Sealed with Poison: The Tylenol Murders Part 1

In the fall of 1982, ordinary medicine cabinets across Chicago became the stage for one of the most terrifying unsolved crimes in American history. Seven people, including a 12-year-old girl, suddenly collapsed and died after taking Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules — each one unknowingly laced with lethal cyanide. As fear spread nationwide, shelves were emptied, public trust was shattered, and investigators scrambled to catch a killer who seemed to vanish into thin air.

In this special two-part Chillworthy series, we dive deep into the Tylenol Murders: the victims’ heartbreaking stories, the frantic investigation that gripped the nation, the baffling suspect list, and the mystery that remains unsolved more than 40 years later. We also explore how this case forever changed the way we shop, the way companies protect consumers, and how the Tylenol killer may have pulled off one of the most perfect — and chilling — crimes in modern history.

Buckle up. The safety seal was broken. The ripple effects are still being felt.



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DISCLAIMER The content presented on Chillworthy, including all episodes, transcripts, social media posts, and associated materials, is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. The podcast does not offer legal, medical, psychological, or professional advice of any kind. While the hosts—Brent and Talia—make a good faith effort to ensure that the information shared is based on publicly available sources and is as accurate as possible at the time of recording, Chillworthy does not guarantee the completeness, timeliness, or reliability of any statements made. Listeners should be aware that cases may involve ongoing legal proceedings or developments that evolve over time. The hosts are not licensed attorneys, journalists, law enforcement professionals, or forensic experts. Opinions expressed in the podcast reflect the personal views of the hosts and do not represent factual determinations or official findings. All individuals named or discussed are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Any resemblance to real individuals or entities, outside of those explicitly named, is purely coincidental. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by any legal authority, news outlet, or investigative body. By listening to Chillworthy, you acknowledge and accept these terms and agree not to hold the hosts or producers liable for any inaccuracies, misstatements, or interpretations derived from the content.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
You're listening to Chillworthy.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
A podcast where two best friends discuss mysteries, murders, and
anything in between for your enjoyment.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
So if you're ready to hear some chilling and unsettling cases,
you're in the right place. Happy listening. Hello, Hello, everyone,
Welcome back to another episode of Chillworthy with Brent and Talia.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Hi everybody, how are.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
You doing today?

Speaker 2 (00:36):
I'm good, you know you are. I have to say,
you know, my thoughts on summer generally speaking, you know,
least favorite. Absolutely, I want fall to pretty much start
as soon as summer starts. But there is something about
when summer initially begins, not literally, but like when you

(00:58):
can just feel it in the air. Yeah, and I feel.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Like when the season clicks.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Is yes, exactly exactly, and oh my god, that just
literally brought me back to when she's putting that blanket on.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Hell yeah, that's what I I love it.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
It is very cozy. You can kind of taste it,
taste the crisp if you will, in the air. But anyway,
so yeah, I feel like this past week here has
been like that with the weather, like it got super hot.
It was like in the nineties, which is certainly not
my ideal temperature, but but it has it's just nice,

(01:39):
like it's making me want to read all these like
summer themed books immediately. I feel like you can smell
the ocean in the air, even if you're not near
the ocean, feel you can just feel it, and I
like it. I need to start my to Kill a
Mockingbird and you will read that. I have to have

(02:00):
to do it. That's like the epitome of summer to me.
And I just I don't know, there's just something that's
just felt very cozy to me this week.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Something's in the air right right, Well, how are you great? Good?
You know you had a full week, busy weekend chillers.
Just I just went, you know, to the campground again,
but just you know, five full of activities and very

(02:30):
late sometimes so so yeah, all in all though, very nice,
good good. I don't have any books.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
I only have all the ones that I mentioned in
the last episode. I am still reading. But I forget
if I told you all that I started this, or
if I did it after we met last three days
in June, wonderful, wonderful book, you would not like it.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
No, it sounds like a snooze nest.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Maybe you should read it today because you are quite exhausted.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
I like Seven Days in August myself.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
What's that?

Speaker 1 (03:07):
Nothing?

Speaker 2 (03:07):
I don't know, Oh, you're mucking me. Three Days in
June is by Anne Tyler. I read by her several
years ago. I can't, of course remember what it was about,
but I loved it and had a beautiful cover. But
Three Days in June is it's just in three parts,
and it's about this woman whose daughter is getting married.
So it's the day before, the day of, and the

(03:29):
day after, and it's it was amazing. It was so
just simple and just basically about family dynamics in this
like little immediate family of the parents of the bride,
the bride and her husband to be Yea, the grandmother's
in it. It's it was just I loved it. I

(03:49):
thought it was so well done, full of awkward moments.
It was just it was excellent. Well, also, I have
to say I.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
Have to be excited for the both of us.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
I also want to tell you well two things. Three things.
I watched Jaws. Actually Ashley watched it with me, and
it's certainly not a favorite movie of hers, but she
suggested I was commenting, how you know Shark Week is
coming up, as you know, one of my favorite times
of the year, not until July, the end of July,
July twentieth, I want to say, it starts in the twenties,

(04:24):
and so you know, one of my favorite times to
watch Jaws is the summer. So she maged on. I
watched it. It was fantastic, and I'm so disappointed in myself.
I never made this connection. We're watching it and she's
like walking by the TV and she's like, this guy
is so familiar. I know he's in something. And she
goes to like leave the room and then stops and
like exclaims, how it's one of the big daddies of

(04:48):
the Golden Girls. That's who the mayor is. Mayor Vaughn
is big daddy. She got it.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
Oh wow, No, I never.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
Saying, And I mean, my god, he's so young, brown
hair not white. Yeah. So yeah, that was lovely. And
it is the fiftieth anniversary this year of Jaws. So
I think, which I'm so silly. I've never read it,
which is insane to me. I guess, so I gotta
I gotta read it.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
And I think you weren't happy with Jurassic I thought
of that too.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
I had the exact same thought. I know, I know,
and I'm just saying I also think it's not great
that like with Jurassic Park, I not only watched the movie,
but multiple times before reading the book. I don't think
that did me any favorite. Same with this. I mean,
I've seen Jurassic Park way more than I've seen Jaws.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
Bump bump, bumb bomb bomb but um bomb bomb bomb.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
So yeah, I looked it up on Libby. It was available.
I downloaded it. I don't know why.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
I say that's not shocking. It's fifty years old or more.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
That fun Yeah, true, probably more because it obviously came
out first. So I downloaded it and I'm going to
see when the wind blows me in that direction, and
then I'm going to read it and I will report back.
But hopefully it's job.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
Yeah right, Okay, Well, speaking of that, actually, I know,
you know we already have in the books to go
see Jurassic Park. But I would like to throw another
suggestion in the ring it because for another movie, because
I saw this movie that's coming out or it might
have just come out, but I think it isn't out
yet where it combines. Dare I say both of our

(06:22):
fears into one movie.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
I don't know if I'm up for that. Maybe I'll
just pass forward through my parts to get to your parts.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
So it's abduction, you know, which you're not a fan
of by any means. So a guy who abducts people.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
Good and throws them in the wood or.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
Feeds them to sharks to sign me up for the disgusting, Well,
like they got to eat the preview that I saw
he like abducted like a couple, and he like took
the guy, tied his hands up and like put them
on one of those hooks, you know, like those big
hooks that like hang over like that you put like

(07:00):
a crabbing net on to like lower him into the
water like where the sharks were swimming. Disgusting, not to
lower him in absolutely disgusting.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
I meant, by the way, not no, I know what
you Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
I do know what you mean. Yeah, So I mean,
I don't know, I don't even remember what it's called
right now. But that is not for me, but like
it could be if I hated to be scared. But
I mean, we are less than one month away from
Jurassic Park coming out, So I'm very excited.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
I just hope no Dinis are injured.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
You know they're gonna be. There's always a sad moment.

