Arnold Questioned, Home Searched
Homicide Sgt. Monroe Vollick said that after questioning Arnold at the police station on Monday, detectives searched his home (on Chicago's south side) a second time on Tuesday. Arnold's automobile (parked under the El-train on Chicago's northside) and work locker (at Jewel Foods in Melrose Park) were also searched he said.
Items confiscated during search of Roger Arnold's home
Evidence confiscated included survivalist magazines, unconventional warfare manuals, chemistry and chemical agent manuals, chemicals, laboratory equipment, The Anarchist Cookbook, weapons, and ammunition.
The INCENDIARIES, BOOBYTRAPS, UNCONVENTIONAL WARFARE DEVICES & TECHNIQUES, and MILITARY CHEMISTRY AND CHEMICAL AGENTS manuals confiscated from Arnold's home were published in the mid 1960s by the United States Department of Defense for use by U.S. Army Special Forces. Much of the content in these manuals came straight from the "Poor Man's James Bond" (vol. 3), written by right-wing survivalist and former member of the Minutemen, Kurt Saxon (aka Donald Sisco).
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the U.S. Army's 113th Military Intelligence group, located in Evanston, IL, supplied the Legion of Justice with money, electronic surveillance equipment, tear-gas, MACE, training, and training materials.
Arnold used cyanide for unspecified projects
Police Area Commander Kenneth Curin and Lt. August Locallo said a "series of coincidences" surfaced when Arnold talked with investigators and they had no choice but to investigate further. During questioning, Arnold admitted that "some months ago" he had cyanide for unspecified "projects," but he said he'd discarded it sometime in August* (Arnold and his wife divorced in July). Police said that Arnold had purchased the cyanide in Racine, WI.
* The Tylenol found to have been laced with cyanide was shipped to the Jewel Foods distribution center in August. You'd think that investigators might have wanted to find out where the cyanide was supposedly discarded.
Attorney General Tyrone Fahner described Arnold's arrest as "another one of those (incidents) that are unrelated" to the killings.
Arnold was held without bond from Monday to Wednesday night while city detectives pursued what they said was circumstantial evidence that led them to consider him a possible suspect in the poisoning homicides, said Vollick.
Arnold's attorney, Thomas Royce, who described Arnold as a "soldier of fortune type of guy," told reporters that his client should either be charged with the murders or the police should back off.
While searching Arnold's home, Chicago Police turned up five unregistered guns, ammunition, chemicals, and two one-way tickets to Thailand. A stash of "Soldier of Fortune" magazines was also found in Arnold's apartment, along with "The Anarchist Cookbook," which contains recipes and instructions for making explosives, a survivalism manual titled "The Poor Man's James Bond" written by survivalist Kurt Saxon, and drug manuals that contained instructions for encapsulating cyanide.
Arnold told reporters, "I'm not saying what the chemicals were used for, but it was nothing illegal."
Arnold "said he was a closet chemist," and he had "a knowledge" of chemicals and compounds, Detecitve Gildea said. Arnold had purchased two one-way tickets to Thailand in late September and planned to leave the country Friday.
Arnold said he goes to Thailand every year at this time, but his lawyer said he had never been to the country.
Turns out that Thailand is a haven for expatriots on the run from the law.
Popular "Thai Coyote Bars" are frequented by bikers, businessmen, and expatriots from around the world.
Expatriots flee to Thailand, not only for the night life, but because it's home to some of the most beautiful beaches in the world....
...and many very beautiful and very available Thai women
Thailand Expatriot website
The press reported that Roger Arnold had agreed to "postpone" his trip to Thailand, but I suspect he didn't really have a choice.
Police also turned up a suspicious-looking plastic bag of white powder in Arnold's apartment. The powder was turned over to the Chicago Health Department laboratory Tuesday and test results were expected sometime today (Wednesday), Gildea said.
But on Wednesday, health department spokesman Reggie Jones said that the lab had received no such samples and police declined to say where the samples had been sent.
Why did Detective Gildea say that test results on the powder were expected "today," when the police hadn't even turned over any evidence to the lab?
And why, after so freely volunteering information about the powder and the lab tests, did police suddenly shut-up when their information proved false? Were they caught in a lie? Did somebody tell Gildea to shut-up?
On Thursday, October 14, Detective Marty Ryan said police arrested Arnold because of a tip that Arnold had two bottles of cyanide, but said none of the poison was found in the man's South Side home. "There was some white powder labeled potassium carbonate, and that's being tested, in the lab now," Ryan said.
Ryan said "it doesn't appear" the man is linked with the Tylenol poisonings.
Two days after police erroneously stated that the powder had been turned over to the Chicago Health Department, Detective Ryan was sent out to tell the press that the bag of white powder was labeled potassium carbonate. Why didn't Tyrone Fahner or any of the four detectives who talked to reporters on Tuesday mention that bit of information?
It was reported later that day that a lab test found the powder from Arnold's apartment to be a harmless carbonate. But police never confirmed or denied that the powder was tested at the Chicago Health Department lab. There's no proof that the powder had actually been tested, and nobody from any lab made public any information about the white powder found in Arnold's home.
Arnold is Charged and Released
Arnold was charged with 5-counts of unregistered firearms and one count of aggravated assault. Bond was set at $6,000 Wednesday night and Arnold was released after posting $600 cash bond. Arnold was not a "strong Tylenol suspect," Gildea said.
