COVER-UP 2009 - Covering up the Cover up

On February 4, 2009, the FBI reactivated the 1982 Tylenol murders investigation. A few days later officials in Yonkers, NY tagged along, stating they'd reactivated the 1986 Tylenol murder investigation.

The Daily Herald - Feb. 4, 2009: On Wednesday, FBI agents searched the Cambridge, Mass., home of former accountant and convicted extortionist James W. Lewis, who authorities have long considered a prime suspect in the slayings. It marked the first recent movement in the stone-cold case that triggered a nationwide panic and prompted police officers and firefighters to drive through suburban towns using bullhorns to warn residents against taking Tylenol.

The terse statement the FBI released Wednesday mentioned no charges or arrests but said "recent advances in forensic technology" led to re-examination of evidence in the case. Tips to authorities after news coverage of the crime's 25th anniversary in 2007 also prompted the FBI and Illinois State Police to launch a "complete review" of the case, the FBI statement said.

"We owe it to the victims' families to bring modern technology and current cold-case homicide investigation techniques to this case in the hopes of solving it once and for all," FBI spokesman Tom Simon said. - Chicago Tribune

TIMELINE: THE 2009 REACTIVATED COVER UP

January through March 2008: I posted several articles on a now defunct blog that exposed false statements made by J&J, FDA, FBI and Tylenol task force officials regarding critical evidence in the 1982 and 1986 Tylenol murders. The posts were viewed by J&J employees on J&J servers and by government employees on servers of numerous government agencies.

My "Tylenol murders" posts debunked the theory put forth by J&J executives and government officials who claimed the poisoned Tylenol capsules had been adulterated after the Tylenol bottles were placed on the shelves of Chicago-area stores.

After reviewing all available information and evidence relevant to the Tylenol tamperings, I concluded that the cyanide laced Tylenol capsules had been adulterated during distribution while under the control of Johnson & Johnson or Jewel Companies, and before the Tylenol bottles were delivered to the local retail stores.

June 13, 2008: I sent an email to Johnson & Johnson requesting contact information for the FBI agent/office in charge of the never closed 1982 and 1986 Tylenol murders investigations so I could forward information that might lead to the arrest and conviction of persons responsible for the murders.

June 16, 2008: Roger Arnold, a prime suspect in the 1982 Tylenol murders, died. No conspiracy theory here; Arnold was 73 years old. Nevertheless, Arnold's death was a convenient event for those individuals who want to keep the true modus operandi of the Tylenol killer suppressed. Arnold's death also allowed officials to reactivate the investigation without having to worry about meddling reporters asking Arnold questions that officials don't want asked. 

June 18, 2008: I received the following canned reply from J&J to my June 13 email. J&J failed to provide contact information for the FBI office currently charged with handling the Tylenol murders investigation.

Thank you for contacting Johnson & Johnson.  It is always important to hear from our customers and we appreciate the time you have taken to contact us. We have forwarded your message to the appropriate Department.  They will contact you directly if interested.

 

Again, thank you for your interest in Johnson & Johnson.   012875636A

Thank you for reaching out to us with this information.  As you may know, this case has never been resolved, and since it is not a closed case, we suggest you contact the law enforcement agency that has been involved with this investigation over the years directly.  You can call the Newark Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation at ###-###-####.

 

Also, with your permission, we will forward your contact information and e-mail directly to the agency and ask that they contact you for further information.

QUESTION: How long does it take to put together enough information, in a 26 year old cold case, to get a judge to approve a search-warrant so a search could be conducted that, as it turned out, would produce no evidence relevant to the Tylenol murders?

information relating to national defense,

related solely to internal personnel rules and practices,

related to accusing a person of a crime,

related to information where disclosure would constitute a breach of privacy,

related to investigatory records where the information would harm the proceedings,

related to information which would lead to financial speculation or endanger the stability of any financial institution, and

related to the agency's participation in legal proceedings.

“I will also hold myself as President to a new standard of openness. Let me say it as simply as I can: Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.”

Government should be transparent.  Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing.  Information maintained by the Federal Government is a national asset. My Administration will take appropriate action, consistent with law and policy, to disclose information rapidly in forms that the public can readily find and use.

 

I direct the Chief Technology Officer, in coordination with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Administrator of General Services, to coordinate the development by appropriate executive departments and agencies, within 120 days, of recommendations for an Open Government Directive, to be issued by the Director of OMB, that instructs executive departments and agencies to take specific actions implementing the principles set forth in this memorandum. The independent agencies should comply with the Open Government Directive.

By BRIAN ROSS
February 4, 2009

Michelle Rosen was 8 years-old when she watched her mother die a painful death in 1982 from swallowing a Tylenol capsule laced with cyanide. Today, she says she is relieved the FBI has new leads in the case.

