TYMURS

On this morning, 32 years ago, a little girl complaining of a sore throat and runny nose tragically fell victim to an arbitrary murder. Later the same day, another man would become the second victim in this calamity to hit the state of Illinois. The man's relatives would grieve their loss and unknowingly take the same cyanide laced capsules that caused his death, making them the next fatalities in this onslaught. Over the next few days more people mysteriously perished under similar circumstances with only one link between them, Tylenol.
So began what has now come to be known as the Tylenol Murders. The unfortunate souls took tainted capsules of Tylenol that were laced with 35mg of potassium cyanide, which is over 10,000 times a lethal dose.

The initial investigation determined the bottles were poisoned after they hit store shelves. Someone took the bottles from the stores, added the deadly ingredient and put them back in the store. No one know who or why to this day. There are many theories and one person who tried to extort Johnson & Johnson for a million dollars to "stop the poisonings." He now denies having anything to do with the tampering of the bottles and investigators had difficulty linking him due to his residence being in New York at the time. He served a 13 years of a 20 year sentence for the extortion but not the heinous acts that caused the deaths of seven people.

 This incident is the reason we now have medicine bottles with tamper proof seals.

These seals make it much easier for the consumer to tell if the bottles have been meddled with. "The Tylenol Bill" was passed the following year making it a federal offense to tamper with consumer products. Up until that point in time there was no reason to have these precautionary measures. Unfortunately, we live in a world where people come up with new ways to hurt others. This was one of them.

Regrettably, their deaths cannot be undone. But, in a positive light, neither can the steps taken to protect other consumers that were catalyzed by this tragedy be reversed. Today I dedicate this post to those who lost their lives in this senseless horrific act:

Mary Kellerman
Adam Janus
Stanley Janus
Theresa Janus
Mary McFarland
Paula Prince
Mary Reiner