The Tylenol Terrorist: Death in a Bottle



The Tylenol Terrorist: Death in a Bottle

By Rachael Bell

On September 29, 1982, 12-year-old Mary Kellerman of Elk Grove Village, Illinois, woke up at dawn and went into her parents bedroom. She did not feel well and complained of having a sore throat and a runny nose. To ease her discomfort, her parents gave her one Extra-Strength Tylenol capsule. At 7 a.m. they found Mary on the bathroom floor. She was immediately taken to the hospital where she was later pronounced dead. Doctors initially suspected that Mary died from a stroke, but evidence later pointed to a more sinister diagnosis.

  

That same day, paramedics were called to the Arlington Heights home of 27-year-old postal worker Adam Janus. When they arrived, they found him lying on the floor. His breathing was labored, his blood pressure was dangerously low and his pupils were fixed and dilated. The paramedics rushed Adam Janus to the emergency room at Northwest Community Hospital, where they attempted to resuscitate him, but it was too late. Adam died shortly after he was brought to the hospital. His death was believed to be the result of a massive heart attack. However, doctors would later learn that his death was anything but natural.

   

On the eve of Adams death, his aggrieved family gathered at his house to mourn his sudden passing and discuss funeral arrangements. Adams 25-year old brother Stanley and his 19-year-old bride, Theresa, both suffered from headaches attributed to the stress of losing a family member. To his relief, Stanley found on Adams kitchen counter a bottle of Extra Strength Tylenol. He took a capsule from the bottle and then gave one to his wife.

Shortly after taking the capsules, both Stanley and his wife collapsed onto the floor. The shocked family members immediately called an ambulance. Once again paramedics rushed to the home of Adam Janus and attempted to resuscitate the young couple. However, Stanley died that day, and his wife died two days later.

According to an article by Tamara Kaplan, Dr. Thomas Kim at the Northwest Community Hospital became suspicious following the deaths of the three family members. It was suspected that poisonous gas could have caused the untimely deaths of Adam, Stanley and Theresa. However, after consulting with John B. Sullivan at the Rocky Mountain Poison Center, it was determined that cyanide might be the culprit. Blood samples were taken from the victims and sent to a lab for testing.

While the blood samples were being tested for cyanide, two firefighters in another location of the Chicago suburbs discussed the four bizarre deaths that had recently taken place in the neighboring area. Arlington Heights firefighter Philip Cappitelli talked with his friend Richard Keyworth from the Elk Grove firehouse about Mary Kellerman and the fact that she had taken Tylenol before she died. Keyworth suggested that all the deaths could have been related to the medicine.

Following his friends suggestion, Cappitelli called the paramedics who worked on the Janus family and asked if they too had taken Tylenol. To both the mens surprise, they discovered all three Janus family members had ingested the popular pain reliever. The police were immediately sent to the Kellerman and Janus homes to retrieve the suspicious bottles.  

The following day, Keyworth, Sullivan and Kims hunches were confirmed. Cook Countys chief toxicologist, Michael Shaffer, examined the capsules and discovered that they were filled with approximately 65 milligrams of deadly cyanide, 10,000 times more than the amount needed to kill the average person. Moreover, the blood samples of all the victims further confirmed the belief that they were all poisoned.

McNeil Consumer Products, a subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson and the maker of Extra Strength Tylenol, was immediately alerted to the deaths. An October 1982 Newsweek article reported that the company began a massive recall of their product and warned doctors, hospitals and wholesalers of the potential dangers. However, by then it was too late for three more victims of the deadly poison-laced Tylenol capsules.

Twenty-seven-year-old Mary Reiner of Winfield, Illinois, was recovering after the birth of her son when she unsuspectingly ingested the Tylenol laced with cyanide. She died a short time later. That same day, 35-year-old Paula Prince, a United Airlines stewardess, was found dead in her suburban Chicago apartment. Cyanide-filled Tylenol capsules were also found in her home. The seventh known victim of the Tylenol poisonings was 35-year-old Mary McFarland of Elmhurst, Illinois.

Soon after the national news stories on the tragic deaths from the tainted Tylenol, widespread fear swept throughout the country, especially in Chicago and its suburbs. The police drove through the city using loudspeakers to warn citizens about the potential dangers of Tylenol, which further compounded the peoples fears. Citizens across the country literally ran home to dispose of their bottles of Tylenol.

