His wife whom he had just married fell limp in the living room a short while after that. 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. That wasnt there.. Chicagos doing what they want, so lets just give them something minor to do.. Deputy coroner Siekmann recalled going to Winfield to pick up the Tylenol collected from Reiners house a few hours after her death. We didnt get anything, but we were kicking around ideas like that.. It wasnt a grab for authority. He goes, It smells like burnt almonds. . (Stan Policht / Chicago Tribune). Joe Murphy told NBC Chicago last year. . He didnt fit that profile, Hogberg said. Authorities wont discuss the potential theories or suspects they have amid an investigation that they insist remains open and unforgotten. The poisonings spanned multiple towns and two counties. Studies have found women who kill use poison more often than men do, but they typically target people they know. 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. The likelihood that the same person could have put cyanide into different batches manufactured at different times in different places was logistically zero.. 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. Male murderers are more likely, in general, to kill randomly and on a large scale. Chicago police Detectives Jimmy Gildea. Authorities believed they offered clues about who could and who could not have poisoned the capsules. The Tylenol murders would soon spur the development of plastic seals and tamper-evident packaging. The discovery, so far, has been more of a curse than a blessing for present-day investigators, who have spent years obtaining DNA samples from investigators, public health officials, scientists and medical professionals who came in contact with the poisoned Tylenol. A casket is carried out of St. Hyacinth Roman Catholic Church after the funeral Mass for three members of the Janus family in 1982. 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. Investigators took pictures of people who attended the victims funerals to see if they could capture anyone acting unusual. Fahner, as head of the task force, quickly became the public face of the investigation. As the de facto leader of the task force, he would come to be known in the media as "Tylenol Ty.". That said, he was charged with extortion and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Security cameras were scarce in 1982, but investigators checked the images that existed, including this photograph from a drugstore camera showing Paula Prince, center, buying a bottle of tainted Tylenol. The task force investigating the Tylenol killings doubted that James Lewis would be reckless enough to stay in Manhattan after mailing an extortion letter to Johnson & Johnson demanding $1 million . Some expressed surprise at how casually other people treated the poisoned bottles. 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. 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 bottles, however, needed to be tested before they could say with certainty. (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. Another tip involved a man who was threatening to poison Hormel food products. That evening, Illinois Attorney General Ty Fahner sat on a dais listening to stump speeches at the Kane County Republican Organizations annual dinner. 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. The first few days were spent talking to people closest to Prince and sifting through the many tips they received. Fahner ordered his staff to work through the night, calling local police, sheriffs, coroners, the FBI, the FDA, prosecutors and public health officials. 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. McNeill and Johnson & Johnson offered replacement capsules to those who turned in pills already purchased and a reward for anyone with information leading to the apprehension of the individual or people involved in these random murders. The best suspect for the Tylenol murders has always been James William Lewis, who sent an extortion letter to Johnson & Johnson demanding $1 million to stop the murders. We also are still were looking at emerging forensic technology, Sgt. Halfway through the speeches, an aide tapped him on the shoulder and told him he needed to take an important call. 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. He believed Thompson was behind the move, though Fahner denied it. The more she . 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. (Charles Osgood / Chicago Tribune). DNA evidence wasnt part of police work at the time, but it would become a factor in the case a quarter-century later. The Tylenol task force may be no exception, he said, but the tensions didnt affect the overall effort. Our highest responsibility has always been the health and safety of our consumers," Johnson & Johnson said in a statement to NBC News. In those early days, the best leads came from the Tylenol bottles themselves. Investigators assumed the culprit was a man, though records indicate they didnt automatically rule out anyone based on gender. I had people dropping dead all over the place.. Chemists working for the Illinois Public Health Department in Chicago test the contents of Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules. The Tylenol Murders In 1982, seven innocent Chicago civilians were boldly murdered. 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. The Soviets were willing to assist, but their satellites werent trained on the Chicago suburbs at the time. He told her no, then carried the memory of the Kellermans anguish with him for the rest of his time on the task force. 