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THE TYLENOL MURDERS: NEWS, COMMENTARY, RESEARCH & ANALYSIS | |
| FBI RE-OPENS THE 1982 TYLENOL MURDERS INVESTIGATION | | FAMILY MEMBERS STILL WAITING FOR ANSWERS
| | THE TYLENOL MURDERS: 1982 FOOTAGE | |
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Bill Weldon's Non-Apology, Apology May 25, 2010 J&J CEO Bill Weldon's "apology" seems especially cavalier considering the recent report that the FDA is investigating 755 adverse events, including 30 deaths, experienced by people taking drugs recalled by J&J subsidiary McNeil. A moment in Johnson & Johnson recall History - Brought to you by The Tylenol Mafia
CPSC seeks toy recall June 3, 1986 WASHINGTON (AP) — The Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a civil complaint against Johnson & Johnson Baby Products Co. on Monday, seeking a recall of three soft toys which the agency says could prove dangerous to small children. Two youngsters have strangled on one version of the toys, the commission charged. It wants Johnson & Johnson to recall all three types — Soft Triplets, Piglet Crib Gym and Triplets Marching Band. James Murray of Johnson & Johnson responded that the firm considers the toys safe when used properly, and said both fatalities occurred when parents tied the toys across the top of a playpen or crib, which the directions included with the product say not to do.
Johnson & Johnson handled the deaths of two toddlers who choked on J&J's crib toys in the same manner they handled the Tylenol deaths; J&J refunded the parents the cost of the toy. November 10, 1986: Safety Commission and Johnson & Johnson Baby Products Co. announced recently that the company and the commission staff have entered into a consent agreement resolving a pending CPSC action relating to three of the company's toys — Soft Triplets, Piglet Crib Gym and Triplets Marching Band. These toys have a common design consisting of three cloth dolls held together by short pieces of elastic with a plastic ring at each end. The commission had received reports that the toys or strings used to hang them in a crib had been involved in two deaths, one in October 1984 and one in December 1985. Johnson & Johnson Baby Products Co. contended that the toys were safe when used as directed, and that instructions were provided with the toys warning of this risk of strangulation. As part of the agreement settling the suit and in accordance with its longstanding policy, Johnson & Johnson Baby Products Co. is offering consumers a refund of the purchase price for these toys when returned to the company. February 3, 2010 Johnson & Johnson Vice President and former FBI Agent is on the Job As a former J&J employee, I know the username formatting for email addresses of J&J employees. The following temporary file is from an attachment to an email used by a J&J employee with user name kdonova1 to access my post about former J&J Company Group Chairman Wayne Nelson. The “k” is the initial of the employee’s first name and the “donova” is the first 6 digits of the employee’s last name. The “1” means the employee is one of at least 2 employees (or former employees) with a first name beginning with “k” and a last name beginning with “donova”. File:///C:/Users/kdonova1/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/Temporary Internet Files/Content.Outlook/MU332815/attachment.html
I know of one J&J employee who fits the bill; Kevin Donavan. It appears that Kevin Donovan was very interested in what I had to say about former J&J Group Chairman Wayne Nelson when I accused him of making ridiculous allegations regarding the modus operandi of the Tylenol killer. (Background story) Nelson was interviewed for an ABC story about the reactivated Tylenol murders investigation. The article ran on February 4; the day the Tylenol murders investigation was reactivated and James Lewis’s apartment searched. Kevin Donovan is the Vice President in charge of security at J&J. He is also a retired FBI agent. Before Donovan retired from the FBI, he was Director of the FBI's office in New York. Prior to Donovan's NY assignment, he was Director of the FBI's office in Newark, NJ. When I sent an email to J&J in June 2008 requesting contact information for the FBI agent handling the never closed Tylenol murders investigation; J&J forwarded my email to the FBI office in Newark, NJ. A NJ FBI agent subsequently called me twice about the case. Donavan was the first visitor tracked to my post about Wayne Nelson. He was one of only two visitors to the site that day. Whoever emailed the blog post link to Donovan had obviously viewed the post earlier, but apparently accessed my blog in a manner that could not be detected by my website activity monitoring application. Who would have