The Chicago Tylenol Murders

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Seven ordinary people. One bottle of medicine. A city paralyzed by fear.

The 1982 Chicago Tylenol Murders remain one of the most haunting unsolved crimes in American history. What began as a routine September morning turned into a nightmare when 12-year-old Mary Kellerman took a single Tylenol capsule for a sore throat and collapsed. By day's end, three members of the Janus family would be dead after taking pills from the same bottle. Within days, seven innocent lives were extinguished by an invisible killer who had laced Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules with lethal doses of potassium cyanide.

The horror of these murders lies in their random, calculated nature. The killer didn't target specific individuals—they targeted trust itself. Before this case, Americans purchased medicine without safety seals or tamper-evident packaging. We simply believed what was inside matched what was printed on the label. The murderer exploited this fundamental trust, walking into stores, tampering with bottles, and placing them back on shelves, knowing whoever purchased them would die. The investigation revealed contaminated bottles from different stores and manufacturing lots, confirming this wasn't a factory issue but a deliberate act of terror.

Despite one of the largest investigations in American history, the case remains unsolved. James Lewis served 13 years for attempting to extort $1 million from Johnson & Johnson during the crisis but was never charged with the murders themselves. He died in 2023, taking any secrets to his grave. Meanwhile, the murders transformed American consumer culture forever—every safety seal, childproof cap, and tamper-evident package exists because of these seven deaths. The psychological impact remains: that moment of hesitation before taking medicine, the extra check of the safety seal—all lasting legacies of this case.

This case isn't just history; it's an active investigation. If you have information, no matter how small, please contact the FBI Chicago Field Office at 312-421-6700. Seven families still wait for justice, and someone out there knows the truth. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Welcome back to Dark Crossroads Podcast.
I'm your host, roxanne Fletcher, and today we will be diving
into one of the most shockingand impactful unsolved cases in
American history.
So grab your coffee or yourcomfort blanket, because today
we are going to be talking aboutthe Chicago Tylenol murders of

(01:07):
1982.
About the Chicago Tylenolmurders of 1982.
Now, before we dive in, I wantto give you a heads up that this
case is particularly unsettlingbecause it does involve
something that we have all inour medicine cabinets.
It is a story that literallychanged how we buy medicine
forever.

(01:27):
Every time you struggle withthose annoying tamper-proof
seals.
Yeah, so you can thank today'scase for that.
But here's the thing that getsme about this case we're talking
about 42 years later and westill don't know who did this.
Somebody out there got awaywith terrorizing an entire city,

(01:50):
killing seven innocent peopleand fundamentally changing
American consumer culture, andthe scary thought is that they
are probably still out there.
So settle in, because we areabout to take you back to
September of 1982, when Chicagobecame the epicenter of fear and

(02:11):
a simple headache remedy becamea weapon of mass terror.
Okay, so I'm going to askeverybody to form this image in
their mind it is September of1982.
Mtv is still playing musicvideos, et is dominating the box

(02:33):
office and people are doingsomething that seems absolutely
wild to us.
Now they're buying medicinewithout any safety seals, no
tamper-proof caps, no foilbarriers, no safety warnings.
You just walked into a store,grabbed a bottle of Tylenol off
the shelf and trusted that whatwas inside was exactly what it

(02:54):
said on the label, and I know, Iam fully aware that at this
time this was normal.
But for some people this soundslike living on a different
planet.
But that's exactly what madethis case so terrifying and also
so effective.
The killer exploited a trust sofundamental that most people

(03:14):
didn't even know that they hadit.
And before we go any further, Iwant to hear from you have you
ever experienced a producttampering scare?
Or do you remember when yourparents suddenly became paranoid
about checking every seal oneverything?
Send me your stories and yourexperiences.

(03:40):
I will read every singlemessage.
Now our story begins.
On the morning of September28th of 1982 in Elk Grove
Village, illinois, maryKellerman was just 12 years old,
a seventh grader who woke upthat morning complaining of a
sore throat.
Now this is where it getsheartbreaking, because Mary was

(04:01):
doing what any of us would do.
She had a sore throat, so herparents gave her a Tylenol
Extra-strength Tylenol, to beexact One capsule.
That's all it took.
Mary's parents, dennis andGianna Kellerman, were just
trying to help their daughterfeel better before she went to
school.
They had no idea that they wereabout to become part of the

(04:23):
most notorious unsolved case inAmerican history.
Within hours Mary had collapsed.
She was rushed to the hospital,but at this time it was too
late.
She died that same day.
The doctors were baffled.
A healthy 12-year-old girldoesn't just die from a sore
throat.
But at that point nobodyconnected it to the Tylenol, at

(04:47):
least not yet.
I am a parent and I cannotimagine the guilt that these
parents must have felt.
You give your child medicine tohelp them, to make them better,
and instead it's just theunthinkable.
And before we move on, I justwant to ask you to keep Mary in

