In this op-ed, he reflects on his experiences leading the public health response to the Tylenol murders of 1982. Margolis, who later became director of the Illinois State Police, says multiagency efforts always endure allegations of infighting and spotlight stealing. But she said years of therapy and yoga have helped her overcome her anger and guilt, and shes hopeful there will be justice in the killings of her father as well as her aunt and uncle. Ford and Gildea arrived at the campus with hopes of a break in the case, only to find out the so-called professor was a high school boy pretending to work at UIC so he could pick up college girls. Later, Lewis was arrested,. Every Tylenol bottle had a lot number that offered specific details about the batch those capsules came from. He would gravitate toward someone with a blue suit and red tie, the quintessential 1980s-style power suit. I mean, theres 10,000 reasons why people compete with each other. The panic stemming from the Tylenol murders resulted in a permanent change in the packaging of medicine. Jose Rosa, right, was one of hundreds of Chicago city employees and volunteers to distribute warnings about cyanide-laced Tylenol in fall 1982. Authorities wont discuss the potential theories or suspects they have amid an investigation that they insist remains open and unforgotten. 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. 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. Within hours of finding cyanide in the capsules that killed three people in the northwest suburbs, the Cook County medical examiners office held a news conference on the morning of Sept. 30, 1982, to warn people about the potential poison in their medicine cabinets. There was no clear leader. Complaining of a sore throat and a stuffy nose, her parents gave Mary one Extra Strength Tylenol capsule and let her stay home from school. He couldnt leave. And they talked to veterinarians about any unusual animal poisonings, thinking the murderer may have tested the chemical on pets first. The Tylenol murders fundamentally changed the way we consume medication - among other things, leading to tamper-proof pill and bottle designs. Relatives, including two who took polygraph tests, were quickly eliminated from suspicion. We had an absolute tsunami of Tylenol bottles. Left: Im just being honest, Siekmann said. The Illinois Department of Law Enforcement, now called the Illinois State Police, wanted him to help. Before the 1982 crisis, Tylenol controlled more than 35 percent of the over-the-counter pain reliever market; only a few weeks after the murders, that number plummeted to less than 8 percent. He hangs up, opens the door and we come in like gangbusters, Gildea said. Several months have passed since the suburban detective made his pitch to the Cook County states attorneys office. That thrill, however, would eventually diminish over time and the killer would seek more excitement, according to the profilers. 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. Tribune reporter Stacy St. Clair told NBC News correspondent Kathy Park on TODAY Friday that a number of law enforcement sources close to the investigation have told her that Lewis is the only person currently described as a target of the investigation. he answered. Subscribe to Here's the Deal, our politics newsletter. The operation was primarily staffed by female agents who answered phone calls and assessed information while their male counterparts worked in the field. The tip line received more than 6,000 calls within the first few weeks. 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 . Prince was officially declared dead by the Medical Examiner's office at 6:45 p.m. Investigators discovered a bottle of Extra-Strength Tylenol in her bathroom with one capsule missing and a. We were getting flooded with calls, said John Fellmann, an Arlington Heights detective assigned to the case. Kouba reviewed each as it came in, deciding which needed a field agents attention and which could be placed in a bin with other ludicrous claims. Seven people in the Chicago area were killed that year by Tylenol that had been poisoned with potassium cyanide. 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. 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. But on Oct. 1, 1982, he had been a detective for only a year. In late September of 1982 seven people were killed after an unknown suspect placed cyanide laced Tylenol pills in store bottles. Bottles that werent tossed out were sent to J&J, the FDA and various government laboratories for testing. And soon, many medications and foods sold over store counters began being sold in tamper-proof, sealed packaging. After just one or two task force meetings, Ford and Gildea told their boss they werent going back. He didnt get in our way. Illinois Attorney General Ty Fahner talks about the Tylenol deaths on Oct. 1, 1982. Severns worked on the case for three days before he realized no one had offered an update to young Mary Kellermans grieving parents. And as soon as we got the word out that Tylenol had been laced, people said, What do we do? I said, Well, if youve got any in your medicine cabinet either put it in a plastic bag and keep it or throw it away. For example, Johnson & Johnson quickly established that the cyanide lacing occurred after cases of Tylenol left the factory. Over the next few days, three more strange deaths occurred: 35-year-old Mary McFarland of Elmhurst, Illinois, 35-year-old Paula Prince of Chicago, and 27-year-old Mary Weiner of Winfield, Illinois. He told her no, then carried the memory of the Kellermans anguish with him for the rest of his time on the task force. (Chicago Tribune archive). He investigated the Tylenol poisonings in the Janus family and later served as police chief in Island Lake. We had gloves in our car and basically used them on decomposed bodies. The FBIs involvement puzzled some because, as far as anyone knew, the federal agency didnt have jurisdiction in the case. With fears mounting, Johnson & Johnson recalled all over-the-counter Tylenol capsule products on Oct. 5, nearly a week after Mary Kellermans death. Now Fahner had to win the job for himself, and he faced a formidable opponent in Democrat Neil Hartigan, a vote magnet from Chicagos North Side. A casket is carried out of St. Hyacinth Roman Catholic Church after the funeral Mass for three members of the Janus family in 1982. Product tampering would become a crime in 1983 as a result of these murders, but in 1982 there was no federal law against it. 