before or after the product was sold. Prior to the re-
call, three more citizens in the Chicago area were
found dead as a result of poisoned Tylenol capsules.
These well-publicized deaths produced a nation-
wide fear that overwhelmed hospitals and medical
providers, who provided care for many patients with
suspected cyanide poisoning symptoms. Federal in-
vestigations concluded the deaths were most likely
the result of a lone individual who implanted cya-
nide poison into the bottles and then returned them
back to store shelves to be sold.
Investigators had two primary suspects. The first
suspect was an employee at a Tylenol warehouse
from which two of the poisoned bottles were shipped.
He was an amateur chemist, and searches of his resi-
dence found research on the methods of killing peo-
ple with poisoned capsules. The evidence was incon-
clusive, however, and the suspect was not charged.
The second suspect, James W. Lewis, was pursued af-
ter he mailed a handwritten letter to Johnson &
Johnson claiming that the murders would continue
until the company paid him one million dollars. Fur-
ther investigation concluded that Lewis was not the
murderer, but only a con artist. No further leads pre-
sented themselves, and the Tylenol murderer was
never identified.
Impact Congress responded to the Tylenol mur-
ders by passing the Federal Anti-Tampering Act,
which President Ronald Reagan signed into law
in October, 1983. This law made tampering with
consumer products a federal offense. In February of
1989, the Food and Drug Administration increased
the tamper-resistant requirements for over-the-
counter human drug products. All hard gelatin
products were required to have two forms of tamper-
resistant packaging. The publicity surrounding the
Tylenol murders influenced copycat killers through-
out the United States.
Further Reading
Beck, Melinda, and Susan Agrest. “Again, a Tylenol
Killer.”Newsweek, February 24, 1986, 25.
Beck, Melinda, Sylvester Monroe, and Jerry Buckley.
“Tylenol: Many Leads, No Arrests.”Newsweek,Oc-
tober 25, 1982, 30.
Wolnik, K. A., et al. “The Tylenol Tampering Inci-
dent: Tracing the Source.”Analytical Chemistr y 56
(1984): 466.
Nicholas D. ten Bensel
See also Business and the economy in the United
States; Crime; Medicine; Night Stalker case; Post of-
fice shootings; San Ysidro McDonald’s massacre;
Stockton massacre; Tamper-proof packaging; Ter-
rorism.Tyler, Anne
Identification American novelist
Born October 25, 1941; Minneapolis, Minnesota
The novels published by Tyler during the 1980’s firmly ce-
mented her status as a major figure in contemporar y Ameri-
can literature. Two of these titles received major writing
awards.
Although Anne Tyler had published seven novels be-
tween 1964 and 1977, it was her work during the
1980’s that established her reputation as an influen-
tial twentieth century fiction writer. The decade be-
gan for Tyler with the publication ofMorgan’s Pass-
ing(1980), a novel featuring a type of lead character994 Tyler, Anne The Eighties in America
Anne Tyler.(© Diana Walker)