All language subtitles for historys.greatest.mysteries.s03e12.1080p.web.h264-spamneggs_track4_[eng]

[dramatic music]

Fishburne: Tonight,
a series of unexplained deaths

near Chicago in 1982
starts a nationwide panic.

The victims are connected
by one frightening detail.

♪ ♪

- It looks like
all these people

took Tylenol and died that day.

- Every hospital
and every home in America

probably had a Tylenol
in their cabinet.

♪ ♪

Fishburne: Now we uncover
the top theories

surrounding an ongoing
FBI investigation.

- What if these people
weren’t killed at random?

- Whoever had done it
had just been dormant

for things to quiet down.

- He looks very similar

to Ted Kaczynski,
the Unabomber.

Fishburne: Can the elusive
killer finally be identified

and brought to justice?

- It’s really
a race against time

to try and figure out
who’s doing this and why.

[sirens wailing]

Fishburne:
Who actually committed

the Chicago Tylenol murders?

♪ ♪

September 29th, 1982.

At 6:30 a.m. in the Chicago
suburb of Schaumburg,

12-year-old Mary Kellerman
awakens with a sore throat.

- Mary Kellerman wakes up

and tells her parents
she’s not feeling well.

She has sniffles.
She’s coughing.

And to alleviate her symptoms,
she takes a Tylenol.

- Her dad is downstairs
and he hears a thud,

runs back upstairs

and Mary is sprawled
on the bathroom floor.

They rush Mary
to the hospital.

When she finally gets there,
Mary was pronounced dead

at Alexian Brothers Medical
Center in Elk Grove Village.

[somber music]

Fishburne: A few hours later
in nearby Arlington Heights,

27-year-old postal worker,
Adam Janus collapses

after complaining
of minor chest pains.

He’s rushed to
Northwest Community Hospital.

- Adam arrives
in critical condition.

Shortly thereafter,

he dies of what doctors thought
was heart failure.

♪ ♪

Fishburne: In shock,

Adam’s brother Stanley
and sister-in-law Theresa

return home
from the hospital

and take Tylenol
for headaches.

That same day,
they also collapse and die.

- The police are baffled.

We have three victims in the
same family in the same house.

They initially suspect
carbon monoxide poisoning.

They called the technicians,

but no carbon monoxide
was detected.

So the police called
the public health department

looking for some
medical guidance

and they send nurse
Helen Jensen

to the Janus family.

Fishburne:
Jensen finds a bottle

of extra-strength Tylenol

with six capsules missing.

- Three doses taken from
a bottle, three people dead.

So Jensen takes this bottle
back to the medical center

to get it tested
because she feels

that this could be
something of importance.

- Authorities at
Northwest Community Hospital

turn it over
to law enforcement.

- Helen Jensen suspects the
Tylenol from the beginning.

And she actually says this
to the investigating officers.

"I think it’s something
in the Tylenol."

- The Janus family,
having no idea what has killed

three members of their family
so far, they’re terrified.

So they’re brought
to the hospital,

put under observation,
and officials went so far

as to give them
their last rights

because they didn’t know
what was killing these people.

And they didn’t know
if they were next.

Fishburne: While the Janus
family remains under watch,

18 miles away
in the suburb of Winfield,

Mary Reiner arrives home.

She’s recently given birth
and wants pain relief.

- Soon after taking
extra-strength Tylenol,

Mary Reiner collapses.
[sirens wail]

She’s rushed to the hospital
and she also dies soon after.

Fishburne: Five fatalities,
each an apparent mystery.

Authorities are confounded.

- The Januses
and Mary Kellerman

all died in Cook County,

which meant they all ended up
in the same morgue.

There were also
two bottles of Tylenol--

the Tylenol bottle
that was used by the Januses

and the Tylenol bottle

that Mary Kellerman
got her Tylenol from.

Both bottles have
the same lot number,

which is MC2880.

They also have another
weird thing in common.

- They both had
the distinctive smell

of bitter almonds,

and they’re trained
professionals who know

about poisons and contaminants,
and that bitter almond smell

could only mean one thing:
cyanide.