the desire and ability to access my site in this covert manner? The FBI maybe? Did the FBI send Kevin Donovan the email with the link to my Wayne Nelson post? Donovan stayed on that one page for three hours. He was clearly interested in what I had to say. And Kevin Donovan's number one interest is in protecting Johnson & Johnson. Note to Johnson & Johnson: Thanks to the many J&J executives who’ve accessed my posts on various websites via email attachments over the past two years, I know who they are. I also know that you are monitoring my sites covertly and that you have a very cozy relationship with the FBI. The families of the Tylenol killer’s victims should not expect much of an investigation, considering it's being conducted by agents in bed with Johnson & Johnson. January 10, 2010 FDA: JNJ Unit Failed To Test Tylenol For Contaminants I was the only one to report that J&J lied about the facts behind the contaminated Tylenol. I posted my findings here on December 30, 2009: TYLENOL RECALL: WHAT IS THE SOURCE OF THE CONTAMINANT? FDA: JNJ Unit Failed To Test Tylenol For Contaminants Just about anybody can get a license to distribute pharmaceuticals. Once you have your very own pharmaceutical distribution business, you can set up a scam pharmacy out of an abandoned warehouse, or a post office box - just like mobster Anthony Civella did in the 1980s - and start buying pharmaceuticals on the grey market. Drugs sold on the grey market are purchased at prices well below wholesale from hospitals and foreign countries. You can buy massive quantities of drugs like acetaminphen in bulk containers from small time operators in China and India on Alibaba.com. You can then sell the drugs to U.S. distributors, and one day they may just show up on the shelves of your local food and drug stores. Acetaminophen/Paracetamol (Tylenol)  January 10, 2010 James Lewis appears on the Cambridge Rag January 09, 2010 It’s now being reported by the Daily Herald that the focus of the Tylenol murders investigation is on a DNA “smudge” found on a bottle of contaminated Tylenol in 1982. The smudge provided no useful evidence then, but may be pertinent now that technology has advanced, a retired Illinois official involved in the original investigation told the Daily Herald Friday. The likelihood that DNA evidence from one of the contaminated bottles is from the killer seems remote. The bottles were handled by numerous people during packaging and delivery and once they arrived at the local stores. As a source in Washington D.C. said in 1982 about a fingerprint from the eighth bottle of contaminated Tylenol, "The FBI did find a print on the box, but there still needs to be a determination of who handled the box," said the source, who declined to be identified by name or by department. "That's not going to be easy. It could be anyone from the person who put it on the shelf to anybody after that." "There are obviously a lot of legitimate reasons that people might have handled that box," the source said in 1982. If the DNA smudge is from a capsule, which seems doubtful, that would be much more valuable evidence. A partial fingerprint found on the seventh bottle of poisoned Tylenol was a partial or smudged fingerprint that did not produce a good print. So, the seventh bottle is a candidate for the source of the reported DNA smudge. Grand Juries were convened sometime ago in DuPage and Cook Counties to review evidence. It seems likely that evidence currently being sought is related to one of the murders in DuPage. The District Attorney for DuPage County opened the investigation, and the subpoena seeking DNA evidence was issued by the DuPage County grand jury. The DuPage County victims were Mary Reiner and Mary McFarland. Twelve year old victim Mary Kellerman lived in Elk Grove Village, which is mostly in Cook County, but a corner of the village is in DuPage. No container was ever found for the Tylenol capsules that killed Mary Reiner, so the evidence is probably not related to her death, unless the DNA evidence came from one of Reiner's capsules, in which case it might be very valuable. Officials never mentioned anything about fingerprints, full or partial, on Kellerman's Tylenol bottle, so it’s less likely that the DNA smudge came from that bottle. The official line is that the store where McFarland purchased poisoned Tylenol is unknown. But the Daily Herald reported in 1982 that the Tylenol responsible for McFarland’s death was purchased at the Dominick’s in Villa Park in DuPage County. It was reported in 1982 that prints were found on the seventh and eighth bottles of poisoned Tylenol. The bottles were found to contain cyanide filled capsules about three weeks after the murders. The print on the seventh bottle was smudged. Officials reported