All language subtitles for Painkiller.The.Tylenol.Murders.S01E05.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH

As Chuck always says...

has said to me, he said,

"What if I didn't have

your phone number in my pocket?"

- Hi. How are you?

- Hi, good looking.

- How are you, sweetie?

- And in his little pocket
diary that he called me,

He said, how much... how
many more would have died?

And it's true.

- Gosh, it's been a long time.

- It sure has.

Yeah, I love you, boy.

- Oh.

- What if I didn't call her?

What if I just let it go
and I didn't call for Helen?

But I did.

And she came.

And the guts of that woman
to walk into that room...

I don't know what's
going on here.

And, "It's my job,"
is what she told me.

- How are feeling?

- You know, one day
is good, one day is bad.

- Yeah, I know.

I've been there.
- Yeah.

And you know, some
days I can breathe,

and some days I can't.

- Ah.

- So right now, we are
going to be entering Chicago.

And soon, we're going to be
seeing Nurse Helen and Chuck.

Here's my grandpa.

Jo-Jo, what are your
thoughts about this?

- Yeah. I'd like to see
them after 40 years.

I went... the time went so fast,

and we all got old.

- So we are incredibly excited.

And we have a lot of
emotions going right now.

I'm very thankful that
we have this opportunity

to meet them and
give them a big hug.

- Yeah.
- Yeah?

- Yes.

- Seems like we'll be
seeing you guys soon.

We're headed off.

- A nightmare that is
still not over for some.

- You had a family
you've destroyed.

How could anybody
live with that?

I don't understand.

- There's somebody out there.

I find it difficult
to believe that

there was no trace of anything.

- Whoever did this is an animal.

That I...

I've never hated
anybody in my life,

but that's a person I hate.

- My feeling is
Task Force 2 feels

they got the right person.

- There have been cases
that happened 50 years ago,

and they've come
up with DNA or...

- DNA testing has changed.

The technology has changed.

- I don't know if they're
actively investigating this.

I don't know.

- We are going to be able
to identify what happened.

- Is the investigation
into the Tylenol murders...

is it still active?

- Although he was convicted
only of writing a letter

promising to stop the
Tylenol murders in return

for $1 million, some
investigators believe

James Lewis was also the killer,

although they couldn't prove it.

- Who was your prime
suspect at the time?

- A favorite suspect, one
we wasted a lot of time on,

or invested a lot of time,

depending on how you look at it,

was Lewis, and LeAnn, his wife.

That was also the opinion
of a lot of the people

at the FBI in those days

and some of the other
investigating agents.

But we could not prove it.

- Did you commit
the Tylenol murders?

- Absolutely not.

It's a stupid
question that I've had

to answer many, many times.

The answer is emphatically no.

- That bothered
me, but ain't nothing

I could have done about it.

I have no regrets about
what I did or failed to do.

I just... I could have
been more effective.

It's always bothered me.

- What do you mean you
could have been more effective?

- Well, I mean, if... if...

perhaps if we had
done it a different way,

we would have solved it,
you know, at an earlier time.

- Tylenol Task Force
continues to operate,

but it's been cut in
size from a high last fall

of some 100 agents
to a combined force

of 20 federal and
state investigators.

- Over the winter of 1983,

it was... the leads
were running out.

- Is that defeat?

- Well, I was still
looking at some...

what I considered
promising investigative leads.

So no, I did not think
we were defeated at all.

- 140 officers...

local, FBI, all
those... trying to work,

never came up with a person.

- When Task Force
2 was assembled,

one of their jobs was to
go back and interview...

as many as they
possibly could...

members of Task Force 1,
to get a general background

of the case.

And I happened to be
one that they interviewed.

- So we decided, let's just pull

all the evidence back together,

build the chain of
custody of the evidence,

put whatever new tools we
have in our FBI laboratory

to bear on that evidence to see
if we can populate a new lead,

identify a new suspect,
confirm a suspect.

And that's how it started.

- We thought we were getting...
"we" meaning the news media.

Everybody thought
we were getting a break

on the Tylenol case.

- And the FBI is moving forward

now that it has
formally reopened

the Tylenol murder case.

CBS2's Joanie Lum has more

on what prompted investigators
to take a second look

more than 25 years later.

Joanie.