Detective Jerry Beam said the assault charge stemmed from a recent incident involving Arnold and a bartender at a local tavern. Beam said the bartender had provided police with the tip that led to Arnold's arrest, but declined to elaborate.
It was later revealed that the tip came from Tavern owner Marty Sinclair, who informed Chicago police that Arnold kept cyanide in his South Side Chicago home.
Upon leaving jail Arnold said, "They can say what they want, I am not a suspect."
"This is more circumstance than anything," Arnold said of his arrest. "It just happens that they blew it out of proportion."
"I was willing to take a polygraph but my lawyer advised against it," said Arnold. "I knew the family, unfortunately, but not the suspect" (the "suspect" Arnold referenced was, I assume, Mary Reiners' father).
NBC News reported on Monday, October 25, that Arnold's Attorney, Thomas Royce, met with Tyrone Fahner over the weekend. The network quoted an unidentified high-ranking investigator as saying Royce was "trying to make a deal for Arnold." NBC quoted Royce as saying he only met with Fahner to try to find out why investigators are interested in Arnold.
Arnold was never charged in the Tylenol murders.
Roger Arnold admitted to buying and using cyanide for unspecified projects, he worked at the Jewel Foods loading dock from where the poisoned Tylenol had been shipped, he kept 5 unlicensed guns in his home along with chemicals commonly used to make bombs, he owned bomb-making manuals and manuals that explained how to put cyanide into drug capsules for use as murder weapons, he'd recently assualted someone, and six months after the murders Arnold shot and killed a man he mistakenly thought had fingered him as a suspect. Yet Tyrone Fahner and his Tylenol task force insisted Arnold was not a suspect.
Instead, Fahner focused on James Lewis; a man for whom the Tylenol task force had not one iota of physical evidence. Lewis had been living in New York for three weeks when the Tylenol murders occurred and when two Lake county deputies found a pile of white powder, 24 Extra-Strength Tylenol bottles and hundreds of empty 500mg Extra-Strength Tylenol caspules in the Howard Johnson's parking lot in Elgin.
Roger Arnold Arrested for Murder
A man that Arnold beleived was bar owner Marty Sinclair was leaving a Lincoln Avenue bar after last call on the morning of June 18, 1983 when Arnold ran up to him and yelled, "You turned me in," shooting him dead at point-blank range. Sinclair had given police information that caused Arnold to be considered a suspect in the Tylenol murders.
Eight months earlier, when Arnold was brought in for questioning about the Tylenol murders and then arrested on five-counts of failing to register handguns and 1-count of assualt, Chicago Police Sergeant Monroe Vollick, a Tylenol task force member said:
"I consider him (Arnold) a goof. One of those macho types who is into guns and making poisons, but not the Tylenol murders."
"A goof?" Not capable of committing the Tylenol murders?
It seems to me that murder came pretty easy to Arnold.
Roger Arnold, center, with his attorney, right, and an unidentified
man, walks into police headquarters in Chicago Saturday to
surrender in the shooting death of a man Friday night.
It appears that when Arnold was arrrested and charged with possessing five unregistered firearms, he got to keep the guns. I wonder if he'd gotten around to registering the one he used in the murder?
As it turned out, Arnold killed the wrong man. Arnold shot and killed John Stanisha, a man he mistook for Marty Sinclair.
In January 1984 Arnold was convicted for the murder of Stanisha, and sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison. Prosecutors said Stanisha, 46, resembled Martin Sinclair, an informer who had told police that Arnold kept cyanide in his home.
Arnold served 15 years of his term, and was released in 1999. Arnold died on June 16, 2008.
ROGER R ARNOLD | 07/29/1934 | 06/16/2008 | CHICAGO | | COOK | 60632 | Illinois |
982 - 286
Roger Arnold leaving court after his appearance on gun charges
The NBC footage above was shot after Arnold's court appearance on October 25, 1982. What struck me as odd was that the number on his hand - 982 - can be read as the 9th month of 1982 - 9/82 - the month and year of the 1982 Tylenol murders. I don't know why that number was written on his hand, but after looking at the picture more closely I realized I was reading it upside down.
Since 982, when turned right-side up, is actually 286, it holds no relevance to the Tylenol murders; right?
Right... Except for this: The number 982, when turned right-side up, is actually 2/86; the month and year of the February 1986 Tylenol murder.
9/82 2/86
Roger Arnold did have one permenent mark on his skin.... a Skull and Bones tatoo on his right forearm. The enigmatic image of the skull and crossbones is deeply entrenched in the minds of millions around the world as the symbol of piracy, death and even poison.
Roger Arnold's home on South Hoyne Ave on the south side of Chicago was searched by Police
Apartment above store in Villa Park
Tylenol Murders Report by Illinois State Police investigator Richard Tetyk
Half a year after the shocking deaths of seven Chicago-area residents from cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules, Illinois State Police investigator Richard Tetyk wrote up his nine-page synopsis of the probe. Authorities had narrowed their search to three suspects, but the investigation essentially had stalled.
<snip>
A second suspect (Roger Arnold) worked at a Jewel warehouse in Melrose Park, where he reportedly told his supervisor he was "mad at people and wanted to throw acid at them or poison them,'' Tetyk wrote.
Researching:
cyanide recovered