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. He has been a regular contributor for TODAY.com since 2011, producing news stories and features across the trending, pop culture, sports, parents, pets, health, style, food and TMRW verticals. Police reports mention several former Johnson & Johnson employees, though none was ever considered a serious suspect. The results came back positive for cyanide at 1:30 a.m. I was the detective at the scene. Every agency imaginable attended, many of them represented by their top leaders. These other men were all worried about his chances. An FBI agent stood up and started to give a rundown of Chicagos case. His boss assigned him to the Janus murders two days earlier because the departments more seasoned detectives were working the fatal beating of a homeless man in a local park. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune), John Fellmann at his home in Huntley in September. I dont know what he thought. Some of the investigators started using it privately, too. The Soviets were willing to assist, but their satellites werent trained on the Chicago suburbs at the time. America was gripped by paranoia and fear. It marked the first mass recall in U.S. history, involving more than 31 million bottles. So I stopped by the house on the way home, introduced myself and tried to answer any questions they had, he said. Their opinion soured even further at their first meeting, when one of the lead investigators asked for a briefing on the Prince murder. (Stan Policht / Chicago Tribune). Thats clear, Margolis told the Tribune. The 50-count bottle, which the woman told police she purchased at Franks Finer Foods in Wheaton, contained seven capsules filled with potassium cyanide, records show. The poisonings spanned multiple towns and two counties. I had people dropping dead all over the place.. 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. But if they kept the bottles in their medicine cabinets, more people could die. After a lengthy cat and mouse game, police and federal investigators determined that Lewis lived in New York and had no demonstrable links to the Chicago events. It was 1982. Please check your inbox to confirm. The pills were sold at stores in suburban Chicago, and bottles of Tylenol were immediately pulled from shelves to be tested by health departments for the presence of cyanide. 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. It is something that altered the life of every person in the world, Janus, who had never before spoken publicly about her ordeal, told CNN. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/tylenol-murders-1982, Why Eleanor Roosevelts civics book for kids is making a comeback. Thats being made out of whole cloth all these years later. The substance was grainier than the untainted Tylenol on the left. I thought he was perfect.. The Tylenol Murders" and asked him if he has any theories on who the Tylenol Killer might be. On that day, two unrelated things happened: A pub owner made a phone call to police, and an extortion letter arrived at a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary. All Rights Reserved. I think its pretty important, the aide replied. 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. Each participant has a packet of information that authorities use to explain their findings. And you had a lot of very experienced, very intelligent, very resourceful people thinking about this all the time, thinking about angles, thinking about ideas, testing them and implementing them wherever we possibly could. Mary was dead by 7 a.m. Deputy coroner Siekmann recalled going to Winfield to pick up the Tylenol collected from Reiners house a few hours after her death. In those early days, there were so many agencies involved, so many people desperate to solve the case. He brought personal knowledge (as the former state police director) and experience regarding a criminal investigation. Only really frivolous things went in that other pile, she said. In 2010, DuPage County prosecutors filed a sealed affidavit stating investigators had found DNA on three bottles and the capsules inside, according to documents obtained by the Tribune. Every night, I would come home after my kids were in bed, he said. The task ahead was difficult. newsletter for analysis you wont find anywhereelse. . 3: A Nightmare on Halloween: With Molly Jean Brandenburg, Carter Roy. Jose Rosa, right, was one of hundreds of Chicago city employees and volunteers to distribute warnings about cyanide-laced Tylenol in fall 1982. His task force partners the FBI and state police had blindsided the Elk Grove Village detective, and he was angry. Extra-Strength Tylenol, shown in a Tribune studio photograph, once was packaged in a paper box with an unglued lid. But before Sept. 29, 1982, consumer products had few defenses against a person bent on sabotage. Tylenol murders: A nationwide panic, a family tragedy Her dad, aunt and uncle were killed in the notorious unsolved poisonings that terrorized Chicago. Seven people between 12 and 35 died after ingesting cyanide-laced Tylenol pills in the Chicago area in 1982. Halfway through the speeches, an aide tapped him on the shoulder and told him he needed to take an important call. The Tylenol murders launched a massive criminal investigation. 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. Helena Tarasewicz, mother of Tylenol victim Theresa "Terri" Janus, weeps over the casket containing her daughter's body during graveside services at Maryhill Cemetery in Niles in 1982. And, in the decades since, scientific advances have allowed investigators to detect DNA profiles on at least three of the tainted bottles and the capsules inside. They would work the case in Chicago and send someone else to Des Plaines to play nice with the others. The Kellerman and Janus bottles contained Tylenol from lot MC2880, manufactured in Pennsylvania on April 26, 1982. Many people who handled potential evidence in 1982 didnt wear gloves because it wasnt protocol at the time. They can do it, in part, by revisiting the earliest days of the Tylenol investigation, a time when evidence was not always handled according to todays careful standards. They looked at accused shoplifters, including a man charged with attempting to steal 28 Tylenol bottles from a Wheaton pharmacy in August. 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