(Don Casper / Chicago Tribune), People were terrified, Fahner said. I think its pretty important, the aide replied. He couldnt leave. America was gripped by paranoia and fear. 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. Christy Gutowski focuses her work on stories about criminal justice, public corruption and issues that impact the everyday man. The Tribune interviewed nearly two dozen members of the task force, many of whom confirmed the reports veracity and added their own perspective. He investigated the Tylenol poisonings in the Janus family and later served as police chief in Island Lake. Jose Rosa, right, was one of hundreds of Chicago city employees and volunteers to distribute warnings about cyanide-laced Tylenol in fall 1982. The White House, however, had ordered the FBI to find a way into the case amid growing public panic. Stacy has a journalism degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia, with minors in American politics and Spanish. Ford said Stein encouraged him to smell the pills, but the detective refused and pushed away the pathologists hand. Police Officer Michael Miljan leaves an Arlington Heights pharmacy after making sure bottles of Extra-Strength Tylenol were being removed from shelves. I always wear the blue suit and the red tie, Lane said. Dr. Howard Markel The final Tylenol death was confirmed on the evening of Oct. 1, when 35-year-old flight attendant Paula Prince was found dead in her Old Town condominium. The task force knew the mechanism behind the murders, Fellmann said. A long-planned meeting with DuPage prosecutors also was pushed back in the spring. In all, the task force had only eight bottles to offer clues to where and when the tampering could have taken place. Forty years later, these earliest days remain a point of pride for some and a source of frustration for others. Following the same theory, investigators took pictures . He didnt get in our way. Most came from a banking service that snapped a photograph of anyone writing a check. And then there are agents who dont. 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. These other men were all worried about his chances. The task force met each morning at the Des Plaines headquarters to discuss leads and get their assignments. Seven people in the Chicago area were killed that year by Tylenol that had been poisoned with potassium cyanide. But if they kept the bottles in their medicine cabinets, more people could die. 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. Investigators took pictures of people who attended the victims funerals to see if they could capture anyone acting unusual. Come to 1425 Armstrong Lane.. Things were chaotic. The Tylenol Murders Victims Mary Kellerman On September 29, 1982, 12 year old Mary Kellerman woke up feeling ill. 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. The evening marked an important shift in the tragedy, moving from a swiftly solved medical mystery into a massive criminal investigation. Siekmann drove to a state laboratory in the city with the bottle on the seat next to him. But others, including Lane, found it immensely helpful and from his perspective ultimately accurate. For example, Johnson & Johnson developed new product protection methods and ironclad pledges to do better in protecting their consumers in the future. Or, at the very least, get them to remember his name. 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. Perhaps he traded homemade bombs for poisoned pills. The most promising leads involved people doing curious things with chemicals. And neither does the DNA. 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. The couple were later pronounced dead, too. So as we organized, there were about 10, 15 different avenues of investigations to pursue, like disgruntled employees, former employees, lawsuits, Lane said. Chicago police Detectives Jimmy Gildea. Conspiracy theories about motives and suspects for all these heinous acts continue to be bandied about on the Internet to this day. Not just the hours, but the frustration. Investigators first considered whether the tampering could have occurred at the manufacturing plants. When that happened, the suspect would make contact with an investigator and offer to help solve the case. But when she opened the . 1: Poisoning the Well: Directed by Travis Clark. In fact, so many big dogs were present, Fellmann said he couldnt find a free chair inside his own 60-seat roll call room. 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. Before that she reported for the Daily Herald, the Dayton Daily News and The Topeka Capital-Journal. Extra-Strength Tylenol, shown in a Tribune studio photograph, once was packaged in a paper box with an unglued lid. Extra-Strength Tylenol bottles, for example, came in a paper box with an unglued lid. All 3 networks lead with the Tylenol story on the first day of the crisis. And it took over my life.. 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. He received the assignment by default, and then it became part of a national news story. 