According to a Time article by Susan Tifft, hospitals in the Chicago area were flooded with telephone calls concerning Tylenol and fears of poisoning. Jason Mannings article titled The Tylenol Murders stated that the growing nationwide panic prompted the head of Seattles Poison Control Center to inform citizens that if they had indeed been poisoned with cyanide, they would be dead before they were even able to make a telephone call to a hospital or the police.  

Nevertheless, hospitals around the country admitted many patients under the suspicion of cyanide poisoning from Tylenol. The rapid influx of patients was mostly due to mixed signals from the health authorities concerning the threat and symptoms and the ensuing panic of people who really believed that they might have fallen victim to poisoning from the tainted capsules. However, although there were no new cases of poisoning related to Tylenol except for the seven known deaths, many states and retailers took drastic measures to assure that it remained that way.

Newsweeks October 1982 issue stated that some state health departments actually banned all forms of Tylenol products. Moreover, many retailers completely removed Tylenol products from their shelves. Many other states and retailers decided to follow the FDAs warning and remove only the products with particular serial numbers linked with the deaths that posed the greatest threats. Regardless, Tylenols reputation was virtually ruined by the scare because no one wanted to buy the products any longer for fears of being poisoned. 

At stake were the reputations of McNeil Consumer Products, who manufactured the over-the-counter Tylenol capsules, and its parent company, Johnson & Johnson (J&J). The future of both companies greatly depended on how they were able to handle the alarming situation. The main problem they faced was that the drug, once trusted by millions worldwide, was now equated with death. Their first steps were to inform the public, find the source of the poisoning and determine if the cyanide had been impregnated into the capsules at the factory where they were manufactured or elsewhere.

In response to the deaths, Johnson and Johnson immediately issued a nationwide alert to the public, doctors and distributors of the drug. According to an article by Jeremy Cooke, they also issued a massive recall of 31 million Tylenol bottles, costing approximately $125 million. J&J also established a crisis hotline, so that consumers could obtain the latest information about the poisonings, safety measures and any other information concerning the drug. Around the same time, the company inspected the factories where the tainted bottles were produced to see if the cyanide was somehow put into the capsules during production.

Following inspections, the company determined that the cyanide was not introduced into the bottles at the factory, which left only one other possibility. The FBI, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and law enforcement agencies realized that someone had methodically taken the Tylenol bottles off the shelves at the stores where they were sold, filled the capsules with cyanide and returned them back to the shelves at a later period. Investigators had no evidence as to who might have committed the heinous crime and there was continuing fear that more deaths might occur unless they caught the Tylenol terrorist. 

Looking for Answers

[pic]On October 2, 1982, another contaminated Tylenol bottle was discovered by police from a batch of bottles removed from a drug store in the Chicago suburbs. Thousands of other bottles were undergoing testing for traces of cyanide. Investigators had no idea how many other bottles might have been tampered with. In an effort to put an end to the senseless deaths, J&J offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the terrorist. 

Investigators discovered that the cyanide-laced capsules were placed in six Chicago area stores: Jewel Foods in Arlington Heights, Jewel Foods in Grove Village, Osco Drug Store in Schaumburg, Walgreen Drug Store in Chicago, Franks Finer Foods in Winfield and another undisclosed retail outlet. Each store contained one tampered bottle with approximately three to ten tainted capsules, except for Osco Drug Store where two cyanide laced bottles were recovered.

It was suggested by the police that the bottles were randomly placed. However there was also a possibility that the terrorist may have purposely chosen those specific locations for unknown reasons. Some speculated that the terrorist could have held a grudge against the producers of Tylenol, society in general or even the stores in which the tainted bottles were found. It was further suggested that the killer many have lived within the vicinity of the drug stores, where the tampered bottles were placed.

Tampered Tylenol Placement Map

  

Following tests on the capsules, toxicologists revealed the specific type of poison used, which was potassium cyanide. An article by researcher Wally Kowalski stated that potassium cyanide was mostly available to industries such as gold and silver mining, fertilizer production, steel plating, film processing and chemical manufacturing. Therefore, it was likely that the poisoner could have obtained the cyanide from such places and may have even worked in a related job. However, because there was very little evidence for investigators to work on to lead them to the identity of the killer.

