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Sep 28, 2022 · The Chicago Tylenol murders, as they’ve come to be known, began in the morning hours of September 28, 1982, with a 12-year-old Elk Grove Village resident named Mary Kellerman, who was given a Tylenol tablet by her parents in response to complaints of a sore throat.
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Tainted capsules were discovered in early October in a few other grocery stores and drug stores in the Chicago area, but, fortunately, they had not yet been sold or consumed.
Nov 1, 2023 · Here, the normal Tylenol (left) is pictured next to the poisoned capsules. At 6:45 p.m., 31-year-old single mother Mary McFarland swallowed two pills in the break room of her job at a shopping mall on the outskirts of Chicago.
- Wednesday, September 29, 1982
- Thursday, September 30
- Friday, October 1
- Monday, October 4
- Tuesday, October 5
- Wednesday, October 6
- Wednesday, October 20
- Thursday, October 21
- Monday, October 25
- Today
6:30 a.m.
Mary Kellerman,a 12-year-old from Schaumburg, wakes up feeling sick. Her parents keep her home from school, and she takes some Tylenol. Dennis Kellerman Mary’s father [to the Chicago Tribune] I heard her go into the bathroom. I heard the door close. Then I heard something drop. I went to the bathroom door. I called, “Mary, are you OK?” There was no answer. I called again: “Mary, are you OK?” There was still no answer. So I opened the bathroom door, and my little girl was on the floor unconsci...
9:56 a.m.
Mary Kellerman is pronounced dead at Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village. Edmund Donoghue Deputy chief medical examiner for Cook County She was the first victim. Our office was notified, but there wasn’t anything too suspicious about that death. She was ordered into the medical examiner’s office for an autopsy because of her age and circumstances. Nick Pishos Investigator with Cook County’s medical examiner’s office Basically, the investigator did a phone investigation. He in...
Noon
Adam Janus,a 27-year-old postal worker in Arlington Heights, had taken a sick day. Helen Jensen Public health nurse for Arlington Heights He had stayed home from work because he had felt like he was getting a cold. And then he went to pick up his kids from preschool and stopped at the Jewel to get some Tylenol. He came home and they had some lunch, and he said, “I’m going to take two Tylenol and lie down.” And a couple of minutes later, he came staggering into the kitchen and collapsed.
1 a.m.
Dr. Kim I eventually got the [lab reports]. It was a massive amount [of cyanide]—100 or 1,000 times more than was necessary to kill them.
3:15 a.m.
Mary McFarland is pronounced dead at Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove.
9:30 a.m.
Mary Reiner is pronounced dead at Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield. Bill Rizer Sergeant with the Winfield Police Department We weren’t quite sure at the time exactly what had happened. We knew [Reiner] was dead, but I don’t think initially we realized until the other investigations came to light with the other towns that we had a connection. Deputy Medical Examiner Donoghue About ten in the morning, an attorney from Johnson & Johnson [parent company of Tylenol’s manufacturer] shows up in o...
11 a.m.
Attorney General Fahner In a conference room [at the attorney general’s office in Chicago], I pulled together the state police, the local law enforcement people, the chiefs of police, the director of the Illinois State Police—basically anyone who might touch it from a law enforcement angle I got the feds involved, too, because we didn’t know how big this was. You start to think, Wow, is this not only in Illinois but elsewhere?
1:15 p.m.
Theresa Janus is taken off life support at Northwest Community Hospital and pronounced dead.
5 p.m.
Police discover the body of Paula Prince in her Old Town apartment at 1540 North LaSalle Street. Joan Ahern United flight attendant and friend of Prince Her sister was supposed to meet her for dinner, and she wasn’t answering her telephone. That sort of alerted her sister that something’s not right. And what I understood is that she was due back out that Friday and she was a no-show for a flight. Richard Brzeczek Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department Her family couldn’t reach her, a...
At the behest of Mayor Byrne, the Chicago City Council passes an ordinance requiring tamper-resistant packaging for all drugs sold in stores.
Johnson & Johnson recalls all Tylenol products nationwide: 31 million bottles valued at more than $100 million. In the ensuing days and weeks, the investigation continues. Attorney General Fahner The core the first couple of days was not so much to catch the perpetrators as it was to protect the public. Then the group grew, and within a couple of d...
An extortion letter arrives at Johnson & Johnson demanding $1 million to stop the Tylenol killings. The police eventually trace the letter to James Lewis in New York City. For weeks the investigation focuses on him. (He is finally apprehended in December.) Superintendent Brzeczek It wasn’t James Lewis. James Lewis was an asshole, an opportunist. He...
Superintendent Brzeczek We got no breaks. There were no breaks. What began to bother me was the bullshit that was coming out about the progress being made in the investigation. I called a press conference, and I said in my opinion we know nothing more now than we did when the first murder took place, and in my opinion, based on what is now known, t...
Ongoing lab tests discover cyanide-laced Tylenol in a bottle turned in by a Dominick’s near the Walgreens where Paula Prince made her fatal purchase.
Authorities reduce the Tylenol task force from 115 to about 40 investigators. Detective Hogberg Every night we’d get back to Des Plaines, and [the investigation’s leaders] would fill us in as to what had transpired during the day. I never felt I had all the information as to what was going on. We ended up with maybe 40 [investigators] who showed up...
Thirty years after the seven deaths, the Tylenol murders remain unsolved. Attorney General Fahner In all the time I was a relevant part of the investigation, I always thought that it would have been resolved. I would have bet anything on it. I didn’t see how we could have that kind of manpower, that much analysis, [and] that it wouldn’t be solved. ...
Oct 27, 2022 · Both the series and the podcast start by recounting the chaotic 24-hour period on Sept. 29, 1982, in which seven people ingested Tylenol capsules laced with potassium cyanide. Part 1: The...
Oct 27, 2022 · Seven people in the Chicago area died in late 1982 after taking capsules filled with potassium cyanide. Their deaths led to tamper-resistant packaging, federal laws against product tampering...
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Feb 9, 2009 · Police were baffled — the pills came from different production plants and were sold in different drug stores around the Chicago area. Their conclusion was that someone was most likely tampering...