- It’s a real mystery.
Who would do this?

Why did this happen?

Why cyanide?
Police have tons of questions.

- What cyanide does is blocks
the cells in your body

from absorbing
and transporting oxygen.

And it does it very quickly.

It’s a very fast-acting,
very dangerous poison.

Fishburne:
Tests performed on capsules

confirmed
the investigators’ fears.

- Not only were the Januses
and Mary Kellerman

killed with cyanide,
but it was a dose of cyanide

that was about
a thousand times more potent

than what you would need
to kill a person.

- Authorities are panicked
because they don’t know

how far this is gonna go.

Is it just in Chicago suburb?

Is it nationwide?
They don’t know.

Fishburne: While authorities
struggle to connect the dots,

there’s another incident.

♪ ♪

- At around 3:00 a.m.,
a woman named Mary McFarland

was working at her
telephone company job.

Not feeling great,
so she took a Tylenol.

And almost immediately,
she passes out

and has to be rushed
to the hospital where she died.

- After Mary McFarland
collapses,

they’re looking to see,
is this another victim?

And sure enough,
there are poison pills in there

just like the others.

Fishburne: That morning,

deputy medical examiner
Edmund Donoghue

addresses the public.

- Definitely, someone tampered
with the capsules,

but we have no idea
of where that occurred.

- Donoghue hits the airwaves,
letting everyone know

that if you have Tylenol
from this certain lot number,

whatever you do,
do not take that Tylenol.

Remember, it’s 1982.
There’s no social media.

There’s three networks.

To get the word out,
police were even

going around with loudspeakers,

making announcements
in the streets

to make sure people
would not be taking Tylenol

from this lot number
at this time.

- This is a huge deal because
Tylenol is probably

the number one pain medicine
in the country at the time.

Every hospital
and every home in America

probably had a Tylenol
in their cabinet.

- Johnson & Johnson moves
quickly to recall

4.7 million capsules
from lot number MC2880--

had all been manufactured
in Pennsylvania.

At this point, they’re
treating it like a homicide.

They just have no idea how
to figure out who’s doing it.

Fishburne: The next day,

authorities form a coordinated
multi-agency task force.

- Chicago PD is involved
and it ends up being something

like 140 law enforcement
officials who are involved,

including the FBI.

- Not only were they
investigating

multiple homicides,

but they were also
trying to figure out,

are there any more bottles
on the shelves out there,

which was key.

- Before this task force
can even mobilize

and hit the streets,
there’s another incident.

In Old Town, Chicago
around 5:00 p.m. that day,

a woman named Paula Prince
is found dead

on the floor of her home.

And there is
an open bottle of Tylenol

on her bathroom counter.

Fishburne:
But this bottle is different.

- It was actually
manufactured in Texas.

And the number on that
particular bottle was 1920MD.

Now we have
a different lot number

that’s been tainted
with cyanide.

And of course,
now all the red flags go up.

- They now know that this isn’t
contained to a single lot.

It is spread and they don’t
know how far it might go.

Fishburne: That night,
Mayor Jane Byrne

orders all Tylenol removed
from Chicago shelves.

- People, of course,
were panicked.

So they were calling up,
"I just took a Tylenol.

Am I going to die?"

Emergency responders
on the other end would say,

"Well, if you’re able to call,
you’re gonna be okay,

but don’t take any more."

- The first problem for police
is where do you start?

Is it just a random lunatic?
Is it a serial killer?

The obvious first place to look
is to see if maybe

it’s something that happened
in the supply chain.

♪ ♪

Fishburne:
Investigators start

with the Chicago offices
of Johnson & Johnson.

Police interview
several current

and former
Johnson & Johnson employees

looking for anyone
bearing a grudge.

- Johnson & Johnson put out
a $100,000 reward

and for any tips that might
lead to whoever was doing this.

Nothing came of it.

- They’re also concerned about

if there are other
pills still.

Their interviews
with employees

don’t get them anywhere.

So a drastic step
has to be taken.

♪ ♪

Fishburne: On October 5th,

Johnson & Johnson recalls all
Tylenol products nationwide--

a total of 31 million bottles

valued at more
than $100 million.

