Poison Pill

In September 1982, people were collapsing, falling into a coma, and dying in Chicago, Illinois, for reasons unknown. Two members of Janus family had died. A third member of the family was in a coma. Dr. Thomas Kim, Chief of Critical Care in the emergency room at Northwest Community Hospital, couldn’t understand why young, seemingly healthy people were becoming catastrophically ill so suddenly. Was it botulism? Carbon monoxide poisoning? Kim soon discovered that the rash of sudden illnesses affecting citizens across Chicago had a common link: They’d all taken Tylenol laced with cyanide. For Truly Adventurous, Michael Solomon recounts the drug tampering case that cost seven lives and remains open to this day.

Dr. Thomas Kim’s little-known role in halting the Tylenol crisis was an act of determined professionalism that saved untold numbers of lives, and his willingness to look “silly” remains an unsung, yet extraordinary deed of medical sleuthing and public service.

The FBI still considers Tylenol an open, active case. Despite a nationwide manhunt, thousands of hours of police work and an unsolicited confession from the only enduring suspect, no one has ever been charged for the poisoning that killed Mary Reiner, Paula Prince, Mary McFarland, Adam, Stanley, and Theresa Janus, or a 12-year-old girl named Mary Kellerman, a singular set of serial murders. James and Leann Lewis are now in their 70s and living in Massachusetts. There is no statute of limitations for the crime of homicide nor for the recurring grief that persists in its wake.