Thompson in the U.S. attorneys office, handling some of the citys biggest federal corruption cases. Subscribe to Heres the Deal, our politics Here's what to know about the history of the case and the latest developments. Why was this happening? The red cap was easily flipped open, with nothing but a little piece of cotton left to cover the capsules. Fahner, as head of the task force, quickly became the public face of the investigation. 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. (Carl Wagner / Chicago Tribune). Manufacturer Johnson & Johnson recalled 31 million Tylenol bottles as panic spread nationwide following the deaths. The new timeline suggests Lewis wrote the letter before the public knew the deaths were linked to the tainted Tylenol pills, according to the Chicago Tribune. His task force partners the FBI and state police had blindsided the Elk Grove Village detective, and he was angry. Flight attendant Paula Prince bought a tainted bottle of Tylenol at the Walgreens at Wells Street and North Avenue in Chicago. 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. Investigators soon confirmed there was lethally poisonous cyanide inside the Tylenol capsules in question. The operation was primarily staffed by female agents who answered phone calls and assessed information while their male counterparts worked in the field. Elk Grove Village Detective Michael Severns said investigators were so intent on chasing leads that they at times lost sight of the grieving families. he answered. Not just the hours, but the frustration. If people threw out their Tylenol, authorities would never know the full extent of the tampering. Tensions flared, even among law enforcement personnel sincerely dedicated to the job. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). Perhaps he traded homemade bombs for poisoned pills. Fahner looked at all the power brokers on the platform U.S. Sen. Charles Percy, Gov. Seven people between 12 and 35 died after ingesting cyanide-laced Tylenol pills in the Chicago area in 1982. Many of the task force members interviewed by the Tribune recounted difficulties as more than 100 people tried to work as a team. Male murderers are more likely, in general, to kill randomly and on a large scale. Everyone who had access to the box including the judge and his wife provided fingerprints for comparison. I dont think that bore fruit at all.. Early on, the task force decided to instruct the public to get rid of their Tylenol by either turning it in to police departments or throwing it away. We still receive tips that are being evaluated and investigated. The profilers believed the killer was likely to visit one of those named places to see the heartbreak he had caused. The couple were later pronounced dead, too. 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. 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. Police Officer Michael Miljan leaves an Arlington Heights pharmacy after making sure bottles of Extra-Strength Tylenol were being removed from shelves. Later, Lewis was arrested,. The latest Tribune poll showed he was down by about 20 points in the upcoming election. 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. 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. It didnt take long for the Tylenol murders to become national news. Following the same theory, investigators took pictures of everyone who attended the victims funerals and set up time-lapse cameras at grave sites to see if they could capture anyone acting unusual. 1: Poisoning the Well: Directed by Travis Clark. The Chicago Tylenol Murders: With Laurence Fishburne. (Stan Policht / Chicago Tribune). The effort was Herculean, said Jeremy Margolis, a former U.S. attorney who was assigned to the task force. Thats because nobody was keeping track of who was buying cyanide, Wolnik said. Ford said he quickly interrupted. My theory is that Anna is a diabetic and had just come home from a . Our highest responsibility has always been the health and safety of our consumers," Johnson & Johnson said in a statement to NBC News. Several months have passed since the suburban detective made his pitch to the Cook County states attorneys office. The agents didnt bother to pretend that labeling rules were their true motivation for getting involved. They knew the locations. 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. They would work the case in Chicago and send someone else to Des Plaines to play nice with the others. You know, because Ty was just a classy lawyer, and he never was a politician, he said. History's Greatest Mysteries looks into the theories regarding the Tylenol Murders in Chicago 1982. 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. I think hes nothing but a class act, said McQuaid, a retired state police captain. Kasia said she still remembers hearing her mother scream when she couldnt wake her father up the next day, 29 September 1982. He also would have a history of animal cruelty, Lane told the Tribune. NBC News reached out to Lewis and did not receive a response. They told stories of information hoarding, turf wars and glory seeking even when there was none to be had. 