"The idea that someone would preplan this, have all the time to come up with the idea, go through this, and not have an idea what lives they're destroying when they've chosen to sit back and watch it," Rosen now 35 and a mother herself, told ABC News in an exclusive interview. "That to me is the most disgusting thing that anybody could do."

Click here to watch the interview.

The unsolved case has haunted Rosen ever since, as she spent years wondering whether the person who killed her mom could be someone's neighbor or the grocery bagger at the local store. She vividly remembers her mom convulsing after taking the pain medication and then being wheeled out their front door of their home on a gurney.

"It's probably not the sight that anyone wants to think about or remember," she said.

Now, she and her children do not consume over-the-counter and prescription drugs, and the fear has been passed down to another generation.

"Everything seems to be a possible tampering product to me and my child," Rosen said, then adding, "My son is always thinking people like to poison other people."

ABC News selects quotes that may lead the public to view Rosen as paranoid.

New Leads in the Case: Tylenol Man

The FBI says it has "new leads" in the 1982 unsolved murders of the seven people who swallowed Tylenol capsules that had been adulterated with cyanide, which have led them back to a man who was in the middle of the case but dismissed as a suspect in the killings. And now sources familiar with the original case are speaking to ABC News.

Actually the FBI produced no new evidence or leads.

On Wednesday, officials raided the Cambridge, Mass., home of James Lewis, 62, who spent 12 years in prison for sending $1 million extortion letters to Johnson and Johnson, the makers of Tylenol, as well as a nearby storage facility. Agents left late in the evening with boxes of evidence and a large Apple desktop monitor.

Rosen told ABC News that her relatives have been told by the FBI there is new scientific evidence linking Lewis to the crime, thanks to advanced scientific testing now possible.

"There were a lot of people who believed what was available in terms of evidence pointed towards him," former Johnson and Johnson Senior Executive Wayne Nelson told ABC News. "But that was the extent, it wasn't enough to convict or even prosecute."

On first read, because Nelson's name is placed at the end of his quote, it appears that Nelson's statement was made by Rosen. The placement of Nelson's statement directly below Rosen's gives the immpression that Rosen agrees with Nelson that Lewis is the prime suspect. Michelle Rosen has made no such allegation. In fact, in numerous interviews, Rosen has indicated that the FBI's "evidence" does not point to Lewis as a legitimate suspect.

 

In the above quote, Rosen merely repeats a statement made by the FBI regarding "new evidence". She offers no opinion on the merit of the evidence. But the manner in which ABC incorporates the quote in this article makes it appear that Rosen believes the FBI has evidence linking Lewis to the crime. That is not accurate.

Lewis, dubbed the "Tylenol Man," admitted writing the extortion letters at the time but has always denied poisoning the capsules. He has since maintained his innocence on his website and on a local cable access program. He was released from prison in 1995 and moved to Boston.

FBI Agent Explains Why Lewis Wasn't Charged

"He was dismissed as a suspect because it was felt the cyanide, since it eats through the capsule, would have had to have been put in close to the time they were purchased, and the FBI could not put him in Chicago at the time," former FBI Agent Brad Garrett, now an ABC News consultant, said.

The FBI could not "put him (Lewis) in Chicago at the time" of the murders because Lewis was nowhere near Chicago at the time of the murders.

Lewis has maintained that he could not have committed the crime because he was in New York at the time.

But Nelson told ABC News that, based on an analysis* of the stores where the tainted Tylenol was purchased, many close to the case believed** that whoever dropped the drugs off had flown into Chicago, rented a car, gone and distributed the pills, and then flown back out of O'Hare airport.

* What Analysis? There was no "anaysis of the stores" that provided any information that would lead to the hypothesis that the killer "had flown into Chicago, rented a car, gone and distributed the pills, and then flown back out of O'Hare airport." The idea that such an analysis is even feasible is ludicrous.

 

** Who believed?  No one "close to the case" ever claimed to believe this hypothesis. In fact, this exact scenario was quickly dismissed in 1982. Nelson ignores the the facts and preponderance of physical evidence that contradict his bogus theory.

 

From the October 21, 1982 New York Times: Kenneth Walton, deputy assistant director of the bureau's New York office, said that the suspects, James W. Lewis and his wife, Leann, stayed at the Hotel Rutledge, 161 Lexington Avenue at 31st Street, from Sept. 6 until last week (Oct. 17). Mr. Lewis, he said, was seen last Thursday (Oct. 15), and Mrs. Lewis was seen last Saturday (Oct. 17) when she turned in her room key.

 

''We don't think they were traveling back and forth during the period of time they were known to be in New York,'' James T. Sullivan, the New York City Chief of Detectives, said. "Mr. Lewis usually met his wife each day after she finished work as a bookkeeper at a midtown real estate office and walked home with her."

