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It’s been 40-years since tampered bottles of Extra Strength Tylenol® claimed the lives of seven people in the Chicago area, but despite multiple investigations and even some related arrests, the case remains unsolved.
The conversation around the case has resurfaced due to its anniversary last month, and those who want to hear an overview of the crime should look no further than the fact-based comedy podcast Do Go On. In their eighth most requested topic of the year, hosts Matt Stewart, Jess Perkins, and Dave Warneke discuss the murders, how they happened, the different theories over the years, and if the killer could possibly strike again.
“So, 1982, 29th of September 12-year-old Mary Kellerman woke up at a quarter past six and noticed she had a head cold and sore throat,” said Perkins. “Luckily, Mary’s mother had just bought a new bottle of Tylenol at the supermarket the day before.”
Minutes later, her father found her unresponsive on the bathroom floor. She was rushed to the hospital where she was pronounced dead shortly after. Kellerman was the first that day to unknowingly swallow deadly potassium cyanide. Someone had gone into stores around the Chicago area and replaced capsules at random with the fast acting poison.
Officials were baffled by the wave of sudden death. Family members and first responders were immediately quarantined due to fears of a lethal airborne pathogen. Public health official Helen Jenson was the first to tie the deaths to Tylenol that day, but was dismissed by both colleagues and investigators.
“Remember, this is the early 80’s,” Perkins told her cohosts. “So her advice was immediately met with skepticism.”
It took investigators around 12 hours to come to the same conclusion as Jenson, and soon after Tylenol was pulled from shelves across the state of Illinois followed quickly by the rest of the country. Several theories were put forward as to who was responsible for the poisonings, and the FBI quickly narrowed their search.
“Authorities were convinced the killer didn’t know any of the victims,” Perkins 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.”
Unfortunately, the technique did not turn up any fresh leads and investigators were no closer to the truth. A potential break in the case came when a mysterious letter arrived at Tylenol's parent company Johnson & Johnson claiming responsibility and asking for $1 million to stop the attacks.
Police traced the letter back to James Lewis who wrote the letter and provided his wife's former employer in hopes they would be implemented for the poisonings. Lewis was arrested and convicted for extortion, but authorities ruled him out as the person responsible for the mass poisoning since he was not living in the state at the time. Lewis had been planning to use a crisis like this to get revenge on his wife’s former boss who once wrote them a bad check.
"Oh my god James you psycho," said Warneke. "He just wanted to frame them."
It is still unknown who the killer was, or if they ever tried any method of mass poisoning again. Following the tragedy, Johnson & Johnson along with other pharmaceutical companies began putting tamper proof seals on their products. That’s why if you ever buy a bottle of medicine over the pharmacy counter that’s missing its seal, do not ever take it. The consequences could be deadly.
Listen to “The Tylenol Murders” for all the details on this cold case. The Do Go On trio release new episodes every Wednesday with one of the hosts presenting a report on listener suggested topics. Currently, the show is working its way through the top nine suggested topics for Block 2022. Listen now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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