Over 40 years ago, the Tylenol serial killer sparked a nationwide panic when seven people in the Chicago area ingested poisoned pain medication and died.
Victims aged 12 to 35 died from cardiac arrest within 48 hours of taking Tylenol capsules that had been unknowingly laced with lethal doses of cyanide. As each victim was hospitalized, medical personnel worked around the clock to determine what caused their untimely deaths.
A fire lieutenant, a public health official, and an ICU doctor worked together to discover that all of the patients had taken the pain reliever shortly before dying. Given their symptoms, the doctor concluded that the victims had suffered from cyanide poisoning, and lab tests quickly confirmed his theory, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The quick thinking of emergency personnel aided in the process of informing the public and saving the lives of numerous other potential victims. However, it was unclear who was responsible for the murders, and the case remains unsolved to this day.
While James Lewis, a man who sent a ransom letter to Tylenol manufacturer Johnson & Johnson shortly after the murders, has been a primary suspect for over 40 years, he has never been charged with the crime. Although he served time in prison for extortion, he maintained his innocence until the day he died in 2023.
The Tylenol murders are being revisited in the Netflix documentary Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders, which is currently available and includes interviews with Lewis.
So, what occurred during the Tylenol murders? Here’s everything you should know about the crimes and the decades-long investigation.
What were the Chicago Tylenol murders?
In September 1982, a number of people in the Chicago area died mysteriously over the course of a few days, and their deaths were eventually linked to Tylenol capsules containing cyanide. The incident caused widespread public panic about over-the-counter medications.
Within hours of discovering the contaminated medication, word spread throughout the Chicago area. The poisonings were extensively covered by newspapers and radio stations in order to spread the word before more people were affected. Police officers drove through neighborhoods, using bullhorns to warn the public to throw away their Tylenol. Public health officials distributed flyers door-to-door.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Tylenol was quickly pulled from shelves throughout Chicago, resulting in a nationwide recall of Tylenol products.
How many people were killed by the Tylenol serial killer?
In total, seven people were killed after consuming contaminated Tylenol, though there may have been other unidentified victims. The victims included a child and three members of the same family: Mary Kellerman, 12, Adam Janus, 27, Stanley Janus, 25, Theresa “Terri” Janus, 20, Mary McFarland, 31, Paula Prince, 35, and Mary Reiner.
How were the deaths linked to Tylenol?
The first death linked to Tylenol poisonings was 12-year-old Mary Kellerman, who collapsed at home and died just hours after ingesting a laced capsule, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Later that day, Adam Janus, a 27-year-old mailman, passed away shortly after being hospitalized. According to CBS News, his death was initially attributed to a heart attack, but what happened in the days that followed led medical professionals to suspect foul play.
Just hours after Adam was declared dead, his brother Stanley and wife Terri paid a visit to his home to begin making funeral arrangements. Not feeling well, they each took Tylenol capsules from the bottle that had unintentionally killed Adam. They both collapsed almost immediately after experiencing chest pains.
Fire Lt. Chuck Kramer noticed that just that morning, authorities had responded to a similar emergency at the same address. He ordered that everyone else in the house be quarantined at the hospital because he suspected the incidents were linked and could have affected other members of the family.
He then contacted Helen Jensen, Arlington Heights’ only public health official, to launch an investigation into the deaths, according to the Chicago Tribune.
After speaking with family members, Jensen concluded that all three people had taken Tylenol shortly before their deaths. She later went to the Janus family home and picked up the bottle of Tylenol, only to discover that it was a new bottle that had only been used by three family members. She returned it to the Cook County medical examiner’s office, insisting that there was something wrong with the pills. She was initially ignored.
Meanwhile, others were reaching the same conclusion. Dr. Thomas Kim, who was treating the Janus family, informed Lt. Kramer that he suspected the deaths were caused by something they had all consumed.
Later that night, when Lt. Kramer spoke with a firefighter on the scene of Kellerman’s death, he discovered that the little girl had also taken Tylenol — and they began to piece things together.
When Dr. Kim discovered the link, he began to consider what could have caused such a sudden onset of symptoms. After consulting with poison experts, he concluded that the effects of cyanide were consistent with the victims’ sudden cardiac arrest. He was unable to run tests at his hospital, so he sent two vials of blood from Stanley and Terri to a 24-hour lab via taxicab.
With Dr. Kim’s information, the medical examiner’s office began investigating the Tylenol bottles from the Janus and Kellerman households. An investigator could detect cyanide with a simple smell test.
The county’s chief toxicologist began testing the Tylenol capsules and quickly discovered that some of them contained nearly three times the amount required to kill someone.