- They were able to test them.
50 pills were contaminated.

Those 50 pills were only
in eight bottles.

Two of the bottles had been
returned in the recall.

One other bottle was found
after the fact still

on a shelf,
but hadn’t been sold yet.

They’re lucky somebody else
didn’t buy those three bottles.

- They know these tainted
pills were only produced

in Pennsylvania or Texas
in these two lot numbers.

One thing they don’t find
is any evidence of pills

that are tainted with cyanide

outside the Chicago Metro area.

And while Johnson & Johnson
is testing all of this,

they make another
huge breakthrough.

A chemist at J&J discovers

that when you put cyanide
inside a Tylenol capsule,

it degrades within 24 hours,

which means these crimes
had to happen locally

because the amount of time
it takes for that pill

to dissolve after you
put the cyanide in it,

doesn’t allow for shipping
it out from a factory

and waiting until
it hits store shelves.

You gotta act fast.

Fishburne: At this time,

pill bottles didn’t have
tamperproof seals on them.

So anyone could open
a medicine bottle

without detection
virtually anywhere.

- If it’s not an inside job,

this case becomes
much more difficult.

Now they have to canvass
the entire Chicago area

for any suspect.

Fishburne:
Early October, 1982.

Media coverage of
the Chicago Tylenol murders

is constant and frenzied.

♪ ♪

- This is a huge story.
Mass hysteria breaks out.

It’s like the Kennedy
assassination in the coverage

and the way it just captivates
America’s attention.

- Well, there was somewhere
in the area

of a 100,000 different
newspaper articles

that were done
on this particular case.

- The scariest thing is
that seven days have passed

and they still have
no viable suspect.

Fishburne: Then on Wednesday,
October 6th,

investigators finally receive
what they hope will be a clue.

- A ransom letter arrives at
the Johnson & Johnson offices.

And this letter claims to be
from the person

who is poisoning
these Tylenol pills.

So finally,
police have a suspect.

♪ ♪

- In the letter,
"the Tylenol killer"

appears to be bragging
about his prowess.

It only takes him ten minutes
to contaminate a bottle.

He’s only spent $50
to kill all of these people.

And, "Hey, Johnson & Johnson,

"if you don’t want
the killings to continue,

"you better wire a million
dollars to this bank account.

And don’t tell the FBI."

And the tone is so creepy.

He says, "It’s so easy
to get buyers

to swallow the bitter pill."

Ugh.
It’s a sociopath.

♪ ♪

- This is not a smart crime.

If this is a genuine
ransom letter,

the person who sent it put

their actual bank account
number in the letter.

Fishburne: The account belongs
to a man named

Frederick Miller McCahey.

Could the Tylenol killer
finally have a name?

- So investigators
follow the trail

and speak
to Frederick Miller McCahey.

And he’s an heir to
the Miller Brewing fortune.

Clearly, he’s not likely
to be the Tylenol killer.

- So they analyze this letter
and police find a fingerprint

and it traces back to a man
named Robert Richardson.

On October 13th, 1982,
police issue a warrant

for his arrest
over extortion charges.

[siren wails]

- There’s a big, big manhunt

looking for this
Robert Richardson.

They have over 100
law enforcement officers,

but at this point,
he’s in the wind, he’s a ghost.

Fishburne: A few days later,

the alleged killer
makes contact again.

A second threatening letter
shows up,

this time at the White House.

- This letter matches

the handwriting
of the first letter.

It also includes a death threat
to President Reagan.

- President Reagan!

- In the letter,
he demands a taxation overhaul

or else the killings
will continue.

Fishburne: Within days,
a third letter arrives,

this time
to the "Chicago Tribune."

But unlike the other letters,

this one is an attempt
to clear his name.

- And he basically identifies
himself as James Lewis,

sends a thumbprint in,
a copy of his driver’s license.

Everything’s there

for law enforcement
to identify who he is.

Fishburne: Lewis’ thumbprint
is a match

and investigators
find out

that Robert Richardson
is an alias.

- And he says, "You know,
I was just being opportunistic.

