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.
THE 1982 CYANIDE DECEPTION
Some Chicago area stores received shipments of Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules on Monday, September 27. That evening, employees at Jewel Foods and other stores filled their shelves with the Extra-Strength Tylenol they'd received earlier.
The cyanide laced Extra-Strength Tylenol responsible for the deaths of the first four victims came from Jewel Foods stores in Elk Grove Village and Arlington Heights.
When police inspected the victim's capsules on Wednesday September 29, less than 48 hours after they'd been purchased, they noticed some capsules were discolored; a result of the corrosive effect of cyanide.
By dawn on Thursday, 2 1/2 days after the cyanide-laced Tylenol had been placed on the store shelves; the chief toxicologist at the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office was at work examining the remaining capsules from the Tylenol bottles that were found at the Janus and Kellerman homes the previous day. “I could smell the cyanide as soon as I opened the containers,” said Michael Schaffer.
Schaeffer could see immediately that the capsules had begun to deteriorate; ten were slightly swollen and discolored.
Testing the Corrosiveness of the Cyanide
On September 30, Robert Stein and his staff took some of the cyanide used in the tampering, and put it into Tylenol capsules to determine how long it would take before the capsules would show signs of deterioration. "The test capsules showed no corrosion 36 hours after they were filled," Stein said.
Ten days after the test capsules had been filled with cyanide, Stein said that adulteration during distribution could not be ruled out.
Ten days after Steins' test capsules were filed with cyanide, they still showed no signs of corrosion (no deterioration).
If the victim's Tylenol capsules showed signs of deterioration 1 to 3 days after they'd been delivered to Jewel Foods stores, and if the capsules were poisoned after they'd been placed on the store shelves, how is it possible that 10 days after Dr. Stein put the same cyanide into new Tylenol capsules, the capsules showed no signs of deterioration?
The cyanide used to murder seven Chicago area victims was put into Tylenol capsules during distribution; BEFORE the Tylenol bottles were delivered to Chicago area stores.
Robert Stein said on Saturday, October 9, that tests indicate cyanide-loaded Tylenol capsules could have been doctored at their distribution point or at the plant where they were produced. While Stein emphasized he had no evidence on the origin of the cyanide-laced pills, he said the distribution and manufacturing points could not be ruled out, and criticized investigators for concentrating their search on a "madman," saying the killer strikes him as more of a "a rational evildoer."
Steins' tests showed that the cyanide used in the Tylenol murders would not have caused Tylenol capsules to degrade quickly, as Attorney General Tyrone Fahner, J&J executives, and FDA officials claimed. The final results of Steins' test were never released.
The Tylenol capsules could not have been contaminated after they'd been placed on the store shelves. The capsules had to have been adulterated during distribution or at J&J's distribution center. That's why Stein knew that "the distribution and manufacturing points could not be ruled out." That's why Stein believed the killer was not some "madman," but was "a rational evildoer."
Fahner sharply criticized Cook County Medical Examiner Dr. Robert Stein, who said earlier in the day (October 9) that he had completed tests indicating the capsules could have been adulterated at distribution points or at the plant where they were manufactured.
Why did Fahner criticize Stein?
It seems that Fahner criticized Stein's accurate assessment, because it didn't fit the approved theory, which required the public to believe that the Tylenol capsules were contaminated after they'd been placed on the retail store shelves. Fahner said he was relying on tests conducted by the FBI and Chicago police. Investigators said the capsules blamed for the poisonings came from two different factories. There is no indication the capsules "crossed at any time" during distribution, said Fahner.
First of all, the location where the bulk Tylenol was manufactured is irrelevant - the poisoned capsules were all packaged at the same location - secondly; the capsules did cross during distribution, and finally; why would Fahner rely on tests conducted by the FBI and Chicago Police? They didn't do any tests to determine how long it would take for cyanide to cause the capsules to deteriorate. Robert Stein did those tests. And Robert Stein believed the capsules were contaminated during distribution.
Tyrone Fahner ignored Steins' factual quantifiable evidence, becuase it didn't fit the approved theory. Attorney General Tyrone Fahner refused to base his investigation on factual information gathered from physical evidence.
Robert Stein's scientific test most certainly proved the Tylenol capsules couldn't have been laced with cyanide by some "madman" at the local retail stores; the cyanide laced Tylenol capsules weren't in the stores long enough to show signs of corrosion (the cyanide laced Tylenol capsules used in the 1986 Tylenol murder were proven to have very long shelf life; indefinite in fact).
Note: It's not actually the cyanide that is corrosive, but rather the water contained in the cyanide. The greater the moisture content of the cyanide, the greater its capacity to degrade gel-based capsules.
Fahner investigated who and what he was told to investigate.
Instead of going after the real killer; the "rational evildoer," Attorney General Tyrone Fahner went after "malcontents and weirdos ". Fahner said at a news conference Sunday night, October 3, 1982, that among the task force's suspects are "malcontents ... and weirdos who don't act right or did something extremely out of the ordinary."
"We're trying to understand what kind of person could do these things," said Fahner. "It is an act of a random murderer who filled the capsules with cyanide and then placed them in the stores," he said.
The objective of Tyrone Fahners' task force was to create "facts" that could be used to indict their chosen suspect; a suspect who they could offer up to the media for public persecution; an innocent suspect like James Lewis.
This same flawed investigative technique would be used in later years to wrongly accuse Richard Jewel of the Atlanta Olympics bombing, and to wrongly accuse Steven Hatfill of the Anthrax attacks.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Possible Sources of the Cyanide in the 1982 Tylenol poisonings
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 later experienced dizziness; nausea and vomiting. 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.
This is what Johnson & Johnson considers "rigid quality control"?
John Sutter, director of quality control at the McNeil facility, said in an interview Friday, October, 1 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
Two 55 Gallon Drums Containing Potassium Cyanide Fall From Truck
College Chemistry Labs