(05:17):
your thoughts as we continuewith the story.
The same exact day that Marytook that fatal Tylenol capsule,
about 10 miles away inArlington Heights, 27-year-old
Adam Janus wasn't feeling well.
Adam was a postal worker,hardworking, responsible, with a
four-year-old daughter namedCassia.
He woke up that morning feelingunder the weather.
So, naturally, adam did whatmillions of Americans did every

(05:43):
day he stopped at the Jewel Oscostore and bought a bottle of
extra strength Tylenol.
He took two capsules and thendecided to go home to rest a
little bit.
But here's where this storybecomes completely devastating.
Adam collapses at home and dies.
His family was in completeshock, grief stricken, obviously

(06:05):
trying to make sense of whatjust happened to this healthy
27-year-old man.
Now, when families gather aftera sudden death, people often
get headaches from crying, fromstress, from grief.
So when Adam's family gatheredthat afternoon to mourn him and
when his brother, stanley,started getting a headache,

(06:27):
stanley Janus, 25 years old,reached for the same bottle of
Tylenol that had just killed hisbrother.
He took two capsules.
His new wife, teresa, just 19years old and married only three
months, she had a headache too,so she took one capsule.
Within hours, both Stanley andTeresa were also dead Three

(06:51):
members of the same family.
That's when authorities knewsomething was horribly wrong.
Can you imagine being asurviving family member?
The Janus family just lostthree people in one day, all
from the same bottle of medicine.
The trauma of that.
It's something that affectedgenerations of that family.

(07:12):
By September 30th, authoritiesin Chicago were dealing with
something unprecedented.
They had four more victims MaryRayner, a 27-year-old mother
from Winfield who had just givenbirth to her fourth child.
Mary McFarland, a 31-year-oldwoman from Elmhurst.
And Paula Prince, a 35-year-oldUnited Airlines flight

(07:35):
attendant who was from Chicago.
That is seven people.
Seven lives, all taken by thesame method Extra-strength
Tylenol capsules laced withpotassium cyanide.
And here's what makes this caseso chilling the killer didn't
know these people.

(07:55):
This was not a personal attack.
This was random, calculatedterror.
The medical examiner found thateach capsule contained enough
cyanide to kill several people,not just one.
We're talking about 65milligrams of potassium cyanide
per capsule.
That is thousands of times thelethal dose.

(08:18):
Whoever did this wanted to makesure that their victim did not
survive.
And here's the truly terrifyingpart the killer had to have
tampered with the bottles whilethey were on the store shelves.
They walked into these stores,opened the bottles, replaced the
medicine with poison and thenput them back, and then they

(08:39):
just waited.
Just think about that for asecond.
Somebody walks around Chicagoarea stores knowing that whoever
buys these bottles would die,and they did it anyway.
That level of callousness.
It's almost incomprehensible.
The FBI, chicago police andIllinois state police mobilized

(09:03):
what became one of the largestinvestigations in American
history.
They tested over 1,100 Tylenolbottles and found cyanide in
just eight of them.
Eight bottles out of millions.
But those eight bottles killedseven people.
The contaminated bottles camefrom different stores, different

(09:24):
lots, different manufacturingdates.
This wasn't a factorycontamination.
This was somebody deliberatelygoing store to store, bottle to
bottle, turning medicine intomurder weapons.
Now here's where it gets evenmore frustrating.
The killer was smart.
Cyanide breaks down in the bodywithin hours, making it nearly

(09:48):
impossible to trace.
The capsules were opened,emptied, refilled with cyanide
and then carefully resealed.
No fingerprints, no DNAevidence that could be processed
with 1982 technology.
But then on October 5th of 1982,somebody called the Chicago

(10:13):
Tribune.
The caller said that they wereresponsible for the deaths and
they were demanding $1 millionfrom Johnson Johnson, which was
Tylenol's parent company, andthey wanted this to stop the
killings.
The caller identified himselfas Robert Richardson from the
Tylenol Killer Group.

(10:33):
The extortion letter led policeto James Lewis, a 36-year-old
man from New York with a historyof fraud and extortion.
Now Lewis always denied beingthe killer, but he did not deny
writing the extortion letter.
His explanation was he was justtrying to capitalize on the

(10:55):
murders.
Here's the thing about JamesLewis he was definitely
suspicious, he had a history offraud, he'd been in legal
trouble before and he wasclearly comfortable with
extortion.
But being a scumbag who triesto profit from tragedy doesn't
necessarily make you a massmurderer.
Lewis was convicted ofextortion and he served 13 years

(11:18):
in prison, but he was nevercharged with any of the murders.
Why is this?
Because, despite decades ofinvestigation, there was never
enough evidence to prove that hewas the killer.
James Lewis died in July of2023, taking whatever secrets he
had to the grave with him.
His final interview was for aNetflix documentary where he

(11:40):
continued to deny being thekiller.
As one of the Chicago policesuperintendents put it, james
Lewis was an asshole, but hewasn't the Tylenol killer.
So where does this leave us 42years later?
Still no answers, no justicefor seven innocent lives.

