(Chicago Tribune), Look, like any other series of government bureaucracies, theres always tension between agencies, he said. They can account for the differing DNA profiles. As a result of the crime, makers of Tylenol developed new product protection methods. Tainted capsules were discovered in early October in a few other grocery stores and drug stores in the Chicago area, but, fortunately, they had not yet been sold or consumed. September 22, 2022. He said Marys mother, Jeanna, asked him if she should have noticed that someone had tampered with the bottle. Fahner ordered his staff to work through the night, calling local police, sheriffs, coroners, the FBI, the FDA, prosecutors and public health officials. 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. Hearing that threat, the detectives said, they banged on the door and announced themselves as police. We didnt get anything, but we were kicking around ideas like that.. Extra-Strength Tylenol bottles, for example, came in a paper box with an unglued lid. Johnson & Johnson initially recalled only those products with the same batch number as the Janus and Kellerman bottles. The Tylenol murders of 1982,was a pointless killing spree that resulted in the death of seven Chicago area people from Tylenol tablets .The Tylenol poisoning killings was from tampering with over-the-counter Tylenol branded acetaminophen pills laced with potassium cyanide. You know, because Ty was just a classy lawyer, and he never was a politician, he said. The operation was primarily staffed by female agents who answered phone calls and assessed information while their male counterparts worked in the field. Forty years later, it still bothers him. Advances in technology have allowed investigators to determine the postmark date on the extortion letter written by Lewis that demands $1 million be wired to a bank account "if you want to stop the killing," according to the Chicago Tribune's review of the documents. If Fahner had any chance of keeping his office in November, he had to build enthusiasm among conservative voters in the suburbs. Mike Severns, a former Elk Grove Village police detective assigned to Mary Kellerman's murder, says it still bothers him that officials neglected to update her grieving parents in the early days of the investigation. Seven people died in 1982 after taking painkillers from bottle someone police do not know who had slipped cyanide pills into. (Phil Greer / Chicago Tribune). And there were a lot of bottles to come out of that lot.. Because all the other possibilities had been eliminated.. Their departments relationship with the FBI had been rocky for decades, but it was at a particularly low point in September 1982. I thought he was perfect.. Early on the morning of Sept. 29, 1982, a tragic, medical mystery began with a sore throat and a runny nose. He didnt get in our way. As weeks went by without an arrest, detectives started using different doors to avoid the cameras. And the last point that they wanted to strike home was that the person who committed this is enjoying the attention right now and the fact that he or she had outsmarted the law enforcement, Lane said. They told stories of information hoarding, turf wars and glory seeking even when there was none to be had. The attorney general had no authority to intervene, but Fahner had been an outstanding federal prosecutor, a well-liked director of the state police and an effective leader of major criminal investigations. He didnt fit that profile, Hogberg said. All of them, it turned out, took Tylenol shortly before they died. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune), John Fellmann at his home in Huntley in September. The bottle's cap was easily opened. Even after he retired from the FBI in 1996, he didnt let it go. "As you can see, it is easy to place cyanideinto capsules sitting on store shelves," he wrote in the letter. Sadly, the tragedies that resulted from the Tylenol poisonings can never be undone. It wasnt a grab for authority. The Tylenol investigation began as a loose collaboration among detectives in Arlington Heights and Elk Grove Village, the towns where the first three deaths were identified. But thats not a problem, the investigators say. And by days end, flight attendant Paula Princes body would be discovered and tests would show that a Tylenol bottle inside her home contained four cyanide-laced capsules. Within 48 hours of the murders, the task force used this information to conclude publicly that the pills could not have been poisoned during production. The program went far beyond any database previously used by law enforcement in Illinois. There was no clear leader. The latest Tribune poll showed he was down by about 20 points in the upcoming election. Though the company expanded the recall the same day to cover the batch involved in McFarlands death, the piecemeal approach troubled Fahner. The substance was grainier than the untainted Tylenol on the left. Stacy St. Clair joined the Chicago Tribune in 2007. Now she's sharing her story for the first. What happens in most cases, and certainly what happened here beyond any question, was a 100% selfless, unified devotion to a very important mission.. Authorities believed they offered clues about who could and who could not have poisoned the capsules. Thats being made out of whole cloth all these years later. Chicago police Detectives Jimmy Gildea. 