E285: MURDER - The Tylenol Murders

Fresh Hell Podcast

freshhellpodcast

True Crime, History

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 June 2025

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In part two of our deep dive into the 1982 Tylenol Murders, we pick up with the immediate aftermath of the cyanide-laced capsules that killed seven innocent people in the Chicago area. As the city and the whole nation started to panic, Johnson & Johnson faced a nightmare scenario. We’ll walk you through the frantic investigation, the theories that didn’t pan out, the suspect who looked promising but turned out to be a dead end, and the man who wrote an extortion letter demanding money to “stop the killings.” We’ll also talk about the wave of copycat crimes that followed, the laws that changed as a result, and the way this case rewrote the rules of product safety and public trust. Tylenol murders, 1982, Chicago, Johnson & Johnson, cyanide poisoning, product tampering, potassium cyanide, over-the-counter drug safety, James Lewis, Roger Arnold, unsolved case, FBI investigation, tamper-evident packaging, Tylenol recall, true crime podcast, Fresh Hell podcast, public health scare, copycat crimes, crisis management, cold case, pharmaceutical safety, poisoning case Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to the Fresh Hell podcast.
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0:20.6	Please don't let your kids listen to this,
0:22.3	or they might turn out like us.
0:29.0	Hi, I'm Annie from Massachusetts. And I'm Johanna from Austria, and you're listening to your
0:35.4	favorite international podcast.
0:38.1	The podcast hosted by two women who've never met
0:40.9	because meeting in person might just break the spell.
0:45.1	That's right.
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0:52.3	They are Michelle Graft. My dog Rocky smells of dog, which
0:58.7	amazing. I love it. We said hi. And Rebecca Ashbach, thank you so much. We really appreciate you.
1:10.6	And of course, a huge shout out and big thank you to all of our
1:14.5	other Patreon members and everyone else who supports our weird little podcast in whatever way you can.
1:22.5	You're the reason this podcast keeps going and why our search histories are even remotely justifiable. I mean,
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1:41.9	existential dread snack. I eat too much candy. It's fine.
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2:01.8	now is a great time. You can find all of the details at patreon.com backslash fresh hell podcast. So
2:08.6	come hang out with the rest of our hellions. It's cozy, weird, and, I mean, mildly cursed.
	...

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