Cyanide-Laced Tylenol Murders

Tylenol is one of the most used and common pain reliever in the world. But after seven murders in 1982, this number reduced dramatically, and the product was removed from sales until the city of Chicago was back under control. Many lawsuits were filed while there was no evidence to blame anyone. The mystery behind cyanide-laced Tylenol murders can be summed up in two theories: there is a killer or it was a production mistake.

Although cyanide-laced Tylenol deaths are still a mystery to this day, this mass murder has been uncertain for over two decades. The 29th of September in 1982, seven Chicago locals died after taking Extra-Strength Tylenol (“Cyanide-Laced Tylenol Kills Seven”). Astonishingly, all of the deaths were reported in “24 hours”

Police first came to the conclusion that there were few bottles containing cyanide, so the culprit was outside of production of the product, also, if the contamination happened during the making of the Tylenol, then it would have ruined the outer-coating of the capsules (“Cyanide-Laced Tylenol Kills Seven”). Before more evidence was found, the police had no exact suspect until the company who distributes the medication, Johnson and Johnson, received a letter from someone named Robert Richardson. He demanded $100,000 from the company for him to “stop the killing” (Adame). To add to the mysterious letter, it turned out that the man’s real name was James Lewis, and he previously had been involved in a murder (Adame). This lead investigators to a suspect and a strong

Investigators first discovered that there were no clues left behind if there was a killer (Newton). Thereafter, medical physicians toured the production facility and found that cyanide was once used at the facility (Newton). This gave them evidence that this mass murder could’ve been an accident in production or purposeful by a killer. On the other hand, a Forty-eight year old man named Roger Arnold, worked at a facility that supplied Tylenol. In his apartment, investigators found cyanide and a book that explained how to put poison in capsules (Adame). Because Arnold worked at the facility, he could’ve easily tampered with the already packaged bottles and inserted cyanide. Also, the FBI stated that it could’ve happened anytime; either during production or after (Schmidt). These pieces of evidence show that the possibility of it happening during production is