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. Scott Stump is a staff reporter and the writer of the daily newsletter This is TODAY. What are you giving this story for? So they ran him off the stage and I got up there.. They looked at accused shoplifters, including a man charged with attempting to steal 28 Tylenol bottles from a Wheaton pharmacy in August. (Ovie Carter / Chicago Tribune). Joe McQuaid, a task force investigator with the state police who had worked for Fahner when he was director, acknowledged it was an unorthodox setup. The Tylenol murders have never been solved, though at one point, the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, was a suspect. Retired FBI agent Roy Lane Jr., shown in August, is the only member of law enforcement who has been part of the Tylenol investigation in its entirety. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration then cautioned the public against taking the pain reliever in capsule form. Subscribe to Heres the Deal, our politics Fahner thought state officials needed to be even more aggressive, despite the consequences for the investigation. 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.. Im not saying that the task force didnt work or thats why the case was never solved, Severns said. 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 bottles traveled to various warehouses, including a final storage stop at a Jewel facility in suburban Franklin Park, before being delivered to different grocery stores on different days before the poisonings. Chicagos doing what they want, so lets just give them something minor to do.. Manufacturer Johnson & Johnson recalled 31 million Tylenol bottles as panic spread nationwide following the deaths. Authorities already considered the womens deaths to be cyanide related by the time they contacted Fahner during his campaign event. Seven people in the Chicago area were killed that year by Tylenol that had been poisoned with potassium cyanide. Every Tylenol bottle had a lot number that offered specific details about the batch those capsules came from. The bottle's cap was easily opened. Siekmann, who had been working since 8 a.m., believed some capsules were tainted from the first time he laid eyes on them. Editors note: This report has been updated to remove the reported amount of cyanide used. Nearly three weeks after the murders, for example, the FBI asked Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Greene to write a column about Mary Kellerman and include specific details such as the familys home address and the location of the little girls grave, with her parents permission. But on this unseasonably warm October morning, during a separate meeting between the FBI and state police, Lane was one of several investigators who gathered to brainstorm possible motives behind the crime. It was the first of two such trips he made that day, initially with the Reiner bottle and later with the one that killed McFarland. Before that she reported for the Daily Herald, the Dayton Daily News and The Topeka Capital-Journal. Investigators soon confirmed there was lethally poisonous cyanide inside the Tylenol capsules in question. You know, boost exposure and stuff like that.. 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. Elmhurst police Detective Herb Hogberg interviewed a chemist who had been laid off from the company in recent months. There wasnt that much tension, Fahner said. The couple were later pronounced dead, too. But on Oct. 1, 1982, he had been a detective for only a year. Roger Arnold worked at a jewel warehouse with the father of one of the victims named Mary Reiner. Nobody knew what to do with (the investigation) because it was all over the place, Fahner said. At the time just four, Janus recalls being with her father, Adam, in their Chicago suburb when he bought an Extra-Strength Tylenol bottle that someone had slipped cyanide pills into. 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. 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. He regaled reporters with all kinds of stories during that final interview, but none seemed to amuse him more than the unhappy Hormel ham man. The Illinois Department of Law Enforcement, now called the Illinois State Police, wanted him to help. In work that would later be heralded in scientific journals, the scientists also tested the cyanide kept at the Tylenol plant to see if it somehow got into the production process. They apologized, he said, but the trust had been broken. That thrill, however, would eventually diminish over time and the killer would seek more excitement, according to the profilers. Ford said he told the renowned pathologist the bottle was on the vanity, and Stein, who wasnt wearing gloves, went to grab it. Extra-Strength Tylenol, shown in a Tribune studio photograph, once was packaged in a paper box with an unglued lid. 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. The Tylenol case, however, would loom largest over his professional life. Dr. Howard Markel The company, however, did not keep records of where the products were shipped. Each participant has a packet of information that authorities use to explain their findings. What are the Tylenol murders? The panic stemming from the Tylenol murders resulted in a permanent change in the packaging of medicine. The Kellerman and Janus bottles contained Tylenol from lot MC2880, manufactured in Pennsylvania on April 26, 1982. Here, you go, Pete, the police chief said, passing the bottle to him without the type of evidence bag that would now be standard in any investigation. But when she opened the . Stores were pulling the product off shelves. We were looking for somebody that really looked like they didnt belong. 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. The tips were written up on 3x5 index cards. Her parents gave permission. The task force knew the mechanism behind the murders, Fellmann said. We had an absolute tsunami of Tylenol bottles. It sounds like an urban legend, but it was chillingly real in 1982. Subscribe to our Science Newsletter to explore the Police Officer Michael Miljan leaves an Arlington Heights pharmacy after making sure bottles of Extra-Strength Tylenol were being removed from shelves. In those early days, there were so many agencies involved, so many people desperate to solve the case. The batch contained more than 1,800 pounds of cyanide, divided into packages of various sizes. The task force met each morning at the Des Plaines headquarters to discuss leads and get their assignments. 