Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with IHeartRadio.

Tylenol is and has been for decades the best-selling non-prescription pain reliever sold in the United States.

Unlike today's Tylenol, some pills used to come as gelatin-based capsules, which were popular

because they were smooth and easy to swallow.

But it was also possible to open those capsules, and that meant anyone could remove its active ingredient,

acetaminophen, and replace the contents with anything else. And someone did,

resulting in the deaths of seven people by cyanide poisoning. The killings happened in the Chicago

area and shocked the nation. They changed how American consumers buy over-the-counter

medications and influenced consumer packaging.

But more than 40 years later, the identity of the person who tampered with Tylenol extra

strength capsules is still unknown. And the case has never been closed. Welcome to Criminalia.

I'm Maria Tremarky. And I'm Holly Fry. The Chicago Tylenol murders,

as they've come to be known, began on September 28, 1982, with the death of 12-year-old Mary

Kellerman, an Elk Grove Village, Illinois resident. Mary was not feeling well, and early that morning,

her parents gave her Tylenol to help relieve her cold symptoms.

Recalled her father, Dennis Kellerman, quote, I heard her go into the bathroom. I heard the door close.

Then I heard something drop. I went to the bathroom door. I called Mary, are you okay? There was no answer.

I called again, Mary, are you okay? There was no answer. I called again, Mary, are you okay? There was still no answer.

So I opened the bathroom door and my little girl was on the floor unconscious.

She was still in her pajamas.

Later that same day, a 27-year-old postal worker named Adam Janice, who lived in Arlington Heights, which is less than 10 miles away from the Kellermans,

also died shortly after taking Tylenol to ease a muscle ache. He collapsed almost instantly and could not be resuscitated.

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