The "Eighth Bottle" of Cyanide Laced Tylenol
The Eighth Tylenol Bottle Deception
On Monday, October 25, 1982, Attorney General Tyrone Fahner announced that an eighth bottle of cyanide laced Extra-Strength Tylenol was found. The facts, however, lead me to believe that the "eighth bottle" was planted into evidence after the murders in an attempt to cover up evidence that discredited the bogus "approved theory" of the Tylenol murders.
It seems that the eighth bottle was intended to link cyanide laced Tylenol capsules to Frank's Finer Foods in Winfield, IL, where one of the victims, Mary Reiner, purchased a bottle of Regular-Strength Tylenol capsules; none of which contained cyanide.
What followed the discovery of the "eighth bottle" of contaminated Tylenol was a debacle that failed to link the cyanide laced Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules that killed Mary Reiner to any local retail store.
Here's what local authorities said about the "eighth" bottle of cyanide laced Tylenol:
Tyrone Fahner identified the "eighth bottle" of Tylenol as having lot No. MC2873, which had not been linked to the murders. He said it was purchased at the Frank's Finer Foods outlet in Wheaton. Fahner's comments were in a statement released over the telephone by a task force spokesman to the City News Bureau of Chicago. The bottle was turned in by the wife of a DuPage County judge.
''We are extremely happy for several reasons," said Fahner, "this was a bottle that did not cost a human life. And these capsules, because McNeil Laboratories was so careful, were in pristine condition. That makes it more likely we can raise prints.''
A law enforcement source in Washington, who declined to be identified by name or department, said the bottle was returned some time ago, perhaps weeks ago ... (but) it was just processed today (Monday)." The source said police mailed the package for testing to a Maple Plains, MN lab operated by McNeil Consumer Products.
The bottle was sent with "a notation that it might be contaminated*," and tests confirmed presence of cyanide, the source said. McNeil turned over the bottle to the FBI.
* The wife of a local Judge returned a bottle of Tylenol to a Wheaton Police officer who believed the Tylenol capsules inside might be laced with cyanide, and therefore, the Tylenol bottle and capsules may have contained evidence very important to the Tylenol murders investigation. So what does the officer do? He puts the Tylenol bottle into a package, along with a note, and ships it off to the Maple Plains Co. in Maple Plain, MN. That's a little hard to believe.
It's interesting that the bottle that caused so much confusion was mailed to a company working on behalf of J&J with a thoughtful note to alert them that "it might be contaminated."
Also interesting is that the Washington source "declined to be identified by name or department."
Oct. 15, 1982: Maple Plain Co. employee is surrounded by mail carts bearing packages of Tylenol capsules as the coupon redemption firm prepares for several millions returns of the capsules in exchange for tablet form Tylenol.
The above picture makes it very clear that the Maple Plain Co. was not set up to test Tylenol capsules for cyanide.
The Wheaton Police didn't have their "facts" straight...
OCTOBER 26, 1982 — Authorities Tuesday searched for a woman who turned in an eighth bottle of cyanide-tainted Extra Strength Tylenol and falsely identified herself as a judge's wife.
Wheaton Police Lt. Terry Mee said the woman brought in a bottle of Extra-Strength Tylenol Oct. 13, two weeks after the seven Tylenol murders. He said the woman identified herself as the wife of an associate DuPage County Circuit judge. However, when FBI agents and members of the Tylenol task force interviewed the judge's wife, they learned she was not the person who returned the bottle to Wheaton police, Mee said. "We don't know why she used that name, and now we are obviously concerned with determining who that person is."
Authorities said Monday night that the eighth bottle had come from a Frank's store in Wheaton, but Lieutenant Mee said today (Tuesday) that the woman ''definitely said she bought it in Winfield,'' perhaps ''one to two weeks earlier''
Tyrone Fahner, who previously stated that the eighth bottle was purchased at the Wheaton store, now had to admit the task force was not sure where the bottle was bought — that it could have been purchased at a Frank's either in Winfield or nearby Wheaton.
OCTOBER 28, 1982 — After a one-day manhunt for the mysterious woman who'd falsely claimed she was the wife of a DuPage County Judge, Wheaton Police Chief Carl Dobbs said they'd made a mistake.
Dobbs said Wednesday (Oct. 27) that a "clerical error" had identified the woman as the wife of the wrong judge, and that the woman, Linda Morgan, was the wife of DuPage County Circuit Judge Lewis V. Morgan Jr.
Just as the Wheaton Police cleared up one mystery, they created another...
Chief Carl Dobbs said Linda Morgan called Wednesday afternoon to say she was the woman who returned the bottle to the Wheaton police station October 14. According to Dobbs, Ms. Morgan said she bought the bottle at Frank's Finer Foods in Wheaton*, on Sept. 29, when the first of the seven Chicago-area cyanide deaths was reported.