Shortly after the random murders, investigators began a nationwide manhunt for the Tylenol terrorist. Although poison has historically been a weapon predominantly used by women to kill, investigators focused their search for an unknown male in connection with the crimes. Less than a month following the murders, police took into custody their first suspect.

According to a Newsweek article, a 48-year-old amateur chemist and dockhand that worked at a warehouse that supplied Tylenol to two of the stores where the tainted bottles were sold became the FBI and local law enforcement agencies primary suspect. The police claimed that he admitted to having worked on a project that involved the use of cyanide. The article further stated that after a search of his apartment, investigators found various weapons, two one-way tickets to Thailand and a suspicious book that described, how to kill people by stuffing poison into capsules.

Although the police lacked hard evidence connecting the dockhand with the Tylenol murders, they charged him with illegal possession of firearms. He was sent to jail and eventually released on a $6,000 bond. At about the same time, investigators focused their attention on a new suspect.

Shortly following the Tylenol murders, J&J received a handwritten extortion letter demanding $1 million dollars for an end to the poisonings. The extortionist asked J&J to respond to his demand via the Chicago Tribune. Instead, the company contacted the authorities who began to trace the letters source. It didnt take them long to trace the letter to a man named James W. Lewis, a tax accountant and known con artist, who was also sought in connection with the brutal murder of an elderly man in Kansas City and a jewel robbery. The police quickly issued a warrant for Lewiss arrest in connection with the Tylenol killings.

James W. Lewis

 

Several state law enforcement agencies and the FBI conducted a massive search for Lewis and his wife, LeAnn. The search led investigators across several states including Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and Texas. Photographs and wanted posters of the couple were distributed across the country in local police stations, newsstands and public libraries. 

During the last week of October, lab technicians in Chicago discovered yet another unsold tainted bottle of Tylenol in a grocery store in North Chicago. The bottle was found less than one block from where Paula Prince purchased the bottle containing the cyanide-laced capsules that ended her life one month earlier. The bottle was examined for fingerprints and other clues that might link the murders to the killer.

That same week, a man named Robert Richardson sent a letter to the Chicago Tribune that stated that he and his wife did not take part in the Tylenol murders and that they were unarmed. Robert Richardson was one of the many aliases used by James W. Lewis after his arrest for the murder of his elderly boss in Kansas City years earlier. Investigators revealed that week that the letter had been sent from New York City.

On November 11, 1982, J&J held a news conference stating that they were going to reintroduce the Tylenol products that were temporarily pulled off the market. However, this time the bottles were wrapped in new safety packaging. In an effort to restore consumer confidence, the new Tylenol bottles contained a triple-seal tamper resistant package.

Johnson and Johnson spent heavily to advertise the new packaging and offered consumers a $2.50 coupon towards the purchase of any Tylenol product. It took less than two months before consumer confidence was restored. According to Steven Finks book, Crisis Management, J&J was able to regain more than 98 percent of the market share it had before the crisis.  

One month following Tylenols re-introduction into the market place, FBI agents received their biggest tip in connection with Lewises whereabouts. After a ten-week search for their suspect, investigators received information from a librarian who claimed to have seen Lewis on several occasions at the New York Public Library. The librarian said she was able to recognize him from wanted posters at her workplace.  

On December 13, 1982, FBI agents surrounded Lewis in the reading room of the New York Public Library. He was immediately arrested and taken into custody for questioning. The following week, LeAnn Lewis turned herself into the Chicago police.

During the interview by police, the Lewises denied having anything to do with the poisoning of the Tylenol capsules. Moreover, James Lewis denied writing the extortion letter to J&J, even though his handwriting and a fingerprint on the letter was an exact match. Intriguingly, a December 1982 Newsweek article stated that Chicago officials disclosed that someone had sent another extortion letter to the White House, threatening to bomb it and create more Tylenol deaths unless Ronald Reagan changed his tax policies. Lewis vehemently denied writing the second letter even though his handwriting was a perfect match. 