- Roseanne, new
technology led investigators

to search the Cambridge,
Massachusetts, home

of a man who was
connected to the case.

A task force was
formed secretly last fall,

including investigators
from the FBI,

Chicago, and suburban police.

- In Boston, that...
Lewis was living

in that area at that time.

And they took...
seized some items.

They went to
his... had a warrant

and seized some items,
we assume, for DNA.

We assumed it for
DNA, and I think it was.

And people were going
to get a break in this case.

They're going
to link, finally link,

James Lewis to these murders.

- Police removed five
boxes and a computer

from the home of 62-year-old
James Lewis yesterday.

He spent 12 years in prison
for trying to extort $1 million

from the company
that makes Tylenol,

but no one was ever
charged in the killings.

- But apparently,
nothing happened.

Whatever, if it did
happen, the authorities are

keeping it pretty
much to themselves.

But nothing's happened as far
as Lewis's status is concerned.

He's still a free man.

- Today, Lewis was freed
from his Oklahoma prison

and is now on parole.

- All right. Ready, guys?

I'm Joe Murphy.

I've been an investigator

with the Arlington Heights
Police Department for...

since 2017.

During that time, I held
several different roles.

One of them was being
an investigator on this case.

- Can you talk at all
about the suspects?

- I cannot.

- James Lewis?

- Again, I can't
make any comment.

- Without naming names, do
you believe whoever did this

did this alone?

- Again, it'd be inappropriate
for me to comment

on theories and hunches.

- When's the last time
you've interviewed a suspect?

- Again, I... I can't
comment on that.

- What else can you tell us?

- That we're actively
pursuing this investigation.

This is not collecting
dust on a shelf.

We have dedicated
considerable resources

to this investigation,
and we still are.

We're doing everything
possible to exhaust every avenue

of investigative
leads to find justice

for the families
of these victims.

- So...

It's going to be some telling.

- Oh, yeah. That would be.

- Hello.
- Hey.

- Hi.
- Hey.

- And you are the Januses.

- We're the Januses. I'm Monica.

- I'm Isabel.

- And my father.

- And I reme...

I... 40 years ago,
I remember you.

You had... your
hair was dark then.

- Yeah, I know.

You were my interpreter.

- How are you doing, Chuck?
- Hi, Joe.

I'm Chuck. Nice to see you.

- Nice to see you.
- Thank you for everything.

- And you're the daughter...

- I'm the daughter of Monica.
- Daughter, yes.

- I'm Monica. So
nice to meet you.

- Oh, you...
pleasure to meet you.

- Yes, you, too.

- This is a very
interesting day.

And you're the girl that's
going to solve the world.

I saw that.
- Yeah.

Thank you.

- So you came down
from Wisconsin today?

- Yes, yes.
- Yes, we did.

- Okay.

- That's a long ride.
- It is.

- It's not that bad.

- But it's beautiful today.
- I drove for 35 years.

- Today, it would
have been solved.

- Well, I think that
might be easier.

Right. I think it
might be easier.

Scientific evidence
has progressed,

DNA progressed.

- There is a large
volume of evidence.

If you just break down
the homicides themselves,

the pills that were recovered,

we have the untainted
pills and the tainted pills

and the bottles and the boxes,

the cotton balls
that were inside.

All of those are
still preserved.

We've been exploring to
see what new technology is

out there in the
area of forensics...

so DNA and
fingerprint technology.

There's procedures
and tests that

they can do now that
just weren't existent

even 10 years ago.

- DNA, I think, would
catch something.

But I don't know.

I haven't heard
anything about it.

- It's one of the biggest
mass murderer cases

in Illinois history...

seven people killed
after taking Tylenol that

had been laced with cyanide.

But there was almost
an eighth victim

who unknowingly had some
of the tainted pills in her hand.

- She hasn't shared
her story since 1982.

Now CBS2
investigator Dave Savini

has learned her family's
DNA is an important piece

of the investigation
40 years later,

as police lean on
new DNA technology

to finally put the
killer behind bars.

- So how close
were you to taking it?

- Very close.

I had the bottle open.

I looked at one of the capsules,

and then I thought, no.

I'll just...

I'll just take aspirin instead.

I wish I could say that
there was something unusual

and that there was somebody
lurking around in the store.

But there wasn't.

It was an ordinary shopping day.