that a good print was recovered from the eighth bottle. Apparently that print came from someone who was never considered a suspect. If the DNA evidence that led to the current developments in the murder investigation came from either the seventh or eighth bottle, then the DuPage District Attorney has a problem. The problem with the seventh and eighth Tylenol bottles is that they were not directly turned over to law enforcement agents. The bottles were collected by J&J employees and identified by J&J employees as being contaminated. Johnson & Johnson and its employees should have been treated like all other suspects, but they were not. J&J ran roughshod over the investigation. It took control of critical evidence and appears to have dictated the scope of the investigation. If evidence needed to solve the Tylenol murders comes from evidence removed from the crime scene by Johnson & Johnson, then it seems the evidence might be disallowed in a trial. 12:07 PM January 08, 2010 If Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon were still around to do a Carnac the Magnificent bit; it might go something like this: Ed: I now present to you, oh Carnac the Magnificent, an envelope that contains the question to which you, with your vast wisdom and psychic powers, shall divine the answer! Johnny: May a speculative investigation be conducted into your rambling writings for the next quarter century by an Illinois based task force of bumbling bipartisan bureaucrats. Ed: ho ho heh heh hahhw… Are you ready for the envelope oh great one…. Shall I now hand you this hermetically sealed envelope so that you may discern the answer to the question within? Johnny: “May your alcohol saturated liver reject your body before you can stuff two hermetically sealed Extra Strength Tylenol capsules down your baritone emitting throat.” Ed hands Johnny the envelope…… ohhh heh heh haw.. Johnny: DNA, James Lewis, Tylenol. Ed: DNA..... James Lewis.... and Tylenol. Johnny opens the envelope Johnny: Name something in a liver, someone with a liver, and something that destroys a liver. Ed: Hohohohohohohohohohohoh hahahahahahahahaha hehehehehee ….. Hayoooohhh!! Anyway, the latest in the reactivated Tylenol murders investigation involves the collection of DNA evidence. Here’s a link to the story: Authorities may seek DNA samples in '82 Tylenol case Here's a link to James Lewis's recently publshed novel: POISON! The Doctor's Dilemma And here's a Carnac bit that's actually funny: 11:54 AM December 30, 2009 The current Tylenol recall is reminiscent of the piecemeal recall conducted by J&J after the 1982 Tylenol murders. In 1982, J&J recalled one lot the day after the murders and a second lot a day later. Those first two recalls amounted to less than one percent of the Tylenol capsules on the market. J&J didn’t recall all of the Tylenol capsules until six days after the Chicago murders, and after three bottles of strychnine laced Tylenol capsules were found in California. The current expanded recall of Tylenol Arthritis Pain caplets follows a partial recall conducted in November. The November recall of five lots was announced after consumers complained of a musty, mildew-like odor that triggered nausea, stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea. J&J described the reactions as "temporary" and "non-serious" in its Dec. 18 release, saying then it believed the contamination was due to the breakdown of a chemical in the wooden pallets used for shipping. AS J&J indicated in its press release, the contaminant 2,4,6 tribromoanisole (TBA) is sometimes found in wooden pallets. What J&J doesn’t mention is that TBA is a derivative of 2,4,6 tribromophenol (TBP), a fungicide. J&J also fails to mention that the TBA might have come from a source other than wooden pallets. In addition to its use as a wood preservative; TBP is used to treat fiber drums and plastic packages used to ship and store acetaminophen and other chemicals used to make Tylenol. TBA acts as a fungicide and flame retardant. J&J links only the wooden pallets to the TBA, because wooden pallets as the likely source of the TBA is much more palatable* to consumers than the alternative. TBA is found in TBP treated packaging that has become damp and infected by fungi during storage. Packages attacked by a fungus accumulate volatile chemicals arising from degradation of the packaging material. Fungi are rarely found in containers that are stored properly. (* in contention for best pun of 2009) J&J does not want consumers to consider the very real possibility that Tylenol was stored in containers infected with fungi. Which of the shipping packages below are more likely to have been the source of the TBA? The wooden pallet, or the fiber drums filled with acetaminophen (Tylenol)? 