I have nothing to do
with this."

It was really a crime
of opportunity,

not a mass-murdering, at least
as far as he was concerned.

- So James Lewis is now

at the top
of the FBI’s most wanted list.

They take his photo and
they circulate it nationwide.

They have a massive,
massive manhunt

looking for this Lewis.

- And they arrest him
on December 13th of 1982.

So he’s in custody
at this point.

Fishburne: The next day,

his wife Leann turns herself
in to the Chicago police.

Her bail is also set
at $5 million.

- They were probably relieved
that they had

a really strong suspect
in custody.

It didn’t seem
that more people were dying

of the same ailments.

- Lewis admits to sending
the ransom letters,

but he denies any involvement
in the murders.

He was simply trying
to frame McCahey

because he felt he was crooked

and he was trying
to get the FBI to look at him.

And hopefully that they would

look into any of
his financial activities.

- Now, Lewis has been
interviewed multiple times

and he basically
sticks to his story

that he didn’t have
anything to do with it.

Tainting of the pills--
we find out that Lewis’ wife

who’s in custody,
worked for McCahey.

There was a falling out.

Apparently,
the wife’s last check,

which was for--
in the area of $511 bounced.

So for $511,

this guy goes after
this individual McCahey

and basically implicates him
in the Tylenol murders.

Fishburne: Is Lewis simply
inventing an elaborate defense

or could his story
actually be true?

- To defend himself,
Richardson/Lewis says,

"You know, this would be
really easy to do.

Let me show you how."

And he talked them through
opening up capsules,

replacing the powder inside
with cyanide,

closing it back up.

"See, it’s so simple.
Anyone could do it,"

wasn’t the smartest move
because now police

were really feeling comfortable
that this was their guy.

- And what’s crazy about this
whole thing is you start

looking at Lewis’s background,
and at one point in time,

he actually had
some involvement

in the pharmaceutical
industry.

- He also had a short-lived
business venture

where he was importing
pill-making machines

from India.

Fishburne:
Lewis’ criminal record

also gets
investigators’ attention.

- James Lewis
had a troubled past.

He had committed assaults
as a teenager,

chased after his stepfather
with an axe,

tried to kill himself.

He would later say
that he did those things

to try to get out
of the Vietnam War draft.

But a lot of people
questioned that.

- He also served two years
for tax fraud,

but he was very prolific.

Fishburne: Investigators have
all they need to prosecute

Lewis for extortion,
including a confession.

Now they need to prove
he’s a murderer.

♪ ♪

- So law enforcement starts to
build a timeline of this guy’s

whereabouts the months
before the poisoning.

They find out that this guy
is running from law enforcement

in Kansas City
back in December of 1981.

- When he left Kansas City,
this is when he started

using the alias
of Robert Richardson

and his wife also used
the same Richardson alias.

- James Lewis’ main alibi

for not committing
the Tylenol murders

is that he wasn’t
anywhere near Chicago

when the killings occurred.

In early September, 1982,

he and his wife booked
cash tickets on Amtrak,

left Chicago for New York City

using the aliases
William and Karen Wagner.

They lived there in Manhattan
for weeks at the same time

these Tylenol killings
were happening.

Fishburne:
Investigators confirm

the couple did indeed rent
a New York hotel room,

but suspicion remains.

- They’ve gotta figure out,
okay,

he’s in New York
on September 4th.

Could he possibly have
come back to Chicago,

tainted the pills, and then
went back to New York?

- The problem is no one
can prove that hypothesis

because we didn’t have
the technology back then

that we have now.

There aren’t cameras
on every street light.

Fishburne:
But there is one camera

that might hold the answer.

Fishburne:
It’s now 2 1/2 months

after the Chicago
Tylenol murders.

Police have
a potential suspect,

James William Lewis
in custody,

but can they prove
he’s the killer?

- Police have James Lewis
on extortion.

I mean, he’s confessed to it.

It’s a pretty
open and close case,

but he is adamant
that he had nothing to do

with the poisonings,

and they cannot place him
in Chicago.

His alibi is really
pretty strong.