- She has told the same
story dozens of times now...

how she put the Tylenol
aside and decided to take

another pain reliever
for an aching leg,

how she later opened
up one of the capsules

after the Tylenol
deaths became public.

- You could have
been the eighth victim.

- I could have been
the eighth victim.

And it was just so
random that I bought it

from a local grocery store.

How does that happen?

Just, you know, go
grocery shopping,

pick up a bottle of pills,

and there's seven or
eight poison pills in it.

Nobody would believe that story.

I lived it.

- Should be...
- Oh, my dad.

- Audio should be up.

- Presiding judge Lewis Morgan

of DuPage County Domestic
Relations Court waited

in the Wheaton Police
Station for his fingerprints

to be taken and
compared with a print

found on a box of
tainted Tylenol capsules

his wife Linda had purchased.

The couple came here with
their three-year-old daughter,

Laura, who was too
young to understand

that her mother narrowly
escaped becoming

a victim of cyanide poisoning.

- Now that I'm old
enough to understand

and have a child of my own...

Knowing that my
life could have...

sorry.

Knowing that my
life could have been

forever altered without
my mom or dad...

My dad's gone now.

- I don't think it's really
hit yet how fortunate.

I think the first
feeling we both have

is a feeling of
extreme sympathy for...

you know, now that it's
touched us so closely...

for the people that
weren't so fortunate as we.

- In 2020, just
before the pandemic,

I got a phone call on my way
home from work from a detective

at the Arlington
Heights Police Station.

And he asked me to come in

for something related
to the Tylenol murders.

They asked for a cheek
swab, the DNA sample from me.

They asked if I had
anything of my dad's that

might have his DNA on it...

a musical instrument or
something of that nature.

And I said, well, I have
a pipe that he smoked,

and I know he did because
it was a very special pipe.

Then the detective said,
"Okay, you have this pipe.

"So we can get DNA.

I'll come right over and
I'll take that from you."

So I found it in my basement,

and I submitted
it into evidence.

If they need DNA, if
they need my cheek swab,

if they need evidence
from the past,

people from the past,

DNA from the past, they
must have something that

they're rerunning or retesting.

- This will be our first area.

And in this first area,

we're trying to get
DNA from the item.

So this is the DNA
extraction step.

This is where the DNA extraction

on original
evidence will happen.

- If there is DNA that is found,

then we're likely
going to identify you,

even if it was degraded,
even if it was mixed,

even if there were, you
know, contaminations,

or you tried to wash it off.

- How many cases have
you solved since you started?

- Well over 1,000 cases
we've returned back

investigative leads for.

We don't sketch faces.

We don't look at what you might
look like based on your DNA.

We actually identify
either perpetrators

or victims from a crime

and give you a direct
investigative lead that

could lead to
closing a case that

would otherwise be unsolvable.

So we're looking at
hundreds and hundreds

of thousands of markers
in the human genome.

We're able to get really
distant relationships.

So you can get
a fifth cousin here

and a fourth cousin here
and a third cousin here,

not the relatives
you see or you know,

but all these really
distant relationships.

- So now you can
start to construct

little family trees
based on public records

and other things.

You can see how all those
people connect to each other.

And ideally at some point,

they do triangulate
to a common ancestor.

And once you do that,
then it becomes kind of

like a process of elimination.

- All the families
that I've met,

their life stops where
they lose someone

or where the crime happens
towards someone they love.

- Can you tell me
how someone would

leave DNA on a pill bottle?

- Absolutely.

So if you've
used the pill bottle

to open it or to
touch the pills,

then you have...

you've likely left
your DNA there.

- What about on
the pills themselves?

- If you've touched
the pill with your hands,

you've left DNA there.

- You can still get skin cells

off a 40-year-old pill bottle.

- Yeah.

- I'm hopeful.

That's all we have, right,

is hope that one
day this will be solved

and the new technology
that they're using

is good enough to
prove someone guilty.

And if that person is Lewis...

It's been a long enough
time, I think, for him.

- We had a criminal profiler
come to us from Quantico.

And profiling...

criminal profiling
was just starting.

And he gave us maybe
100 points to look for.

And one of the points he
wanted to strike home with

is that the person
responsible for the poisoning

was just fantasizing...

having intense fantasies
about how smart he is,

how he's getting away with it...

and that over time,

the intensity of those
fantasies would diminish.

