The Seventh Tylenol Bottle

THE SEVENTH TYLENOL BOTTLE

FBI Seeks Fingerprints From 7th Tylenol Bottle

October 22, 1982, Friday - CHICAGO (AP) — The FBI is checking for fingerprints on a newly found bottle of cyanide-tainted Extra-Strength Tylenol, while police hope to find the unknown purchaser — who may have escaped death by turning it in.

Police Superintendent Richard J. Brzeczek announced Thursday that the bottle — one among hundreds of thousands turned in by customers or -swept from store shelves after seven deaths from cyanide-tainted Extra-Strength Tylenol — contained more than a dozen capsules laced with the poison.

He said the 50-capsule bottle had been turned in to Dominick's Finer Foods in Chicago, just several hundred feet from the Walgreen's drug store where one of the seven victims, Paula Prince, purchased her 24-capsule bottle.

Investigators hope to identify the customer who returned the bottle, which was turned in without its usual box, said Illinois Attorney General Tyrone Fahner, who heads a task force investigating the poisonings.

Dominick's employees kept records on each individual who returned Tylenol, he said.

Brzeczek said a "peculiar thing" about the newly discovered bottle was that its lot number — MC2880 — was the same as the medication taken by four victims, who lived in the suburbs. He did not elaborate on what he meant by "peculiar."

The number of tainted capsules — which Brzeczek said was "about 13" — was larger than in any other previously found bottle. "The bottle was sent to the FBI in Washington, where it will be subjected to "the most sophisticated" tests available in hopes of finding fingerprints that might help solve the case," Brzeczek said.

Thursday's discovery was made by a lab testing the capsules under contract to McNeil Consumer Products Co., the maker of Tylenol. McNeil officials said they had no comment on the latest discovery.

October 23, 1982 - The FBI crime lab in Washington employed laser technology in trying to lift usable fingerprints from the latest contaminated capsules, described by officials as deteriorated after apparently sitting in the bottle for several weeks.

The unused 50-capsule bottle of Extra-Strength Tylenol had been turned in to Dommick s Finer Foods on the North Side several hundred feet from the Walgreen s drug store where the last poisoning victim to be discovered Paula Prince purchased a 24-capsule bottle. It was the seventh bottle found to be contaminated with cyanide Five bottles claimed victims and FDA investigators removed a sixth from a drugstore.

October 23, 1982 - CHICAGO (AP) - Illinois Attorney General Tyrone Fahner said officials were working with Dominick employees to identify the customer who returned the 50-capsule bottle, without the box in which the product was normally packaged.

Brzeczek said the discovery of the latest contaminated capsules was made at that lab Thursday. The previous contamination, in an unsold bottle from Osco Drug Store in suburban Schaumburg, was announced Oct. 1. McNeil officials said they would have no cominent on the latest discovery.

A Dominick's official said that finding the person who returned the bottle would be difficult because refund slips used by the store were not coded in a way that would make it possible to match a specific bottle to a specific, customer. Larry Nauman, Dominick's vice president, said refunds were given to "anyone and everyone" regardless where the capsules were purchased. The bottle was one of thousands turned in by customers or swept from store shelves after the seven deaths.

NEW YORK TIMES - The container was returned unopened by a consumer who apparently unknowingly kept the lethal medicine in his cupboard. Illinois Attorney General Tyrone Fahner said that agents were trying to track down the customer, not publicly identified, to interview him.

''It is a new source of evidence,'' he added. ''It has promise.'' The only prints on the capsule, if there are any at all, should be those of the person responsible for the killings. Additionally, the new bottle's batch number - MC 2880, the same batch that killed four other victims - could help detectives track down where the contamination occurred or at what common point, such as a warehouse, the poisoner had access to that batch.

And because the new 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.

A technician found the contaminated bottle at a lab in suburban Lemont while using litmus paper in a random checking procedure.

CHICAGO (UPI) — The task force hunting the Tylenol killer searched mounds of refund slips hoping to find the shopper who unknowingly gave a valuable clue — an unopened bottle containing poisoned capsules.

FBI experts in Washington used a laser beam Friday looking for fingerprints of the person who filled capsules of Extra-Strength Tylenol with lethal doses of cyanide. Seven people died from the poison three weeks ago.

Larry Nauman, Dominick's vice president, said it may not be easy to find the shopper who returned the bottle Oct. 2 during a massive recall. Refunds were given to "anyone and everyone," he said, and not all customers put their names and addresses on the bottles.

The bottle was one of thousands turned in by customers or swept from store shelves after the seven deaths. Investigators say they hope the buyer will remember when and where the bottle was purchased.

Police Superintendent Richard Brzeczek said there is a "faint possibility" fingerprints would be found on the bottle, which contained up to 13 spiked capsules. Attorney General Tyrone Fahner, head of the Tylenol task force, was more optimistic.

"It gives us the opportunity to have a clean bottle for the first time to check for fingerprints," Fahner said, calling the discovery "very significant."

Fahner' said the contents already were decomposing because the cyanide was destroying the gelatin shells. The laboratory that found the tainted pills has examined more than 150,000 samples of Tylenol Extra-Strength capsules under a private contract from McNeil Consumer Products Co.

The FBI crime lab in Washington employed laser technology in trying to lift usable fingerprints from the latest contaminated capsules, described by officials as deteriorated after apparently sitting in the bottle for several weeks.

AMERICAN FRAUD and The Tylenol Murders