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. In work that would later be heralded in scientific journals, the scientists also tested the cyanide kept at the Tylenol plant to see if it somehow got into the production process. Former Chicago police Superintendent Richard Brzeczek told the Tribune he believed Fahners selection was purely political, done specifically because of the November election. Authorities already considered the womens deaths to be cyanide related by the time they contacted Fahner during his campaign event. 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. But when she opened the . Joe McQuaid, a task force investigator with the state police who had worked for Fahner when he was director, acknowledged it was an unorthodox setup. Most working detectives really dont trust the FBI, and the FBI doesnt trust us, Ford said. Nobody knew what to do with (the investigation) because it was all over the place, Fahner said. The guy was a little wimpy, but his ham did stink.. That wasnt there.. Severns, who had two young children, heard the undeserved guilt in her voice. 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. Ford said he told the renowned pathologist the bottle was on the vanity, and Stein, who wasnt wearing gloves, went to grab it. We had gloves in our car and basically used them on decomposed bodies. The panic stemming from the Tylenol murders resulted in a permanent change in the packaging of medicine. The Soviets were willing to assist, but their satellites werent trained on the Chicago suburbs at the time. Ted Kaczynski had proven he was a revenge-seeking terrorist, and he had connections to Chicago. Local police departments and states attorneys offices have been trying to crack the case for 40 years. Severns worked on the case for three days before he realized no one had offered an update to young Mary Kellermans grieving parents. What was my dads favorite color? He didnt get in our way. Dr. Howard Markel 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. (Don Casper / Chicago Tribune), People were terrified, Fahner said. All 3 networks lead with the Tylenol story on the first day of the crisis. A casket is carried out of St. Hyacinth Roman Catholic Church after the funeral Mass for three members of the Janus family in 1982. (Fred Jewell/AP). They can account for the differing DNA profiles. 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. J.J. Bittenbinder a tough-talking, mustachioed detective who would later gain fame as a TV safety expert served as a liaison to Fahners task force in Des Plaines. The Tylenol Murders Victims Mary Kellerman On September 29, 1982, 12 year old Mary Kellerman woke up feeling ill. 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. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). Early on the morning of Sept. 29, 1982, a tragic, medical mystery began with a sore throat and a runny nose. Scott Stump is a staff reporter and the writer of the daily newsletter This is TODAY. Some worked at the medical examiners office, which played a key role in figuring out the cyanide connection. Another tip involved a man who was threatening to poison Hormel food products. Pero quin fue el asesino? Two main suspects in this unsolved case are James Lewis and Roger Arnold, who had both been linked to this occurrence in some way. (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. Forty years later, Ford shook his head at the memory. 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. Stores were pulling the product off shelves. Each person underwent a rigorous background check. (Ovie Carter / Chicago Tribune). We also are still were looking at emerging forensic technology, Sgt. Meanwhile, a 12-year-old child named Mary Kellerman had also died suddenly in another Chicago suburb after taking an Extra-Strength Tylenol. But no one has ever been arrested in connection with the spate of poisonings that shattered the families of Janus and the others. The task force opted to work out of an Illinois state police bunker in Des Plaines, a central location that would be home to a tip line, twice-a-day investigator briefings and news conferences for the scores of reporters camped outside the building. Police grasped for suspects who might be the so-called "Mad Poisoner." 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. Despite the passage of time and, in a way, because of it the bottles still may offer clues as to who poisoned the capsules. I do think it created a lot of problems because youre always thinking theres somebody doing something behind your back.. Left: 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. When that happened, the suspect would make contact with an investigator and offer to help solve the case. Every agency imaginable attended, many of them represented by their top leaders. Investigators took pictures of people who attended the victims funerals to see if they could capture anyone acting unusual. And then there are agents who dont. If you are curious, come to a small house on a quiet, winding street in Elk Grove Village. And they talked to veterinarians about any unusual animal poisonings, thinking the murderer may have tested the chemical on pets first. In this op-ed, he reflects on his experiences leading the public health response to the Tylenol murders of 1982. Kasia said she long blamed herself for her fathers death, even though she was just in preschool when it happened. 