A drug store surveillance photo captured an image of a bearded man who some said resembled Lewis.

It was proven with absolute certainty in 1982 that the image was not James Lewis. Why does ABC News bring this information up now, when they know Lewis is not the man captured in the security camera picture?

 

It appears that ABC published this story to support Nelson's bogus modus operandi hypothesis and to finger Lewis as the "Tylenol man." Pertinent facts were excluded from the story while irrelevant and misleading information was included that may lead readers to incorrectly conclude that Lewis is a legitimate suspect.

The case caused a national panic and led to drastic changes in the way over the counter medicine is sold in this country, introducing "tamper-proof" packaging.

On a website, Lewis has posted an audio message which claims he has been misunderstood. "Many enjoy twisting and contorting what I say into something ominous and dreadful which I do not intend. That, my friends, is the curse of being labeled the Tylenol Man," he said.

In a statement released Wednesday, the FBI said the recent 25th anniversary of the crime prompted "many" new tips in the case.

"All of these tips have been or will be thoroughly investigated in an effort to solve this crime and bring some measure of closure to the families of the victims," the statement read. FBI officials said no arrests are imminent and characterized Wednesday's raid of Lewis' home as part of "an ongoing criminal investigation."

Decades Later, the Tylenol Murders Remain Unsolved

To date no one has been charged in the murders of the seven people who were killed in the Chicago area after swallowing the tampered capsules.

The poisonings all occurred in the Chicago within weeks of each other in the fall of 1982. Investigators at the time believed that the perpetrator had taken Tylenol packages from local supermarkets and drug stores, adulterated the contents, and later returned the Tylenol the store shelves.

Now, the new leads are sparking hope that the case will finally be solved.

"I hope they have new solid evidence because the person that did this should really be penalized," said Nelson. "He took a number of lives and, to date, has gotten away with it."

He's gotten away with it because people like Nelson continue to wage a successful campaign of misinformation.

Avni Patel and Megan Chuchmach contributed to this report.

Related Articles Previously Posted on my NEWS Page

THE REACTIVATED TYLENOL MURDERS COVER UP AND FRIENDS OF JOHNSON & JOHNSON

WHY IS J&J MORE INTERESTED IN WHAT I HAVE TO SAY THAN THE FBI?

On Friday, June 13, 2008, I sent an email to Johnson & Johnson.  I told them that I have information that may lead to the capture and convictions of the Tylenol killers.

After the Tylenol murders in 1982 and 1986, J&J offered a $100,00 reward to anyone who provides evidence that leads to the capture and conviction of the person or persons responsible for putting cyanide into the Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules.

On Wednesday, June 18, 2008, I received the following canned reply.

Thank you for contacting Johnson & Johnson.  It is always important to hear from our customers and we appreciate the time you have taken to contact us. We have forwarded your message to the appropriate Department.  They will contact you directly if interested.

Again, thank you for your interest in Johnson & Johnson. 0128736A.

After publishing two posts the previous two days with information about the Tylenol murders, that had never been made made public, I received 55 visits to my blog from at least half a dozen IP addresses at J&J headquarters in New Brunswick NJ.  Fourteen of the visits, shown below, lasted at least two hours.

Why is it that J&J is able to spend so much time on my web-site, but they can’t take a couple of minutes to give me contact information for the federal agent in charge of the never closed 1982 and 1986 Tylenol murder investigations?

Two hours after publishing the above post, I received the following email from Johnson & Johnson:

 “Thank you for reaching out to us with this information.  As you may know, this case has never been resolved, and since it is not a closed case, we suggest you contact the law enforcement agency that has been involved with this investigation over the years directly.  You can call the Newark Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation at ###-###-####.   Also, with your permission, we will forward your contact information and e-mail directly to the agency and ask that they contact you for further information.”

The reply came from an anonymous media relations email address; I guess no J&J employee wants to be associated with J&J’s abysmal handling of the Tylenol tampering. ...Or, maybe nobody at J&J wants to be associated with me.

FAST FORWARD TEN MONTHS, TO NOW

So, I'm left to wonder why Johnson & Johnson spent so much time on my website after I'd exposed a bit of information that appears to have made some folks at J&J corporate very nervous, but the FBI has shown no interest whatsoever in the indisputable facts, documented on my website, which reveal that the Tylenol murders investigation was not about solving seven murders and bringing the killers to justice. The Tylenol murders investigation was about suppressing information and selling more Tylenol.

Bravo James Burke!!! Job well done.

WHAT IS WAYNE NELSON'S INTEREST IN THE REOPENED TYLENOL MURDERS INVESTIGATION?

"All we can tell you is that it's a deliberate attempt to sabotage the product. I am indicating this is a clear example of indiscriminate murder."