And the way that
he would reclaim

those intense
fantasies is identify

with one of the
investigators on Task Force 1,

reach out for him or her,

and want to become
involved in the investigation.

This is before we
even knew any...

that there was a James Lewis.

James Lewis gets arrested
in December of 1982

in New York City,

and he's tried in
October of 1983.

And he's convicted
of the extortion.

I come into the
office one afternoon

after being out all day,

and there's a note saying
that James Lewis called me,

that he tried to
give us an alibi.

And now he said that he was
in New York the entire time.

At the conclusion, he
said, "Once you find out

that my alibi is tight

and that I'm not responsible
for the Tylenol poisonings,

I would like to help
you in the investigation.

- My FBI case agent
partner and I, Roy Lane,

interviewed Lewis for many
hours after his conviction

after he volunteered to help
us solve the Tylenol killings.

- And over the course of the
next three or four meetings

that we had,

he was given, I would say...

or asked to do some
homework for us.

And it would be, how did
the person taint the capsules?

How did the person
carry cyanide?

How did the person
exchange it at the stores?

And James Lewis drew

about eight different
ways a person could taint,

carry, and exchange
the capsules.

- This is James Lewis...
this was actually Mr. Lewis,

this is his drilled
board method...

his words, not mine...
where you drill these holes

into this little
plywood contraption,

put a bottom
capsule into this hole,

put a mound of cyanide
on top of the board.

- What were you thinking
when he first gave you that?

- Bizarre, to put it mildly.

- When we got to
the very end of, say,

the fourth meeting, he goes,

I need to change
the arrangements,

or the agreement.

I need to change the agreement.

And we need to
eliminate "anything I say

can and will be used
against me in a court of law."

And we could not do that.

And that's when
our meetings ended.

- No one's ever
been definitively able

to put him in Chicago at
the time of the murders.

- That's correct.

- Well, whoever was
responsible for it had to be here...

had to physically be in Chicago,

not of the day of the...

where the people died,
but shortly before that.

- We did everything we could
do to trace their movements,

where they were, what
apartments they lived in,

who their friends were.

They didn't have any friends.

They were cheats
for the most part.

They would run
out on everything...

bills, obligations,

went to New York, came back.

And...

That... that bothered me,

that we could never
really nail anyone down.

- You think he did it.

- Yes, I do.

Can I prove it?
The answer is no.

Can the government prove it?

The answer is still no.

The case is not...

it's still alive.

But whether anything
happens or not, I don't know.

- You think he did it?

- I really couldn't say that.

That would be an unfair
statement for me to make.

As an investigator
and law enforcement...

You just cannot release
that type of information,

in my opinion, because
there's no way for, then,

the person to defend themselves.

- My feeling is
Task Force 2 feels

they got the right person.

You know, we're not prosecutors.

We just provide the evidence.

The prosecutor has
to make the decision...

A, Do they feel
confident you have

the right person to charge;

and B, do you have enough
evidence that you can convince

a jury beyond a reasonable doubt

that you can get
a guilty verdict?

Those are the two
hurdles in this case

that we had to get over.

I think the task force would
tell you we accomplished one.

And we made a
circumstantial case for two.

- Do you have confidence
this case will be charged?

- That's not up to me.

My job is to gather the facts...

find the motive, evidence,

things along those
lines, and present that

to the state attorney's office.

- I think there comes a
time when you have a case

of such a magnitude
and such an impact,

you have to take risks
you otherwise wouldn't take.

And you've got
witnesses that are aging.

You've got suspects
that are aging.

And there's going to
come a time when they're

not available any longer.

And critical pieces of testimony

may be lost if you drag
or go on any further.

We're talking about somebody
that impacted everybody

around this country,

impacted these
families terribly,

and, from our perspective,
remains a current risk.

So there's a
compelling issue here

about how long you
leave somebody out there

who has done such
a dastardly thing,

who represents a current risk.

- So recently, we actually
found James Lewis.

He's alive. He's here.

You think he did it.

He hasn't been held
accountable for it.

What's your reaction to that?

- Well, I mean, that's...

that's for a higher
authority to know about.

I mean, I know he's a low life,

whether he's alive or dead.

I know that if
he didn't do this,

he certainly bragged about
having an influence on it.