Fishburne:
Until new evidence surfaces.

- When Paula Prince bought
her bottle of Tylenol,

there actually was
surveillance video.

- And this is a key part
of this investigation

because they’re able to go back
and find that

she purchased her Tylenol
on September 28th of 1982.

And what’s interesting here

is they actually have
security camera video,

and it’s at the register where
she’s paying for her Tylenol.

- This was huge.

There’s a gentleman
a couple feet behind her

who looks an awful lot
like James Lewis.

- So if he’s there during
the time that Paula Prince

bought her tainted bottles,
then that’s it, right?

You’d think you would have
enough to close this case.

Fishburne:
Unfortunately,

the video isn’t clear enough
for a positive ID.

- Lewis presents himself
as an opportunist,

as a conman, as a hustler,
but he says he’s not a killer.

That’s not in his repertoire.

Fishburne:
But when police dig deeper,

they discover Lewis
isn’t quite as innocent

as he claims.

- As police unfold
his background,

they find that he actually

had been charged with murder
before.

- In the mid ’70s,

Lewis was running a little
tax and bookkeeping firm

with his wife Leann
in Kansas city.

And one of their
favorite clients

was an elderly guy
named Raymond West.

- On July 23rd, 1978,
Raymond West disappears.

His friend Charles Banker
goes to Raymond West’s house

to see how he’s doing,
see if he’s turned up.

There is a letter
on Raymond’s door.

- "Ray’s out of town.
For further, call Jim."

And it’s on
the Lewis & Lewis stationery.

That’s pretty weird
according to his friend.

So, you know,
Ray doesn’t go out of town--

certainly not without
telling him about it.

Banker calls police.

When the police come,
they enter the house.

Police look around the house.

They don’t see anything strange
so they leave.

♪ ♪

- Three weeks passed
and Charles Banker

came back to Raymond’s house
on August 14th, 1978.

And he opened the door.
There was a terrible odor.

He went and got the police
who were experienced enough

that they knew from the smell
what they were dealing with.

- So police in the basement,

they find
a bloody lawn chair, rope,

and a garbage bag
containing his toupee,

eyeglasses,
and a blood-stained sheet.

Fishburne: Upstairs,
officers notice a stain

running from the ceiling
to the wall.

- In the attic,
they find a body

with its legs dismembered.

There’s white rope
around the remains,

bags covering parts
of his body,

and the decomposition
is tremendous.

- They knew it was
the work of a killer.

They just didn’t know
why or who.

- As they continue the search
to gather more evidence,

they find a $5,000 check
made out to guess who?

Fishburne:
The payee is James Lewis.

- So the police ask
if they can search his car.

And he says, "Sure."

In his trunk, they find
20 feet of white rope,

trash bags like the ones
found in Raymond’s house,

a briefcase
with Raymond West papers,

and a stack of Raymond West’s
checkbooks.

Fishburne:
In late August, 1978,

the Jackson County grand jury
charges James Lewis

with capital murder.

- Before the case
had even started,

before any evidence
was even presented,

his attorney gets the case
thrown out on a technicality.

- Once they arrested him,
they failed to read him

his Miranda rights,
so every bit of that evidence

that they had found
would be thrown out.

And without it,
there was no case.

And James Lewis
walked out the door.

Fishburne: Despite the lack
of a conviction,

investigators working
the Tylenol case

now believe
Lewis is capable of murder.

But do they have enough
evidence to prove it?

- So this guy gets off on
a murder in ’79, and in 1982,

they have him for extortion,
and the authorities

can’t connect him
to these Tylenol cases

because all they have
is circumstantial evidence

because his alibi says
he was in New York.

Can you believe that?

Fishburne: In October of 1983,

one year after
the Tylenol killings,

Lewis is tried for extortion
and convicted.

He serves 13 years
of his 20-year sentence.

- So after that,
police have another chance

to maybe find some closure
in the Tylenol case.

So they look for more evidence.

Again, they searched
his house in 2009.

They confiscated some
computers and paperwork

that they hoped
would point to him

as having been the mastermind
of this poisoning scheme.

