Case Overview

On the morning of September 29, 1982, a 12-year-old girl, Mary Kellerman of Elk Grove Village in Chicago, was given two capsules of Tylenol Extra-Strength for a soar throat. Before she got to her 7^th grade class, she died. On the same morning, a 27-year-old postal worker named Adam Janus, also of Chicago, died after taking two of the same type of Tylenol capsules. A woman named Mary Reiner, 27, also died after taking Tylenol capsules. Then Mary McFarland, 31, died right after that for the same reason. They were all from Chicago.

On the same day, Adam Janus’ brother and sister-in-law, Stanley, 25, and Theresa, 19, both took Tylenol from the same container as Adam. Mourning Adam’s death, they had just gotten back from making funeral arrangement when they took the capsules and died. The final victim was a flight attendant named Paula Price, 35, who was found dead at her home in Chicago on October 1.

All seven murders were victims of Tylenol capsules laced with a potassium cyanide compound. The capsules then were designed in a way to give customers the ability to open the capsule and extract the powdered material so that they could pour it in water. This gave an alternative for customers who found it hard to swallow the capsule. Unfortunately, the design of the capsule made it easy for the suspect of this case to easily replace the medicine with the cyanide powder.

The capsules came from different production plants, which meant it ruled out a possible disgruntled employee tampering with the capsules from inside the plants. This baffled the investigators and even though there still have not been any conclusive statements to the case, they believed a suspect added the deadly compound to Tylenol capsules that were on store shelves.

There still has not been any convictions or arrests relating to the seven murders. The Tylenol Tampering case is still an ongoing investigation. It played a significant role in changes to the way medicines are safely distributed today and it had a major impact on the company itself.