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. When Thompson, a Republican, became governor in 1977, Fahner followed him to Springfield to lead the Illinois state police. Former Chicago police Detective Jimmy Gildea, shown at his Chicago home in July, investigated the death of Tylenol victim Paula Prince. 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. 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. Illinois Attorney General Ty Fahner talks about the Tylenol deaths on Oct. 1, 1982. 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. The Tylenol murders fundamentally changed the way we consume medication - among other things, leading to tamper-proof pill and bottle designs. I said, Excuse me. He said Marys mother, Jeanna, asked him if she should have noticed that someone had tampered with the bottle. "While this tragic incident remains unsolved, this event resulted in important industry improvements to patient safety measures including the creation of tamper-resistant packaging.". (James Mayo / Chicago Tribune). 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. And you know, some agents are better than other agents and can really do a good job. Dr. Howard Markel. Forty years after that terrifying period in September 1982, investigators say new evidence and a potential motive may be enough to finally solve the case. 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. NBC News reached out to Lewis and did not receive a response. 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. Come to 1425 Armstrong Lane.. When that happened, the suspect would make contact with an investigator and offer to help solve the case. 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. FBI agents carry boxes out of the apartment building in Cambridge, Mass., Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009. Tylenol murders: A nationwide panic, a family tragedy Transformed by tragedy Her dad, aunt and uncle died 40 years ago after taking poisoned Tylenol. (Chicago Tribune archive). It started in 1982, not long after the murders. Police Officer Michael Miljan leaves an Arlington Heights pharmacy after making sure bottles of Extra-Strength Tylenol were being removed from shelves. I realized I was in the deep end of the pool, he said. 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. Seven people in the Chicago area were killed that year by Tylenol that had been poisoned with potassium cyanide. 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. (Carl Wagner / Chicago Tribune). The tainted bottle from the Schaumburg pharmacy contained three partial prints on the capsules, but (they) were not suitable for comparison, the memo states. Manufacturer Johnson & Johnson recalled 31 million Tylenol bottles as panic spread nationwide following the deaths. 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. Following the same theory, investigators took pictures . The Tylenol murders: The story of a 40-year-old unsolved case begins with a terrifying medical mystery. Within a week, her death would panic the entire nation. Their opinion soured even further at their first meeting, when one of the lead investigators asked for a briefing on the Prince murder. We were looking for somebody that really looked like they didnt belong. The task ahead was difficult. He investigated the Tylenol poisonings in the Janus family and later served as police chief in Island Lake. Several victims families told the Tribune they didnt hear much from investigators after those initial interviews. 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. [[Para leer en espaol] Los asesinatos de Tylenol, parte 2: Tylenol mezclado con cianuro fue el arma homicida. After a lengthy cat and mouse game, police and federal investigators determined that Lewis lived in New York and had no demonstrable links to the Chicago events. No one has ever been charged with the murders. Subscribe to Here's the Deal, our politics newsletter. 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. And they would remain apart for the next four decades. Daniel Walker and several Chicago aldermen convicted in Operation Silver Shovel. I mean, it just got to me, Severns said. Whats going on? NBC News has not reviewed that evidence. He was released in 1995 after serving only 13 years. I dont think that bore fruit at all.. Several suspects did too. 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. See where the eight tainted Tylenol bottles were purchased or discovered. 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. Editors note: This report has been updated to remove the reported amount of cyanide used. 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. Some of those interviews may have gone to an agent who didnt do a good job., 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. Here, he offers a Spanish-language flyer to Luisa Acevada. 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. 