The Chicago Tylenol murders were a series of deaths committed with poisoned

capsules of Tylenol(парацетамол) in 1982. The victims had all taken Tylenol capsules
that had been laced with potassium cyanide['saɪənaɪd].(цианид)

On September 29, 1982, twelve-year-old Mary caught a cold and took a capsule
containing a lethal dose of the substance and died.

In the next 15 hours, five more similar poisonings occurred. The last, seventh, case
was recorded on October 1, 1982, when a 35-year-old stewardess died.

It was realized that all these people had recently taken Tylenol produced by the Co
«Johnson & Johnson». Tests were quickly carried out thet the cyanide was presented in
the capsules. On October 2, police and the media warned all residents of Chicago not to
use these capsules. After it a nationwide recall of Tylenol products was issued on October
5, 1982 in USA.

The police mounted an inquiry and after several days another 40 packages of
poisoned ones were found in Chicago.

The police found out that the company was not responsible for poisonings,
because the murders took place only in one area, while the company worked for the
whole country, which means that the killer is in the city.

The police also realized that the criminal had bought bottles of medicine at various
supermarkets and drugs stores around the city, he added cyanide, and then returned and
put the poisoned bottles on the shelves.

During this period, the company suspended production of the capsules and
warned hospitals not to use them. Johnson & Johnson soon received a letter from an
unknown sender threatening to continue muders unless they paid him $1 million. The
sender of the letter was soon identified and arrested in December 1982 in New York City.

It was James Lewis, and he soon confessed to sending the letter. At the same time,
he pleaded not guilty for the seven deaths and he said that it was a libel. The police found
no evidence of Lewis' involvement in the murders. But the court sentenced him to 10
years in prison for blackmail. After his release, Lewis cooperated with the police and tried
to help them with investigation.

In January 2009, authorities renewed the investigation. Federal agents searched

the home of Lewis and seized a number of items. Because they wanted to make sure that
Lewis was in the clear. Using modern forensic technology they planned to learn
something new about the case. But the police found nothing.

There was another suspect here, Laurie Dann. She poisoned and killed several
people near Chicago. But the police found no evidence of her implication in this case.
 An FBI agent thought the killer might come to the victims' graves, as often
happens, so the grave of the first victim was kept under 24-hour video surveillance for
several months, but the killer never showed up.

During the investigation of this case, it involved about 100 detectives who explored
thousands of versions, questioned more than 400 suspects, and collected about 20,000
pages of reports, but this case has not been solved. But this crime has made many
companies to create new packages that cannot be easily opened and poisoned
undetected. Moreover, product tampering was made a federal crime.

After this a crime wave came on, copycats appeared who poisoned various
medicines. The criminals tampered with pain relievers and other drugs, as a result and
many people died.

And some brands had to stop production because it was impossible to find out
how many packages had been poisoned.The 1982 incident inspired the pharmaceutical,
food, and consumer product industries to develop tamper-resistant packaging.

At the same time(1982), Valery Nekhaev was convicted of murders with poison in
USSR. Valery was working in a theater and one day his colleague dropped a set on him
and didn't apologize. Valery got angry and he decided to get back at him. He poisoned
the champagne and gave it to this colleague. And the colleague brought this champagne
to his friends, who were poisoned. Soon three people died who drank the wine sent from
Valery. The police arrested him and he was sentenced to death by firing squad.