IL IL - Chicago Tylenol Murders: 7 people dead from cyanide poisoning, 1982

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samhoney

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This case has always intrigued me. I was nine when this happened, so I remember it actually happening. A couple of men were arrested as suspects but were let go. No one has been tried or convicted for the murders of these people. What do you guys remember about it? Have any theories or ideas?

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tylenol_scare"]Chicago Tylenol murders - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
 
well... let's see.. some lone nut (most likely a man):

1- warehouse worker
2- someone who was transporting it
3- customer.

someone who was either an extreme sociopathic misanthrope and mad at the world, or completely mentally ill. and i guess you'd have to figure out who would be able to get a hold of cyanide....?

not saying anything new here though. did they ever investigate everyone who was working in the warehouses where the tylenol came from, someone who recently quit, any reports of odd or 'disgruntled' folks?
 
I just used the search term "tainted tylenol" and it brought up several links including some to the "crime library". Don't know if it helps, but it may provide you more information?
 
I always thought this had been solved! Maybe I'm thinking of another tainted OTC medication case.

That's strange that they never convicted someone for this crime.
 
Taximom said:
I always thought this had been solved! Maybe I'm thinking of another tainted OTC medication case.

That's strange that they never convicted someone for this crime.
Click to expand...
You might be thinking of the OTC Excedrin case. In 1986 Stella Nickell's husband Bruce died and was found to have taken cyanide-laced Excedrin. It happened in Seattle. She put 3 more tainted bottles on the store shelves and another woman took some and died too. She was sentenced to 99 years for the crime.

I just saw the bottom of your post! YES!!! GO BUCKS!
 
liz325 said:
You might be thinking of the OTC Excedrin case. In 1986 Stella Nickell's husband Bruce died and was found to have taken cyanide-laced Excedrin. It happened in Seattle. She put 3 more tainted bottles on the store shelves and another woman took some and died too. She was sentenced to 99 years for the crime.

I just saw the bottom of your post! YES!!! GO BUCKS!
Click to expand...
Thanks, liz325. That's the case I was thinking of! I guess I can thank these two perps (Stella and ???) for more secure OTC meds. lol

I'm so excited for the Buckeyes. Yesterday was Troy Smith day here!

It's hard waiting for the 8th though. Are you lucky enough to go to the game? We'll be watching from the comfort of our home. Totally O/T. I better stop!
 
liz325 said:
You might be thinking of the OTC Excedrin case. In 1986 Stella Nickell's husband Bruce died and was found to have taken cyanide-laced Excedrin. It happened in Seattle. She put 3 more tainted bottles on the store shelves and another woman took some and died too. She was sentenced to 99 years for the crime.

I just saw the bottom of your post! YES!!! GO BUCKS!
Click to expand...
Thanks from me too liz325, that is the case that first came to mind when I saw this thread...
 
liz325 said:
You might be thinking of the OTC Excedrin case. In 1986 Stella Nickell's husband Bruce died and was found to have taken cyanide-laced Excedrin. It happened in Seattle. She put 3 more tainted bottles on the store shelves and another woman took some and died too. She was sentenced to 99 years for the crime.

I just saw the bottom of your post! YES!!! GO BUCKS!
Click to expand...


I remember this case, too. Do you remember what mistakes she made that lead police to her?
 
samhoney said:
This case has always intrigued me. I was nine when this happened, so I remember it actually happening. A couple of men were arrested as suspects but were let go. No one has been tried or convicted for the murders of these people. What do you guys remember about it? Have any theories or ideas?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tylenol_scare
Click to expand...


I wonder if the Tylenol Killer was related to one of the victims like in the Stella Nickell case, but the killer was never suspected? If I were to reinvestigate this case, I would take a good look at what all of the victims' family and spouses did after the investigation cooled down. Large insurance policies, affairs, debts, etc..
 
reb said:
well... let's see.. some lone nut (most likely a man):

1- warehouse worker
2- someone who was transporting it
3- customer.
Click to expand...
The only problem I have with a warehouse/manufacturing worker is that the tainted bottles were all found in the same area. I think it would be too big of a coincidence for all the bottles to end up so concentrated and close to each other if they were tampered with during the manufacturing process.