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. Chicago police Officer Sam Barsevich, left, takes inventory of Tylenol bottles that residents turned in at his station on Oct. 2, 1982. The substance was grainier than the untainted Tylenol on the left. Who would be next? The Tylenol murders fundamentally changed the way we consume medication - among other things, leading to tamper-proof pill and bottle designs. And I would wake them up just to say good night, you know?. 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. "As you can see, it is easy to place cyanideinto capsules sitting on store shelves," he wrote in the letter. Tylenols parent company, Johnson & Johnson, also saw its stock price drop after the news about the tainted capsules broke. FBI agent Shari Kouba, one of the few women on the task force, ran the tips desk. And wherever they fell on the issue, that position hasnt changed much over the past four decades. The FBIs involvement puzzled some because, as far as anyone knew, the federal agency didnt have jurisdiction in the case. He investigated the Tylenol poisonings in the Janus family and later served as police chief in Island Lake. The investigators would then return around 5 p.m. to update everyone on the days developments. ]. They understood the tension between the FBI and local law enforcement some of them shared those same resentments but they thought Chicago didnt even try to be team players. He hangs up, opens the door and we come in like gangbusters, Gildea said. Was Charles Dickens the first celebrity medical spokesman? 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. He held news conferences, sometimes twice a day, to meet the insatiable media demands. Given the totality of the circumstances, some thought it unusual for the Illinois attorney general to lead the investigation. Three of the deaths occurred in Arlington Heights, where police told NBC Chicago last year that they still have the pills, bottles and boxes as evidence. What are the Tylenol murders? The most promising leads involved people doing curious things with chemicals. As the de facto leader of the task force, he would come to be known in the media as "Tylenol Ty.". But for something like this, for looking at a pill, it never would even cross our mind., Former DuPage County Coroner Pete Siekmann, who in 1982 was a deputy coroner, handled the Tylenol bottles from Mary "Lynn" Reiner and Mary McFarland. Next week: Police investigate a poor mans James Bond, and an eighth person dies. The Tylenol Murders In 1982, seven innocent Chicago civilians were boldly murdered. A decadeslong investigation has centered around Massachusetts man James Lewis, 76, who was 36 at the time of the murders. But others, including Lane, found it immensely helpful and from his perspective ultimately accurate. A long-planned meeting with DuPage prosecutors also was pushed back in the spring. Joe Murphy told NBC Chicago last year. America was gripped by paranoia and fear. Or, at the very least, get them to remember his name. The profilers predicted the culprits past likely included treatment for mental health issues and an attack on his parents. We locked him up.. I had people dropping dead all over the place.. And neither does the DNA. Neither did the chemist who performed the cyanide test. Fahner stepped off the stage and ducked behind a blue velvet curtain, where a state police officer briefed him. The Tylenol murders: The story of a 40-year-old unsolved case begins with a terrifying medical mystery. 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. Investigators took pictures of people who attended the victims funerals to see if they could capture anyone acting unusual. 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. What the hell is this? In those early days, there were so many agencies involved, so many people desperate to solve the case. As a result of the crime, makers of Tylenol developed new product protection methods. Siekmann drove to a state laboratory in the city with the bottle on the seat next to him. 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. Some investigators on the case, including a few still involved with it, considered the rendered profile too vague to be of any real use. Photo by Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images. So I stopped by the house on the way home, introduced myself and tried to answer any questions they had, he said. The prints, however, dont match the prime suspect. The first tainted Tylenol victim - Mary Kellerman, 12, of Elk Grove Village - collapsed and died on . 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. With Molly Jean Brandenburg, Carter Roy. A theory emerged: What if the Mad Poisoner was actually the Unabomber? And by days end, flight attendant Paula Princes body would be discovered and tests would show that a Tylenol bottle inside her home contained four cyanide-laced capsules. 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. I mean, theres 10,000 reasons why people compete with each other. He would gravitate toward someone with a blue suit and red tie, the quintessential 1980s-style power suit. It is something that altered the life of every person in the world, Janus, who had never before spoken publicly about her ordeal, told CNN. 