THE UNKNOWN PHARMACY OUTLET
Was the "unknown pharmacy" really unknown, or was it just another component of the cover-up?
Investigators were never able to determine where the cyanide laced Tylenol responsible for the death of Mary McFarland, the sixth Tylenol murder victim, was purchased; at least that's what they said.
The FDA reported that on October 22, 1982 they'd discovered a bottle of cyanide laced Tylenol (the 7th bottle), supposedly returned to a Dominick's store in Chicago. According to J&J executives and officials from the Tylenol Task Force, the Tylenol returned to the Chicago Dominick's store was the only bottle of cyanide laced Tylenol linked to Dominick's.
Tainted capsules were used by each of the victims who bought them at Jewel stores in Arlington Heights and Elk Grove Village, Frank's Finer Foods in Winfield, Dominick's in Villa Park and Walgreen's at North Avenue and Wells Street In Chicago.
The Dominick's in Villa Park?
Cyanide laced Tylenol was never again linked to the Dominick's in Villa Park, until ten years later.
On September 27, 1992 The Daily Herald once again ran a story that linked one bottle of poisoned Tylenol to the Dominck's Villa Park store:
The killer then restocked the booby-trapped containers in the front row of shelves of stores in Arlington Heights, Elk Grove Village, Schaumburg, Winfield, Villa Park and Chicago.
Maybe investigators did know where Mary McFarland's adulterated Tylenol was purchased, and maybe someone involved in the investigation revealed information to a reporter from The Chicago Daily Herald that officials did not want disclosed.
Was the seventh bottle of poisoned Tylenol - the one that officials said was returned to the Dominick's store on Chicago's north-side - actually purchased by Mary McFarland at the Villa Park Dominick's store?
Officials from the Tylenol task force said the seventh bottle of cyanide laced Tylenol had not been opened; yet it was returned without its box. Officials also said they were unable to determine who returned the seventh bottle to the Chicago Dominick's.
Mary McFarland lived in Elmhurst, IL, just 1.5 miles from the Dominick's at 215 S Rt 83 Villa Park.
Mary McFarland would have driven right past the Villa Park Dominick's every day on her way to and from work. She was at work at the Bell Center in Yorktown mall when she swallowed the poison Tylenol on Wednesday afternoon, September 29.
(A) Mary's Home, (B) Dominick's Villa Park, (C) Mary's Work
Additional evidence that the Seventh Tylenol Bottle was not purchased at the Chicago Dominick's
The following excerpts from a story that ran in several newspapers on October 25, 1982, contradict the claim that the "seventh Tylenol bottle" was purchased at the Dominick's store in Chicago:
That bottle of Extra-Strength Tylenol was discovered Thursday by a laboratory technician seeking cyanide in bottles taken off store shelves after the deaths of seven people. The bottle was among a batch turned over by a Dominick's Finer Foods store, and investigators believe it was returned by a customer because it was without its cardboard box.
"But that's not proof,' said Chicago police Lt. August Locallo: 'There would be proof if someone had marked it in some way when it was returned."
The bottle also apparently had a different lot number than the other Tylenol on the store's shelves but the same as two bottles that killed four people.
Since the seventh Tylenol bottle had "a different lot number than the other Tylenol on the store's shelves" of the Chicago Dominick's, it's incredibly unlikely that the seventh Tylenol bottle was purchased at that store.
The cyanide laced Tylenol responsible for Mary McFarland's death was in all probability purchased at the Dominick's Finer Foods in Villa Park, just as was reported in The Daily Herald on October 4, 1982 and September 27, 1992.
Why would officials cover-up this simple bit of factual information?