Aside from the letters, investigators could not find any evidence linking James Lewis or his wife to the Tylenol murders. Registration records produced by the police showed that during the time the bottles were tampered with, the Lewises were living in a hotel in New York. Further evidence proved that LeAnn Lewis was at her job daily in New York at the time and witnesses claim that James Lewis was known to meet her everyday for lunch and after work.

According to Newsweek, police were unable to find any bus, train or airline records indicating that the Lewises returned to Chicago during the time when the bottles were tampered with.   The mounting evidence ruled out the couple as being involved in the Tylenol poisoning. Therefore, the FBI and Chicago law enforcement agencies were forced to accede that the Tylenol murderer was still on the loose. By this time, almost all the leads in the case had grown cold and the chances of finding the killer significantly reduced.

Although Lewis was never convicted for crimes directly related to the Tylenol deaths, he was eventually found guilty of extortion and six unrelated counts of mail and credit card fraud. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Lewis served only 13 years of his sentence before being released on parole in 1995.

The Profile of the Tylenol Terrorist

[pic]Following Lewis arrest in December 1982, law enforcement agencies working on the case were unable to find any new suspects related to the murders. The team that was initially established to work on the case dwindled along with the hopes of catching the killer. What remained was a roughly drawn criminal profile and partial fingerprints taken from some of the bottles, which remained unmatched. 

The profile of the Tylenol terrorist had been widely disputed throughout the investigation. According to an article by Dawn Hobbs about profiling, every clue in a case is vital when building a criminal profile because it reveals important characteristics of the killer. In a criminal case that lacks evidence and involves a random selection of victims, like that of the Tylenol murders, the chances of constructing an accurate profile is significantly diminished.

Nevertheless, it is often times an essential tool that can assist investigators, to a degree, in their search for a perpetrator. However, it has been argued that a criminal profile also has the ability to mislead an investigation. The accuracy of a profile is only confirmed when the perpetrator has been caught and their characteristics can be measured against the biographical sketch drawn from evidence.

John Douglas and Mark Olshakers book Journey into Darkness provides further insight into the Tylenol terrorist. The authors write that the killer was likely a loner who was motivated by anger directed at society in general. It is possible that the killer may have had some kind of psychiatric treatment in the past to help deal with extreme feelings, such as depression, anger, anxiety and control issues.

It was also suggested that the Tylenol terrorist could have openly complained at some point about societys wrongdoings against him or her. If correct, the terrorist could have attempted to contact a person of power, either by letter or telephone to resolve matters. There is a chance that the killer may have perceived that those he contacted refused to take him seriously, further fueling his anger and resulting in the random deaths.

The likelihood of the killer living in the Chicago area is high because he seemed to have had knowledge of the surrounding area and local stores. The killer is believed to own a car or truck, which would enable him to drive the distances between the store locations where the tainted bottles were planted. According to Kowalski, who also constructed a profile of the killer, it is likely that the killer may have worked in a profession where cyanide was easily obtainable, such as the gold and silver mining industry, film processing or chemical manufacturing. He further stated that the killer probably held a menial job with low wages.

The profiles that were constructed of the Tylenol terrorist have been criticized as being too general to be of any assistance in an investigation. They have provided some insight no matter how limited, into the personality, behavior and lifestyle of the killer.

Copycat Criminals

[pic]As a direct consequence of the Tylenol murders, Congress approved in May 1983 a new Tylenol Bill that made the malicious tampering of consumer products a federal offense. In 1989, the FDA set national requirements for all over the counter products to be tamper-resistant. Steven Fink summed up the feeling of the nation when he stated that, whatever innocence we still had in the summer of 1982 was quickly shattered by the fall.

Americans had to think twice about the purchase of consumer products after the poisonings that year. Furthermore, even though the new bill strengthened sentencing of product terrorists and the FDA required increased safety measures, there was still no guarantee that any product was 100% safe. As a nation we learned that we could no longer protect ourselves completely from even the most harmless of products.

Almost from the first mention of the Tylenol murders, the incidence rate of product tampering skyrocketed around the nation. An article by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson titled Horrors: Tylenol Murders claimed that in 1982 alone, the FDA counted 270 suspected incidents of product tampering, of which 36 of the incidents were listed as hard core, true tamperings. The article listed several of the cases, including one of a 14-year-old Minneapolis boy, Marlon Barrow, who became sick after drinking poisoned chocolate milk. Another case was that of a 27-year-old Florida man, Harry Browning, who became ill after drinking insecticide-laced orange juice. Miraculously, neither victim died. However, in the years to come there was a surge of more deadly copycat crimes that would serve as haunting reminders of the Tylenol murders.