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. I realized I was in the deep end of the pool, he said. The man shrugged off his dismissal when investigators asked, saying it was the nature of the business. Seven people died in 1982 after taking painkillers from bottle someone police do not know who had slipped cyanide pills into. 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. Studies have found women who kill use poison more often than men do, but they typically target people they know. I dont want to get off here, he quietly said. Every Tylenol bottle had a lot number that offered specific details about the batch those capsules came from. And there were a lot of bottles to come out of that lot.. Finally, in late July, officials from both Cook and DuPage gather for a video conference. Here, he offers a Spanish-language flyer to Luisa Acevada. And they had a very good theory as to when they were placed. Flight attendant Paula Prince bought a tainted bottle of Tylenol at the Walgreens at Wells Street and North Avenue in Chicago. Editors note: This report has been updated to remove the reported amount of cyanide used. In all, the task force had only eight bottles to offer clues to where and when the tampering could have taken place. On Friday afternoon, doctors removed Stanley Janus wife, Terri, from life support. Someone, police hypothesized, must have taken bottles off the shelves of local grocers and drug stores in the Chicago area, laced the capsules with poison, and then returned the restored packages to the shelves to be purchased by the unknowing victims. Subscribe to Here's the Deal, our politics newsletter. Investigators assumed the culprit was a man, though records indicate they didnt automatically rule out anyone based on gender. (Stan Policht / Chicago Tribune). And when the sitting attorney general was indicted on tax fraud charges, Thompson appointed Fahner to fill the post. We were looking for somebody that really looked like they didnt belong. The Tribune interviewed nearly two dozen members of the task force, many of whom confirmed the reports veracity and added their own perspective. Stores were pulling the product off shelves. September 22, 2022. The decision cost the company more than $100 million, an enormous amount in 1982. (Don Casper / Chicago Tribune), Obviously, Johnson & Johnson didnt put cyanide in their own product. Police reports mention several former Johnson & Johnson employees, though none was ever considered a serious suspect. Tylenol Ty, Ford said. 1996 - 2023 NewsHour Productions LLC. Severns confronted people at both agencies, who blamed each other for keeping him in the dark. In theory, the plan would prevent anyone from griping about being kept out of the loop. The first few days were spent talking to people closest to Prince and sifting through the many tips they received. 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. And soon, many medications and foods sold over store counters began being sold in tamper-proof, sealed packaging. Only really frivolous things went in that other pile, she said. The killer may have salted the bottles with cyanide-laced capsules while standing in the store aisle, investigators thought. 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. 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. Theories The first suspect is 48 year old dock worker Roger Arnold, who said some suspicious things about the Tylenol murders at a bar one night. The task force knew the mechanism behind the murders, Fellmann said. The Tylenol task force may be no exception, he said, but the tensions didnt affect the overall effort. 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. Former Chicago police Superintendent Richard Brzeczek, shown in September, says he felt Ty Fahner was chosen to head the task force for political reasons. Investigators pulled library records to see who had checked out books on cyanide. Many people who handled potential evidence in 1982 didnt wear gloves because it wasnt protocol at the time. Hearing that threat, the detectives said, they banged on the door and announced themselves as police. 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. I knew how to organize things.. He goes, It smells like burnt almonds. . As weeks went by without an arrest, detectives started using different doors to avoid the cameras. Deputy coroner Siekmann recalled going to Winfield to pick up the Tylenol collected from Reiners house a few hours after her death. (Chicago Tribune archive). The likelihood that the same person could have put cyanide into different batches manufactured at different times in different places was logistically zero.. I thought, well, this is rather impressive, Siekmann said. They gave her one extra-strength Tylenol capsule that, unbeknownst to them, was laced with the highly poisonous potassium cyanide. Chemists working for the Illinois Public Health Department in Chicago test the contents of Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules. Written by a high-ranking Illinois state police supervisor in April 1983, the document describes the wide net authorities cast in the hopes of solving the mystery. NBC News has not reviewed that evidence. With absolute certainty, they can say the following: Records show at least four fingerprints were found during the initial investigation. 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