POTASIUM CYANIDE
Potasium Cyanide
According to information from the Rush-Presbyterian-St Lukes Medical Center Poison Control Center, the first symptoms of cyanide poisoning are nausea, vomiting, headache and dizziness, which occur within minutes after the chemical has been consumed. Death can occur within a few minutes if a large enough dose has been consumed.
Other telltale symptoms of cyanide poisoning include flushing of the skin, an almond odor on the breath, a rise in blood pressure with a slowing of the heart rate followed by an increase in the heart rate and a lowering of the blood pressure, cherry red color of the mouth and lips and a burning sensation of the mouth and throat.
In cases of severe poisoning in humans, seizures, coma and death may follow. Death occurs as a result of the collapse of the cardio-respiratory system.
AP News - Monday, October 4, 1982
Fahner said authorities confirmed that the poison was potassium cyanide, white crystals that are used for metal extraction, electroplating, heat-treating steel and other chemkal purposes. Fahner said the poison was commercially available. "It's commercially available. It's a kind of cyanide that people have in high school or college chemistry labs or in metal finishing plants."
Dr. John Spikes, chief toxicologist for the Illinois Public Health Department, said cyanide is also used in some photographic and plastics processes.
"If you work in one of those factories (that use cyanide), you have tons of it available to you," he said.
While most industries and universities purchase cyanide from chemical supply houses, those outlets usually deal only with purchasing departments and probably would become suspicious if an individual tried to purchase a quantity of the chemical, said Norman Nachtrieb and Edward Anders, professors of chemistry at the University of Chicago.
In September 1981, Robert Miles gave CSA leader James Ellison a large drum of cyanide (about 200 pounds).
Six years later Ellison testified for the government at the Fort Smith, Arkansas sedition trial of 10 leading far-right figures that in 1981 Miles and Aryan Nation leader Richard Butler discussed using cyanide to pollute the water supplies of several large cities to show that the government was powerless, and to cause revolution among the people. Ellison testified that "Mr. Miles said it would kill a lot of people, and the ones it would kill wouldn't really matter. It would be a good cleansing."
Empty Tylenol Capsules and White Powder Found in Howard Johnson Parking Lot
Kane County Sheriffs Police said they found several hundred Extra Strength Tylenol capsules in a parking lot near a motel on Interstate 90 just outside Elgin at 2:32 a.m. Tuesday. The deputies found 24 bottles, 2 boxes and hundreds of loose pills were scattered on the ground, Detective Thomas Atchlson said.
At the time, police thought the capsules were broken open and the Tylenol removed to be used to cut illegal drugs. Atchison said. Two days later, after the cyanide deaths were reported, police returned to the scene, but the boxes were gone. However, they found capsules and sent samples to the state crime lab. Test results and batch numbers are not available, Atchlson said.
The motel parking lot is about 15 miles north of Winfield, where Mary Reiner, one of the victims, purchased her cyanide-laced medication. Extra-Strength Tylenol was not linked to the cyanide deaths until Thursday, two days after the find, so the deputies had no reason to keep the capsules. But "one or two" capsules and some powder were recovered and arc being tested, Fahner said
"It was evident they were tampered with," said Deputy Sheriff Martin Cole. "Some of the capsules were empty. They had no powder in them. They [the officers who found the-Tylenol] assumed from that there evidently was something going on with drugs."
Cole said the officers who found the-bottles experienced dizziness, nausea and vomiting minutes after handling the capsules and the powder. Dr. Barry Rumack, of the Rocky Mountain Poison Control Center in Denver, said the symptoms could have been caused by a "sub-lethal" cyanide-dose.
It was initially reported that the deputies saw 24 bottles in the parking lot, but later articles state "there were no bottles to be seen."
The parking lot was littered with two boxes, about four inches by four inches by six inches, and hundreds of capsules strewn on the pavement. There were no bottles to be seen. In between the boxes and capsule parts, which were labeled with the 500 milligram Extra Strength Tylenol dosage, was "a big pile of powder that looked as if it was dumped," Chavez would say later.
The boxes "said Tylenol on them and one of them was open," said Chavez. "I picked up the powder. It looked like hundreds of capsules had been emptied. We looked at them and found a couple of capsules had been put together.''
Cyanide at J&J subsidiary, McNeil Consumer Products
Officials at McNeil insisted that the poisoning had not occurred at either of its plants. "Our quality control is very rigid," said a Johnson & Johnson spokesman. Most health and law-enforcement authorities agreed.
John Sutter, director of quality control at the McNeil facility, said in an interview Friday, October, 1, 1982 that 67 people in his department entered and left the laboratories at will. He said that other employees did the same if they wished but that non-employees would not be allowed in without company permission.
Sutton said each of three quality control laboratories had three bottles of cyanide with 100 grams in each bottle. He said the laboratories, each in a different wing of the vast plant, were unlocked and accessible to the 1,000 employees. Until a few days ago, said Sutton, the cyanide was equally accessible.
Roger Arnold Purchased Cyanide in Racine, WI
On Monday evening, October 11, Chicago police detectives brought in Roger Arnold, a 48-year-old dockhand and amateur chemist, for questioning after police received a tip that he was "known to have cyanide in his house."
For the previous 13 years Arnold had worked on the loading dock of the Jewel Foods warehouse in suburban Melrose Park.
During questioning, Arnold admitted that "some months ago" he had cyanide for unspecified "projects," but he said he had discarded it sometime in August. Police said that Arnold had purchased the cyanide in Racine, WI. With Arnold's permission the detectives searched his home.
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.
After questioning Arnold at the police station on Monday, detectives searched his home (on Chicago's south side) a second time. 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.
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, and a survivalism manual titled "The Poor Man's James Bond," written by survivalist Kurt Saxon, which included information on how to poison a person by putting cyanide into capsules.
Arnold told reporters, "I'm not saying what the chemicals were used for, but it was nothing illegal." He said he was a "closet chemist," and he had "a knowledge" of chemicals and compounds.
Arnold's attorney, Thomas Royce described Arnold as a "soldier of fortune type of guy."
Arnold had purchased two one-way tickets to Thailand in late September and planned to leave the country Friday. Arnold claimed he goes to Thailand every year at this time, but his lawyer said he had never been to the country.
Items confiscated during search of Roger Arnold's home
