Chicago tylenol scare

However, as I was pouring them out of the bottles, I could tell there was a strong smell of almonds. Imagine a time before tamper-proof seals, when pills were sold with just a cotton ball tucked beneath the lid. Whoever tainted the Tylenol in needed only to get ahold of a bottle, poison the capsules within, and sneak them back onto the shelves. And whoever bought the bottle would be none the wiser. The police determined that the perpetrator had done exactly this, because the pills came from different plants, and had been purchased at different Chicago stores.

The effects were devastating. The first victim was year-old Mary Kellerman, who died September 29, after her parents gave her a Tylenol to help ease the symptoms of her cold. Next was year-old postal worker Adam Janus, followed soon after by his year-old brother Stanley and Stanley's year-old wife, Theresa, whose grief-induced pain tragically led them to take Tylenol from the bottle that had killed Adam.

While investigators were puzzling over these deaths, more people succumbed to the poison. Mary McFarland was 31; her brother told the Associated Press that "she went in the back room and took I don't know how many Tylenol — at least one, obviously — and within minutes she was on the floor.

Confusion reigned. In a retrospective compiled 20 years after the murders, no-nonsense public health nurse Helen Jensen told Chicago Magazine that she remembered grabbing a bottle of Tylenol at the Janus house: "I said, 'This is the cause. And I stamped my feet.

They said, 'Oh, no — it couldn't be. Sunday, Oct The Latest. World Agents for Change. Health Long-Term Care. For Teachers. NewsHour Shop. About Feedback Funders Support Jobs. Close Menu. Email Address Subscribe. What do you think? Leave a respectful comment. Close Comment Window. Yes Not now. By — Dr. Leave a comment. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter.

Grow your mind Subscribe to our Science Newsletter to explore the wide worlds of science, health and technology. To this day, however, the perpetrators of these murders have never been found. Another big change was going from a capsule to a solid caplet in the shape of a capsule, as the capsules were found easier to tamper with without any noticeable signs of tampering.

Because he and his wife lived in New York at the time and had no ties to Chicago, police did not find much credible evidence to suggest that Lewis was actually the culprit. He was, however, arrested for extortion and served 13 years in prison on top of additional multi-year sentences for unrelated crimes.

Other suspects arose, but police were not able to tie any of them to the Tylenol murders. After the 25th anniversary of the crime renewed public interest in the case, the police received several new tips and went back over the old evidence.