In 2010, they got
a court order to get DNA

from James Lewis
and his wife, Leann.

Charges never came.

- Is Lewis on the Walgreens
video behind Paula Prince?

And is Lewis the individual

that tainted the pills
or is he not?

♪ ♪

Fishburne: When the Tylenol
murders rock Chicago in 1982,

investigators initially believe
it’s an isolated event,

but as they dig deeper,

they unravel
an unsettling possibility.

The killer has been
active before.

In fact, he could be

one of the most infamous
criminals in U.S. history.

One week into
the initial investigation,

a Chicago detective
is dispatched

to Sheridan, Wyoming
to follow a lead.

- On October 9th in 1982,
"New York Times" released

an article that talked
about a lead up in Wyoming.

There was a very
similar homicide that occurred

using tainted extra-strength
Tylenol with cyanide.

So they sent a team
of investigators up there

to go ahead and look
at this particular case.

- As it turns out,

a couple months before
the Chicago murders happened,

on July 26th
in Sheridan, Wyoming,

19-year-old janitor
Jay Adam Mitchell

is found dead
of cyanide poisoning,

just like the cases
in Chicago.

- According to his mom,

the only thing
he had taken prior

was extra-strength Tylenol.

- Chicago PD and the FBI

couldn’t make
a direct connection

other than circumstantial
evidence between

the Sheridan, Wyoming
poisoning of Mitchell

and the Tylenol murders
two months later in Chicago.

- The case kind of goes cold
for about 30 years.

Fishburne: Then,
a very high-profile suspect

is thrust into the spotlight.

- On May 19th, 2011,

dozens of news agencies pick up
on a story about a new suspect.

The FBI was seeking DNA
from none other

than Ted Kaczynski,
the Unabomber.

♪ ♪

Fishburne: Kaczynski was
a reclusive mathematician

convicted of sending bombs

through the mail
for nearly 20 years,

killing three people
and wounding 23.

He’s currently serving eight
life sentences for his crimes

in a prison medical facility
in North Carolina.

♪ ♪

- In 1978 through 1980,

Ted Kaczynski was living
with his parents

in Lombard, Illinois,
right outside of Chicago.

And obviously,
we have the first four attacks

that occurred right there in
the Chicago metropolitan area,

but he also intermittently
stayed with his parents

after that timeframe.

Fishburne: Lombard could also
be an ideal home base

for the Tylenol killer.

- All of the stores where those
Tylenol bottles were purchased

were all within
a 20-mile drive

from Kaczynski’s
parents’ home.

- And so he would’ve known
these stores.

He would’ve known easily
how to get to them.

He would’ve been
comfortable in the area.

And that’s something else
to think about--

poisoning within
a particular radius.

- When you look at the video
of the individual

standing behind Paula
in Walgreens,

not only does
he look like Lewis,

but he also looks like
Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber.

- The overlap between
what Kaczynski is convicted of

and the Tylenol deaths,
people started to wonder,

okay, they’re both
domestic terrorism cases.

And actually,
some of Kaczynski’s

first terrorist attacks
originated in Chicago.

Fishburne:
There is also another reason

authorities think Kaczynski
could be responsible.

- When you look at where
Kaczynski was arrested

in Montana

and you follow I-90
to go to Chicago,

almost in that direct line
is Sheridan, Wyoming,

which is just off I-90.

So here we have another
circumstantial connection

for Kaczynski to be involved

in at least
the Sheridan, Wyoming murder

and the 1982 Tylenol murders
in Chicago.

- Could Ted Kaczynski
have committed this

Sheridan, Wyoming crime
as a run-up or practice

to his much bigger
crimes later?

- Ted Kaczynski was
a really good planner.

He tested stuff out before he
actually committed the crime.

You know,
he tested his bombs out,

and could the Sheridan, Wyoming
homicide be the precursor

to what occurred in Chicago
two months later in 1982?

Could very well have been.

That’s the way
Ted Kaczynski operates.

Fishburne: Kaczynski denies
any involvement

with the Tylenol case.

- Now, Kaczynski claims
he never had potassium cyanide

in his possession

and they didn’t find any
in his cabin in Montana.

