A serial killer who was never caught changed the way Americans consume over-the-counter drugs after sending the nation into widespread panic with their sick murder plot.
The poisoning murders of seven Chicago residents in 1982 horrified the country—and the world at large—because they involved Tylenol, the best-selling over-the-counter pain reliever at the time.
The killer had opened the capsules and replaced some of the paracetamol with potassium cyanide, then quietly put them back on the shelves.
The only suspect to ever come forward was James Lewis, who died at home earlier this week at the age of 76.
Back then, the pills were in a container guarded only by a cotton ball. But the murders sparked universal reforms in how over-the-counter drugs are packaged, with the FDA introducing new tamper-resistant packaging, including foil seals.
The first victim was 12-year-old Mary Kellerman from the Elk Grove Village suburb. Her parents gave her an extra strength capsule on September 29 after she complained of a sore throat and a runny nose. By morning she was dead.
Mary Kellerman, Mary McFarland, Mary “Lynn” Reiner, Paula Prince, and Stanley, Adam, and Terri Janus died after taking Tylenol pills mixed with cyanide. Their murders changed the way Americans consume over-the-counter drugs
Although he always denied being the killer, James Lewis was not questioned about the murders until September. He passed away earlier this week at the age of 76
On the same day, 27-year-old postal worker Adam Janus of Arlington Heights also died mysteriously after taking a Tylenol pill. His death was initially ruled a massive heart attack, but was found to be the result of cyanide poisoning.
As he began to mourn him, his brother Stanley, 25, and sister-in-law Theresa, 19, took tablets from the same bottle to manage headaches. In a heartbreaking family tragedy, Stanley died that day and Theresa two days later.
Over the next week, three others were killed: 35-year-old Mary McFarland of Elmhurst, 35-year-old Paula Prince of Chicago, and 27-year-old Mary Weiner of Winfield.
In early October, police realized that Tylenol was the common denominator in the strange deaths.
Before the 1982 crisis, Tylenol controlled more than 35 percent of the over-the-counter pain reliever market. Just a few weeks after the murders, that number plummeted to less than 8 percent.
Because the tampered bottles came from different factories, sabotage in production was excluded. Instead, it is believed that someone visited drugstores, opened bottles and added a deadly potassium cyanide compound before returning them to the shelves.
Tylenol manufacturer Johnson & Johnson issued a mass alert and recalled the more than 31 million bottles of Tylenol in circulation. Poison capsules were found in a few supermarkets in the Chicago area and recalled before anyone else was killed.
Within a year of the murders, and after an investment of more than $100 million, sales of Tylenol rebounded and it enjoyed a renaissance as the country’s preferred over-the-counter pain reliever.
In 1983, the US Congress passed the so-called “Tylenol Act,” making it a federal felony to tamper with consumer products.
In 1989, the FDA issued federal guidelines for manufacturers to make all such products tamper-resistant.
Tylenol manufacturer Johnson & Johnson issued a mass alert and recalled the more than 31 million bottles of Tylenol in circulation
The murders sparked global panic and led to reforms in how over-the-counter drugs are packaged, with the FDA introducing new tamper-resistant packaging such as foil seals
Although he always denied it, police believed Lewis was behind the killing spree and he was not questioned until September when authorities tried to find the person behind the murders 40 years later.
Lewis, a former accountant, was arrested, charged, and convicted of writing extortion letters threatening that the murders would continue unless $1 million was transferred to a bank account.
In a jailhouse interview, he explained an elaborate plan the killer “said to have used” to poison the pills using a drilled pegboard.
Police have said they believe Lewis acted in revenge against Johnson & Johnson after his five-year-old daughter, Toni, died in 1974. The girl died after stitches from a subsidiary of the company were used to repair her congenital heart defect and she tore.
Lewis was found dead at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Sunday.
“I was saddened to learn of James Lewis’s death. Not because he’s dead, but because he didn’t die in prison,” said former assistant attorney Jeremy Margolis, who prosecuted Lewis for racketeering.
“I always hoped that justice would be served, and this short-circuits,” retired FBI Special Agent Roy Lane added.