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. They gave her one extra-strength Tylenol capsule that, unbeknownst to them, was laced with the highly poisonous potassium cyanide. The more she . Siekmann, who had been working since 8 a.m., believed some capsules were tainted from the first time he laid eyes on them. McNeil Consumer Products, a subsidiary of the health care giant, Johnson & Johnson, manufactured Tylenol. 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. But ultimately, three more people Mary Reiner, Mary McFarland and Paula Prince died within days after taking what they thought was an Extra-Strength Tylenol. Forty years after the infamous Tylenol murders killed her father and two other close relatives, a Wisconsin woman refuses to take the popular pain pills. 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. To its credit, the company took an active role with the media in issuing mass warning communications and immediately called for a massive recall of the more than 31 million bottles of Tylenol in circulation. Johnson & Johnson initially recalled only those products with the same batch number as the Janus and Kellerman bottles. Kasia said she long blamed herself for her fathers death, even though she was just in preschool when it happened. 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. (Ovie Carter / Chicago Tribune). Next week: Police investigate a poor mans James Bond, and an eighth person dies. Unfortunately, each victim swallowed a Tylenol capsule laced with A lethal dose of cyanide. The man hurriedly told the Hormel operator that he had to go and he would call her back later. Despite the passage of time and, in a way, because of it the bottles still may offer clues as to who poisoned the capsules. You werent there. Investigators quickly dismissed the possibility that the killer was targeting a single victim and the other bottles were contaminated to make it harder to solve that murder. Early on the morning of Sept. 29, 1982, a tragic, medical mystery began with a sore throat and a runny nose. 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. 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. IE 11 is not supported. Investigators soon confirmed there was lethally poisonous cyanide inside the Tylenol capsules in question. We also are still were looking at emerging forensic technology, Sgt. Elk Grove Village Detective Michael Severns said investigators were so intent on chasing leads that they at times lost sight of the grieving families. Neither did the chemist who performed the cyanide test. 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. (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. The city's most notorious unsolved murdersthe killing of seven people with cyanide-laced Tylenols in 1982is back in the news, as the seating of a grand jury is 1 2 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. Seven people died in 1982 after taking painkillers from bottle someone police do not know who had slipped cyanide pills into. (Stan Policht / Chicago Tribune). It would likely be someone with gray hair. Authorities already considered the womens deaths to be cyanide related by the time they contacted Fahner during his campaign event. Agents interviewed the victims families, neighbors, co-workers and friends about any known enemies. Mary was dead by 7 a.m. NBC News has not reviewed that evidence. The Illinois Department of Law Enforcement, now called the Illinois State Police, wanted him to help. She would be the seventh and final person to die from taking the poisoned medication. Fahners critics accused him of milking the Tylenol tragedy for his own benefit, and his opponents camp worried that he knew who the killer was and would make an arrest right before the November election. 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. 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. It was 1982. Fahner ordered his staff to work through the night, calling local police, sheriffs, coroners, the FBI, the FDA, prosecutors and public health officials. It sounds like an urban legend, but it was chillingly real in 1982. In the meantime, Kasia Janus has said shes dealt with occasionally overwhelming sadness because of the graduations her father couldnt attend. They looked at accused shoplifters, including a man charged with attempting to steal 28 Tylenol bottles from a Wheaton pharmacy in August. The decision cost the company more than $100 million, an enormous amount in 1982. Investigators took pictures of people who attended the victims funerals to see if they could capture anyone acting unusual. The Tylenol Murders Pt. Their departments relationship with the FBI had been rocky for decades, but it was at a particularly low point in September 1982. You know, its a hackneyed phrase, but we left no stone unturned., Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy Margolis, shown in his Chicago office in July, was part of the original Tylenol task force in 1982. The Unsolved Tylenol Murders of 1982: The Unabomber Theory Written by C.W.S. A lot of people who didnt like me or didnt like Thompson or my association were taking shots, Fahner said. Stores were pulling the product off shelves. The agents didnt bother to pretend that labeling rules were their true motivation for getting involved. The Tylenol Murders" and asked him if he has any theories on who the Tylenol Killer might be. Among those questioned was a clerical worker who was fired for repeatedly missing work. (Earl Gustie / Chicago Tribune). I knew how to organize things.. Working with FDA officials, they introduced a new tamper-proof packaging, which included foil seals and other features that made it obvious to a consumer if foul play had transpired. None matched. 