The Anonymous Psychopath Who Changed the World

So, my wife recently bought us a bottle of generic Tylenol. Acetaminophen was originally a prescription medication for children. In 1961, it went over the counter. Today, acetaminophen is one of the most common OTC medications in the world. We Americans consume 25 billion doses of the stuff each year. 23% of adults in America use acetaminophen every week. It is used for such maladies as headaches, muscle aches, and minor injuries. Acetaminophen is also an antipyretic. This means it will help bring your fever down during an acute illness.

This modest plastic bottle came sealed in a transparent plastic sheath that required my pocket knife to remove. Once I had freed the bottle from its tenacious polymer skin, I had to navigate the childproof cap. After that challenge was bested, I faced the obligatory foil seal glued over the mouth of the thing. This also demanded some attention from my pocket knife. I then used the tip of my knife to fish out the cotton padding before successfully extricating the curious little desiccant packet helpfully adorned with “Warning: Do Not Eat” on the side. Now, why is all that?

Working backwards, the desiccant keeps everything fresh and dry. The cotton prevents my new acetaminophen tablets from pulverizing themselves in transit. All that other stuff, however, is the fault of one anonymous dude. This unidentified homicidal maniac did more to change day-to-day life than most American Presidents. Doing so cost the lives of at least seven innocent people.

The Crime

Innocence, once lost, can never again be regained. When I was a kid, we brought guns to school all the time. That’s because Satan had not yet invented the modern concept of the school shooting. Nowadays, thanks to Columbine, Marjorie Stoneman, and dozens of others, kids have to wear transparent backpacks and pass through metal detectors just to get to home room. There’s just no putting that back in the box.

Similarly, in September of 1982, Mary Kellerman of Chicago, Illinois, took an Extra-Strength Tylenol capsule for some unknown malady. She subsequently fell desperately ill and was transported to the local hospital via ambulance. She died the following day.

On 29 September, six people consumed Tylenol before becoming grievously ill. Three of these six were from the same family — Adam, Stanley, and Theresa Janus. Investigators subsequently located a bottle of Tylenol in the Janus home along with a receipt indicating that it had been purchased the day prior. A pill count showed six capsules missing. The three Januses, along with three other unrelated people, ultimately perished. Post-mortem assessments demonstrated that all seven demised patients had fallen victim to poisoning via sodium cyanide.

A subsequent assay of the remaining 44 capsules in the Janus family’s bottle found four of them contaminated with cyanide. Assessment of the Tylenol discovered with Mary Kellerman demonstrated similar contamination. Both bottles were tracked back to the same lot, MC2880, from Johnson and Johnson. However, bottles recovered from the homes of the other three victims originated from different lots, though all were Extra-Strength Tylenol, also from Johnson and Johnson. At this point, the world came unglued.

The authorities issued a nationwide entreaty asking the public not to take Extra-Strength Tylenol. Considering how much of that stuff likely got flushed down toilets across America, I bet that all of the downstream fish, frogs, and lizards were feeling no pain. There resulted the largest pharmaceutical recall in human history.

The tainted medication was traced back to six different stores in the Chicago area. One woman had sniffed her Tylenol before she took it and then discarded it because it smelled funny. Her skepticism saved her life. Her bottle turned out to be contaminated as well.

In their defense, Johnson and Johnson really grabbed the reins on this thing. They halted all production of Tylenol and initiated a voluntary recall of some 31 million bottles of medicine. This recall cost the company $100 million. They also launched a nationwide advertising campaign begging the public not to use their products. Their market share for pain relievers fell from 37% to 8% overnight. However, the following year it had rebounded to levels not seen before the poisonings.

The Truly Tragic Bit

As you might imagine, these tampered medications resulted in coast-to-coast coverage in the media. As a result, literally hundreds of copycat poisonings popped up across the country. Sudafed, Anacin, Excedrin and Encaprin were all found to have been tampered with. All of these products involved gelatin capsules.

Some of these subsequent poisonings were of random strangers. More than a few involved disgruntled spouses hoping to off their loved ones and then pin the crime on some faceless psychopath. For a time, an awful lot of Americans opted simply to live with their headaches.

The Perpetrator

To this day, nobody is really sure who bought those first few bottles of Extra-Strength Tylenol, took them home, carefully disassembled the capsules, and replaced the acetaminophen with cyanide before discreetly depositing the tainted bottles back in stores around Chicago. A New Yorker named James W. Lewis sent a notice to Johnson and Johnson, taking responsibility for the poisonings. He demanded $1 million to make them stop. The Feds tracked down Mr. Lewis in short order and put the thumb screws to him. Under interrogation, he claimed that he had nothing to do with the poisoning but simply saw the tragedy as an easy way to score a million bucks. His DNA did not match anything found on the tainted bottles. It seems that people really do suck, like, a lot.

Nobody was ever successfully charged with the original crime. There have been lots of theories, some more credible than others, but nobody is really sure even today. As a result of that one anonymous psychopath, seven innocent people died along with an untold number of copycat victims. That is also the reason it now requires a pair of bolt cutters and a cutting torch to gain access to your kids’ Flintstones vitamins. Sometimes one isolated monster really can shape the affairs of men.

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