Probably one of the first known cases that seemed to share remarkable similarities to the 1982 Tylenol deaths occurred in February 1986. While visiting her boyfriend in New York, 23-year-old Diane Elsroth took two Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules from an allegedly tamper-proof sealed bottle. According to a February 1986 Newsweek article, she fell dead within minutes. Investigators later determined that her death was a result of ingesting cyanide. They also discovered that there were three more deadly capsules in the bottle.

Following a recall of Tylenol from area stores, another tainted bottle was found at a Woolworths in Westchester County, New York. Immediately, the death renewed old fears of Tylenols safety. Consumers fears were further compounded by the fact that the killer was able to make the packaging appear as if it were safely sealed. The impregnation of the poison was believed to have occurred en route to the area stores or in the stores themselves.

Once again, the death prompted the FDA to warn consumers nationwide of the possible threat of contaminated Tylenol products. Newsweek stated that more than a dozen states banned the sale of Tylenol until further notice from the FDA. Johnson and Johnson came close once again to recalling their most popular product. Fortunately, no more Tylenol-related deaths occurred following that of Elsroth.

  

Dr. Park Dietz, a forensic psychologist and expert on criminal behavior, claimed in his article on Product Tampering that there was a significant increase in tampering complaints in March 1986, following the Elsroth poisoning. After comparing the number of product tampering complaints with related news reports, Dietz discovered that there was indeed a correlation between the amount of publicity focused on product tampering crime stories and like complaints.  Thus Dietz suggested that publicity leads to increased complaints concerning product tampering.

According to Dietz, there is also a direct correlation between an increase in copycat crimes and intense news coverage. He states, We now know that each instance of widespread publicity of a purported tampering causes dozens of new crimesby limiting product withdrawals and publicity to the affected populations however, these damages can be minimized. Although publicity might be partly to blame for an increase in copycat tampering cases, it certainly does not provide a complete explanation as to the motivation behind tampering with products and the random killing of innocent people. Therefore, the motivation for the crime must be looked at with each individual case. 

Approximately four months following Elsroths murder another copycat killing occurred that was reminiscent of the Tylenol killings. On June 11, 1986, a 40-year-old Washington state bank manager, Sue Snow, woke up with a headache at 6 a.m., went to her kitchen and took two Extra-Strength Excedrin capsules. After wishing her 15-year-old daughter Haley a good morning, she went into her bathroom, plugged in her curling iron and turned on the shower.

 

Some 40 minutes later, Haley went into the bathroom to see what was taking her mother such a long time to get ready and found her mother lying unconscious on the floor. She immediately phoned 911, and Sue Snow was taken to a nearby hospital. Doctors worked frantically to determine what was wrong with Sue, but, after just a few hours, she died.

During the autopsy of Sue Snow, Assistant Medical Examiner Janet Miller suspected cyanide poisoning from the distinct odor of bitter almonds emanating from the body. Laboratory tests proved her right. The source of the cyanide was traced to an innocuous looking bottle of Extra-Strength Excedrin capsules. In response to the death, the manufacturer of the drug, Bristol-Myers, nationally recalled the product hoping to avert any more deaths.

 

On June 17, 1986, one day following the highly publicized massive recall, the police received a telephone call from a widow who feared her husband could have been poisoned less than two weeks earlier. The woman, Stella Nickell, told investigators that her husband Bruce suddenly died on June 6, 1986, shortly after taking four Extra-Strength Excedrin Capsules. Bruce Nickells death was initially determined to have been due to complications from emphysema. However, after laboratory tests conducted on his blood on June 19, 1986, there was no doubt that his death was caused by the ingestion of cyanide. That same day, investigators recovered two tainted Excedrin bottles from the Nickells' residence.

Like with Chicagos Tylenol murders, fear swept through Washington state as a result of the two cyanide-laced Excedrin deaths. The FBI joined forces with Washington law enforcement agencies in an effort to find the murderer and prevent further deaths. Investigators determined that the drugs were most likely taken from area stores, filled with cyanide and then returned to the stores.