Speaker 2 (07:38):
I know there's a sad way. No one's left behind
it you or three? My heart the most. That's true.
That's true. You know, I just got a major craving.
Isn't the word desire? I guess to see the one?
Which one is my second favorite? Jurassic World, I don't
know what. Probably because of summer, I bet you. Because
it's very.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
Too very summer. Oh yeah, you know, very summer.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah, I think I have to go watch.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
Summer deep movie.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yeah yeah, heavy, summer heavy and.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
That sum yes, yes, right, okay, So I said to
Talia a couple of days ago, I'd like to introduce
you know, my fish facts are done everyone.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
They don't need to be your.

Speaker 1 (08:22):
They are I'm choosing. I am making that choice. But
I said to tell you, I think it would be
nice if we would report on it briefly, very briefly.
And I'm saying that to you tell you as short segment, right,

(08:43):
very short, but just something that maybe we saw throughout
the week that was like something nice right, because we're
always reporting on something sad, something positive, nothing. It doesn't
have to be earth shattering, but just an act of
kindness or whatever.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
So anything positive, I think you'll be very delighted with
my how brief, I'm going to be wonderful.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
So we'll have to come up with the segment name.
I don't know what that can be right now, it's
not the time your brainstorm. I can see behind your
eyes something is happening, and like we don't have the
time for that, right So, but my you know, happy
thing to report is something we just watched here because

(09:26):
you you know, we were going to talk about it.
But it was at a zoo and now I don't
know what the people were saying because they were not
speaking English, but context clues wise, there was there was
an elephant and he was in an exit he or
she was in an exhibit.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
There was a whole crowd of animals, the whole slew of.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
There were gazelles and one of the gazelles was in
like a man made you know, pond lake whatever, and
it was having issues getting out. I don't know if
it fell in by accident or like I was saying
to tell you maybe it was at the wrong side
where like the steps weren't at I don't know, because
I doubt they would the zoos would make a water
feature that would intentionally trap animals. That doesn't make any sense.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
Well, and it was like in ground pool level because
you know what.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
I mean, Oh, well, yeah, with big rocks around it,
which is why I feel like there had to be
another way to get in and out of that. But
doesn't matter anyway. The point is the video showed this
elephant was literally like trying, like it took several attempts
to wrap its trunk around the gazelle's horns that was
trying to get out of the water, and eventually did

(10:36):
pull the gazelle out of the water, and like effectively
I would love to believe the zoo keepers would have
been there, but saved the gazelle's life, I think.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
And the way he was here or she was hovering
around the gazelle like totally picked up on the animal
was in distress, like you know what I mean, Like
I didn't hear I feel like the sound quality was
pretty decent in that video, and I didn't hear any
animal exclaim sounds, So I feel like it wasn't making
any sounds, but for the elephant to have picked up
on that, gone right over, hovered near it, like tried

(11:07):
to figure out you.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
Know what I mean? I agree, And she checked up
on it after, Yes, after he pulled him out, because
the gazelle wasn't like too exhausted to walk or anything.
So no, he just walked away from the pond. But
the little elephant went over and put his little trunk
out again. So my point is, how wonderful God bless
that little elephant. Yes, interspecies empathy for the win.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
Oh, I agree, I agree. I'm glad people were there
to catch that moment.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
So tell you what do you have to say?

Speaker 2 (11:40):
I just want to express gratitude that I have arms,
and I'm not kidding.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
I'm not kidding, and she's not you know, she isn't kidding.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
She's lucky enough to have been born with them. You
can also relate to this. You also have arms.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
I'm scratching one with the other right now.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
That's exactly what I'm talking about. Can you imagine you
may not be able to scratch? Oh?

Speaker 1 (12:08):
Yeah, I understand, I do.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
We do not fully appreciate how much we use our arms,
how we take them for granted, how much easier it
makes life. And I am grateful for having my arms,
and that's all I want to say. You're welcome. Yeah,
nice and brief, very and I mean it. I mean,
I mean my gratitude. I mean yeah, no, but I'm

(12:32):
not joking. I get it next week, everybody. Nose, nose,
and legs are on my mind.

Speaker 1 (12:41):
Absolutely sure, eyebrows. No, but on a serious note, yes,
of course, because people say things for granted all the time.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
Gosh, yes, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
So, yeah, for sure. So you know, thank thank you
for participating, thank you for having me. Of course. Now
just keep in mind, though moving forward, it's something that
you see out in the world.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
Not necessarily Okay, I did think of that, though, I
am going to do some of that. I'm going to
do so you're just.

Speaker 1 (13:15):
Going to name body parts, is what you're saying.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
Sometimes, Yes, kneecaps. One day last week I saw a
slug on the sidewalk and I was delighted, one because
I had not seen one in my neck of the
woods ever. Yes, and two I saw it and I
did not step on it. I'm happy. Well my time.

Speaker 1 (13:35):
Yes, Hey, you want me.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
To comment on things out in the wild. That was
a prime example. Joy on multiple levels. I knocked two
out today. Arms and slugs.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
Maybe that'll be the name of the segment. Tell you
what's on your list of arms and slugs today?

Speaker 2 (13:56):
I think this is wonderful done. That's what it's called.
And you're only a true chiller if you know what
that means.

Speaker 1 (14:03):
Well, now speak speaking of speaking of true chillers, Oh
my gosh, we want to take a second.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
We're always crying about people.

Speaker 1 (14:15):
Not I am. I'm always crying.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
Making comments interacting with us.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
Yes, because we would love you know, we like to
hear well. I like to hear a few. I'd like
to think Talley does it as well I do. I'm
only speaking from myself on it as you are. But
the point is we do have some people who have
been very kind in their comments and reviews, and.

Speaker 2 (14:37):
We've meant consistency, yes.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
And we care enough that we just want to take
a second to name some of them.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
Some shout out situations.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
So would you like to go first? Yes? Fine, So
I want to say thank you to Kelly Ryan because
she has has just written a very nice review.

Speaker 2 (15:02):
Delightful gal right, very positive.

Speaker 1 (15:06):
Yes, So very happy and we're very grateful for her feedback. So,
Kelly Ryan, thank.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
You, thank you, Kelly, take.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
It away, all right, all right.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
I would like to thank Bunny. They have commented on
every single episode that they have listened to. We are
bless her, I know, deeply grateful. Jessica Why has left
several comments and messages and she has been a day
one supporter of our podcasts.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
Well, I hope she hears this bab.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
Boom, yeah, I hope she's still listening. I hope she
is not.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
Given she stopped last episode, I would suck.

