In 1982, the only suspect in the ‘Tylenol poison murder case’ that shook the whole of the United States in fear died before the full-scale investigation was resumed.
American media, including the Chicago Tribune and the Associated Press, cited the announcement of the judicial authorities on the 10th that James Lewis (76), a suspect in the 1982 Tylenol capsule poisoning case that took the lives of seven Chicago residents, died at his home in Cambridge, a suburb of Boston, around 4:00 pm the previous day.
The police estimated that there was no possibility of murder, saying, “Louise’s wife, who is on a long-distance trip, asked to check her condition, saying, ‘I can’t reach her husband.’
The Tribune reported that Lewis had a history of heart disease and had recently been in poor health. Lewis is accused of injecting potassium cyanide, commonly called cyanide, into Tylenol distributed in the Chicago area between late September and early October 1982, killing seven people.
After taking two Tylenol Tablets, a 12-year-old girl in a suburb of Chicago collapsed to death in 1982. Investigative authorities estimated that someone opened the Tylenol capsules in the bottle, filled them with cyanide, and brought them to the store shelf.
Regarding the fact that Lewis’ only daughter, Tony, died of a suture break after undergoing heart surgery in 1974 when she was five years old, the prosecution said, “Lewis is the parent company of ‘Ethicon’, a maker of sutures, and ‘Johnson & Johnson,’ a maker of Tylenol.” (J&J) with a grudge and demanded financial compensation.”
On October 1, 1982, Lewis sent a letter of complaint to J&J regarding the death of his daughter and was charged with attempted extortion and mail fraud. However, Lewis denied the charges of lethal injection and murder, and he has been on the line for more than 40 years but has never been charged. Lewis explained to investigators how to open a Tylenol capsule and inject cyanide into it, pointing out that “the authorities shouldn’t have left the investigation of the case to J&J itself.” He also opened and operated a website claiming his innocence.
According to CBS Chicago, the investigative authorities said, “We resumed the closed investigation in September of last year, which marked the 40th anniversary of the incident, secured sufficient circumstantial evidence, and planned to indict Lewis on charges of lethal injection and murder in September.” When Louis died, all plans were scrapped. Meanwhile, due to this incident, J&J recalled all 31 million bottles of Tylenol that were circulating across the United States at the time and took measures to close capsule type production lines and stop advertising.
Since then, the packaging, distribution, and consumption methods of over-the-counter drugs, which can be easily purchased from drugstore shelves without a prescription, have changed. However, the full picture of the incident that has sent chills to many people’s spines so far remains a mystery.