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. As the de facto leader of the task force, he would come to be known in the media as "Tylenol Ty." They apologized, he said, but the trust had been broken. They knew the weapon. Pursuing the mission, however, eventually sent the FBI and the Chicago Police Department in two different directions. Reporters from the Chicago Tribune tracked down Lewis last month as part of the investigative podcast "Unsealed: The Tylenol Murders" and asked him if he has any theories on who the Tylenol Killer might be. Extra-Strength Tylenol, shown in a Tribune studio photograph, once was packaged in a paper box with an unglued lid. And I want people to know that, yeah, this was my family, and it has changed all of us.. 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. 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 . We felt kind of creepy doing it, retired FBI agent Bob Gibson said of his graveyard duty. The first tainted Tylenol victim - Mary Kellerman, 12, of Elk Grove Village - collapsed and died on . That wasnt there.. Stacy St. Clair joined the Chicago Tribune in 2007. Many people who handled potential evidence in 1982 didnt wear gloves because it wasnt protocol at the time. (Chicago Tribune), Look, like any other series of government bureaucracies, theres always tension between agencies, he said. Investigators pulled library records to see who had checked out books on cyanide. You shove those up my nose again, youre going to get socked in the face. Finally, in late July, officials from both Cook and DuPage gather for a video conference. Illinois Attorney General Ty Fahner talks about the Tylenol deaths on Oct. 1, 1982. Whoa, whoa, he recalled. Several suspects did too. 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. Stanley Janus soon collapsed on his late brothers kitchen floor. Kasia said she still remembers hearing her mother scream when she couldnt wake her father up the next day, 29 September 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. 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. Three months earlier, 10 Chicago officers from the citys West Side were convicted of taking bribes to protect heroin rings. In 1989, the FDA established federal guidelines for manufacturers to make all such products tamper-proof. Male murderers are more likely, in general, to kill randomly and on a large scale. Subscribe to Heres the Deal, our politics 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 gelatin-based capsules were especially popular because they were slick and easy to swallow. Thats being made out of whole cloth all these years later. The first few days were spent talking to people closest to Prince and sifting through the many tips they received. 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. 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. (Michael Budrys / Chicago Tribune). We had gloves in our car and basically used them on decomposed bodies. Whats going on? In those early days, there were so many agencies involved, so many people desperate to solve the case. The substance was grainier than the untainted Tylenol on the left. The Chicago detectives shared that worry. 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. 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 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. Flight attendant Paula Prince bought a tainted bottle of Tylenol at the Walgreens at Wells Street and North Avenue in Chicago. The Tylenol murders: The story of a 40-year-old unsolved case begins with a terrifying medical mystery. 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. The task ahead was difficult. The Chicago Tylenol Murders: With Laurence Fishburne. Joe Murphy told NBC Chicago last year. She also told CNN she had invited many people to a memorial service and celebration of life luncheon honoring her father in hopes that shed learn things she never got the chance to because of the murder. His brother and sister-in-law, Stanley, 25, and Theresa, 19, of Lisle, Illinois, rushed to his home to console their loved ones. A drugstore clerk removes Tylenol capsules from the shelves of a pharmacy Sept. 30, 1982, in New York City after reports of tampering. Thats because nobody was keeping track of who was buying cyanide, Wolnik said. 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. 