McNeil Consumer Products, a subsidiary of the health care giant, Johnson & Johnson, manufactured Tylenol. He said Marys mother, Jeanna, asked him if she should have noticed that someone had tampered with the bottle. His wife whom he had just married fell limp in the living room a short while after that. (Don Casper / Chicago Tribune), Obviously, Johnson & Johnson didnt put cyanide in their own product. The likelihood that the same person could have put cyanide into different batches manufactured at different times in different places was logistically zero.. He received the assignment by default, and then it became part of a national news story. With fears mounting, Johnson & Johnson recalled all over-the-counter Tylenol capsule products on Oct. 5, nearly a week after Mary Kellermans death. That thrill, however, would eventually diminish over time and the killer would seek more excitement, according to the profilers. 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. And they would remain apart for the next four decades. 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. 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. Johnson & Johnson initially recalled only those products with the same batch number as the Janus and Kellerman bottles. 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. Some of the investigators started using it privately, too. And they talked to veterinarians about any unusual animal poisonings, thinking the murderer may have tested the chemical on pets first. It didnt take long for the Tylenol murders to become national news. You know, boost exposure and stuff like that.. 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. The first tainted Tylenol victim - Mary Kellerman, 12, of Elk Grove Village - collapsed and died on . For example, Johnson & Johnson quickly established that the cyanide lacing occurred after cases of Tylenol left the factory. Other task force members, it should be noted, werent particularly fond of Chicagos efforts either. Dr. Howard Markel writes a monthly column for the PBS NewsHour, highlighting momentous historical events that continue to shape modern medicine. 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. 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. We had gloves in our car and basically used them on decomposed bodies. That same day, a 27-year-old postal worker named Adam Janus of Arlington Heights, Illinois, died of what was initially thought to be a massive heart attack but turned out to be cyanide poisoning as well. I thought he was perfect.. Many people who handled potential evidence in 1982 didnt wear gloves because it wasnt protocol at the time. 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. I always wear the blue suit and the red tie, Lane said. It sounds like an urban legend, but it was chillingly real in 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. In late September of 1982 seven people were killed after an unknown suspect placed cyanide laced Tylenol pills in store bottles. Seven people died in 1982 after taking painkillers from bottle someone police do not know who had slipped cyanide pills into. The Tylenol murders: The story of a 40-year-old unsolved case begins with a terrifying medical mystery. Investigators assumed the culprit was a man, though records indicate they didnt automatically rule out anyone based on gender. Not just the hours, but the frustration. And I would wake them up just to say good night, you know?. And, in the decades since, scientific advances have allowed investigators to detect DNA profiles on at least three of the tainted bottles and the capsules inside. What are the Tylenol murders? (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. Former Chicago police Superintendent Richard Brzeczek, shown in September, says he felt Ty Fahner was chosen to head the task force for political reasons. The tip line received more than 6,000 calls within the first few weeks. Complaining of a sore throat and a stuffy nose, her parents gave Mary one Extra Strength Tylenol capsule and let her stay home from school. Indeed, the Johnson & Johnson recall became a classic case study in business schools across the nation. The pills were sold at stores in suburban Chicago, and bottles of Tylenol were immediately pulled from shelves to be tested by health departments for the presence of cyanide. 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 lot of people who didnt like me or didnt like Thompson or my association were taking shots, Fahner said. 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. Dr. Howard Markel. Details about the seven victims, how they obtained the tainted bottles and their final moments were outlined in a confidential police memo obtained by the Tribune. Police Officer Michael Miljan leaves an Arlington Heights pharmacy after making sure bottles of Extra-Strength Tylenol were being removed from shelves. Ford and Gildea arrived at the campus with hopes of a break in the case, only to find out the so-called professor was a high school boy pretending to work at UIC so he could pick up college girls. 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 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. The effort was Herculean, said Jeremy Margolis, a former U.S. attorney who was assigned to the task force. Fahner had worked for James Thompson in the U.S. attorneys office, handling some of the citys biggest federal corruption cases. And Fahner wasnt the only source of tensions. We felt kind of creepy doing it, retired FBI agent Bob Gibson said of his graveyard duty. 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 dont know what he thought. Here's what to know about the history of the case and the latest developments. (Chicago Tribune archive). None matched. Several suspects did too. They knew the locations. Flight attendant Paula Prince bought a tainted bottle of Tylenol at the Walgreens at Wells Street and North Avenue in Chicago. It was standing room only inside the Arlington Heights Police Department for the first meeting of what would become the Tylenol task force. . 