Speaker 2 (15:47):
That really would be sad.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
Okay, Katie, she has left several comments and just very
nice interactions back and forth. Lovely and one now this
is a I don't know what. I don't want to
sound like I'm eighty, but like screen name? Is that
what you say? Handle? What should I call you?

Speaker 1 (16:07):
Use your name?

Speaker 2 (16:08):
Use the name, user name? Okay, j P kirok chiroc.
And they are also delightful left a very nice in
depth review of our podcast. Very thoughtful. So yes, love
and thank you very much, Thank all of you for listening,
thank you for the comments, and just it means the

(16:29):
world to us.

Speaker 1 (16:29):
Yes, because especially as amateur people who.

Speaker 2 (16:32):
You know, we don't have a freaking clue what we're doing.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
No, we don't. You should see what happens every time
before we start this show and just me trying to
get the microphones to work. Like, it's not good.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
It's you're being very hard on yourself. It's a little
bit of a circus. But so it's fun.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
So yes, we just wanted to take a moment before
we started. So thank you everybody, Yes, thank you all.
And uh, then well you're just going to jump into
the case today, righty. So the case today that I
decided to do. I was I kept seeing this on Netflix.
It was it kept being previewed or whatever. I didn't
actually so I didn't watch the whole documentary yet, but

(17:12):
it was fascinating enough that I was like, Okay, I'm
gonna look into this for the podcast. So I don't
know if you saw this on Netflix the Thailand All murders, yes,
so did you watch it? No?

Speaker 2 (17:23):
But Ashley had told me about this case like way back,
like months ago, and then the other day we saw
it come up on Netflix.

Speaker 1 (17:29):
Oh my gosh, there it is, So I did I
started watching maybe like the first half hour to like
forty five minutes. But there's three episodes, so oh, not.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
Bad though, Like, no, you know, if you're gonna hump
her down and decide.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
To do it, I might, I just might.

Speaker 2 (17:44):
It's not a ten or ten right episode, it's just
two or three episodes, right.

Speaker 1 (17:50):
But anyway, So that's what we're gonna talk about today.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
Well, I think that's nice. Sorry for my delay. I
was watching the Snail over here. You know, this topic
is not like a normal thing that we typically you
know what I mean, like in terms of subject matter,
not anything like our norm you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
I guess I do. I'm not, And I don't talk
about like the pseudo fed killer or the diamond tap.

Speaker 2 (18:18):
Or the manner of how this went down.

Speaker 1 (18:22):
Nobody's missing, Oh yeah, but they're dead.

Speaker 2 (18:26):
Oh they sure are.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
Okay, let's just get into this, all right. So the
year's nineteen eighty two that this happens. So on a
fall morning of nineteen eighty.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
Two, absolutely leaves got it.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
An ordinary bottle of tilot all turned into a death
trap for unsuspecting people in the Chicago area. And I
think what makes this case so like chillworthy, I guess
is that it can literally, I mean, it could happen
to anybody. And you know, side note, even though I
only said a sentence. I sometimes don't well, no, actually

(19:06):
a lot I don't. I get nervous when people make
documentaries like this or movies like this, because I feel
like it gives other people ideas.

Speaker 2 (19:12):
Poppycat Yeah, but things went into place.

Speaker 1 (19:15):
Right, But I'm just saying like, yeah, I don't know.
It just it freaks me out. But but anyway, so
you're not.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
A tailand'll taker, though, are you. I mean, granted, this
could be anything.

Speaker 1 (19:26):
It could be that you got that right. Yeah, I'm
not necessarily worried about Thailand.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
All right, but buttles, buttles, advil, vitamins, vitamins, stool softner, whatever.
Maybe you could start drinking Perune juice, except that also
has a lot of Absolutely, I'd imagine, all right, we

(19:55):
have to get maybe even glass bottle juices would be
more up your alley, because I I think those just
have the pop lids, not a covering lid. I think
that's the way to go.

Speaker 1 (20:06):
Well, this happened with capsules.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
I'm talking about proof.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
I'm gonna mute your mic on here. All right. So,
like I said, what's crazy about this is that this
could happen anywhere with almost anything, and that is that's
freaky for sure.

Speaker 2 (20:22):
It's spooky.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
So yes, spooky, creepy, chillworthy. So here we go the
story of the nineteen eighty two Chicago, Thailand all murders.
So we are what forty years later more, I think
you're probably.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
Right eighty What year is it? Twenty twenty five, forty
two years, forty three three four five three, right, the chillers.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
Can figure that out. We're getting lost in the weeds.
It's not important. So let's break down the the events
of what was going on here. So these deaths that happened,
they occurred roughly forty eight like over the forty eight
hour time span.

Speaker 2 (21:09):
Oh shit, I didn't know that.

Speaker 1 (21:10):
Yes, So it started with a chain of deaths that
at first they seemed unrelated because people were just old dying. Man. Yeah,
I mean yes. So this is kind of like going
to go through it like a date to date timeline
of what was going on here. So we have the
first first, uh, the first first September twenty ninth, nineteen

(21:34):
eighty two, early morning. This happened in Elk Grove Village.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
Sounds very cute, it does.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
Twelve year old oh Mary Kellerman. She woke up on Wednesday,
September twenty ninth with a running nose and a sore throat,
so her parents decided to keep her home from school
and gave her one extra strength tilan al capsule to
help her feel better. A short time later, Mary's father, Dennis,

(22:03):
heard a loud thud from the bathroom. He said, I
heard her go into the bathroom. Then I heard something drop,
so he said he called out her name and she
didn't answer. So he said he opened the door to
the bathroom and she was lying on the floor unconscious.

Speaker 2 (22:20):
And how old did you say? Twelve twelve?

Speaker 1 (22:22):
So he calls nine to one one. Mary was rushed
by paramedics to Alexian Brothers Medical Center. But I guess
despite hours of effort, like you know, CPR, I guess
they even used a heart pacemaker to help her. Yeah,

(22:43):
but she was pronounced dead at nine fifty six am.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
Fast.

Speaker 1 (22:48):
Yeah, the cause of the healthy seventh grader sudden collapse.
Like nobody knew what was going on.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
So they had to wait for the autopsy.

Speaker 1 (22:59):
Well, I'm just saying, like when she was I guess,
actively dying, like nobody, they weren't like, this is what's happening.
They had no idea what was happening, right, Yeah, So
investigators did make a note though that among you know,
because they went through the house to just see take
inventory of like what was going on that day, I

(23:20):
guess that morning. So they did make a note that
there were cold medicines in Mary's house and there was
a recently purchased bottle of tylenol, and her father did
mention that Mary's mom had bought it at a local
It's called jewel Osco so like a drug store teen yeah,
I think so, like J E. W. E. L. Dash Oscot.

(23:46):
So they ended up taking that bottle as evidence and
locked it away at the police station. They you know,
I mean, but they still weren't thinking there's actually right,
anything wrong with that. It was just something she had
ingested not long before. So they were taking it just
as a precaution or whatever. They took other like household
you know items, and then like I said, they were
just taking inventory for this girl's unexpected death. So that's happening.

