 |
In the fall of 1982, seven people in the Chicago area died mysteriously after ingesting Tylenol pain reliever capsules laced with cyanide. News of these deaths, once llinked to the over-the-counter medication, created a nationwide panic and caused changes in the food and drug industry that reamin to this day. Twelve year old Mary Kellerman of Elk Grove Village, Ill. awoke with cold-like symptoms at dawn. Her parents gave her one Extra Strength Tylenol and sent her back to bed. At seven a.m. that same morning, they found Mary dying on the bathroom floor. On that very same morning in nearby Arlington Heights, Ill., Adam Janus, 27, took to Extra Stregth Tylenol for mild chest pain. One hour later, he suffered a cadiopulmonary colapse and died suddenly. On the evening of the same day, relatives had gathered at Adam's home, when his brother Stanley, 25, and his wife Theresa, 19, took Tylenol from the same bottle Adam had used. Within 48 hours, they too were pronounced dead. The following day, Mary Reiner, 27, of Weinfield, Ill. died at a local hospital within hours of taking twoTylenol capsules. United Airlines stewardess Paula Prince, 35, was found dead in her Chicago apartment with an open bottle of Extra Strength Tylenol capsules near her body. The seventh victim of the poisoned capsules was Mary McFarland, 31, of Elmhurst. Two off duty firemen, Phillip Cappitelli and Richard Keyworth, had been gathering and exchanging information of the spate of deaths when they discovered the common link all the victims had, Tylenol. As soon as the connection could be verified, the nation was warned about the apparent danger of Tylenol capsules. Investigators soon found that the medications could not have been adulterated during the manufacturing process, and that they must have been taken from store shelves over a period of months, laced with cyanide, and replaced for unsuspecting consumers to purchase. The bottles found in the possesion of the victims had around 5 to 10 poisoned capsules in each bottle, each with approximately 65 milligrams of cyanide...or 10,000 times the amount needed to kill an adult human. In the wake of these crimes, a wave of copycat tamperings terrorized the United States, in locations around the country and in products ranging from mouthwash and eye-drops to candy. In many parts of the nation, traditional trick-or-treating was banned for the upcoming Halloween, for fear of hidden perils in the candy given to children. The person or persons responsible for the original poisonings were never charged or apprehended ,however James Lewis was convicted of attempting to extort $1 million from Johnson & Johnson after the fact. And though the case remains unsolved, the legacy of these murders is all around us today. Capsule forms were discontinued for most over-the-counter medication in favor of the safer tablets and later "caplets" (capsule-shaped tablets). Also, tamper-proof packaging and safety seals on a wide range of comsumer products has now become the norm, largely as a result of the tragedy of 1982. |
| The 80's History Project Crimes The Tylenol Murders September 29 - October 1, 1982 |
 |
| Bottles of Tylenol capsules being testd for the presence of cyanide. |