The other two options seem more likely to me-my bet would be on a customer although there's nothing to say that customer couldn't also be a disgruntled employee.

I wonder if they considered sabatoge-maybe the competition or someone who worked for the competition thinking people would be too afraid to take Tylenol and the company would tank?
 
Part of the FBI profile on the killer is that he is someone who thinks he is smarter than he actually is. He is someone who talks a big game but actually knows very little about the game. They came to this conclusion after analyzing the pills stuffed with cyanide. They were highly irregular looking--stuffed, bulging, barely could stay together. They pegged him as a man who was very inexperienced.
 
WhiteWolf said:
I remember this case, too. Do you remember what mistakes she made that lead police to her?
Click to expand...
WhiteWolf, Yes I vaguely remembered some of her mistakes. After I posted about her here I decided I wanted to read about it again because I had forgotten some of it. Here is the link to a story 48 Hours did on her 5 years ago. I knew there were 2 detectives working on her case and trying to clear her name. In this link, it tells about them and also has Stella "explaining away" all the evidence they had against her. I don't know what ever came of the detectives' investigation or if they are still working on trying to prove she was innocent or not. It's an interesting article.

http://www.truthinjustice.org/stella.htm
 
There is no statute of limitations for murder in Illinois, nor for victims' pain.

The families, emergency workers and investigators affected by the Tylenol murders 25 years ago Saturday know that all too well.

In the three days after Sept. 29, 1982, seven Chicago and suburban residents collapsed and died from cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules. But the cause of the deaths wasn't immediately known.

Arlington Heights and Elk Grove Village residents helped alert authorities that someone was poisoning Tylenol capsules and placing them on the shelves of grocery and drug stores.

As the case developed, stores pulled bottles from their shelves across the country. Police used bullhorns along suburban streets to alert residents to the danger. Tylenol announced a complete recall.

Because people in five different towns died, the largest multi-jurisdictional law enforcement task force in Illinois history formed, but ultimately charged nobody. Police in Arlington Heights, Chicago, Elk Grove Village, Lisle, Lombard and Winfield keep the cold case files open to this day.

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=47109&src=2
 
CHICAGO — Helen Jensen can still picture the bottle of Tylenol perched in the medicine cabinet. She feels the receipt she pulled from the wastebasket. She hears the pills she poured onto the kitchen table.
And she recalls the absolute certainty, even before she finished counting, that pills from the bottle in her hand killed the 27-year-old man who lived there, as well as two of his relatives.
"Six capsules were missing, and there were three people dead," she recalled thinking.
It has been exactly 25 years since Jensen, then a nurse for the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights who accompanied investigators to the home, played her role in a story that sent shock waves all over the country.
In a space of three days beginning Sept. 29, 1982, seven people who took cyanide-laced Tylenol in Chicago and four suburbs died. That triggered a national scare that prompted an untold number of people to throw medicine away and stores nationwide to pull Tylenol from their shelves.
more at link http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,298586,00.html
 
OMG I hadn't thought about this for years. I wonder if the investigation continues.
Is there any more information available on this?
 
Beyond Belief said:
OMG I hadn't thought about this for years. I wonder if the investigation continues.
Is there any more information available on this?
Click to expand...


You know this is something I think of nearly everyday, in the way
that I have to open so many things. Medicines that seem like getting
into Fort Knox would be easier. Outer seals and inner seals on a bottle
of Sports Drink. ALL these extra steps remind me of the tylenol poisoning.
But what I hadn't remember is that it was never solved in the fact of who
did it.
 
They had a special on this case on MSNBC this spring or summer. I had to leave as it was starting so unfortuneatly I missed. Anyone elese catch it?
 
liz325 said:
WhiteWolf, Yes I vaguely remembered some of her mistakes. After I posted about her here I decided I wanted to read about it again because I had forgotten some of it. Here is the link to a story 48 Hours did on her 5 years ago. I knew there were 2 detectives working on her case and trying to clear her name. In this link, it tells about them and also has Stella "explaining away" all the evidence they had against her. I don't know what ever came of the detectives' investigation or if they are still working on trying to prove she was innocent or not. It's an interesting article.

http://www.truthinjustice.org/stella.htm
Click to expand...
she used the morter and pestle that she used to crush up something for her fish and it left traces
 
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