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Prime suspect in 1982 Tylenol murders dead at 76 [1]
['Rob Beschizza']
Date: 2023-07-11
The Chicago Tylenol Murders killed at least 7 people, poisoned after someone tampered with pill bottles on store shelves in 1982. The longtime prime suspect, James Lewis–convicted of trying to extort $1m from the manufacturer but not charged with the poisonings themselves–is dead at 76.
Seven people ages 12 to 35 were killed in the Chicago area after they ingested extra-strength Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide. Lewis, who was in his 30s at the time, denied any involvement. But he was convicted of attempted extortion after he wrote a ransom note to Johnson & Johnson, the company that manufactures Tylenol. Lewis demanded $1 million "if you want to stop the killing," according to the Chicago Tribune.
The letters were postmarked before it was disclosed to the public that the killings involved Tylenol, and there seems little doubt that he was the murderer. You also have him to thank for modern tamper-evident drug packaging, though that was a solution waiting for an inevitable problem to show up. He served 12 years in prison for the extortion attempt.
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