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. As the 40th anniversary of the 1982 Tylenol murders approaches, investigators are working with prosecutors on a now-or-maybe-never effort to hold a longtime suspect responsible for the. We were looking for somebody that really looked like they didnt belong. Her parents gave permission. 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. As weeks went by without an arrest, detectives started using different doors to avoid the cameras. John Fellmann at his home in Huntley in September. Fahner thought state officials needed to be even more aggressive, despite the consequences for the investigation. The death toll now stood at five: Reiner, McFarland, Adam Janus of Arlington Heights, his brother Stanley Janus of Lisle and 12-year-old Mary Kellerman of Elk Grove Village. The investigators would then return around 5 p.m. to update everyone on the days developments. The Tylenol Murders In 1982, seven innocent Chicago civilians were boldly murdered. He brought personal knowledge (as the former state police director) and experience regarding a criminal investigation. 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. Thats just human nature. 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. Tylenol Ty, Ford said. And lives were at risk. NBC News reached out to Lewis and did not receive a response. Daniel Walker and several Chicago aldermen convicted in Operation Silver Shovel. Police Officer Michael Miljan leaves an Arlington Heights pharmacy after making sure bottles of Extra-Strength Tylenol were being removed from shelves. And Fahner wasnt the only source of tensions. 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. Paramedics came and took Adam Janus to a nearby hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead from what they suspected may have been a heart attack. Who would be next? 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. And you know, some agents are better than other agents and can really do a good job. Studies have found women who kill use poison more often than men do, but they typically target people they know. (Carl Wagner / Chicago Tribune). 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. Other task force members, it should be noted, werent particularly fond of Chicagos efforts either. Siekmann didnt wear gloves. Testing found cyanide in the Extra-Strength Tylenol capsule on the right. The police questioned him and searched his home, they turned up several interesting connections. You understand? Ford said he told Stein. The Kellerman and Janus bottles contained Tylenol from lot MC2880, manufactured in Pennsylvania on April 26, 1982. Margolis, who later became director of the Illinois State Police, says multiagency efforts always endure allegations of infighting and spotlight stealing. When the family returned home, both Adam's brother Stanley and Stanely's wife Theresa took a Tylenol, resulting in both of their deaths. 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. Fahner stepped off the stage and ducked behind a blue velvet curtain, where a state police officer briefed him. All Rights Reserved. Each participant has a packet of information that authorities use to explain their findings. 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. 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. What happens in most cases, and certainly what happened here beyond any question, was a 100% selfless, unified devotion to a very important mission.. FBI agent Shari Kouba, one of the few women on the task force, ran the tips desk. The Tylenol Murders Remain One of the Nation's Biggest Unsolved Mysteries Popular belief is that the killer was James Lewis, the man imprisoned for 13 years for extorting Johnson & Johnson in the. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). . What are the Tylenol murders? Others found Fahner the obvious choice. And when the sitting attorney general was indicted on tax fraud charges, Thompson appointed Fahner to fill the post. (Michael Budrys / Chicago Tribune). Another theory was that whoever poisoned the medication did it at home or in a car, then placed the bottles back on the shelves. Chicago police Officer Sam Barsevich, left, takes inventory of Tylenol bottles that residents turned in at his station on Oct. 2, 1982. He needed to be there, no matter how much he hated campaigning. The company, however, did not keep records of where the products were shipped. It was so Dick Tracy to me, Steed said. 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. Thompson put him in charge of the investigation to get TV time. Im not saying that the task force didnt work or thats why the case was never solved, Severns said. Illinois Attorney General Ty Fahner talks about the Tylenol deaths on Oct. 1, 1982. And they talked to veterinarians about any unusual animal poisonings, thinking the murderer may have tested the chemical on pets first. (Chicago Tribune archive). He goes, It smells like burnt almonds. . Rosen's theory is that the tampering did not happen on store shelves, but at the manufacturing plant before the product was shipped out. Because all the other possibilities had been eliminated.. 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