* Lt. Terry Mee, just two days earlier, went out of his way to correct reports that the eighth Tylenol bottle was purchased at Frank's Finer Foods in Wheaton. Lt. Mee insisted on October 26 that the woman ''definitely said she bought it in Winfield,'' perhaps ''one to two weeks earlier."
In fact, Linda Morgan had purchased the Tylenol at Frank's Finer Foods in Wheaton.
Not only did Lt. Terry Mee forget which judge's wife turned the bottle in, he forgot from which store the "eighth bottle" of contaminated Tylenol was supposed to have been purchased.
With the re-appearance of Linda Morgan, officials had to stick with the story that the eighth bottle of contaminated Tylenol was purchased in Wheaton; not Winfield.
Since authorities weren't able to link any cyanide laced Tylenol to Frank's Finer Foods in Winfield, they failed to bury the incriminating truth about the "undisclosed location" where the cyanide laced Tylenol capsules that killed Mary Reiner were dispensed.
So if the cyanide laced Tylenol that killed Mary Reiner didn't come from Frank's Finer Foods, where did it come from?
The answer to that question was hidden by officials who failed to disclose an important link between Frank's Finer Foods and the "undisclosed pharmacy outlet" - both received their Tylenol from the same distributor.
The "eighth" Tylenol bottle cover-up falls apart completely...
OCTOBER 29, 1982 -- Tyrone Fahner said the eighth bottle did not come from the same lot as any of the seven previous tainted bottles. He said the mixture inside the capsules isn't like previous tainted pills.
"The mix of cyanide and Tylenol is different," Attorney General Fahner said. "There were seven (poisoned) capsules in the bottle. All I can tell you for certain is the mix is substantially different."
It's rather peculiar that the eighth bottle of contaminated Tylenol, which led to so much confusion and so many contradictory statements, was discovered by Johnson & Johnson; the company that should have been a primary suspect in the tamperings.
The capsules in the "eighth" bottle of Tylenol had not been contaminated by the Tylenol killer prior to the murders, but were contaminated sometime after the murders by someone who wanted to cover up evidence that didn't fit the approved theory.
Why, after supposedly discovering a bottle of contaminated Tylenol at what Fahner described as "a McNeil Lab at the Maple Plain Co.", was J&J allowed to burn over one hundred million un-inspected Tylenol capsules returned in the recall?
Sources: UPI, Oct. 26, 1982; UPI, Oct. 28, 1982; UPI, Oct. 29, 1982; AP, Oct. 26, 1982
A Flaw in the Theory that Cyanide Causes gelatin-based Capsules to Degrade Quickly
Commenting on the "eighth bottle" of contaminated Tylenol, Tyrone Fahner said:
''We are extremely happy for several reasons; this was a bottle that did not cost a human life. And these capsules, because McNeil Laboratories was so careful, were in pristine condition."
A critical premise of the approved theory was that the gelatin-based Tylenol capsules would have quickly deteriorated once cyanide was put into the capsules, and therefore they must have been laced with cyanide very recently; after the bottles had been placed on the retail store shelves.
Cyanide laced capsules from the first three contaminated Tylenol bottles were inspected by the Cook County Chief Medical examiner Michael Schaffer within 48 hours of being placed on the store shelves. Schaffer said that the contaminated capsules were "swollen and discolored."
Attorney General Tyrone Fahner had this to say about the seventh bottle of contaminated Tylenol, which was removed from a Dominick's store and turned into authorities the day after the murders, but not inspected until 22 days later: "Because the new bottle (7th bottle) of poisoned capsules was in an advanced state of deterioration from the corrosive poison, it should help the authorities work back in time to determine when the contamination occurred and where the batch's bottles were that day."
If cyanide laced Tylenol capsules showed obvious signs of deterioration after just 2 days, and were in "an advanced state of deterioration" after 22 days, how is it that the cyanide laced capsules in the "eighth bottle" of contaminated Tylenol, inspected 26 days after the Tylenol murders, were, as Attorney General Fahner said, "in pristine condition"?
The Eighth Contaminated Tylenol Bottle Was Returned to McNeil Labs in Maple Plain, MN?
It was reported on October 26,1982, that a source close to the Tylenol murder investigation said an eighth bottle of Extra-Strength Tylenol containing cyanide-laced capsules had been found among the scores of containers turned in to police by consumers. The source, who declined to be identified, said police had mailed the package for testing to a center at Maple Plains, MN, operated by McNeil Consumer Products Co., manufacturer of the pain remedy. The bottle was sent with "a notation that it might be contaminated," and subsequent tests confirmed the presence of cyanide, the source said. The contaminated bottle was turned over to FBI agents in Minneapolis.
Besides the ridiculous premise that a police officer would mail evidence in a mass murder investigation to a coupon company ;ocated halfway across the country, there are a couple of problems with this report:
First; McNeil Consumer Products had not set up a lab in Maple Plains, MN, and it was not operating any "testing center" there.