(24:11):
Then midday in Arlington Heights. Now this is only hours
after Mary and what happened to her. Fifteen miles away,
another strange thing was happening to somebody named Adam Janice.
He was a twenty seven year old postal worker from
Arlington Heights and he was sick that day. He wasn't
feeling well, so around lunchtime, he complained to his wife

(24:34):
about having a headache, and he took two extra strength
tiland All capsules from a bottle that he had recently
bought at a Julasco well at the same type of
I don't know if it was the same store, but
it was because it's fifteen miles I don't know. Yeah,
but yes, at I don't know if it was the
same store, but it was the same change. Yes, yes, oh,

(24:55):
thank you. Yes. So within minutes of taking this tailand all,
Adam collapses and he goes unconscious. His family rushes him
to the emergency room at Northwest Community Hospital, doctors and
including the ICU chief whose name was doctor Thomas Kim.
They obviously fought to revive Adam, but by three point fifteen,

(25:17):
doctor Kim had pronounced that Adam had died as well.
So now their initial assumption with Adam was that he
had suffered a massive heart attack, and of course the
idea of Mary Kellerman wasn't even well.

Speaker 2 (25:32):
Different hospitals, right, like nothing each other's radar exactly.

Speaker 1 (25:36):
Yeah, so I mean, the completely ignorant of each other's cases.
So Adam unfortunately passes away and like his family is
now grieving and they're in shock. And Adam's relatives they
gather at his home, you know, after his death, because
I mean they're just trying to comfort and console each
other and whatever.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
Yeah, so just strong. I mean he was in his twenties, yes, well.

Speaker 1 (26:00):
Yeah yeah, and Mary was inner teens.

Speaker 2 (26:02):
I mean, yes, outrageous as well. They're just I mean
even I'm thinking for someone in their twenties to die
of how I thought it was a heart attack, I mean,
that's still abnormal poster. I mean typically I would imagine
they're in good health, they're active.

Speaker 1 (26:14):
Yeah, you know, I thought you were going to be like,
you know, twenties, like that's almost teens and teens is
like that's almost eight. But anyway, I didn't the true
listeners will know what that is.

Speaker 2 (26:27):
I agree, good good references.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
And we shan't be explaining it.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
We will not reference anything. I was just going to
give something away, all right.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
Anyway back to this, So his family now they're gathered,
you know, all together, just kind of like reeling from
what just happened. So at his house they're I don't
even know. This horrible situation gets even worse because Adam's
younger brother, Stanley, he's twenty five, and Stanley's wife, Teresa,

(27:00):
who's twenty. I have the chills just by the way
you're looking at me, I guess.

Speaker 2 (27:05):
Because I suspect I know where this is going, and
if it is going where I think, I'm just thinking
this family and.

Speaker 1 (27:12):
The deal, well it's going where you think. So they
had come over to kind of like comfort Adam's wife,
so understandably the stress of this day, people were getting
some headaches and not feeling well. Right, I'm not laughing,
but you are, because.

Speaker 2 (27:35):
It's so like absurd, but not like it just it's insane.
It's just this.

Speaker 1 (27:42):
Entire thing is it's very outrageous. So yeah, they're not
feeling good. So Stanley asked his wife if she would
get him some tile and all, and it just so
happened that there was an open bottle out on Adam's
kitchen counter, which of course was the same one that
Adam used earlier. So Teresa hands two capsules to Stanley

(28:05):
and she decided to take to herself. So within minutes
of this, Stanley said, I don't feel good. He walked
out of the washroom and collapsed. He from what I
found here. He literally fell into his wife's arms in
the kitchen.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
Oh my god.

Speaker 1 (28:24):
So then almost immediately after that, Teresa collapsed on the
floor with the exact same symptoms of just well collapsing,
like being unconscious, you know, which.

Speaker 2 (28:35):
Thank god Adam's wife wasn't like, give me some of
this tile at all. Two you know what I mean,
Like someone was there to be Like I was here,
I watched what happened. I saw what they took. I
saw like the effects it had on them, right, I mean,
thank god there was a witness.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
Well there were more. I think there were more people
than just those two there. But so because I know,
like family members called, not because it was like a
gathering of family, not just the wife. Yea, yeah, yeah,
So these family members call nine to one one again,
same freaking house, right right, which God knows what they're
the nine one people are thinking but drop on like that.

Speaker 2 (29:11):
None of this is freaking funny.

Speaker 1 (29:13):
Well I was thinking they were probably thinking, oh, this
is a mistake, like you know, like if the if
the like operator would call like the ambulance and say, hey,
we have an emergency at one two three Main Street.
They were like, no, Janet, we were there. Keep up.

Speaker 2 (29:27):
Janet's keeping up.

Speaker 1 (29:29):
So anyway, now it's uh five point forty when they
call the ambulance again and the Arlington Heights Fire Department
they arrive to this really bizarre scene yet again. So
two more people now are down in the exact same house.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
Which, may I say, as much of a travesty as
this was for Adam's family, thank God, I would imagine
like these three poor souls really are what tied things
together for people to start looking like what the hell
is going on here to try to crack this because
the fact that it was all.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
The same house old yea, oh boy, yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
They're from the same household but all the same house
yeah yeah, within hours.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
I mean.

Speaker 2 (30:13):
No, you're right, God in a way, but terrible for them.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
So during all the chaos, like initially some of the
neighbors also rushed over to help one of them was
a nurse who tried to assist before the ambulances took
Stanley and Teresa to the hospital, and of course they
took them to the same place where Adam had just
passed away. So like, that's nuts. But by that evening,
Stanley was pronounced dead at eight fifteen PM and his wife,

(30:39):
Teresa was resuscitated and put on life support. But she
had suffered irreversible.

Speaker 2 (30:45):
Damage at twenty years old.

Speaker 1 (30:48):
Yeah, so she, I guess ended up staying in a
coma for a few days, and then she died on
October first, and she when she died, she officially then
became the seventh Thailand all murder victim.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
Seventh and all of these people were Chicago.

Speaker 1 (31:10):
I think, so yeah, residents or whatever. Yeah, well close Vicinity.
So now the like the Janice family lost two sons
and a daughter in law in one day and all
in the same manner. So like now people are thinking,
what the hell is going on here? Right, So at
this point, local officials knew that something was extremely unusual,

(31:32):
but they had no idea what so paramedics and doctors
they hadn't connected at the time that there was any
problem with it. Tailand all because again it's like it's Thailand.
All nobody's thinking anything about anything. So at first they
were thinking because again keep in mind, they are not
thinking of the other little girl, right, So right, so

(31:54):
they're like, well, maybe there was carbon monoxide poisoning that
was in the house, or like maybe there was some
kind of contaminated food that had like well poison or
like a virus or something in it that they were
all ingesting or something. So Arlington Heights Police ended up
contacting the villages because I guess it's like it was

(32:15):
considered a village. The public health nurse whose name was
Helen Jensen, and they asked her if she would help
them investigate like these weird deaths. So now we're in
the afternoon. So this is late afternoon on the twenty

(32:39):
ninth of October, because we were at October. No September
oh oh oh yeah September.