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. Severns confronted people at both agencies, who blamed each other for keeping him in the dark. Our highest responsibility has always been the health and safety of our consumers," Johnson & Johnson said in a statement to NBC News. But for something like this, for looking at a pill, it never would even cross our mind., Former DuPage County Coroner Pete Siekmann, who in 1982 was a deputy coroner, handled the Tylenol bottles from Mary "Lynn" Reiner and Mary McFarland. They had a lot of questions and I didnt have any answers at all., Mike Severns, a former Elk Grove Village police detective assigned to Mary Kellerman's murder, says it still bothers him that officials neglected to update her grieving parents in the early days of the investigation. Chicago police Officer Sam Barsevich, left, takes inventory of Tylenol bottles that residents turned in at his station on Oct. 2, 1982. On Friday afternoon, doctors removed Stanley Janus wife, Terri, from life support. 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. The FBIs involvement puzzled some because, as far as anyone knew, the federal agency didnt have jurisdiction in the case. (Don Casper / Chicago Tribune), Obviously, Johnson & Johnson didnt put cyanide in their own product. The tainted bottle from the Schaumburg pharmacy contained three partial prints on the capsules, but (they) were not suitable for comparison, the memo states. 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. The new timeline suggests Lewis wrote the letter before the public knew the deaths were linked to the tainted Tylenol pills, according to the Chicago Tribune. (Fred Jewell/AP). I thought, well, this is rather impressive, Siekmann said. Former DuPage County Coroner Pete Siekmann, who in 1982 was a deputy coroner, handled the Tylenol bottles from Mary "Lynn" Reiner and Mary McFarland. the fact remains, the Tylenol murders of 1982 . 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. The White House, however, had ordered the FBI to find a way into the case amid growing public panic. The lot numbers for the McFarland, Reiner and Prince bottles indicated they were manufactured in Round Rock, Texas, and went to different warehouses in the Chicago area before ending up on store shelves. Mary was dead by 7 a.m. Stanley died that very day and Theresa died two days later. Do not use it.. Other task force members, it should be noted, werent particularly fond of Chicagos efforts either. Despite the passage of time and, in a way, because of it the bottles still may offer clues as to who poisoned the capsules. She has received numerous national honors for her work. Product tampering would become a crime in 1983 as a result of these murders, but in 1982 there was no federal law against it. And neither does the DNA. Come to 1425 Armstrong Lane.. So whatever fits or doesnt fit the storyline, that didnt happen. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune). 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. They would work the case in Chicago and send someone else to Des Plaines to play nice with the others. 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. Six suburbanites had already died from cyanide poisoning by that time, but this was Chicagos first and, in the end, only victim. 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. Pain in the neck, Hogberg said of his CPD counterparts. FBI agent Shari Kouba, one of the few women on the task force, ran the tips desk. In late September of 1982 seven people were killed after an unknown suspect placed cyanide laced Tylenol pills in store bottles. Kasia said she long blamed herself for her fathers death, even though she was just in preschool when it happened. The Illinois State Police told NBC News the investigation remains ongoing. 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. Three of the deaths occurred in Arlington Heights, where police told NBC Chicago last year that they still have the pills, bottles and boxes as evidence. Jose Rosa, right, was one of hundreds of Chicago city employees and volunteers to distribute warnings about cyanide-laced Tylenol in fall 1982. Thompson put him in charge of the investigation to get TV time. He brought personal knowledge (as the former state police director) and experience regarding a criminal investigation. It was so Dick Tracy to me, Steed said. He held news conferences, sometimes twice a day, to meet the insatiable media demands. The gelatin-based capsules were especially popular because they were slick and easy to swallow. And so the Department of Justice just looked up a law and by a little bit of a hook and a crook said the FBI has jurisdiction because of an FDA law (about) truth in labeling.. J.J. Bittenbinder a tough-talking, mustachioed detective who would later gain fame as a TV safety expert served as a liaison to Fahners task force in Des Plaines. Kasia said she still remembers hearing her mother scream when she couldnt wake her father up the next day, 29 September 1982. It marked the first mass recall in U.S. history, involving more than 31 million bottles. I mean, it just got to me, Severns said. The 18-page investigative summary also provides key evidence, including the names of the three main suspects, during the first seven months of the case. 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