"There were a lot of people who believed what was available in terms of evidence pointed towards him (James Lewis)," former Johnson and Johnson Senior Executive Wayne Nelson told ABC News. "But that was the extent, it wasn't enough to convict or even prosecute."

NAME                             AGE                          POSITION
----                             ---                          --------
Wayne K. Nelson(1).............  60     Chairman of the Board of Directors
Thomas A. Moore(2).............  48     President, Chief Executive Officer and Director
Peter Law-Gisiko...............  44     Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer,
                                          Secretary and Treasurer
Fred H. Kellogg................  53     Vice Chairman
Peter J. Scarperi..............  55     Vice Chairman
Dr. Joseph A. Romano...........  52     Vice Chairman
Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes,
  Jr.(3).......................  65     Vice Chairman/Medical Director and Director
William I. Bergman(2)(4).......  67     Director
Dr. Bernard Canavan(1)(5)......  63     Director
Dr. Kathleen M. Foley(1)(4)....  55     Director
George S. Frazza(1)............  65     Director
Lawrence C. Hoff(1)(4).........  70     Director
Barry MacTaggart(3)(4).........  67     Director
Dr. Herbert Pardes(2)(5).......  64     Director
Robert G. Pinco(2)(5)..........  55     Director
Thomas O. Pyle(3)(5)...........  59     Director
Kenneth Roman(3)(5)............  68     Director

FBI Searches For Clues In Tylenol Poisoning Case

Agents Seen At Two Locations Outside Boston That May Have Link To Murder Mystery

The FBI is searching locations outside Boston that may be linked to the deadly 1982 Tylenol tampering scare here in Chicago.

CBS 2 Investigator Pam Zekman reports that federal agents have searched the Boston area home of James Lewis - a man linked to the deaths of seven people in the Chicago area. All died after taking Tylenol tainted with cyanide. Lewis was convicted of extortion in the case. But no one was ever charged with the murders.

"The FBI, in cooperation with the Illinois State Police and several local police departments, are conducting a complete review of all evidence developed in connection with the 1982 Tylenol murders," the FBI said in a statement.

"This review was prompted, in part, by the recent 25th anniversary of this crime and the resulting publicity."

All day long FBI agents armed with a search warrant were at the apartment complex in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They carried in boxes and plastic bags presumably to stash evidence seized.

It's where James Lewis reportedly lives with his wife Leann. Lewis is the only identified suspect in the 26-year-old Tylenol case still under investigation by a task force of suburban and Illinois state police.

Cars with Illinois license plates were also spotted at the scene.

CBS 2 has learned Wednesday night that the raid on the Lewis apartment was carried out by a new Tylenol murders task force that was formed secretly last fall.

The investigators are from the FBI, and Chicago and suburban police. Their aim: to finally solve the mystery using technology that was not available before, and some new tips.

He talked with CBS 2's Mike Parker the day he was paroled from an Oklahoma prison in 1995.

Parker: "Did you commit the Tylenol murders?"

Lewis: "No, I did not. It's a stupid question that I've had to answer many times. The answer is emphatically no."

And in recent interview on a Cambridge community television station, Lewis denied it again.

"I was in New York at the time, it's impossible," Lewis said.

Now it appears, detectives will be asking Lewis that question again as the Cambridge, Massachusetts apartment he shares with his wife Leeann is being searched for new evidence. His neighbors say they were aware of his identity.

"He probably seems perfectly nice and normal, but everybody knows who he is," a neighbor said.

Lewis is the man who injected himself into the scare that gripped Chicago in 1982 and took seven lives - three from one family.

"Cyanide-contaminated Tylenol has been responsible for three deaths in the Arlington Heights area," a police officer on the case said in 1982. 'Do not take Tylenol until further notice."

Lewis was never charged with murders. Seven people from the Chicago area died from cyanide-laced Tylenol in 1982.

He did serve more than 12 years in prison for extortion, for writing a letter to the makers of Tylenol demanding $1 million to stop the killings.

"I have been the officially designated evil one by the justice department," Lewis said in a 1984 interview. "When one gains that status, if there is such a thing as status, it's a horrible status to have."

Neighbors in Cambridge told Boston reporters that Lewis's Tylenol history was widely known. Indeed, Lewis's Web site includes a Tylenol portion and a statement in which he describes "the curse of being labeled [sic] the Tylenol man."

Addressing his statement to those who "want to hear me yammer,'' Lewis writes. "Somehow, after a quarter of a century, I surmise only a select few with critical minds will believe anything I have to say.

"Many people look for hidden agendas, for secret double entendre, and ignore the literal meanings I convey. Many enjoy twisting and contorting what I say into something ominous and dreadful which I do not intend. That my friends is the curse of being labeled the Tylenol Man.