Since 2011,
police haven’t filed

any new charges
against Ted Kaczynski.

So it’s possible that
there wasn’t a DNA match,

but it’s possible that
they’re still building a case.

Fishburne:
One month into the hunt

for Chicago’s
Tylenol killer,

investigators ask
a new and provocative claim.

- What if these people
weren’t killed at random?

♪ ♪

Fishburne: Investigators
look into the victims’

friends and family,

searching for
any potential motive.

- Does someone’s
husband or wife

have a reason to commit murder?

Does an employee who is
disgruntled with their job

have a reason to do this?

Fishburne:
Most of the victims

don’t seem to have
any enemies.

- But Mary Reiner
might have a connection

to a possible suspect.

His name is Roger Arnold,

and he’s a self-proclaimed
closet chemist.

Around the time of the murders,

he’s heard openly bragging

about having access to cyanide.

- He’s a bar fly,

so he hangs out
at one particular tavern,

knows all the bartenders.

And he’s constantly
talking about

how easy it is to poison people

and basically goes into detail
as to how it could be done.

- One of the people
listening at the bar

thought his theories were
a little too close to plausible

and called in a tip,

asking for investigators
to look at Arnold.

♪ ♪

Things that raised eyebrows
about Arnold were

he worked in a warehouse
for Jewel grocery stores,

a place one of the bottles
of Tylenol was found.

At the warehouse
where he worked,

he was a colleague

with the father
of one of the victims.

So we have a little bit
of a tangential relationship.

- This is the first time police
have identified a suspect

who might have a connection
to one of the victims.

Did he have some sort of beef
with the Reiner family?

Was this a revenge killing?
It could be.

One thing police will tell you
all the time

is there’s no such thing
as coincidences.

Fishburne: Officers act
on the tip immediately

and bring Arnold in
for questioning.

- At the time, Arnold was out
on an assault complaint,

so the police had good reason
to check in on him.

They talked about

what Arnold thought
about the Tylenol killings and,

"Hey, guy, did you have
anything to do with this?"

And he said, "Absolutely not."

- Roger did tell police,
"Yeah, I had cyanide,

but I got rid of it
in August."

And the crimes weren’t
until late September.

So according to him,
it was all gone by then.

♪ ♪

- This is all circumstantial,
but it’s very alarming.

We have a suspect who fancies
himself as a "closet chemist."

And he has a connection
to one of the victims.

And he worked
in the perfect spot

to pull off a crime like this.

And he admits to handling
and having cyanide.

Fishburne: It’s enough
to get a search warrant

for Arnold’s apartment.

- They found chemicals,
weapons,

how-to guides for various
criminal activities.

- And they also find two
one-way tickets to Thailand.

They find
five unregistered guns,

chemistry equipment,
and white powder.

- They find
potassium carbonate,

which is not the same
as potassium cyanide.

But if you modify it
a little bit, it can be deadly.

You can make
a synthetic version

using other ingredients.

Arnold doesn’t help
himself either

because he won’t tell police

why he has this potassium
carbonate in his possession.

He just says,
"It wasn’t illegal.

Don’t worry about it."

Fishburne:
Investigators next ask Arnold

to take a polygraph exam.

- Obviously, he refuses.

So he ends up charged with the
assault and weapons violations.

While he’s awaiting trial
on those charges,

he’s released on a $6,000 bond
and he’s very angry.

- Well, when he was
being interviewed

by law enforcement,

he made
a very interesting quote.

And he said, "I’d like to be in
on the homicide

of the guy that turned me in."

♪ ♪

Fishburne: In the early
morning of June 18th, 1983,

Arnold snaps.

- Roger Arnold
becomes convinced

that the bar owner,
Marty Sinclair,

is the guy who turned him in,
so he starts to stalk him,

approaches him,
and pulls out a gun, says,

"You turned me in."
And he fires.

[gunshot]

The man drops dead,
but it’s not Marty Sinclair.

The man he killed
was a computer consultant

named John Stanisha.

He was a father of three kids.

He had absolutely no connection
to the case whatsoever.