5:16 PM August 03, 2009 The more I look into the reactivated Tylenol murders investigation, the more it looks like a reactivation of the Tylenol murders cover up. And the more I look at the friends of Johnson & Johnson, the more it seems they are no friends of the Tylenol murder victim’s families. I recently questioned the motivation for comments made by former J&J Company Group Chairman Wayne K. Nelson regarding James Lewis. Six months into the reactivated case; officials involved in the current and original investigation are mum. Johnson & Johnson hasn't spoken about the case in years. So I find it odd that after 26 year of silence, suddenly Wayne K. Nelson pops up to support a ridiculous theory, which just so happens to align with the approved theory of the Tylenol murders, developed by J&J, the FDA and FBI in 1982; a theory that is easily debunked. Nelson became a very rich man by leaving Johnson & Johnson in 1987 to found a company primarily funded by J&J. So I can understand his loyalty to J&J. The company Wayne founded - Nelson Communications - generated revenue of $86 million in 1996, $115 million in 1997 and $127 million in 1998, of which J&J represented 39%, 30% and 22% of total revenues respectively. But there’s another key player in the 1982 Tylenol murders investigation that also made a lot of money at Nelson Communications. Wayne Nelson appointed Arthur Hull Hayes Jr. to the position of Vice Chairman and Medical Director for Nelson Communications. And who is Arthur Hull Hayes Jr.? Arthur Hayes was the FDA Commissioner in 1982, and Johnson & Johnson’s most faithful cheerleader. It was Arthur Hayes and his FDA minions who insisted all along that J&J bore no responsibility for the Tylenol tamperings. It was Arthur Hayes and the FDA that just 21 days after learning about the Tylenol murders officially exonerated J&J of any responsibility in the tamperings. Arthur Hayes was asked to leave the FDA in 1983 after stacking an FDA advisory board and then making the tie-breaking vote to approve the artificial sweetener aspartame for his good buddy Donald Rumsfeld, then CEO of the Illinois based manufacturer of aspartame, G.D. Searle. It was Arthur Hayes who within months of leaving the FDA signed a 10-year $1,000 per month contract to work as a consultant for Burson Marsteller, the company that handled Johnson & Johnson’s Public Relations campaign after the 1982 and 1986 Tylenol murders. It was Arthur Hayes who went to work for Wayne Nelson at Nelson Communications; a company that would probably never have existed without the support of Johnson & Johnson. And it was Arthur Hayes, who Wayne Nelson named President and Chief Operating Officer of MediScience Associates, a subsidiary of Nelson Communications. As you can see, Wayne Nelson takes good care of Johnson & Johnson’s friends. NELSON COMMUNICATIONS EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS (1998) Set forth below are the names, ages and positions of the executive officers and directors of Nelson: 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 |
July 27, 2009 Wayne K. Nelson was J&J Company Group Chairman at the time of the 1982 Tylenol murders. Prior to that he was President and Worldwide Coordinator of McNeil Consumer Products Company. At McNeil, he was credited with launching the Tylenol programs that made it the top selling analgesic in the U.S. The 1982 Tylenol Murders On October 5, 1982, Nelson said: "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."
On February 4, 2009, after the case was reopened, Nelson said: "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."
"He (Lewis) 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. 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. * I don't think anybody involved in the investigation believed that. In fact, this exact scenario was quickly dismissed in 1982. Nelson ignores the preponderance of facts and 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. He said that 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.
Regarding Wayne Nelson's February 4, 2009 statements, as quoted by ABC News: "based on an analysis of the stores where the tainted Tylenol was purchased" Mr. Nelson, what analysis are you referring to? I've researched the Tylenol murders investigation extensively; and in the thousands of documents I've collected and read, I can't find a single reference anywhere to the "analysis" which you seem to believe is the key to convicting your patsy. "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" Mr Nelson, maybe you can explain to the world how "an analysis of the stores where the tainted Tylenol was purchased" could possibly provide credible evidence 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"? Did this analysis of yours' allow investigators to determine which flights the perpetrator took into and out of Chicago? What clues enabled you to determine that the killer had rented a car? Did your "analysis of the stores" allow you to decipher where the car was rented or what type of car it was? Since you seem to believe this "analysis" of yours' implicated Mr. Lewis, then it must have produced strong evidence that the killer flew out of New York. Were you able to determine which airport was used? Was it LaGuardia or JFK? Or, did your patsy cross the border into New Jersey and fly out of Newark International? Is it possible that he drove a little further south to New Brunswick, hijacked one of J&J's corporate jets and flew into Chicago from there? It appears that your analysis, Mr. Nelson, involved only those stores where tainted Tylenol was actually purchased. Could an analysis of the stores where unpurchased bottles of tainted Tylenol were recovered reveal the name of the travel agency that was used to book the flights? Or, maybe a combined analysis of all stores where tainted Tylenol was found could be conducted that would allow you to determine whether or not the killer checked any bags. Maybe, by calculating the square root of the number of stores divided by the average number of miles between the eastern-most store and all other stores multiplied by the difference between the number of miles from O'Hare International to the western-most store divided by the square-root of the average temperature on September 28, 1982 minus the median number of cyanide laced Tylenol capsules