"Be that as it may, I can NOT change human proclivities. I shant try. Listen as you like."

When he was released in 1995, he remained the top suspect for local investigators.

"From our point of view, he was the prime suspect, he remained the prime suspect, and he is still the prime suspect," Thomas Schumpp, retired supervisor of the Illinois Division of Criminal Investigation said at the time. "Everybody who worked on this case feels the same."

In 1978, Lewis was charged with the murder of Raymond West, an elderly former client of Lewis' accounting business. West's body had been dismembered, stuffed in a plastic bag and hoisted to an attic ceiling in West's home.

Charges were dismissed after a judge ruled that Lewis' arrest and a search of his home had been improperly conducted.

In recent years, Lewis, who moved to Massachusetts after getting out of prison, ran a data processing business called Cyberlewis out of his home, according to public records.

In its statement, the FBI said that because of the many advances in forensic technology, it was only natural that a second look be taken at the case and recovered evidence.

A firefighter who responded to the death of the first victim, is thinking about the case tonight.

"Whoever it is, if somehow they catch the person responsible for that, I think it would be fantastic," said retired paramedic Chuck Kramer. "I saw the results up close of part of what he's done and it was a very tragic time."

The tainted Tylenol deaths triggered a national scare that prompted dramatic changes in the way almost all food and medical products are packaged.

No one has ever been convicted in the case, and no one was ever charged with the deaths.

It is no surprise that detectives are again focusing on James Lewis. All those years ago, more than a few investigators said they were convinced that Lewis was guilty not just of extortion, but of the murders themselves. They were frustrated, they said then, that they couldn't prove it in court.

Obviously, they are trying again - more than two decades later.

CBS 2 Investigator Pam Zekman, Mike Parker, the Associated Press and STNG Wire contributed to this report.

 

 

FBI Reviews Evidence in Tylenol Deaths

FBI Searches Apartment of James W. Lewis

Twenty-seven years ago, seven people were poisoned in the Chicago area when they took Extra-Strength Tylenol that had been tampered with and loaded with cyanide. Despite a nationwide investigation, no one was ever arrested for the crime. Now a possible break. Investigative reporter Larry Yellen has exclusive details.

 

Federal agents on Wednesday searched the home of a man linked to the fatal 1982 Tylenol poisonings in the Chicago area that triggered a nationwide scare and prompted dramatic changes in the way food and medical products are packaged. No one was ever charged with the deaths of seven people who took the cyanide-laced drugs. The FBI would not immediately confirm that the search at the home of James W. Lewis was related to the Tylenol case, only that it was part of an ongoing investigation.

Lewis served more than 12 years in prison for sending an extortion note to Johnson & Johnson demanding $1 million to "stop the killing." He was arrested in December 1982 at a New York City library after a nationwide manhunt. At the time, he gave investigators a detailed account of how the killer might have operated and described how someone could buy medicine, use a special method to add cyanide to the capsules and return them to store shelves.

Lewis later admitted sending the letter and demanding the money, but said he never intended to collect it. He said he wanted to embarrass his wife's former employer by having the money sent to the employer's bank account. In a 1992 interview with The Associated Press, Lewis explained that the account he gave authorities was simply his way of explaining the killer's actions.

"I was doing like I would have done for a corporate client, making a list of possible scenarios," said Lewis, who maintained his innocence. Lewis called the killer "a heinous, cold-blooded killer, a cruel monster." He also served two years of a 10-year sentence for tax fraud.

Lewis moved to the Boston area after getting out of prison in 1995 and is listed as a partner in a Web design and programming company called Cyberlewis. On its Web site, which lists the location searched Wednesday as the company's address, there is a tab labeled "Tylenol" with a written message and audio link in which a voice refers to himself as "Tylenol Man." "Somehow, after a quarter of a century, I surmise only a select few with critical minds will believe anythng I have to say," the message says. "Many people look for hidden agendas, for secret double entendre, and ignore the literal meanings I convey. Many enjoy twisting and contorting what I say into something ominous and dreadful which I do not intend.

"That my friends is the curse of being labelled the Tylenol Man. Be that as it may, I can NOT change human proclivities. I shant try. Listen as you like."

Messages left at phone numbers listed to Lewis's wife, Leanne, and the company were not immediately returned.

On Wednesday, two FBI agents sat parked across the street from the apartment building at a shopping center. One agent was seen periodically entering and leaving the building -- a beige, six-story structure. At least two other vehicles with Illinois license plates were at the scene.

 
In Chicago, FBI spokesman Ross Rice declined to comment but said "we'll have something to release later possibly." A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, Randall Samborn, referred questions to Rice.

Illinois State Police, which were involved with the initial investigation and part of a task force on the killings, declined to comment, referring calls to the FBI office in Chicago.

