The Vault

CHICAGO (CBS) ― The 1982 Tylenol poisoning murders returned to the headlines in February 2009, when the spotlight shined once again on a suspect who has been associated with the case almost ever since the murders happened, but never charged with the killings.

More than a quarter century after the fact, the cyanide poisonings remain one of the most infamous crimes in Chicago history.

7 Die, Millions Panic
Early in the morning on Sept. 29, 1982, Mary Kellerman, 12, collapsed and died. Kellerman, a seventh grader at Jane Addams Junior High School in Arlington Heights, had been trying to treat a head cold before going to school.

A short time afterward, paramedics were called to the home of postal worker Adam Janus, 27, of Arlington Heights for what was believed to be a heart attack. He was dead when they arrived.

That night, Janus' grieving brother, Stanley, and other family members gathered at Adam's house to make funeral arrangements. There, Stanley took a few steps and dropped to the floor. He died, and so did his wife Teresa – three members of one family gone.

Miles away in DuPage County, two women collapsed and died – new mother Mary Reiner, 27, of Winfield, and phone center employee Mary McFarland, 31, of Elmhurst, in Lombard.

And flight attendant Paula Jean Prince, 35, was discovered on Oct. 1. She lived in the city's Old Town neighborhood, far from any of the remote suburban locations.

In four days, seven healthy people collapsed and died mysteriously, scattered throughout the Chicago area in two counties. The link might have gone unnoticed, had a reporter for the City News Bureau not noticed that the victims had all taken Tylenol.

As the number of victims mounted, panic ensued in Chicago and across the country. Police in the area sent out emergency bulletins warning residents, "Do not take Tylenol until further notice."

The bottles were all labeled "Extra-strength Tylenol, 50-capsule size, lot #MC2880, expiration date April 1987."

"If you have a Tylenol bottle marked that way, destroy it," CBS 2 reporter Phil Walters warned viewers on Sept. 30, 1982.

At the time, no one knew if the capsules had been altered at the factory, in a distribution center, or in the stores.

Officials began testing Tylenol samples at random from area stores. Only one more pill bottle was found, on Oct. 25. Yet, with more than 93,000 bottles from the same batch distributed through more than 30 states, the manufacturer ordered stores to clear their shelves. Mayor Jane Byrne banned Tylenol in Chicago, as federal agents joined the investigation. But all the leads came up dry.

Enter James Lewis
But shortly after the killings, Tylenol manufacturer Johnson & Johnson received a bizarre letter. The author of the letter claimed to be from the Tylenol killer, and demanded $1 million for him to "stop the killing."

A federal warrant was lodged against the man, identified at the time as "Robert Richardson" but whose real name was James William Lewis. He was arrested in December 1982 in a New York City library after a nationwide manhunt.

At the time, he gave investigators a detailed account of how the killer might have operated and described how someone could buy medicine, use a special method to add cyanide to the capsules and return them to store shelves.

Lewis was convicted of extortion and unrelated counts of mail and credit card fraud. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Lewis later admitted sending the extortion letter but said he never intended to collect it. He said he wanted to embarrass his wife's former employer by having the money sent to the employer's bank account.

Lewis already had a gruesome rap sheet, although the most heinous charge against him had failed to stand up.

In 1978, Lewis was charged with the murder of Raymond West, an elderly former client of Lewis' accounting business. West's body had been dismembered, stuffed in a plastic bag and hoisted to an attic ceiling in West's home. The charges were dismissed because West's cause of death was not determined and some evidence had been illegally obtained.

But authorities could not find evidence to charge Lewis with the Tylenol murders. Lewis had said he was in New York at the time, and he maintained he had nothing to do with the killings.


Lewis Calls Himself A 'Political Prisoner'
Throughout his prison term, Lewis maintained that he was not the "Tylenol Terrorist." But he claimed that authorities wanted to paint him as the killer, and for that reason were holding him as a "political prisoner."

CBS 2's Mike Parker interviewed Lewis in an Oklahoma prison in August 1989. Lewis was convinced that he would never be paroled, and claimed that Illinois State Police Director Jeremy Margolis – who was also the prosecutor in Lewis' criminal case – and U.S. Attorney Anton Valukas, had been leaning on federal parole officials.

"They're meeting here – two examiners indicated that they will extend my stay in prison by construing the Tylenol letter as if it were a confession. The United States Parole Commission will in effect be accusing me of being the Tylenol murder," Lewis said.

But Lewis didn't believe authorities actually believed he was the Tylenol killer. He thought he was being railroaded.

"Margolis and Valukas have no more interest in protecting the public in this case than the Tylenol murderer himself did. They have become, with their actions, the best friends the Tylenol murderer could ever have," Lewis said. "By taking their actions that they have taken here, they've done the same thing as pinning a Congressional medal of honor, in absentia, on the Tylenol murderer's chest."

As it happened, Lewis was actually paroled on Oct. 13, 1995. Margolis, one of the people Lewis had accused of holding him as a "political prisoner," said it was time for Lewis to be released.

"Mr. Lewis has served his time, and by operation of the law, it is time for him to be released and returned to society, hopefully as a law-abiding person," Margolis said.

Lewis moved to the Boston area, where he was to be on parole until 2002. But before leaving, he again told Parker that he was not connected to the Tylenol murders.

"Did you commit the Tylenol murders?" Parker asked.

"Absolutely not," Lewis said. "It's a stupid question that I've had to answer many, many times, and the answer is emphatically no."

But the U.S. Parole Commission was not convinced. They wrote that, "the preponderance of the evidence is that James W. Lewis is the Tylenol murderer.

"No one will bring a trial. They just keep making the endless accusations, year after year," Lewis said.

But Lewis' life was anything but quiet and civil in Massachusetts. In 2004, he was charged with rape, kidnapping and other offenses for an alleged attack on a woman in Cambridge. He was jailed for three years while awaiting trial, but prosecutors dismissed the charges on the day his trial was scheduled to begin after the victim refused to testify, according to the office of Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone.

In recent years, Lewis started a data processing business called Cyberlewis out of his home, according to public records. But more than 25 years after the seven Tylenol deaths, attention began to center on Lewis again.

A Cold Case Reopened
On Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009, FBI agents took boxes and a computer from Lewis' condo, at 170 Gore St. in Cambridge, Mass. The FBI said it wasthe result of new forensic advancements and new tips.

A task force with investigators from the FBI, Chicago and suburban police was formed secretly last fall, around the time of the 25th anniversary of the murders.

"I'm aware of some investigative tips. There's much, I'm sure, that's gone on that I'm not aware of," Margolis said in a 2009 interview. "I'm just, as I told you before, elated to see this much progress."

Investigators will not say if the new evidence will lead to an arrest.

"I've never speculated openly about whether I believe James Lewis spoke truthfully in his letter when he said that basically, he was the Tylenol killer," Margolis said.

As for the tainted Tylenol deaths, they triggered a national scare that prompted dramatic changes in the way almost all food and medical products are packaged.

And of course, new developments are still breaking on this story. Stay with CBS 2 and cbs2chicago.com to find out the latest.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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