The Murders Of James W. Lewis And Ted Kaczynski

In 1983, tamper resistant labels were required on goods such as nonprescription medications. Those seals allow people to safely take pills as they insure no outside forces have tampered with them. The event leading up to the introduction of the seals were far more deadly than one could imagine. In 1982, several people died from taking poisoned capsules of Tylenol. James W. Lewis and Ted Kaczynski are two suspects surrounding the mysterious Tylenol murders in 1982. America was shocked when seven people suddenly died after taking poisoned capsules of Tylenol, and left many people wondering, what happened. In the Chicago area of Illinois, seven people ingested pills of Extra Strength Tylenol and had died moments later. Those pills were poisoned

Lewis, the prime suspect in this case, planted the poisoned medicine in the bottles. An extortion letter signed with the name Robert Richardson, was mailed to Johnson & Johnson claiming that he would “stop the killing” if he were given $1,000,000 in return. Consequently, there were fingerprints found on the letter, but they were not of Richardson’s. The prints belonged to James W. Lewis, a con-man using the name Robert Richardson as an alias (Adame 806). Rather than complying to the letter, an arrest warrant was issued for Lewis. Later, they found Lewis and his wife in New York and arrested both of them (Newton 82). Lewis never admitted to having possessed any cyanide; nevertheless, he still,”...remained of interest to the FBI during the investigation because following his arrest, he gave authorities detailed plans on how the capsules could have been injected with lethal doses of cyanide,” (Friedman). Given these points, many people believe that Lewis was the one that committed this crime. With regard to these suspicions, Lewis was ordered to give DNA samples upon a reopening of the case (Friedman). Undoubtedly, Lewis still remains a popular suspect in this case because of his words and actions he chose during the

Kaczynski is a criminal that sent bombs through the mail that killed three and injured many more (Johnson). He has been serving jail ever since he was convicted of his deadly actions. In February of 2009 investigators started to review the Tylenol murders once again because of the advancements in forensic technology (Savage). Upon the reopening of the case, a DNA sample of Kaczynski was requested by the FBI to find out if he fits a partial DNA profile found on a piece of evidence (Schmadeke et al.). Regardless, numerous people do not agree that Kaczynski is actually the one that committed this violence. Although Kaczynski denies ever having possessed cyanide, he would be willing to give his DNA sample if the government would preserve evidence from his Unabomber case from 1987. He believes that the evidence would show that he is innocent in this case (Savage; Schmedake et al.). In a New York Times article, the author, Charlie Savage, wrote that,“Mr. Kaczynski’s request comes as the United States Marshals Service opened an online auction for several of the items seized in the Unabomber case.” Nevertheless, nothing from the auction had been taken down upon Kaczynski’s requisition (Savage). Considering Kaczynski’s past crimes, he could be a plausible suspect in the Tylenol