James Lewis, prime suspect in Tylenol tampering cases, dead at 76
James W. Lewis, shown here at a restaurant in Cambridge, Mass., in 2007, has died. Chicago authorities had long suspected that Lewis was responsible for deadly 1982 Tylenol poisonings, but the only thing ever pinned on him was an extortion attempt against the maker of the pain reliever. | AP photo.
Neil W. McCabe, AP
James Lewis, the prime suspect in the 1982 Tylenol poisonings, has died.
Lewis, 76, was found dead Sunday afternoon at his residence in Cambridge, Mass., according to the Cambridge Police Department.
“Following an investigation, Lewis’ death was determined to be not suspicious,” according to a statement from the police department.
The story of the Tylenol poisonings was one that gripped the nation, and especially the Chicago area. Seven Chicago-area people died in September 1982, after taking tablets laced with cyanide.
Stores swept Tylenol from their shelves.
Johnson & Johnson recalled every Tylenol capsule and pill and created more tamper-proof drugs and packaging.
A police task force interviewed dozens of people, including Lewis.
Lewis, an out-of-work accountant, was arrested on extortion charges in December 1982, at a New York library after a two-month manhunt.
He gave investigators a detailed account of how the killer might have operated, describing how someone could buy the medication from stores, use a special method to add cyanide to the capsules and then return them to store shelves.
“I was doing like I would have done for a corporate client, making a list of possible scenarios,” Lewis said in the 1992 interview.
He admitted sending a letter to Johnson & Johnson that demanded $1 million, but said he never meant 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.
Even though Lewis was reinterviewed as recently as last year, according to media reports, he was never charged in the murders and has denied any involvement.
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in June 1983 for demanding $ 1 million from Johnson & Johnson, “to stop the killings.” He also served more than two years of a 10-year sentence for an unrelated tax-fraud charge.
Lewis was released from prison in 1995.
THE VICTIMS:
Theresa and Stanley Janus
The Lisle couple went to the home of Stanley’s brother Adam after he died. After complaining of headaches, they took capsules from Adam’s Tylenol bottle and died. He was 25, she was 19.
Adam Janus
The postal employee stayed home from work on Sept. 29, 1982. He bought Tylenol at a Jewel near his Arlington Heights home in the morning and died at a local hospital that afternoon. He was 27.
Mary Ann Kellerman
The 12-year-old Elk Grove Village girl missed school because she was sick. She took a capsule from a bottle purchased by her mother at a local Jewel the day before. She collapsed and died on her bathroom floor, where her parents found her, on Sept. 29. She was the first resident to die in the Tylenol murders.
Mary McFarland
The 31-year-old Elmhurst woman worked for Illinois Bell at Yorktown Mall. She took pills after lunch on Sept. 29 and died the next morning.
Paula Prince
The 35-year-old airline worker bought pills at a Walgreens near her Old Town apartment. She died the night of Sept. 29.
Mary “Lynn” Reiner
A mother of four, 27, she felt ill Sept. 29. She bought pills at a Frank’s Finer Food store en route to her Winfield home. She died the next morning.