Second; the Maple Plains, MN company, aptly named "The Maple Plain Co.", was not equipped to test Tylenol capsules for cyanide, and it did not test Tylenol capsules for cyanide. The Maple Plain Co. was a coupon company.
I guess that's why the task force once again used an official source "who declined to be identified."
The Maple Plain Co. was hired by Johnson & Johnson to handle the "reverse distribution" of all bottles of Tylenol capsules returned in the Tylenol Exchange program. The Company shipped the returned Tylenol bottles to McNeil Consumer Products in Fort Washington, PA, and mailed a coupon good for one bottle of Tylenol tablets to each customer who returned a bottle of capsules.
Oct. 15, 1982: Maple Plain Co. employee Sandy Motzko of Watertown, Minn is surrounded by mail carts bearing packages of Tylenol capsules as the coupon redemption firm prepares for several millions returns of the capsules in exchange for tablet form Tylenol. It's all in response to cases of cyanide poisoning linked to the capsules.
(AP Photo/Jim Mone)
This picture makes it abundantly clear that Tylenol capsules were not being inspected for the presence of cyanide at the Maple Plain Company. Contrary to what Tyrone Fahner and FBI officials said, J&J had not set up a lab at the Maple Plain Company to test Tylenol capsules for cyande.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE TYLENOL CAPSULES RETUNED TO THE MAPLE PLAIN CO?
All 100 million capsules returned to the Maple Plain Co. were burned by J&J without ever having been inspected.
To this day investigators are sure to remind the public that all of the capsules from the eight "official" bottles of cyanide laced Tylenol are still stored at an FDA lab in Cincinnati. Supposedly, these capsules will provide forensic evidence useful to investigators involved in the reactivated Tylenol murders investigation.
Odd that investigators have taken such great care of the capsules from these eight Tylenol bottles, but they failed to inspect any of the two millon bottles returned to J&J. Not only did officials in charge of the Tylenol murders investigation let J&J burn the 100 million capsules turned into the Maple Plain Co., they also allowed J&J to dispatch its army of sales reps to every pharmacy in the Chicago area to gather up all the Tylenol capsules that hadn't yet been recovered by local authorities. J&J's sales reps marched out to local pharmacies to collect evidence in an active murder investigation the day after J&J learned about the adulterated Tylenol deaths. These capsules were also destroyed by J&J.
Only a tiny portion of the Tylenol capsules in Chicago area pharmacies at the time of the murders were actually turned over to authorities. The vast majority of Tylenol bottles actually inspected had been turned in by local residents and had been purchased long before the cyanide laced Tylenol was ever placed on the shelves of Chicago area stores.
Coupon Company Hired for Tylenol Swap
October 8, 1982
McNeil Consumer Products Co., the maker of Tylenol products, has hired The Maple Plain Co. to handle the exchange of regular or Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules for coupons that can be used to buy an equivalent amount of Tylenol tablets, according to officials for the coupon redemption company. The program is in response to the deaths of seven people in the Chicago area who had taken Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide.
It isn't the first time the Maple Plain Co. has handled the recall of a controversial product. Two years ago it supervised the recovery of millions of dollars' worth of Rely Tampons for Procter & Gamble Co. after the product was linked to Toxic Shock Syndrome. But Maple Plain Co. president Donald Adler said the Tylenol recall has garnered a lot more attention. "This is the most spectacular thing that ever happened to this company, as far as the press goes. It should give us national recognition because our name will appear in all the national newspaper advertisements." Adler said.
While relatively unknown, Maple Plain Co. is the largest "premium fulfillment" business in the United States, with more than 500 companies as customers, company officials said. It is owned by Carlson Companies* of Plymouth, MN. The company has 2,400 post office boxes to handle the flow of coupons from buyers of toothpaste, laundry detergent and other products. It also handles mass mailings. Its offices are in Maple Plain, Howard Lake, Litchfield. Watertown. New Brighton and Wyoming, MN, and it employs 500 full-time and 200 part-time workers.
* To this day, Johnson & Johnson gives a great deal of business to Carlson Companies subsidiary Carlson Marketing.
Another 100 temporary part-time workers will be hired to help process the anticipated five million exchange requests under the Tylenol program. Adler said, "It's already our busy season, but we are prepared to do the job." he said.
The company said consumers may send their Tylenol capsules along with their names and addresses to Tylenol Exchange, Post Office Box 2000, Maple Plain, Minn., 55348. Coupons for tablets will be sent in about 20 days, along with checks reimbursing consumers for the cost of mailing the capsules, the firm said.
Joyce Stock, a company account executive, said she expects the first capsules will begin arriving today and many more will come in after McNeil advertises the program Sunday in newspaper advertisements across the country. Maple Plain executives planned to meet today with McNeil officials to establish rules for handling the recovered Tylenol capsules.
Based on industry-wide costs of such a coupon program, Adler estimated the cost to McNeil, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, at $55 million. He declined to say what his company's profit would be.