The Illinois attorney general's office and Chicago police could not immediately confirm any details about the investigation, but spokeswomen said they were looking into the matter.

Following the Tylenol scare, Johnson & Johnson had its sales force remove 264,000 Tylenol bottles from Chicago-area stores, and consumers were urged to exchange any Tylenol they had for a safe bottle.

Johnson & Johnson introduced some of the industry's toughest tamper-resistant packaging. Bottles of the pain reliever were triple-sealed and warnings against taking capsules from damaged packages prominently displayed. The company also sealed the bottle caps to the neck with a tight, plastic band and stretched a tough foil membrane over the bottle's mouth.

The case has surfaced periodically over the years, primarily in stories marking the anniversary of the killings.

In 2007, 25 years after the deaths, survivors of the victims said they remained haunted by what happened and frustrated that nobody was convicted.

"I will never get past this because this guy is out there, living his life, however miserable it might be," said Michelle Rosen, who was 8 when her mother, Mary Reiner, collapsed in front of her after taking Tylenol for post-labor pains.

 

 

 

 

Law enforcement to review Tylenol murders 

 

(CNN) -- The FBI announced Wednesday that it is working with Illinois state and local police to review evidence related to the 1982 Tylenol murders.

James W. Lewis served time for sending a $1 million extortion note to Johnson & Johnson.

 

"This review was prompted, in part, by the recent 25th anniversary of this crime and the resulting publicity," the FBI said in a written statement.

 

"Further, given the many recent advances in forensic technology, it was only natural that a second look be taken at the case and recovered evidence."

 

The anniversary coincided with a number of tips to law enforcement agencies related to the crimes, the FBI said.

 

Agents on Wednesday searched the Cambridge, Massachusetts, house of James W. Lewis, who was convicted of sending an extortion note to Johnson & Johnson but denied having anything to do with the poisonings.

 

Lewis's wife LeAnn is listed as administrator of a Web design company called Cyberlewis.com. Its Web site lists the company's address as the same address that authorities searched Wednesday.

 

On its Web site is posted a note that says, in part, " ... I was villified (sic) globally as the Tylenol Man, accused of being the mass murderer who spiked Tylenol with cyanide in Chicago back in 1982, killing seven. Those grotesque accusations obviously were false, otherwise I could not be writing these words. After 25 years, the Tylenol murders remain unsolved. I have lived a long, bizarre life and I have seen a lot, yet I am literate and lucid enough to view and describe, compare and contrast hugely diverse worlds, cultures and topics, without a moment of boredom, all with an eye to professionalism, demographics and marketability plus ears and heart sensitive to good taste and victims' feelings."

A call to LeAnne Lewis' telephone number was not immediately returned.

 

FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz said two searches in Cambridge were under way "related to an ongoing investigation."

She would not say whether they were related to the Tylenol case.

 

Criminal charges have not been filed in the seven Chicago-area killings, which occurred after Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules were laced with potassium cyanide.

 

The killings led to changes in packaging of over-the-counter drugs.

 

Johnson & Johnson, parent of the drug maker, McNeil, was widely credited for its aggressiveness in recalling the product and its openness in dealing with the killings, and the product quickly bounced back in sales. It remains a popular analgesic.

 

"Johnson & Johnson cannot comment on the status of any ongoing investigation into the murders of 1982," said company spokesman Jeff Leebaw.

 

 

 

 

Officials Hopeful Of Break In Tylenol Case

Cambridge Apartment Of Extortionist Searched

POSTED: 11:33 am EST February 5, 2009
UPDATED: 12:27 pm EST February 5, 2009

 

BOSTON -- A Chicago area police department commander is hopeful that officials may have a break in the case of the 1982 Tylenol poisonings that claimed the lives of seven people when they consumed capsules laced with cyanide.

 

Video | Images | Survey

 

Arlington Heights Police Commander Kenneth Galinski said an officer from the department was in Boston on Wednesday when Cambridge officials searched the home of a man convicted of extortion in connection with the case.

 

FBI spokesman Tom Simon said the search was related to authorities' decision to review the poisonings case.

 

The killings happened in the Chicago area and involved Extra-Strength Tylenol medicine capsules that were laced with poison. The perpetrator was never caught, but James Lewis was charged with extortion in connection with the case.

 

Lewis, who claimed he was involved in the case, sent a letter to Johnson & Johnson demanding $1 million to stop the killings. Officials later determined that he had nothing to do with the crimes, but he was convicted of extortion and served 12 years of a 20-year sentence.

 

The FBI searched Lewis' Gore Street apartment on Wednesday, but released little information about what, if anything, was found. No one was taken into custody.

Lewis moved to Massachusetts after being released from prison in 1995. In 2004, he was charged with rape and kidnapping, but the charges were dismissed after the alleged victim refused to testify, according to the office of Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone.