Fishburne: Arnold is sentenced
to 30 years in prison

for killing Stanisha.

- He ends up serving 15 years
and then dies in 2008

without ever admitting
any guilt

or involvement
in the Tylenol case.

- The case files remain closed
to public or press inspection.

It’s still
an open investigation.

So we’ll never know
how many prime suspects

may have been looked at
in the Tylenol murders.

Lewis remains
a person of interest

for many people
involved in the case.

Roger Arnold--he’s dead now.
We’ll never know.

Fishburne: In the years since
the Chicago Tylenol murders,

many have wondered if the
suspect is still out there,

why have the killings stopped?

- So since no other tainted
pills show up in Chicago,

that has led some people
to assume maybe the killer died

or maybe he just gave up.

But there is another really
frightening possibility.

In the aftermath
of the Tylenol murders,

there are hundreds
of copycat attempts

all across the country--

at least, that’s what police
categorized them as.

But what if they
weren’t copycats?

Maybe the killer didn’t stop.

♪ ♪

Fishburne: In 1986,
four more deaths occur

due to tampered pain pills.

- Two of the victims
are attributed to a killer

in Seattle
named Stella Nickell.

She used cyanide-laced
Excedrin to kill her husband

and a woman named Sue Snow.

♪ ♪

But there are two more deaths

that are
a little more intriguing.

In Austin, Texas
in May, 1986,

a college student
named Kenneth Faries dies

after taking
cyanide-laced Anacin.

- His death was ruled
a suicide

because he had supposedly had
access to cyanide at his work.

And so the thinking was
that he had tainted

an Anacin pill himself
and intentionally taken it.

It does seem like
a very horrific way

to die by suicide,
but that’s what it was ruled.

- The one that probably stood
out for people was in Yonkers.

On February 8th, 1986,

Diane Elsroth took
some extra-strength Tylenol

that had been laced with
cyanide and she dropped dead.

- The tainted bottles
were found in stores

in Westchester County,

and fortunately, they were able
to get them all off the shelves

before anyone else was killed.

- Investigators looked
at the New York cases

to see if maybe
this was a continuation

of the Chicago cases.

Maybe whoever had done it

had just been dormant
for things to quiet down.

- There hasn’t been
a direct connection made

between that case and
the Chicago Tylenol murders,

but it’s eerie
that it’s very similar.

- If the New York cases
were connected

to the Chicago cases,
that would’ve thrown a wrench

in all of the theories
up to date

because Roger Arnold
was in prison

and James Lewis was in prison.

- Or as the FBI
currently believes,

maybe it is just a copycat
and there still are

two poisoning suspects
out there at large.

Thankfully these days,
it’s very unlikely

that we’ll have another
epidemic of poisoned pills.

♪ ♪

Fishburne: In the wake
of the Tylenol murders,

the U.S. government passed

the Federal Anti-Tampering Act
in 1983.

- This case and the bill that
it inspired are responsible

for the tamperproof seals
and packaging

that you see
on medicine bottles today.

It absolutely changed history
and saved countless lives.

- These poisonings were an act
of domestic terrorism,

and whoever committed them
was a heinous, heartless,

horrible person who didn’t care
who went down,

how they would die.

They just wanted
to inflict some damage.

And it’s a terrible case.

The families
that were affected

by the Tylenol murders

still are wanting justice
in this case.

No one’s been charged.
No one’s been convicted.

There are no answers yet
in the Tylenol murders.

- And this is one of those
great cold cases

from the 20th century

that there’s a lot of questions
out there.

But I think with having
the FBI involved

and maybe where we are
right now

with some of the new DNA stuff
that’s come out,

hopefully, they can bring this
to a conclusion.

♪ ♪

Fishburne: Authorities have
gathered thousands of documents

and interviewed more than
400 persons of interest

during their
ongoing investigation.

They’re currently testing the
original cyanide-laced capsules

in an attempt to complete
a DNA profile of the killer.

Perhaps modern technology
can finally close the case.

I’m Laurence Fishburne.

Thank you for watching
"History’s Greatest Mysteries."

♪ ♪