The Chicago Tylenol Murders were a bunch of poisoning deaths resulting from drug tampering in the Chicago metropolitan area in 1982. The victims had consumed Tylenol branded capsules which had been laced with potassium cyanide. Over 7 people died due to this and there were many more victims in subsequent copycat crimes.
The first incident happened on September 28, 1982, when 12-year-old Mary Kellerman was hospitalized for consuming an Extra-Strength Tylenol, and she ended up dying the next day. On September 29, six individuals consumed contaminated Tylenol, those individuals being Adam, Stanely, and Theresa Janus who all consumed Tylenol from the same bottle. The others were Mary McFarland, Paula Prince, and Mary Reiner. They all ended up dying from the consumption.
Nurse Helen was asked to investigate the Janus’ deaths since she was Arlington Heights’s only public health official. She visited the Janus’ household and discovered a Tylenol bottle that had 6 missing capsules. When she saw this she started suspecting that this bottle was correlated to the Janus’ deaths. Nick Phishos called Dr. Edmund Donoghue to smell the bottle and when he noticed it had an almond-like smell they asked Micheal Schaffer, who was the county’s chief toxicologist, to test the capsules. They came to find out that the remaining capsules were laced with 3 times the fatal amount of cyanide. Shortly after, the authorities held a press conference to let the public know to not consume Tylenol at that time.
They noticed that both Tylenol bottles had the same lot: MC2880, and Johnson & Johnson, which is the manufacturer of Tylenol, issued a recall of all Tylenol from that lot. When they discovered that other bottles from other lots were also tainted, the recall expanded to cover those lots and any bottle of extra strength capsules in the Chicago area. This was one of the largest pharmaceutical recalls ever. In an effort to try and reassure the public, Johnson & Johnson distributed warnings to hospitals and distributors about the incident and stopped Tylenol production and advertisement for a certain time. After many other incidents with other chemicals being added to Tylenol, a nationwide recall for Tylenol products was held on October 5, 1982. With this alone, they lost around $100 million. They also advised individuals to not consume any of their products that contain acetaminophen after they discovered that it was only these capsules that had been tampered with.
Shortly after the Chicago deaths, there were hundreds of copycat attacks involving Tylenol. One of the deaths happened in Yonkers, New York when 23-year-old Diane Elsroth ingested an Extra Strength Tylenol capsule. Excedrin capsules were tampered with in Washington, resulting in the deaths of Susan Snow and Bruce Nickell with Bruce Nickell’s wife, Stella Nickell being arrested for her intentional action being connected to both murders. In 1991, Joseph Meling was convicted on numerous charges for trying to murder his wife Jennifer Meling with a cyanide-tainted box of Sudafed, and for murdering Kathleen Daneker and Stanely McWhorter with that same technique. He was later sentenced to life imprisonment with a lost appeal for a retrial.
No suspects have been charged or convicted for the poisonings. This event led to reforms in the packaging of over-the-counter drugs and to anti-tampering laws.