I his entire life has
been a trash heap,

from what I did know about him.

So... but God
takes care of us all.

So if he's still
alive, that's...

you know, that's
God's desire, not mine.

- I know how difficult this...

it's 40 years.

I saw the things...

how difficult it must
have been for all of you.

You could have had
all these single deaths

never being tied together.

It was the tragedy
of your family,

three people, that it's...
- Put it together.

- Quite obvious neon
sign... something is wrong.

Three young people
aren't dying of heart attacks.

But if that hadn't happened,

and it was all
the single deaths,

Adam being one...
- Right.

- That could have
gone on for days.

- But see, if you
weren't as adamant

and aggressive as you were...

- I can be aggressive.
- Yeah.

I mean, someone has to be.
You were supposed to be there.

- Like, people like
you are an inspiration

to other people.
- Good.

- And that you show
that you guys do try hard,

and you do put your life into...

for other people.

And you do whatever
you can to save a life.

- It's exactly right.

That's what a nurse does.

- And you're heroes.

- I think we were
both just doing our job.

And...

It's still a hard day.

It's still a hard day.
- Yeah.

- I'll never forget that.

She was there, and
then she collapsed.

I couldn't do anything.

- Nobody could do anything.

- Yeah, that's the horror of it.

- Tylenol was something
that everybody trusted.

Your brother trusted
it. Everybody did.

- Today, Tylenol...

- The fact that they
removed all millions of dollars

of medication off the
shelves and destroyed them,

and tested most of it.

Every... every
aisle of medication,

over-the-counter
medication could have

all had capsules on them.
- Of course. Yeah.

- And there were no...
there were no cameras,

and there were nobody...
there was nobody watching them.

- Of course, yeah.
- Right.

- And no safety
measures whatsoever.

- Right.

- I'm surprised that it
hadn't happened before.

- A stunning 11th
hour settlement tonight

in the Tylenol murder
case... families of the victims

reaching an
out-of-court agreement

with the maker of Tylenol

just as jury selection
was set to begin.

Details of the agreement
are being kept secret tonight.

It comes nine years after
seven Chicago area residents

died after taking Tylenol
capsules laced with cyanide.

Families of the victims claim
that safer packaging could

have prevented the tamperings.

- Eight and a half years...

eight and a half
years of litigation.

When defendants,
at the last minute,

suddenly decide they want to pay

and are willing to increase
whatever earlier offer

they may have made
to an acceptable number,

that says they feel
that paying that money

is cheaper for
them in the long run

than hearing what
a jury would say.

- Do you know what
the settlement was?

- I do.

- What was it?

- I can't say.

The settlement agreement
had a confidentiality clause

that said the amount
of the settlement

would not be divulged.

- The only issue
here is whether the...

the tamper-resistant product
that Johnson & Johnson has

had the wonderful,
good corporate sense

to now have on the market
should have been used before.

- The idea was if they had
started using tamper-evident

packages sooner, they
would have reduced

the risk of this happening.

And all or some of
these people would not

have been subject
to this fiendish attack.

- I hate what they
did to my clients.

Those are seven beautiful lives
that shouldn't have been lost.

- Did any detective
ever come and tell you,

"This is where
we are with this?"

- No.

- So you've never heard
from a single police officer

or agent about what's
happening in the case.

- No. That's...
it's very strange.

Because I thought I
should know something

because I'm the only
one... and my sister... living.

- We spoke with several
members of the Janus family.

They said they haven't
been contacted by authorities

with any update.
- Sure.

- Contacted, period.

- So with cold cases,
it's a difficult balance

on when to contact families
and if it's appropriate.

I do realize that
there might have been

communication
breakdowns occasionally,

with the case being passed

from one investigator
to another.

And that's... that's
on an agency,

we're going to have to own that.

But I have spoken with
family members recently

and...

Tried to give them as
much information as I can.

It was 40 years, and no one's
been charged with this crime.

I can understand
that frustration.

- Is this the one case...

is this the thorn in your ass?

Why... what is it?

- Oh, this is the one case
that you think about all the time.

You know, that's...
that's for real.

The frustration comes
from the judicial system,

the entire judicial system.

- You think the
judicial system...

Having not tried someone...

- I find that frustrating.