found in the contaminated bottle divided by i, Mr. Nelson could finally solve the Tylenol murders. Wayne Nelson is either incredibly stupid or a really bad liar. WHY NELSON? Why would Nelson take on the role of Johnson & Johnson's unofficial spokesperson? After all, Nelson left J&J in 1987. What possible motive could he have to incite further speculation about Mr. Lewis? Johnson & Johnson executives stopped commenting on the Tylenol murders many years ago. Certainly Nelson, who was a Company Group Chairman and former McNeil President at the time of the murders, knows this. And certainly Nelson, being the by the book kind of company man that I'm sure he is, wouldn't violate J&J's credo of silence. I suspect that Nelson had J&J's blessing to comment publically about the reopened Tylenol murders investigation. You don't become a Company Group Chairman for Johnson & Johnson without knowing how to toe the company line. But why would Nelson still have such loyalty to Johnson & Johnson 22 years after leaving the company? After leaving Johnson & Johnson, Johnson & Johnson made Nelson a very rich man. Nelson Communications Johnson & Johnson was, by far, Nelson's biggest client, representing over 22.7% of his company's $126.9 million in revenues in 1998. The first Nelson Group company, Professional Detailing Network, Inc. ("PDN"), was founded in 1987 to provide professional personal selling services to pharmaceutical companies. We have served six of the 10 largest pharmaceutical companies for five or more years and generated 72.0% of revenues in 1998 from clients served in 1995. In 1998, we served all of the 10 largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and 27 of the top 50, based on 1997 revenues. The number of clients served has grown from 84 in 1995 to 154 in 1998. As a result of the foregoing, our revenues increased to $126.9 million in 1998 from $48.6 million in 1995. Our five largest clients accounted for 68.5% of our revenues in 1996, 63.8% of our revenues in 1997 and 52.8% of our revenues in 1998. In 1998, 11 operating companies of Johnson & Johnson accounted for 22.7% of revenues. In 1997, Johnson & Johnson accounted for 30.4% of revenues. In 1998, 23 of our operating units generated revenues from Johnson & Johnson. July 18, 2009 Five months after the reopening of the Tylenol murders investigation, the FBI remains silent. At the time, I was concerned that the investigation was reopened as part of an FBI scheme to withhold documents related to the murders. The lack of any update by the FBI, and the fact that all of the items confiscated in the search of James Lewis's home have been returned, leads me to believe that the FBI has successfully achieved its primary objective of covering up, for another 25 years, the 25 year cover-up of the 1982 Tylenol murders. The "reopened" investigation picked up right where the original investigation left off. The FBI, still intent on scapegoating an innocent patsy, has produced exactly no new evidence and has failed to correct the many false statements made by officials in 1982. Why 25 years? The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), enacted in 1966, allows for the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the United States Government. Yet it also allows federal agencies to withhold enormous amounts of information under an exemption relating to national security. The Sunshine Act, enacted in 1976, provides that 'every portion of every meeting of an agency shall be open to public observation.' But the Act includes ten specified exemptions. - 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.
Between 1995 and 1999, President Clinton issued executive directives that allowed the release of previously classified national security documents more than 25 years old and of historical interest. The 1982 Tylenol murders investigation, like most murder investigations, was never closed. But it was effectively inactive by early 1984. So, as we entered 2009, the 25 year FOIA exemption had come to an end. Nevertheless, the FBI might, as they are known to do, refuse to comply with a FOIA request, lose important documents, or produce documents so heavily redacted they would be of little use. But then something else happened. On January 21, 2009, President Obama issued executive orders and memoranda designed to improve government ethics and make the government more open. During a press conference, Obama said: “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.”
President Obama's Memorandum for the heads of executive departments and agencies stated, in part: 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.
Obama's Executive Order might certainly create problems for government agents who had assumed the old rules of secrecy and deception would continue to be the status quo. So, what to do? There was a very real possibility the FBI might be forced to comply with an FOIA request seeking documents from the Tylenol murders investigation. Certain individuals involved in the initial investigation would likely prefer the documents remain sealed. On February 4, 2009, just as the 25-year FOIA exemption was about to expire and 14-days after the President's Executive Order on Government Transparency was announced, FBI agents and local detectives from a northwest suburb of Chicago knocked on James Lewis's door, served a subpoena, and confiscated documents and computers that contained absolutely no evidence relevant to any crime, let alone a crime that was committed in Chicago 25 years earlier while Mr. Lewis and his wife were living in New York City. Within two weeks of President Obama's declaration that, "Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency,” the US Attorney's Office in Chicago, Illinois, was able to find a judge in Massachusetts who would issue a subpoena on the basis of..... well, it appears there was no legitimate basis to issue the subpoena. The FBI has failed, just like it did in 1982, to produce one stitch of evidence to support its "Approved Theory" of the Tylenol murders. I can't help but wonder if James Burke, Tyrone Fahner, Dan Webb, Jeremy Margolis and Thomas Schumpp are sitting back and smiling as the truth about the Tylenol Murders is hopelessly buried within the bureaucracy of the Department of Justice. | |
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