Speaker 2 (32:50):
Oh it was when she was on life support. Sorry,
and that's when Teresa ye.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
Yes, So the afternoon again around the same time, another
incident was a curring thirty miles away in a small
town of Winfield. So another woman by the name of
Mary I guess she went by Lynn Rayner Rayner. She
was twenty seven years old and she was at home

(33:15):
caring for her newborn baby.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 (33:19):
And she had given birth to her fourth child just
one week earlier. So Mary developed as the other people did.
She had a headache, and she decided to get some
tile and all. So she took two of the tile
in all capsules that now she people think bought it

(33:45):
from a local Frank's Finer Foods grocery store, so it
wasn't the same chain that the other people got drug Storia,
so she takes it. Not long after, Mary collapses on
the floor. So her husband is not at home, but
he comes home to a terrible scene, obviously because there's

(34:06):
a new born baby. His wife is now right, his
wife is now on the floor. Mary is rushed to
Central due Page Hospital. Doctors fight to save her, but
as with all the others, unfortunately, Mary was pronounced dead
by that evening.

Speaker 2 (34:25):
But now introduces another new hospital because that's not the
hospital that the other four have been to.

Speaker 1 (34:32):
Oh right, so her death was, just as all the others,
a mystery. You know. She was a young mom who
had been fine just hours before. Now she had passed
away and She left behind a husband and four children,
including an infant. As I said so again, though at
this moment, nobody connected Mary's collapse to any of the

(34:55):
other incidents, because again, how would you.

Speaker 2 (34:57):
I mean, nobody knows that fast right.

Speaker 1 (35:00):
So again, late afternoon of the twenty ninth, another woman,
Mary Farland McFarland, sorry Mary McFarland. She was thirty one,
and she was a resident of Elmhurst. She was at work,
she worked at an Illinois Bell phone store, when she

(35:22):
told co workers that she had a terrible headache, so
she stepped into the breakroom and took some tylan, all
from a bottle. We don't know where she got that
bottle or I don't know, but within minutes Mary McFarlane
also collapsed to the floor at her job. Yes, she

(35:43):
was taken to Goods Marridon Hospital in dowers Grove, New Hospital,
thank you. Like all the others, her condition deteriorated very rapidly,
and Mary died later that evening on September twenty ninth,
or potentially in the early hours of the thirtieth.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
And you're all so young, they're all twenty seven.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
I did notice that.

Speaker 2 (36:05):
Yeah, it's not like anyone was even elderly or middle
aged even Yeah.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
So now with Mary's sudden death, you know we're starting
to get up there and the deaths here. So at
this time, however, you know, her case was handled in
a different town and a different hospital, so again, no
one still people are just dying. I mean, you know,
it's like you said, the only real connection connection was

(36:34):
that the one was the same house with the same
with family members. But besides that, there's no other reason
to connect any of these other deaths.

Speaker 2 (36:41):
So even if you were like the spouse of one
of these people and you're hearing about the twelve year
old who passed away or one of these women. People again,
die all the time, So as a relative or spouse,
like I said, you're not even going to necessarily hear
that on the news. I'm not sure if you'd be
watching the news that evening anyway, but if you were

(37:02):
to be, yeah, you know, you're not necessarily going to
think there's any.

Speaker 1 (37:05):
Call that would be like if like a neighbor died suddenly.
I'm not going to all of a sudden google and
say other deaths today, like I just, I mean, nobody.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
Does that, right well that we know of well yes.

Speaker 1 (37:17):
And they didn't have Google back then good call. There
was no check GPT to help them out. But anyway,
so so again different town, different hospital. The dots had
yet to be connected again, so to her family and
to local police, this was just as baffling as everybody else,
you know, another a healthy thirty one year old mother

(37:39):
just collapses at work with no explanation. So now we're
on the evening of September twenty ninth, and we're back
now to Arlington Heights. So now we're back at the
Janice household and the first responders and officials they start
to put the pieces together because after Stanley and Teresa

(38:00):
were transported to the er Arlington Heights investigators including Helen Jensen,
who was the village health person, and as well as
the Cook County Deputy Medical Examiner, Nick Pitious. So he
sounds very suspicious.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
Full of pitsh and vinegar. Ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
Oh he arrived. They arrive at the Janice home because
they're going to like now search around because they're thinking
it's environmental factors, a gas leak or something mild. So
Nurse Jensen she's expecting to find like maybe where this

(38:55):
carbon monoxide is coming from or maybe she's going to
come across some weird kind of like poisoned food. But
she sees nothing obvious as she's going through the house.
No gas leaks, no toxins lying around, no mold. So
then Jensen he noticed that there's this open tailenol bottle
on the kitchen shelf, and he, I guess something made

(39:15):
intuition or whatever told him to like examine it a
little bit, and he saw that there were six capsules missing,
which would have accounted for the normal dose for three
adult people to each take a dose. You you got it.
So he was like, shaw me this bottle, like me,

(39:38):
let me see this a second fiddle about right. So
there was no tamper proof seal on the bottle because
in nineteen eighty two medical bottles only had that little
cotton inside. There was no foil or plastic seal on
the top. So Jensen had later said that I counted
up the pills and saw six apsols missing, and there

(40:01):
were three people dead. I said, right then, and there
it's the tile, and all investigator Vicious agreed that this
was a pretty big coincidence. He took the tile in
all bottle as evidence and they rushed it to the
hospital where they could do some tests on it. So

(40:22):
around ten pm that night, Jensen and Pitious also obtained
the tail and All bottle from Mary Kellerman's home, which,
of course the Elk Grove Police just by basically chance,
had saved it with the ambulance report earlier that night.
So they took that bottle too, and they brought it
in for analysis, and the puzzle pieces now started coming together.

(40:47):
So now we're like into the night, and so now
the puzzle pieces are coming together, and now we're at
the night again of the twenty ninth. So while they're
trying well, they're still figuring this out. This situation still
claims another person what because it was nothing was official yet.
I mean, they're just figuring this out right. So on

(41:09):
the night of September twenty ninth, Paula Prince lots of women.
I was just going to say that she was thirty five.
She was a flight attendant for United Airlines. She landed
at Chicago's O'Hare Airport after a flight from Las Vegas.
So before heading home to her apartment, Paula stops at

(41:30):
a Walgreens and I guess this Walgreens was at sixteen
oh one North Well Street in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood.

Speaker 2 (41:38):
I didn't know Walgreens even existed in the eighties.

Speaker 1 (41:40):
Well, wow, you do know. Yeah, And she bought, of course,
a bottle of extra strength tail and all a gun. Now,
what's interesting about this one is that there was actually
surveillance camera footage of this. Woh, the eighties come on. So,

(42:04):
I mean I was freaking watching Eureka's Castle in the eighties.
There were cameras.

Speaker 2 (42:08):
Around, was I But I don't recall.

Speaker 1 (42:10):
There Eureka's Castle.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
I would do the little jingle jingle sounds, but I
couldn't shen't some of those goons called Bip and Bop.
I liked them, the siblings.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
The ones that lived in the sewer side.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
Yeah, I wanted those raw hide horns that Eureka had.

Speaker 1 (42:29):
Oh, she was adorable.

Speaker 2 (42:30):
Yeah, and that freaking Wand I had about five ones
that I pretended were hers, and none of them looked
like hers.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
But I thought, say none of them worked. I was
gonna say, we'll have any of them worked. That would
be fantastic.

Speaker 2 (42:43):
Batley was definitely it was a sweet of course, Magellan
that poured dunce anyway.