(12:05):
The Chicago Tylenol murders didnot just kill seven people.
They changed American societyforever.
Within days of these murders,johnson Johnson issued a recall
of 31 million bottles of Tylenol.
The company's response actuallybecame a case study in crisis
management, but honestly, thatis another story for another day

(12:26):
.
More importantly, this case ledto the creation of
tamper-evident packaging.
You all know these, thoseannoying foil seals, the safety
caps, the plastic wraps thatrequire scissors to open.
All of those exist because ofthis one case.
The Federal Anti-Tampering Actof 1983 made product tampering a

(12:51):
federal crime.
But here's what really gets me.
The killer succeeded increating exactly the kind of
fear that they wanted.
To this day, people check theirmedicine bottles, people worry
about product tampering, peoplethink twice before taking pills.

(13:13):
The psychological impact ofthat case is still with us to
this day.
I would bet that some of youright now are thinking about
checking your medicine cabinet.
That's a lasting legacy ofthese murders A permanent sense
of vulnerability about somethingas basic as taking medicine for
a headache.

(13:36):
Before we wrap up, I want tomake sure that we remember the
victims as people, not justnumbers.
These weren't just names in acase file.
They were real people with reallives, real families, real
dreams that were cut short.
Mary Kellerman was just 12years old.
She should have grown up.

(13:56):
She should have gone to highschool, maybe even college.
She should have had a life.
Adam Janus was 27, ahardworking person working for
the post office, with afour-year-old daughter who still
carries the trauma of losingher father at such a young age.
Stanley Janus was 25, animmigrant who had adapted to

(14:17):
life in America and was buildinga future.
Teresa Janus was just 19 yearsold, just married for only three
months.
She and Stanley should have hada lifetime together.
Mary Rayner was 27, a mother offour children who lost her mom
when they needed her the most.
Mary McFarland was 31, with herown family and friends who

(14:40):
still miss her.
Paula Prince was 35, a UnitedAirlines flight attendant who
traveled the world but waskilled in her own city.
Seven people, seven familiesdestroyed, countless others
forever changed, and someone outthere knows who did this and

(15:04):
someone out there knows who didthis.
So here is where all of youcome in.
This case is still active.
The FBI, the Chicago PoliceDepartment and other agencies
are still investigating.
They still want to solve thiscase, but to do so they need
your help.
If you have any informationabout the Chicago Tylenol

(15:25):
murders, if you know anythingabout whom might have done this,
if you remember anythingunusual from September of 1982,
please contact somebody.
The FBI Chicago Field Office'sphone number is 312-421-6700.
Field office's phone number is312-421-6700.

(15:54):
You can also submit tips onlineat tipsfbigov.
You can call the Chicago PoliceDepartment at 312-744-8200.
And remember, all tips can besubmitted anonymously.
This case is 42 years old, butsomebody out there still has
information.
Maybe it's a family member whoacted strangely around that time

(16:16):
.
Maybe it's somebody whohappened to brag about it to you
.
Maybe it's someone who knewsomething but was afraid to come
forward.
The families of these victimsdeserve answers.
They deserve justice, and ifyou're listening to this and you
know something anything, pleasefind the courage to come
forward.

(16:36):
It's never too late to do theright thing.
The Chicago Tylenol murdersremain one of the most impactful
unsolved cases in Americanhistory, not just because of the
lives that were lost, butbecause of how fundamentally it
changed our relationship withthe products that we use every

(16:56):
day.
Every time you peel back thatsafety seal, every time you push
down and turn a childproof cap,every time you notice that
tamper evident packaging, you'reexperiencing the lasting impact
of these seven murders.
But more than that, this casereminds us that evil can strike
anywhere, anytime, withoutwarning.
It reminds us that there arepeople out there capable of

(17:19):
incomprehensible cruelty, and itreminds us that sometimes the
bad guys really do get away withit.
At least they get away with itfor now, because as long as
there are people like youlistening, as long as there are
investigators who refuse to giveup and as long as there are
families who demand justice,this case isn't closed.

(17:40):
So keep your eyes open, keepyour ears open and if you know
something, anything, pleasespeak up.
Seven people died becausesomeone thought they could
terrorize a city and get awaywith it, so let's prove them
wrong.

(18:04):
Alright, weirdos.
That's it for today's episode.
Thank you for joining me forthis deep dive into the Chicago
Tylenol murders.
I know it was heavy, but thesestories need to be told and if
this case affected you, if youhave thoughts or theories, or if
you just want to share your ownexperience with product
tampering scares, reach out tome on social media or you can

(18:26):
email me at darkrossroadspodcastat gmailcom.
Your voice matters and yourstories matter, remember if you
have any information about theChicago Tylenol murders, contact
the field office at312-421-6700 or you can submit

(18:46):
tips online at tipsfbigov.
Next week, we will be divinginto another case that shook
America to its core.
Until then, be weird, staydifferent and don't trust anyone
.
And remember justice delayed isnot justice that is denied.

(19:09):
This has been Dark CrossroadsPodcast.
I'm your host, roxanne Fletcher, and I'll you and I will see

(19:32):
you next time, thank you.