Shortly after, lab results revealed that Stanley and Terri, along with several other victims, had died of acute cyanide poisoning.
Who was responsible for the Tylenol murders?
No one has been charged with the deaths caused by the tainted medication, and the identity of the Tylenol serial killer is unknown. However, Lewis has long been regarded as the primary suspect.
During the investigation into the contaminated Tylenol bottles, authorities discovered that Lewis had sent a ransom letter to Tylenol’s parent company, Johnson & Johnson, demanding $1 million to “stop the killing,” according to the Associated Press. He quickly became a suspect in the case.
At the time, police described Lewis as a “chameleon,” living in multiple states and using at least 20 aliases. According to AP, he worked in a variety of jobs, including computer specialist, tax accountant, importer of Indian tapestries, and salesman of jewelry, pharmaceutical machinery and real estate.
He had a history of legal troubles. Several years before the poisonings, he was accused of murdering and dismembering Raymond West, an accounting client. The charges were ultimately dropped because West’s cause of death was unknown and some evidence had been obtained illegally.
Then, in 1981, Lewis was convicted of mail fraud as part of a credit card scheme, having obtained 13 credit cards illegally using the name of a former tax client. Around the same time, he threatened to kill then-President Ronald Reagan with a remote-controlled plane, according to the United Press International.
Given his troubled past and his letter to Johnson & Johnson, authorities launched a thorough investigation into Lewis’ role in the crime.
Was James Lewis convicted of murder?
Lewis was never convicted of murdering the seven people who died after consuming the contaminated medication, but he was a leading suspect for the majority of his life.
During early interviews, Lewis denied any involvement in the poisonings but admitted to writing the extortion letter to Johnson & Johnson. The letter mentioned how “easy” it could be to contaminate medication, claiming it would take him “less than 10 minutes per bottle.”
While he did not admit to contaminating the Tylenol, he did provide an explanation for how he believes the crime occurred. He told authorities that the perpetrator was likely to have purchased the Tylenol, added the cyanide, and then returned the bottles to store shelves. In the years that followed, he claimed he provided the explanation because he was treating the investigation like a business transaction.
“I was doing like I would have done for a corporate client, making a list of possible scenarios,” he recounted to the AP in 1992. He described the killer as “a heinous, cold-blooded killer, a cruel monster.”
Forensic testing failed to link Lewis to the tainted bottles, and he could not be pinpointed as being in Chicago at the time of the crime. Despite the suspicions surrounding him, there was insufficient evidence to convict Lewis. He was never charged with murder, but he was tried for extortion after writing a ransom letter to Johnson & Johnson.
He was convicted of extortion in June 1984 and sentenced to ten years in prison, according to The New York Times.
What happened during subsequent investigations into the case?
Authorities have spent the last four decades investigating the Tylenol serial killer case. They have generated leads on several occasions, many of which appear to point back to Lewis.
Around 2007, authorities requested a “complete review of all evidence developed in connection” with the poisonings, taking advantage of advancements in forensic technology.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Lewis admitted during an undercover sting operation that the extortion letter took him three days to write. Using advanced technology, investigators discovered that the letter had an Oct. 1, 1982, postmark, indicating that Lewis began writing it before the poisoned Tylenol was made public. When Lewis was confronted with the information, he retracted his statement, claiming to have “faulty memory.”
According to CBS News, the FBI met with or spoke with Lewis at least 34 times over the years. The FBI also obtained new samples of his DNA and fingerprints, which did not match any of the DNA found on the contaminated bottles.
Authorities also raided Lewis’ suburban Boston condo and storage locker, seizing a laptop and other belongings. According to the Chicago Tribune, they also obtained a poison handbook from Lewis’ home before moving to Chicago in 1981. Investigators even discovered Lewis’ fingerprints on pages discussing how much cyanide would be required to kill someone.
Lewis continued to deny involvement in the crime, so authorities were unable to charge him with murder.
Where is James Lewis now?
Lewis died in July 2023, aged 76. According to police in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Lewis was discovered unresponsive in his home and pronounced dead shortly after.
“Following an investigation, Lewis’ death was determined to be not suspicious,” according to police.
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy Margolis, who prosecuted Lewis for extortion, told the Chicago Tribune and CBS News Chicago that he “was saddened to learn of James Lewis’ death” — not because of the death itself, but because Lewis “did not die in prison.”
However, prior to his death, Lewis was interviewed for a Netflix docuseries about the case in 2025. He continued to deny his role in the poisonings, saying, “They make it look like I am the world’s most horrible, dangerous person ever… and I would not hurt anybody.”