1: Poisoning the Well: Directed by Travis Clark. The Tylenol murders: How we reported this story. he answered. 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. Over the next several months, Fahners task force would do groundbreaking police work, generate 19,000 pages of investigative reports, be accused of playing politics and, ultimately, fail to hold anyone accountable for the murders. The Tylenol Murders Victims Mary Kellerman On September 29, 1982, 12 year old Mary Kellerman woke up feeling ill. Authorities were convinced the killer didnt know any of the victims. The agents didnt bother to pretend that labeling rules were their true motivation for getting involved. 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. And I want people to know that, yeah, this was my family, and it has changed all of us.. 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. These packaging protections soon became the industry standard for all over-the-counter medications. Ford said he quickly interrupted. 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 most promising leads involved people doing curious things with chemicals. 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. 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. The FBI and Chicago police performed separate, but largely parallel, investigations until Oct. 6. Forty years later, it still bothers him. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). Tensions flared, even among law enforcement personnel sincerely dedicated to the job. We had an absolute tsunami of Tylenol bottles. Most came from a banking service that snapped a photograph of anyone writing a check. Former Chicago police Detective Jimmy Gildea, shown at his Chicago home in July, investigated the death of Tylenol victim Paula Prince. Meanwhile, a 12-year-old child named Mary Kellerman had also died suddenly in another Chicago suburb after taking an Extra-Strength Tylenol. He is the director of the Center for the History of Medicine and the George E. Wantz Distinguished Professor of the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan and the author ofThe Secret of Life: Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick and the Discovery of DNAs Double Helix (W.W. Norton, September 21). But on this unseasonably warm October morning, during a separate meeting between the FBI and state police, Lane was one of several investigators who gathered to brainstorm possible motives behind the crime. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). [[Para leer en espaol] Los asesinatos de Tylenol, parte 2: Tylenol mezclado con cianuro fue el arma homicida. Most working detectives really dont trust the FBI, and the FBI doesnt trust us, Ford said. 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. [Para leer en espaol] Los asesinatos de Tylenol, parte 2: Tylenol mezclado con cianuro fue el arma homicida. Thats because nobody was keeping track of who was buying cyanide, Wolnik said. 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. Chicago police Superintendent Richard Brzeczek talks about the Tylenol investigation on Oct. 7, 1982, about a week after the seven deaths. 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. But no one has ever been arrested in connection with the spate of poisonings that shattered the families of Janus and the others. Next week: Police investigate a poor mans James Bond, and an eighth person dies. As a state crime, murder fell under the purview of local law enforcement. The Tylenol case, however, would loom largest over his professional life. Whoa, whoa, he recalled. On Friday afternoon, doctors removed Stanley Janus wife, Terri, from life support. Kasia said she still remembers hearing her mother scream when she couldnt wake her father up the next day, 29 September 1982. And they had a very good theory as to when they were placed. The task ahead was difficult. Investigators took pictures of people who attended the victims funerals to see if they could capture anyone acting unusual. See where the eight tainted Tylenol bottles were purchased or discovered. Testing found cyanide in the Extra-Strength Tylenol capsule on the right. The Tylenol murders have never been solved, though at one point, the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, was a suspect. Roger Arnold worked at a jewel warehouse with the father of one of the victims named Mary Reiner. Six suburbanites had already died from cyanide poisoning by that time, but this was Chicagos first and, in the end, only victim. Marquette 10 is one of a thousand reasons why theres tension, personal jealousy, personal ambition, jurisdictional turf fights. What are the Tylenol murders? In those early days, there were so many agencies involved, so many people desperate to solve the case. 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. Kasia said she long blamed herself for her fathers death, even though she was just in preschool when it happened. 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. (Chicago Tribune), Look, like any other series of government bureaucracies, theres always tension between agencies, he said. He would gravitate toward someone with a blue suit and red tie, the quintessential 1980s-style power suit. (Stan Policht / Chicago Tribune). Left: Margolis, who later became director of the Illinois State Police, says multiagency efforts always endure allegations of infighting and spotlight stealing. In the years that followed, Fellmann would rise through the ranks of the Arlington Heights Police Department and eventually become police chief of far north suburban Island Lake. He held news conferences, sometimes twice a day, to meet the insatiable media demands. 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