In the months that followed, two more bottles of Excedrin Extra-Strength Capsules that were recalled from stores in Auburn and Kent, Washington were also found to contain cyanide. All five bottles were taken to the FBI crime lab in Washington, D.C., and examined by Roger Martz for fingerprints and other evidence that might connect the victims to their killer. During Martzs investigation of the bottles, he made an unusual discovery.

reported Martz found each tainted capsule contained minute specks of a green crystal-like substance. Martz was able to link the tiny green crystals with algaecides used in aquariums and fishponds. Moreover, he was able to pinpoint the exact brand of algaecide found in all the capsules, which was known as Algae Destroyer. The murderer could have used a container that once held the Algae Destroyer to mix the cyanide before it was eventually introduced into the capsules. Martzs connections proved to be one of the most critical pieces of evidence in the on-going investigation.

Upon further investigation, law enforcement officials discovered that Stella Nickell not only owned a fish tank but had also bought Algae Destroyer from a pet store prior to the murders. Investigators also learned that Stella took out three life insurance policies on her husband in the year prior to his death worth a total of $71,000. According to Detective Mike Dunbar who worked on the case, Stella stood to gain an additional $100,000 from her insurance company if she was able to prove that his death was accidental. Intriguingly, following Bruces death Stella confronted her doctor on several occasions about his decision to list her husbands death as natural. The new evidence led investigators to shift their focus onto Stella Nickell as the primary suspect in the cyanide-laced Excedrin deaths.

Following Stellas failure to pass a lie detection test on November 18, 1986, the investigators became convinced that she murdered her husband. The FBI and state police theorized that she placed the cyanide in the Excedrin capsules, repackaged them and placed three of the bottles in area stores and kept the other two bottles to use to kill her husband.  Stella attempted to make her husbands death look like the work of a serial poisoner, thus escaping any responsibility for the crime. The only problem the investigators faced was trying to prove their theory. 

Less than two months later, their big break came. Stellas 27-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, Cindy Hamilton, came forward with critical information. Cindy told police that her mother often talked about killing Bruce, because she was bored with the relationship. Cindy stated that her mother even admitted to her that she tried to kill him with foxglove, but her attempt failed. According to , Cindy told investigators that several months before Bruces death, her mother conducted research on cyanide at the local library.

Early in 1987, the FBI collected as much evidence concerning Stellas possible involvement in the killing of Bruce Nickell and Sue Snow. Library computers were searched and the books that Stella checked-out were obtained by the FBI. One of the books that Stella read was called Deadly Harvest, from which the FBI was able to collect fingerprints.  The pages that contained the most prints were those relating to cyanide.

Stella was charged with the deaths of Sue Snow and Bruce Nickell on December 9, 1987 and her court trial began four months later. On May 9, 1988, a jury found Stella Nickell guilty of murder. She was sentenced to 90 years in prison with eligibility for parole in 2018. Stella Nickell was the first person to be tried and convicted for committing murder using product tampering. She would by no means be the last.

Another copycat murder bearing remarkable similarities to the Tylenol and Excedrin poisonings occurred in 1991. Thirty-one-year old Joseph Meling was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for fatal product tampering after spiking Sudafed decongestants with cyanide. According to investigators, Meling attempted to murder his wife in February 1991 with the cyanide-laced capsules.

That same month, two more people died as a result of Melings tampering. As with the Excedrin poisonings, Meling filled other packages of Sudafed with cyanide and placed the drugs back on the shelves in stores to make it appear as if there was a serial poisoner on the rampage. The motivation was to claim $700,000 in insurance from her death.

Many of the product-tampering cases that have resulted in death have, for the most part, led to the successful conviction of the perpetrator. However, the one case that brought product tampering to the forefront of Americas consciousness has never been solved. To date, the $1,000 reward offered by Johnson and Johnson remains unclaimed because no one person has been found guilty of the horrific crime that ended the lives of seven individuals. Despite the lack of evidence and the disintegration of leads over time, hope remains that the Tylenol terrorist may one day be brought to justice. Until then, his or her identity will remain a mystery.

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