Speaker 1 (42:49):
So yeah, there were cameras, if you can believe it,
back in the eighties. So this there was a like,
I guess, a photo taken. So Paula is seen at
the Walgreens check out around nine thirty pm. She's purchasing
this bottle of tilool, and just behind her in the
photo there is a man that is not what I
thought you were going to say, a bear. I thought I.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
Did not This whole thing with the surveillance was just like, oh,
she went in here, Oh, this is what she purchased,
not that the freaking culprit was going to be watching
his handiwork and the bottles getting taken out of the store.

Speaker 1 (43:33):
So, if you'll allow me, so, just behind her there
was a man. He had He was a bearded man,
it says, and he was hovering just a few feet
away from her. So police later released this eerie image,
suspecting that the unknown man with a beard in quotes
is what they said in the background might actually be

(43:55):
who they are now dubbing the tailand all killer. Now again,
they weren't saying he was the Tilan I'll kill her
at that exact moment, because they hadn't named him yet,
but I'm saying, like future then is saying that that's
what he ends up being named. And how you just
said like he was kind of like watching people buy
his poisoned tile mark.

Speaker 2 (44:16):
Kiss going back and checking things out, or watching the
scene unfold.

Speaker 1 (44:21):
So Paula Prince, she goes home to I guess she
lived in a high rise on North Lacelle Drive. So
she gets home, she takes these tailand all capsules again,
probably for a headache. She locks her door. You like
that part.

Speaker 2 (44:35):
I sure do safety first.

Speaker 1 (44:38):
Man, Well, and there was enough safety right, Well that's true,
But tragically, she never was going to unlock her door.
She did live alone, so nobody knew immediately that Paula
had become the latest victim of this poisoning spree. So
her part of the story picks up a couple of

(44:58):
days later when worried friends and family realized that like
nobody had heard from her. So now we're on September thirtieth.
All of this is in one day. Everything we've been
talking about one day.

Speaker 2 (45:13):
Yeah yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
So now this is where like they're going to start
connecting the dots like for real, for real, for real, Zies. Yes,
so by the morning of which actually that's pretty.

Speaker 2 (45:25):
Quick, especially for the eighties.

Speaker 1 (45:30):
So by the morning of September thirtieth, they are realizing
that there is a really horrible common denominator of all
of these people dying, and that is the fact that
they were all taking Taylan al So doctors and officials
were trying to understand all of these weird deaths, and
the pattern was originally not obvious, but they were taking

(45:52):
steps to try to stop this and figure out what
was going on. So as dawn broke on the thirtieth,
the toll of the previous day was becoming clearer because
at Northwest Community Hospital, the twenty year old Teresa Janie,
she had been clinging onto life on a ventilator. She

(46:12):
wasn't expected to survive, so, like I told you, Teresa
would eventually pass away on October first, which made her
the seventh or the fifth victim like in the overall scheme.
So so she's she's hanging onto life now. Over at

(46:33):
Central du Page Hospital, doctors had done everything they could
for Mary Reiner, but she too was pronounced dead by
nine to thirty am on the thirtieth, and as noted,
Mary McFarlane had also died either late that night or
by the next morning of the thirtieth as well. So
there were five known mysterious deaths, Mary Adam Stanley, the

(46:57):
other Mary, and the other Mary. And then there were
two very gravely ill people Teresa and what they didn't know, Paula,
which makes seven total. So the cluster of cases spanning
all these different towns in hospitals was okay, like whatever, weird,

(47:20):
But the critical link was that everybody was starting to
observe when they were like starting to compare these cases
because they knew something was weird. Everybody was using thailan al.
So back in Cook County at the Medical Medical Examiner's
office in Chicago, doctor Edmund Donahue he started analyzing the

(47:42):
evidence that was coming in and when investigator Nick Fishes phoned,
I'm sorry, yes, you're right. Uh. He called doctor donn
Hugh about the Janice family case and uh. Doctor Donahue

(48:06):
had a gut feeling that something was going on with this,
like with the way that these people were dying. So
he said that all of the symptoms which were like
sudden collapse, their skin was turning blue from lack of
oxygen geese. They were None of them were really well
besides I guess the one. None of them were really

(48:27):
able to be resuscitated. All of these were very consistent
with cyanide poisoning cyanide cyanide. So then, of course, but
like people are still thinking, well, how the hell are
all these people getting cyanide in their system? So doctor
Donahue asked Vicious to do something a little bit strange

(48:50):
on the phone, like via the phone. He said, do
you have any of these tilnol bottles? And he said yes,
And he's like, can you just open one up and
just smell, like, smell them?

Speaker 2 (49:01):
What would sina? I'd smell like eggs.

Speaker 1 (49:03):
I guess we're going to find out. Pitius did this
very cautiously, I might add, I would say no. After
I'd say doctor Donahue, no, tell you get over here, here,
tell you come here, smell this. You wouldn't care. You'd
probably lick it or something.

Speaker 2 (49:24):
Is it salty?

Speaker 1 (49:27):
You'd be like, well, my tongue did turn numb.

Speaker 2 (49:31):
My tongue did fall off.

Speaker 1 (49:35):
This is more your area of expertise than mine. So yes, Anyway,
he did smell the bottle and he let the doctor
know that there was a pretty distinct odor of what
he called bitter almonds.

Speaker 2 (49:51):
Oh, I have heard that with cyanide. Yes, yes, a
nice Italian cookie.

Speaker 1 (49:57):
If you know, you know, I don't, so, he said.
He actually smelled two of the bottles, the Janice family's
bottle and Mary Kellerman's Tailan oil bottle, and both of
them smelled the same way.

Speaker 2 (50:11):
You're going to start sniffing your bottles, aren't you. I
suspect you shall.

Speaker 1 (50:18):
Well, I don't know what bitter I was gonna say,
bitter tilent all smells like what bitter almonds smell with.

Speaker 2 (50:26):
Smells.

Speaker 1 (50:27):
I'm not interested in it.

Speaker 2 (50:28):
And that before a carrier oid.

Speaker 1 (50:33):
I guess I did. So. Apparently about sixty to eighty
percent of humans can detect a faint almond smell from cyanide,
not everyone, and Pitious happened to have that ability, thank goodness.
So that was the confirmation that doctor don Hue needed,

(50:54):
and they pretty quickly decided it was cyanide. So laboratory
tests were basically rushed into being done that you know,
like on the remaining titnnel capsules from these bottles, and
they all came back showing that there were lethal amounts
of potassium cyanide in the medicine.

Speaker 2 (51:13):
Now, riddle me this though, whoever was doing this and
hopefully once we solidify who that is, or that they
solidified who it was, that he cooperated he or she.
But I mean, if.

Speaker 1 (51:28):
How you want to put on your running shoes and
get to the point here.

Speaker 2 (51:35):
I'm imagining like you're injecting cyanide past the cotton into
a capsule, But there's no way that's what was going on,
because so then I guess you're just injecting it into
the bottle and the capsules are so either okay, continue,
thank you, surely.

