Subscribe to our Science Newsletter to explore the . 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. 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. Investigators took pictures of people who attended the victims funerals to see if they could capture anyone acting unusual. And everyone in the meeting is aware of one undeniable truth: There is no physical evidence linking a suspect to the poisonings. 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. Stanley died that very day and Theresa died two days later. The more she . 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. Severns, who had two young children, heard the undeserved guilt in her voice. So as we organized, there were about 10, 15 different avenues of investigations to pursue, like disgruntled employees, former employees, lawsuits, Lane said. 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. We were getting flooded with calls, said John Fellmann, an Arlington Heights detective assigned to the case. Investigators also collected more than 200 cyanide samples from Chicago-area businesses, facilities and institutions and sent them to an FDA research laboratory in Cincinnati. He also laid the foundation to get Extra-Strength Tylenol off store shelves statewide, going beyond the single batch the pain relievers manufacturer had recalled that day. The Tylenol Murders Victims Mary Kellerman On September 29, 1982, 12 year old Mary Kellerman woke up feeling ill. Another tip involved a man who was threatening to poison Hormel food products. 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. We locked him up.. Some investigators on the case, including a few still involved with it, considered the rendered profile too vague to be of any real use. Police grasped for suspects who might be the so-called "Mad Poisoner." Wherever they stand, everyone wishes they had achieved a different result. The program went far beyond any database previously used by law enforcement in Illinois. Ted Kaczynski had proven he was a revenge-seeking terrorist, and he had connections to Chicago. Chemists working for the Illinois Public Health Department in Chicago test the contents of Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules. There was little evidence to go on, no inkling of a motive and five people dead. Come to 1425 Armstrong Lane.. But before Sept. 29, 1982, consumer products had few defenses against a person bent on sabotage. 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. 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 I want people to know that, yeah, this was my family, and it has changed all of us.. 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 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. They knew the weapon. Unfortunately, each victim swallowed a Tylenol capsule laced with A lethal dose of cyanide. Roger Arnold worked at a jewel warehouse with the father of one of the victims named Mary Reiner. Perhaps he traded homemade bombs for poisoned pills. (James Mayo / Chicago Tribune). And Fahner wasnt the only source of tensions. The poisonings spanned multiple towns and two counties. But if they kept the bottles in their medicine cabinets, more people could die. Investigators took pictures of people who attended the victims funerals to see if they could capture anyone acting unusual. The task force didnt know who or why.. 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. Illinois Attorney General Ty Fahner talks about the Tylenol deaths on Oct. 1, 1982. The panic stemming from the Tylenol murders resulted in a permanent change in the packaging of medicine. If Fahner had any chance of keeping his office in November, he had to build enthusiasm among conservative voters in the suburbs. Fahner stepped off the stage and ducked behind a blue velvet curtain, where a state police officer briefed him. No one has ever been charged with the murders. These other men were all worried about his chances. 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. A drugstore clerk removes Tylenol capsules from the shelves of a pharmacy Sept. 30, 1982, in New York City after reports of tampering. In the first year alone, the task force used it to track more than 35,000 individuals and 15,000 companies contacted as part of the investigation. In all, the task force had only eight bottles to offer clues to where and when the tampering could have taken place. 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. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune). But on Oct. 1, 1982, he had been a detective for only a year. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune), John Fellmann at his home in Huntley in September. The bottle's cap was easily opened. Though the company expanded the recall the same day to cover the batch involved in McFarlands death, the piecemeal approach troubled Fahner. 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. 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. Pero quin fue el asesino? Fahner had worked for James Thompson in the U.S. attorneys office, handling some of the citys biggest federal corruption cases. Jose Rosa, right, was one of hundreds of Chicago city employees and volunteers to distribute warnings about cyanide-laced Tylenol in fall 1982. The guy was a little wimpy, but his ham did stink.. And then there are agents who dont. Lane would think of that line a year later when, without prompting, a suspect called him and offered to help solve the case. We were looking for somebody that really looked like they didnt belong. Daniel Walker and several Chicago aldermen convicted in Operation Silver Shovel. The FBI and Chicago police performed separate, but largely parallel, investigations until Oct. 6. Several people had died within the last day in the Chicago suburbs after ingesting Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide and the situation needed attention. Meanwhile, a 12-year-old child named Mary Kellerman had also died suddenly in another Chicago suburb after taking an Extra-Strength Tylenol. Christy Gutowski focuses her work on stories about criminal justice, public corruption and issues that impact the everyday man. Rosen's theory is that the tampering did not happen on store shelves, but at the manufacturing plant before the product was shipped out. I realized I was in the deep end of the pool, he said. Investigators pulled library records to see who had checked out books on cyanide. 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. Thats being made out of whole cloth all these years later. 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. You werent there. 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. For example, Johnson & Johnson developed new product protection methods and ironclad pledges to do better in protecting their consumers in the future. Im just being honest, Siekmann said. Records show law enforcement has spent the past several years dealing almost entirely with forensic evidence. The evening marked an important shift in the tragedy, moving from a swiftly solved medical mystery into a massive criminal investigation. The Tylenol Murders In 1982, seven innocent Chicago civilians were boldly murdered. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Margolis, who later became director of the Illinois State Police, says multiagency efforts always endure allegations of infighting and spotlight stealing. 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. You know, because Ty was just a classy lawyer, and he never was a politician, he said. Thats clear, Margolis told the Tribune. 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. A lot of people who didnt like me or didnt like Thompson or my association were taking shots, Fahner said. Chicago police Detectives Jimmy Gildea. Others found Fahner the obvious choice. I dont know what he thought. (Stan Policht / Chicago Tribune). 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 tip line received more than 6,000 calls within the first few weeks. Jose Rosa, right, was one of hundreds of Chicago city employees and volunteers to distribute warnings about cyanide-laced Tylenol in fall 1982. 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. 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. They also started grumbling about politics overshadowing their work. 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. They would work the case in Chicago and send someone else to Des Plaines to play nice with the others. IE 11 is not supported. Left: 1996 - 2023 NewsHour Productions LLC. 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 . To this day, however, the perpetrators of these murders have never been found. The Tylenol murders have never been solved, though at one point, the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, was a suspect. Investigators say new evidence may help finally solve the case of seven people who died after ingesting Tylenol laced with cyanide in the Chicago area in 1982. (Michael Budrys / Chicago Tribune). 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. 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. I tell you, this wasnt a CSI show, he said. 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. Several victims families told the Tribune they didnt hear much from investigators after those initial interviews. Two main suspects in this unsolved case are James Lewis and Roger Arnold, who had both been linked to this occurrence in some way. As a state crime, murder fell under the purview of local law enforcement. 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. By 2011, the FBI was ready to reexamine the evidence. Or, at the very least, get them to remember his name. Nothing has come of that January 2022 meeting. The Chicago detectives shared that worry. Prince was officially declared dead by the Medical Examiner's office at 6:45 p.m. Investigators discovered a bottle of Extra-Strength Tylenol in her bathroom with one capsule missing and a. I dont want to get off here, he quietly said. I do think it created a lot of problems because youre always thinking theres somebody doing something behind your back.. She also laments that her dad never got to meet her and her husband, her son, her stepson and her step-grandson. Police reports mention several former Johnson & Johnson employees, though none was ever considered a serious suspect. Initial interviews panic stemming from the Tylenol murders have never been solved, though none was ever considered a suspect. James Thompson in the tragedy, moving from a swiftly solved medical mystery into a massive investigation. A lethal dose of cyanide of a motive and five people dead Public Health Department in Chicago the. Theresa died two days later 12-year-old child named Mary Reiner the murders,. 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