I don't think justice
has been served

in this particular...

in the Tylenol case.

- I mean, it sounds
to me like you guys

think this case is solved.

It just hasn't been adjudicated.

- Yeah, I think that's...
that's our feeling.

I think that's the
task force's feeling.

- Well, my hope is
to see a prosecution.

- Is that a hope
based in reality?

- Less and less so.

I'm less and less optimistic
that that will happen.

- I feel very moved
that Chuck still visits

my family at the grave,

that you gave, like, the
heart to visit our family.

And that's very touching,
and thank you so much.

- You know, that's...
- That's Chuck.

- Like I say, my heart went
out to your family because

I'm... my family's Polish too.

You know, it's just...

like I say, I don't
know what it was,

but I had an instant
connection with...

with your family that day.

- I mean, your brothers
are not forgotten.

That's probably the
most important thing,

that they are not.

You should be very
proud of your family.

- Thank you.

When I look Chuck
and look Helen,

they look young like me before.

And now we're all
in the same boat.

- Yeah. It's been a good life.

And now we're drawing
to the end of our lives.

- Oh.

- Yeah, it's... time flies.

- It does, it does.

- There may be
a person out there

that's older or...

will be touched by this story...

- That will remember.

- That will remember and
will make that one phone call

and say, I know who did it.

- Or a confession
that "I did it."

- Or a confession... I did it.

- I'm thinking personally
that this will be

the beginning to a
new chapter of my life

and the many lives of others.

And we might just, even
us in this present moment,

might be a big moving
moment to us figuring out

this case and finding out
who did these murders,

even if they're dead or alive.

- Enola Holmes and
Sherlock Holmes.

It'll be Isabel.

Isabel will be the
next detective.

- You... you're 12?
- Yeah.

- You know, we're in good shape.

I'm looking at
her... 12 years old.

The way you carry yourself
and speak, we're in good shape.

- Thank you.

- Amazing.
- Yeah, make a good nurse.

- You're bossy...
bossy and loud.

It helps.

- It's never goodbye.
- I'm supposed to say goodbye.

- See you later.
- See you again.

- Aw.

- It's necessary to have
people be aware of it even today,

and to realize that
this was, I think,

one person who
did this horrific thing

to other people...

some terrible
individual who has no...

no interest in human life,

has no compassion for anybody.

- Yeah.

- After 40 years.

- Yeah.

- I forget a lot of things.

But this is one thing I
don't think I'll ever forget,

any part of it, because when
you live something like that,

you'll never forget it.

Joe.
- Okay, Chuck.

Nice... it was nice to meet you.

- To see you after
all these years.

- Yeah.

- So...

I wish it was
discovered by this time.

- I hope so.

- I hope some... someday.
- Yeah.

- It's a good day today.
- Yeah.

- It's a good day
today to be together.

- I did a heritage
project, and I did it

about my heritage of Poland.

I told my teacher, "I want
to do this for my heart.

"I want to do it for myself.
I want to show you...

I want to tell you what
happened to my family."

From maybe next generation down,

people might not want to
remember this anymore.

And they'll say,
it's just something

that happened in the past.

No one cares about this anymore.

But it's something tragic that
people should know about.

I wrote, "'The Day The
World Was Changed Forever.'

"I come from a very
close family that has been

"through an enormous tragedy.

"On September 29, 1982,
my two great uncles and aunt

"tragically died by taking
Extra Strength Tylenol.

"There were seven
confirmed deaths

"from the laced Tylenol...

"of my family, the autopsies
confirmed cyanide poisoning.

"The world now has new packaging

"using safety
seals for protection.

"If not in my mother's
time, I will continue

"to try and help my
family find answers

"to this horrible tragedy.

"I truly believe that
justice will be done,

"if not in this lifetime,
then in the next.

"In loving memory of Adam Janus,

Stanley Janus,
and Theresa Janus."

- 40 years, nine
months, ten days

after the first poisoning,
James Lewis died.

Cops discovered Lewis's
body in his apartment

alone in July 2023.

They say his death
was not suspicious.

Suspicious, however, would
suit so much of Lewis's life...

a prime suspect again and again,

and then in the
indiscriminate murder

of seven in 1982...

seven people seeking pain relief

and the pain that
persists decades later.

Despite Lewis's death,

authorities say the
investigation is still open.