 

FBI officials launched a "complete review of all evidence developed in connection with the 1982 Tylenol murders." In a statement, officials said the review, in part, was prompted by the "recent 25th anniversary of this crime and the resulting publicity."

 

The tainted pills were from bottles that came from different factories. At the time, the person was believed to have taken packages of Tylenol from grocery and drug stores in the Chicago area and added cyanide at another location before returning the pills to store shelves.

 

Mary Kellerman, 12, of Elk Grove Village, Ill., Adam Janus, 27, of Arlington Heights, Ill., Janus' 25-year-old brother, Stanley, and his wife, Theresa Janus, 19, Mary Reiner, 27, of Winfield, Ill., Paula Prince, 35, of Chicago and Mary McFarland, 35, of Elmhurst, Ill., died after ingesting the laced pills.

 

A nationwide recall of Tylenol products was issued in October 1982, and customers were urged not to consume any products that contained Tylenol.

 

The case led to the addition of tamper-evident safety seals to medicine and other bottles.

 

Feds Convinced Lewis Was Tylenol Killer

FBI Revives Investigation Against Cambridge Man

BOSTON -- Federal authorities investigating a Cambridge man linked to deadly Tylenol poisonings in the 1980s were convinced that he was responsible for the crime, according to newly released court documents.

WATCH: Feds Convinced Lewis Was Tylenol Killer

NewsCenter 5’s Sean Kelly reported that the documents show Department of Justice investigators concluded suspect James Lewis, who now lives in Cambridge, was responsible for the poisonings, despite the fact that they did not have enough evidence to charge him.

Lewis was in prison for extortion when federal officials concluded he was the one who murdered seven people with cyanide-laced Tylenol. Lewis was convicted of trying to extort the company to make the killings stop, but he was never charged or tried for the deaths.

Lewis, 62, served 12 years in prison and now lives in Cambridge. NewsCenter 5 has tried repeatedly to reach Lewis in recent weeks without success. For years, he has steadfastly maintained that he did not cause the Tylenol deaths.

The unsolved murders gained new attention this month when federal agents searched Lewis's home. Lewis was not arrested during the search.

After the Feb. 4 search, the FBI said the agency has launched a "complete review of all evidence developed in connection with the 1982 Tylenol murders."

The newly released documents show that a commission studying the crime received new evidence in 1989 that implicated Lewis in the killings, including a letter sent to Tylenol’s maker demanding $1 million dollars to stop the killings, as well as diagrams showing how to load cyanide into the capsules.

"I believe that the evidence which was out there would lead a rational person to conclude that Lewis was, in fact, the murderer," said former Chicago U.S. attorney Anton Valukas.

While he was still in prison, a parole commission denied Lewis’ appeal for early release, based on the federal commission’s findings.

"They never gave us any evidence showing his link to the murders -- just the opposite,” said Mike Monico, Lewis’ trial lawyer. “From the evidence, it seemed like it was difficult for one person to have done this."

Other evidence sent to the parole commission included a copy of a letter Lewis sent to then President Ronald Reagan. He threatened to kill the president using a remote-control plane and murder more innocent people with cyanide-laced Tylenol, according to court documents.

As for the recent activity in the investigation, the FBI gave few details about its basis but cited forensic advances and tips spurred by the 25th anniversary of the poisonings.

The poisonings triggered a huge recall and eventually led to the widespread adoption of tamperproof packaging in food and medical products.

 FBI agents carry boxes out of an apartment building in Cambridge, Mass., in February after searching the apartment home of James W. Lewis, who was linked to the fatal 1982 Tylenol poisonings.

Suspect in poisonings expresses regrets, but not ones most hoped for

By Marc Levy

Published: January 11, 2010

James Lewis, suspected of a 1982 rash of deadly Tylenol poisonings, gave away little Sunday on “The Cambridge Rag” cable-access interview show, despite the unprecedented 48-minute run time and relentless questioning from host Roger Nicholson, callers and gathered media.

Ostensibly on to promote his novel “Poison! The Doctor’s Dilemma,” Lewis, 63, sat in a tiny Cambridge Community Television studio with Nicholson, blinds drawn and door closed, while three television crews gathered in the hall that was his only way out. And the first caller to the show was Russ Ptacek, an investigative reporter for NBC Action News in Kansas City, Mo.

When the show was over, Lewis raced to a car waiting behind the channel’s studios, followed by the pack of seven camera operators and reporters asking, “Why do they want your DNA?” and “Do you have anything to say to the victims’ families?” But he was largely silent as he climbed in and the car sped away to take him to his East Cambridge home.

