[chris]

Shortly following the Tylenol murders, J&J received a handwritten extortion letter demanding $1 million dollars for an end to the poisonings. The extortionist asked J&J to respond to his demand via the Chicago Tribune. Instead, the company contacted the authorities who began to trace the letter's source.

It didn't take them long to trace the letter to a man named James W. Lewis, a tax accountant and known con artist, who was also sought in connection with the brutal murder of an elderly man in Kansas City and a jewel robbery. The police quickly issued a warrant for Lewis's arrest in connection with the Tylenol killings.

Several state law enforcement agencies and the FBI conducted a massive search for Lewis and his wife, LeAnn. The search led investigators across several states including Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and Texas. Photographs and wanted posters of the couple were distributed across the country in local police stations, newsstands and public libraries.

During the last week of October, lab technicians in Chicago discovered yet another unsold tainted bottle of Tylenol in a grocery store in North Chicago. The bottle was found less than one block from where Paula Prince purchased the bottle containing the cyanide-laced capsules that ended her life one month earlier. The bottle was examined for fingerprints and other clues that might link the murders to the killer.

That same week, a man named Robert Richardson sent a letter to the Chicago Tribune that stated that he and his wife did not take part in the Tylenol murders and that they were unarmed. Robert Richardson was one of the many aliases used by James W. Lewis after his arrest for the murder of his elderly boss in Kansas City years earlier. Investigators revealed that week that the letter had been sent from New York City.

On November 11, 1982, J&J held a news conference stating that they were going to reintroduce the Tylenol products that were temporarily pulled off the market. However, this time the bottles were wrapped in new safety packaging. In an effort to restore consumer confidence, the new Tylenol bottles contained a triple-seal tamper resistant package.

Johnson and Johnson spent heavily to advertise the new packaging and offered consumers a $2.50 coupon towards the purchase of any Tylenol product. It took less than two months before consumer confidence was restored. According to Steven Fink's book, Crisis Management, J&J was able to "regain more than 98 percent of the market share it had before the crisis."

One month following Tylenol's re-introduction into the market place, FBI agents received their biggest tip in connection with Lewises whereabouts. After a ten-week search for their suspect, investigators received information from a librarian who claimed to have seen Lewis on several occasions at the New York Public Library. The librarian said she was able to recognize him from "wanted" posters at her workplace.

On December 13, 1982, FBI agents surrounded Lewis in the reading room of the New York Public Library. He was immediately arrested and taken into custody for questioning. The following week, LeAnn Lewis turned herself into the Chicago police.

During the interview by police, the Lewises denied having anything to do with the poisoning of the Tylenol capsules. Moreover, James Lewis denied writing the extortion letter to J&J, even though his handwriting and a fingerprint on the letter was an exact match. Intriguingly, a December 1982 Newsweek article stated that Chicago officials disclosed that someone had sent another extortion letter to the White House, threatening to bomb it and create more Tylenol deaths unless Ronald Reagan changed his tax policies. Lewis vehemently denied writing the second letter even though his handwriting was a perfect match.

Aside from the letters, investigators could not find any evidence linking James Lewis or his wife to the Tylenol murders. Registration records produced by the police showed that during the time the bottles were tampered with, the Lewises were living in a hotel in New York. Further evidence proved that LeAnn Lewis was at her job daily in New York at the time and witnesses claim that James Lewis was known to meet her everyday for lunch and after work.

According to Newsweek, police were unable to find any bus, train or airline records indicating that the Lewises returned to Chicago during the time when the bottles were tampered with. The mounting evidence ruled out the couple as being involved in the Tylenol poisoning. Therefore, the FBI and Chicago law enforcement agencies were forced to accede that the Tylenol murderer was still on the loose. By this time, almost all the leads in the case had grown cold and the chances of finding the killer significantly reduced.

Although Lewis was never convicted for crimes directly related to the Tylenol deaths, he was eventually found guilty of extortion and six unrelated counts of mail and credit card fraud. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Lewis served only 13 years of his sentence before being released on parole in 1995.

[Hotsauce]

He saw the opportunity and went for it

[Pyramid_Head]

Crazy how someone could be that cold and careless about human life.

[St. Geno]

Very good read

[azdesertsnake01]

Another fact worth mentioning, this cock sucker is actually why you have tamper proof seals on bottles now. They did NOT exist until this fucker did that shit. I was 11 at the time, but I remember it very well. People were scared to buy pills anywhere during that time.

[facing_reality]

Originally Posted by azdesertsnake01 ↗

Another fact worth mentioning, this cock sucker is actually why you have tamper proof seals on bottles now. They did NOT exist until this fucker did that shit. I was 11 at the time, but I remember it very well. People were scared to buy pills anywhere during that time.

Such anger! But yeah, that's true. I remember it, too. It only takes one goob to ruin it for everybody. In CA, you used to be able to ride in the back of a pickup truck in OHV (off-highway) areas (sand dunes, etc.) That was until some state politician's little brat got tanked (underage) with his buddies and ended up a quadriplegic.

So they broke numerous laws that resulted in his broken neck, & mommy's solution was to pass another law to protect her stupid kid from himself, after the damage was already done. Nobody... anywhere... was lobbying for that change.

[sneakycat]

This has happened two times that i know of now. There was a dateline episode on ID about a woman who tried to use tainted exedrin as a way to kill her husband and thought she wouldnt get caught and that shed be able to blame the manufacturing company. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stella_Nickell