Speaker 1 (51:56):
So the common factor for all these mysterious deaths, now
it's no longer doubt. We all know what it is,
the extra strength Thailand. All capsules from the Chicago area
had been tampered with poison. So by mid morning on
September thirtieth, health and law enforcement officials knew that they
had to act very fast to prevent more deaths. Which
that's crazy to think about, Like you're just coming to

(52:18):
this realization that a very common household drug has been
at least you know, in a town like Chicago, has
been legitimately poisoned, but like nobody knows yet and people
could be popping them at any time, now, you know
what I mean, Like right now, right here, right now,
right here, right now. So at about ten am, the

(52:39):
Cook County Medical Examiner's Office holds an urgent press conference
to warn the public not to consume Thailand all capsules.
I couldn't even imagine me hearing this. So you said,
I'm not or not so this and like this was

(53:02):
something that does not happen often, Like this warning was
you know, bonkers, right, So telling an entire city that
they shouldn't be taking the over like an over the
counter painkiller because it might be lethally compromise filled with cyanide.

(53:22):
So the basic message at the end of the day
was if you have any tail and all, don't take it.
So hospitals, police, city authorities, all these people scrambling to
spread the word. In Arlington Heights, Helen Jensen personally called
the police chief and it insisted that they pulled Thailand
al off of all the store shelves immediately. So some
of the officials were hesitant, Oh my god, because after all,

(53:47):
at that moment, there were only a few bottles that
had poison. You know, we don't want to waste that money.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
This is like in Jaws with the shark and closing
the beaches down and affecting the money for July fourth weekend.

Speaker 1 (53:59):
Money makes the world go around, baby, right. But good
for Helen here, her urgency won out and they did
start taking all the tylanol off of the shelves that
same day.

Speaker 2 (54:10):
She was a crusader.

Speaker 1 (54:12):
So now tilanol is made by Johnson and Johnson, so
they too reacted very swiftly. Good for you, Johnson and Johnson.
By the afternoon of September thirtieth, Johnson and Johnson put
out warnings to doctors and distributors about the cyanide laced capsules.

(54:36):
So the company identified one lot number, which happened to
be MC two eight eight zero. So check your bottles, everybody.

Speaker 2 (54:48):
He's kidding. This was from the eighties. Anyone who's just
joining in now, well.

Speaker 1 (54:52):
This isn't live. So I would hope they're not just
joining in now. But and don't you think, you know,
you know that there are some people out there who
probably have bottles of old medication from the eighties, And
don't you deny.

Speaker 2 (55:07):
It insane to me.

Speaker 1 (55:08):
But I suppose, yes, you know, like some like I
feel like older people who just they just right collect
stuff and you know.

Speaker 2 (55:18):
Yes, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:20):
Aren't you glad I gave out that number?

Speaker 2 (55:22):
Nine? I am actually I take back, Well, I wasn't
even mocking you. I was just making sure that Schiller's
knew don't be alarmed if.

Speaker 1 (55:30):
You're just turning on the program.

Speaker 2 (55:32):
Now.

Speaker 1 (55:36):
Anyway, that was the lot number that seemed to link
all of these like they all have that lot number
on it.

Speaker 2 (55:42):
Well, then that makes me wonder because I was thinking
it's someone going into these stores, especially that it was
drug stores and grocery store one. But now I'm thinking
it must have been someone in like what the distribution center,
the factory and Johnson employees, not just some guy woman
off the streets right injecting bottles inside the stores.

Speaker 1 (56:08):
So they found this out by about three pm on
that next day. So it was believed that these tamperings
were local and pointed to somebody in the Chicago region
putting poison in capsules after they were on store shelves.

(56:29):
Oh ah, because since the victims bought tylenol at different
stores and the affected bottles came from different production plants.
I see, oh the.

Speaker 2 (56:45):
Factory right or warehouse?

Speaker 1 (56:47):
Yeah. Yeah, So that day authorities and the company focused
on Chicago and the suburbs. Police literally drove around town
with bullhorns warning people are.

Speaker 2 (56:59):
You kidding me?

Speaker 1 (57:00):
So basically like an ice cream truck saying, throw out
your tilet all, don't have thailand all, blah blah blah.
Which again at that at that point in time, like that,
you can see how like that is a freaking dire situation.

Speaker 2 (57:14):
Because social media like there is now.

Speaker 1 (57:16):
Right and even not everybody's watching like the news twenty
four to seven, and you know, so, yeah, but what
crazy thing to hear outside the window, come.

Speaker 2 (57:30):
Out of the bullhorn? Right, what does Rose say?

Speaker 1 (57:34):
And hey you this is avalanche country.

Speaker 2 (57:44):
But you know, very resourceful of them taking it to
the streets, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
Well, yeah, yes, they did have to pharmacies, like I
told you, they now that there was you know, now
that everybody what was going on. They yes, they yanked
those tail and all because then they could be sued.

Speaker 2 (58:05):
We don't want that, no, we don't motivates people more.

Speaker 1 (58:09):
And of course citizens were asked to just throw out
their talent off bottles. Well, they didn't have to ask me.
I'd be burning them in the backyard.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
In the backyard you would have had Cyan I.

Speaker 1 (58:21):
Fumes I was gonna say, yeah, I probably wouldn't be
doing that either, tell you burn this from her. So
the media ran like those little banner headlines like on
the bottom of you know whatever, saying poisoned tail and
all like. And of course this hit national media, of course,

(58:43):
of course. So also on September thirtieth, I mean, all
of this is happening, This is jam packed.

Speaker 2 (58:53):
It really is.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
Law office, law office, law enforcement. They mobilized one of
the largest investigative task forces Illinois had ever seen, so
Tie Feyner, which was it says Illinois.

Speaker 2 (59:10):
AG the Attorney General.

Speaker 1 (59:12):
Here we go. I knew it meant something, all right, Yes, okay,
Ty Feyner, Illinois's Attorney General and others pulled together officials
from local police departments. So that was like Arlington Heights,
Elk Grove, Chomberg, and then just to Chicago in general,

(59:37):
the Illinois State Police, the FBI, and the FDA. So
there's a lot of people involved in the kitchen. Right
by nightfall, a tailanl Murders task Force was in place
with dozens of agents and detectives hunting for the madman
or mad men.

Speaker 2 (01:00:00):
No mad woman, no suspected.

Speaker 1 (01:00:03):
Behind the poisonings. Crime labs worked overtime testing tail and
all bottles for fingerprints, cyanide traces, or any other clues.
So then tips began flooding in and every lead, no
matter how far fetched, they looked into. Yeah. So, and
then it's like, was this an attempt to hurt Johnson

(01:00:25):
and Johnson like their business? Was this an act of
terrorism or extortion? Was it a deranged individual with no motive,
just out for shits and giggles? Like nothing was off
the tables what they were saying here, right, So, now
we're at October first through the second. So October first,
which was a Friday. So by Friday, the public fear

(01:00:48):
in Chicago was pretty high. People after hearing the news,
of course, cleared out their medicine cabinets. Yah, hospitals were
inundated with panicked callers. I'd be sitting in the parking
lot who had taken Thailand all recently, Oh God, bless

(01:01:09):
these people.

Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
To take it recently. You'd be in the parking lot.

Speaker 1 (01:01:14):
Be like last year, I did have a headache and
I did take it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:18):
I did think about taking one, but here I am.

Speaker 1 (01:01:24):
So anyway, the hospitals are getting all these panic callers
who had taken talent all recently, and thankfully officially could
at least say this to them, if you're calling me now,
you're all right, but don't take any more? So fine,
I would probably be like, can I have that in writing? Though?
Don't you want to at least test my blood or something.