Such questions were also asked during the call-in show, since Lewis has been called a prime suspect in the seven Chicago killings; law enforcement officials searched Lewis’ apartment and storage locker in February and took DNA evidence from him and his wife last week. Lewis served 13 years in prison, mainly relating to extortion charges from a letter claiming responsibility he sent to Johnson & Johnson, the makers of Tylenol. He said later the letter was written to frame someone else.

Persistent allegations

He has been charged with other crimes, including sending a threatening letter to President Ronald Reagan and the kidnap and rape of a woman in 2004. Ptacek was calling about the 1978 dismemberment of Raymond West, a client of Lewis’ tax preparation business. Ptacek’s sources say the victim was butchered, and that Lewis had been trained in butchery by the 4H; and that the victim was tied up using ropes and knots identical to those found in Lewis’ car. Lewis was accused of trying to cash a $5,000 check on the day the victim disappeared. It is unknown if the victim had been poisoned as well, but there has been a request for the body to be exhumed for toxicology tests.

“Your own attorney here says he doesn’t believe you killed Raymond West, but that he does believe, his theory is, you dismembered his body to cash a $5,000 check,” Ptacek said. “I’ve been trying to reach you for months about this case.”

Nicholson eventually hung up on Ptacek.

After saying he “never was” in 4H and claiming innocence in West’s death, Lewis steered the conversation back to his novel. It’s a fictionalized take on events he saw growing up amid poverty and lead mines in southern Missouri, he said, when several people drank contaminated well water, got sick and died. The hero, Dr. Charles Rivers, takes on a villain named Agua Naranja (“orange water” in Spanish, a term for a certain kind of water contaminated by industrial runoff) and the moral question of his own father’s involvement in the deaths.

But the interview kept going other directions.

“Why would you write a book called ‘Poison’ if you were thought to be the Tylenol poisoner?” Nicholson asked, later suggesting it might be the only thing that would draw people to read the book."

“That is not any concern of mine. This book has absolutely nothing to do with that,” Lewis said. “It’s an event that I’m aware of that happened when I was a child.

Doubts and regrets

Not everyone thinks Lewis is guilty of the Tylenol poisonings. Scott Bartz, a New Jersey resident and once a sales representative for Johnson & Johnson, has an extensive Web site called americanfraud.com that blasts “the Tylenol mafia” and police for a cover-up and bad investigation.

Noting that Lewis and his wife were in New York City before and during the poisonings, Bartz points to Chicago survivalist Roger Arnold as the likely killer. Arnold, who died in 2008, worked at a distribution center in 1982 and had access to the Tylenol, admitted to having cyanide and manuals on poisons, made airplane reservations for Thailand for shortly after the deaths and had reportedly told a supervisor he was “mad at people and wanted to throw acid at them or poison them.”

The Daily Herald, an Illinois newspaper, reports being told the demand for the Lewises’ DNA results from a “smudge” left on a Tylenol bottle from the 1982 tampering. It “yielded no help then, but may be pertinent now that technology has advanced,” the paper said.

As media waited Sunday at CCTV, Lewis handled questions more or less stoically, sometimes looking baleful and sometimes with a glint in his eye as he jousted with Nicholson, who urged him to confess to the killings or at least address them head on — to help Nicholson’s career and because “it would be good for your reputation and your soul.” He asked if Lewis would consider him less a friend if he thought Lewis was guilty, and promised to write him in prison.

Lewis said he was not concerned about giving DNA evidence.

If Lewis thought he would do better finding callers who wanted to talk about “Poison! A Doctor’s Dilemma,” the one and a half years spent writing it or the next two novels he intends to write, he was generally disappointed.

“Hey, are you going to have a book signing anywhere?” one caller asked.

“We haven’t got everything planned yet, but there will be book signings eventually,” Lewis replied.

“Well, I’ve never had a killer sign my book before,” the caller said.

Lewis admitted regret for the letter that landed him in prison. “I was much younger then. It was something stupid and it had ramifications beyond anything that I ever thought of happening. I never dreamed it would get the publicity that it had, never dreamed it would have any kind of impact on victims. If I had, I would never have written it,” Lewis said.

But Lewis told a caller it would be wrong for him to contact the families of the Tylenol victims, even to apologize.

“I would like to communicate and say kind things to them and help them commiserate with the problems and miseries they’ve gone through. I know the loss of their family members has tortured them for their entire lives, but for me to directly contact them I think is entirely inappropriate,” he said.

He let out little about his day-to-day life, beyond saying he was poor. “I have very little to live on,” he said. “I have very little income, it’s very fixed, very limited."

“There’s probably a lot of things from my life I would change, but I’m not going into them here,” he said. “They’ve followed me around for 30 years … If I live to be 90, they’ll probably still be making up these silly stories.

Nicholson wrapped up the show, showing the book cover a final time and telling Lewis, “You’ve been a good sport.”

Lewis stayed in the booth for several minutes before emerging to face the media.