This Week Marks 33rd Anniversary of Tylenol Murders

This week marks the 33rd anniversary of the 1982 Tylenol murders.

The first death occurred during the early morning hours of Sept. 29, 1982, when a 12-year-old Elk Grove Village girl with a sore throat and a runny nose was given some Tylenol by her mom and dad. Mary Kellerman was dead by 7 a.m., according to a PBC News Hour article.

Several deaths followed, creating a panic throughout the Chicago area and nation and eventually leading to changes in the way over-the-counter drugs are packaged, which included tamper-proof packaging, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The other victims of this product tampering case were Adam Janus, 27, of Arlington Heights; Stanley Janus, 25 and Theresa Janus, 19, both of Lisle; Mary Reiner, 27, of Winfield; Mary McFarland, 31, of Elmhurst; and Paula Prince, 35, of Chicago. All seven were determined to have ingested cyanide laced Extra Strength Tylenol capsules on or shortly after September 29, 1982.

Someone, police hypothesized, must have taken bottles off the shelves of local grocers and drug stores in the Chicago area, laced the capsules with poison, and then returned the restored packages to the shelves to be purchased by the unknowing victims.

Police believed someone took bottles of Tylenol off the shelves in local grocery and drug store, laced the capsules with cyanide and then returned the bottles to the stores, PBS reports. To this day, the murders remain unsolved.

READ MORE:

• PBS News Hour published an interesting article in September 2014 on how the Tylenol Murders has changed how we consume medication.
• Chicago Magazine published an “oral history,” which provides a timeline surrounding the murders.
• A Brief History of the Tylenol Poisonings: TIME