(01:01:47):
So meanwhile, authorities continue to recover contaminated talent all bottles.

Speaker 2 (01:01:51):
They were finding ones that like still in.

Speaker 1 (01:01:54):
The stores, you know that the sign. Yeah that's what
I said, Yeah, contaminated. So they found a total of
seven cyanide bottles in the Chicago area, including the five
that were involved in all of these tragic deaths.

Speaker 2 (01:02:16):
So were the locations just those Jewel Osco places and
that grocery store or like other name.

Speaker 1 (01:02:23):
So the bottles were traced to several different stores. Two
of them were from the Jewel Food Stores, which is
the Jewelasco place.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
Yeah, so I guess then that wasn't a drug store
like I thought it was. It's a food store. It's
a grocery store.

Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
Yes, there was. It was a drug store also in Schomberg.

Speaker 2 (01:02:44):
Shaw Me Chamberg, Shaw Me Schamberg.

Speaker 1 (01:02:47):
And then the Walgreens in Chicago.

Speaker 2 (01:02:48):
Oh, I forgot about the wall.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
Yeah. Oh, and a Dominant's grocery store in Chicago and
a Frank's Finer Foods. There's a lot of them in
when in wind Field so around yeah, which again I
mean disturbing, yes, what, no, you're right it is so
which also confirmed that these poison these poison bottles were

(01:03:11):
not isolated to just one story like we said, I mean,
people were miles and miles away from each other. Right.
So then on October first, like I told you, the
seventh victim of those murders, which was Paula, she had
been discovered. Yeah yeah, yeah, because, like I said, she
lived alone, so when her friends grew worried about her,

(01:03:31):
the Chicago police were asked to do a wellness check
at her apartment and they found her lying dead in
her home and on the bathroom counter was an open
bottle of time at all with only one capsule missing,
so there was only took one. Also did the little
girl well, but.

Speaker 2 (01:03:51):
I assumed that had to do with age and that
she was still a child, so it like hit her
harder somehow, like it didn't take as much to do.

Speaker 1 (01:03:58):
I'm pretty sure though, you don't need a lot of
I don't know, yeah, I act like I have any idea.
So the receeat, though next to the bottle, showed that
it had been purchased on September twenty ninth at the Walgreens.
So so Paula was basically the final victim, which is.

Speaker 2 (01:04:19):
Also insane to me that they were able to I mean,
that was so many deaths, but that there weren't more.
I'm shocked. I think them like taking such quick action
and getting all those bottles off the shelves that, I mean,
what a miracle that they were even able to act
as fast as they did, and that they connected the
dots as fast as they did.

Speaker 1 (01:04:41):
So her time of death was a couple of days prior,
but she was officially pronounced dead by the medical examiner
at about six forty five on October first. So with
Paula's death, the human toll now stood at seven people
unfortunately passing away due to this tail and all usage.
So Chicago's mayor at the time, Jane Brynn. She responded

(01:05:04):
by banning the sale of tailanol in this city and
advising everybody to turn in any tailanhol capsules that they had.
There was a very sad press conference where officials pronounced
Paula Prince's death and the fact that a killer wasn't
large for tampering with medicine bottles. The mayor emphasized the
urgent removal of tailanol from all Chicago stores, essentially an

(01:05:27):
immediate citywide recall. So now we're into October second. So
fortunately no new poisonings occurred after Paula Prince, but by
the second the string of murders had ended. But now
the investigation is in full swing, and the public's demand
for answers was pretty intense. And this case had now,

(01:05:48):
like I said, it made national news. The idea that
a household painkiller could be randomly poisoned was scarin everybody. So,
as Feyner later reflected, this, perhaps America's first instance of
domestic production tampering terrorism is what he called it.

Speaker 2 (01:06:06):
In the eighties.

Speaker 1 (01:06:09):
Yes, get on, we do know it's in the eighties, right, So,
And it was like this killer was causing random deaths
with like there was no, like personal, like, you know,
this was not like a vendetta or something exactly precisely. So,

(01:06:32):
the first few days of October, every parent in America
was checking their medicine cabinets. Hell yeah, baby. So Halloween
was approaching, and the Thailand all murders sparked renewed urban
legends about poison candy, you know, like razor blades and candy,
you know that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:06:52):
Do you remember even or even ever being given fruit?
I mean maybe, but I wasn't allowed to eat the fruit. O.
Who the hell would I wanted the apples, I wasn't
allowed in case they tampered with them. And I was
like what. I was so confused by that, Like I
thought it just it didn't compute in my four year old,

(01:07:15):
five year old head of like why would anything be
wrong with the apples?

Speaker 1 (01:07:20):
You know, an apple a day keeps the doctor away. So,
because this was so close to Halloween and such a
crazy ass thing to be happening, some communities just canceled it.

Speaker 2 (01:07:33):
They canceled Halloween.

Speaker 1 (01:07:35):
No trick or treat that year.

Speaker 2 (01:07:37):
Oh my gosh, you know, it was serious. I'm not joking.

Speaker 1 (01:07:44):
Wow, it was serious. So I guess candy sales that
year reportedly dropped twenty percent because parents were just like,
absolutely not, We're not.

Speaker 2 (01:07:53):
Doing anything, no, no Reese's pieces, no time at all.

Speaker 1 (01:07:58):
Right exactly, So the tail and all scare had effectively,
like it basically cast a shadow of paranoia all over
because if medicine could be tampered with, why the hell
not candy? Why not food? Why not other products? So
back at this time, the notion of tamper proof packaging

(01:08:18):
wasn't a thing yet, but now it's about to be, right.
So before these changes took place, though, investigators had to
try to find who committed this crazy thing and whatever.
So that is what that's what happened and when. So
this is what we're going to do. Me show me.

(01:08:42):
We're at an hour and fifteen, so I think, shit,
I think what we're going to do is this is
part one, and we're going to wrap up part one
because this is a pretty detailed account. It's a big yeah.
So we're going to wrap it up here and then
we will see everybody next week, and.

Speaker 2 (01:09:04):
Nobody go watch the documentary until we're done with our
part too.

Speaker 1 (01:09:10):
I mean a little bit of a forceful ask there, but.

Speaker 2 (01:09:14):
I'm Talia said it kindly.

Speaker 1 (01:09:19):
So anyway, everybody, that is what we're going to do.
So thanks for tuning into this episode.

Speaker 2 (01:09:24):
Yes, thank you everybody, and as always, stay safe.

Speaker 1 (01:09:29):
And stay chill. Thank you everyone you've just listened to Chilworthy.
Thank you for joining us on this latest episode. While
we strive to keep our discussions engaging and lighthearted, we
also wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the real

(01:09:50):
lives and events that are at the heart of these stories.

Speaker 2 (01:09:53):
We try to approach each topic with a sense of
curiosity and respect fully, aware of the impact these events
have had on the individuals and their loved ones. Our
goal is to honor their memories by keeping their stories
alive and shedding light on the mysteries that surround them.

Speaker 1 (01:10:09):
If you enjoyed this episode, please remember to subscribe, rate,
and leave a review, and don't forget to join us
on the next episode of Chilworthy.