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. You werent there. One man, James Lewis, claiming to be the Tylenol killer wrote a ransom letter to Johnson & Johnson demanding $1 million in exchange for stopping the poisonings. READ: The awful work of the real doctors who inspired M*A*S*H. The case continued to be confusing to the police, the drug maker and the public at large. Three months earlier, 10 Chicago officers from the citys West Side were convicted of taking bribes to protect heroin rings. What was he like in school? . The company, however, did not keep records of where the products were shipped. Thats being made out of whole cloth all these years later. A long-planned meeting with DuPage prosecutors also was pushed back in the spring. Why was this happening? The panic stemming from the Tylenol murders resulted in a permanent change in the packaging of medicine. Extra-Strength Tylenol, shown in a Tribune studio photograph, once was packaged in a paper box with an unglued lid. Authorities were convinced the killer didnt know any of the victims. 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. 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. His task force partners the FBI and state police had blindsided the Elk Grove Village detective, and he was angry. It was 1982. A photograph of a television screen shows the specific lot number for a batch of Extra-Strength Tylenol that was the first to be recalled. A new book by a former Johnson & Johnson employee suggests the Tylenol poisonings, which killed seven people in the Chicago area in 1982, took place in the company's production or distribution. There was no clear leader. He held news conferences, sometimes twice a day, to meet the insatiable media demands. The Tylenol murders: How we reported this story. And lives were at risk. But something more sinister was afoot when Kasias paternal uncle Stanley Janus and his wife, Theresa Tarasewicz Janus, each took pills from the same Tylenol bottle that Adam had bought in an attempt to fight headaches. Investigators pulled library records to see who had checked out books on cyanide. What are you giving this story for? So they ran him off the stage and I got up there.. 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 agencies, at times, clashed with each other. 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. 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. 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. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune), John Fellmann at his home in Huntley in September. Police Officer Michael Miljan leaves an Arlington Heights pharmacy after making sure bottles of Extra-Strength Tylenol were being removed from shelves. 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 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. It marked the first mass recall in U.S. history, involving more than 31 million bottles. Tylenol Ty, Ford said. Tylenol murders investigators pursue new charges in 40-year case. Ford said he quickly interrupted. The Tylenol Murders Victims Mary Kellerman On September 29, 1982, 12 year old Mary Kellerman woke up feeling ill. 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. 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. Customers who had a problem, anybody that could make some money out of it.. Police grasped for suspects who might be the so-called "Mad Poisoner." The Chicago Tylenol murders were a series of poisoning deaths resulting from drug tampering in the Chicago metropolitan area 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. Pursuing the mission, however, eventually sent the FBI and the Chicago Police Department in two different directions. 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. Some investigators on the case, including a few still involved with it, considered the rendered profile too vague to be of any real use. (Ovie Carter / Chicago Tribune). It didnt take long for the Tylenol murders to become national news. Police departments and fire stations began collecting bottles, as well. Thompson put him in charge of the investigation to get TV time. Illinois state police and FBI supervisors did most of the talking at that first meeting, several attendees told the Tribune. 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. The guy was a little wimpy, but his ham did stink.. (Charles Knoblock / AP). Jose Rosa, right, was one of hundreds of Chicago city employees and volunteers to distribute warnings about cyanide-laced Tylenol in fall 1982. 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. 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. 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. The Tylenol case, however, would loom largest over his professional life. Most came from a banking service that snapped a photograph of anyone writing a check. In those early days, there were so many agencies involved, so many people desperate to solve the case. A theory emerged: What if the Mad Poisoner was actually the Unabomber? Former DuPage County Coroner Pete Siekmann, who in 1982 was a deputy coroner, handled the Tylenol bottles from Mary "Lynn" Reiner and Mary McFarland. If people threw out their Tylenol, authorities would never know the full extent of the tampering. Stores were pulling the product off shelves. Rosen's theory is that the tampering did not happen on store shelves, but at the manufacturing plant before the product was shipped out. She would be the seventh and final person to die from taking the poisoned medication. The Tylenol Murders" and asked him if he has any theories on who the Tylenol Killer might be. Forty years ago, cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules led to the deaths of seven people all around the Chicago area. The publication reported this week that it has obtained video and thousands of documents outlining law enforcement's current case and a possible motive for the killings. The Tylenol Murders Pt. 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