Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders
Psych Legal Pop Podcast
Tess & Brooke Brigham
4.2 • 610 Ratings
🗓️ 12 June 2025
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This Netflix documentary explores the 1980's deaths in Chicago and New York from cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules. The case led to tamper-proof packaging and became one of America's largest criminal investigations, yet it remains an unsolved case. Johnson & Johnson blame a rouge madman for lacing capsules with cyanide, but the Johnson & Johnson corporation led the investigation into its own manufacturing practices and destroyed all of the evidence in the process.
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Psych Legal Pop podcast. |
| 0:05.8 | This is a podcast where we talk about popular culture through the lens of an attorney and a therapist. |
| 0:11.2 | I'm Brooke Brigham and I'm the attorney. |
| 0:13.7 | And I'm Tess Brigham. I'm the therapist. |
| 0:16.2 | And today we are going to be talking about a new documentary that's out on Netflix. It is called Cold Case, |
| 0:23.7 | the Tylenol murders. And anyone of a certain age is going to remember this. It was a very, |
| 0:32.5 | very big news story because it was very frightening. |
| 0:49.3 | So before we get into the documentary, I'm just going to read a short synopsis of the basics of this case. |
| 0:55.5 | So the Chicago Tylenol murders were a series of poisoning deaths resulting from drug tampering in the Chicago metropolitan area in 1982. The victims consumed Tylenol branded acetaminophen |
| 1:03.2 | capsules that had been laced with potassium cyanide. At least seven people died in the original |
| 1:09.3 | poisonings and there were several more deaths in subsequent copycat crimes. |
| 1:14.2 | No suspect has been charged or convicted of the poisonings as of 2025, but New York City resident James W. Lewis was convicted of extortion for sending a letter to Tylenol's manufacturer, Johnson and Johnson, that took |
| 1:29.6 | responsibility for the deaths and demanded $1 million to stop them. The incidents led to reforms in the |
| 1:36.6 | packaging of over-the-counter drugs and to federal anti-tampering laws. So just briefly about the deaths and the early public safety concerns, on September 28, |
| 1:51.0 | 1882, 12-year-old Mary Kellerman was hospitalized after consuming a capsule of extra strength |
| 1:57.4 | Tylenol. |
| 1:58.2 | She died the next day. |
| 2:00.1 | On September 29th, six other individuals consumed contaminated Tylenol. She died the next day. On September 29th, six other individuals |
| 2:02.8 | consumed contaminated Tylenol, including Adam Janus, Stanley Janus, and Teresa Janus, |
| 2:10.0 | who each took Tylenol from a single bottle. All six, the Janice's, Mary McFarland, |
| 2:16.2 | Paula Prince, and Mary Reneer would ultimately die from consuming |
| 2:20.4 | the pills. Asked to investigate the Janice's deaths, Nurse Helen Jensen, Arlington Heights's only |
... |
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