1 00:00:09,259 --> 00:00:12,470 Chicago police have what they call their best suspect 2 00:00:12,554 --> 00:00:14,014 in the Tylenol case tonight. 3 00:00:15,348 --> 00:00:19,519 I think it was about a week in. We heard that they had a suspect. 4 00:00:19,602 --> 00:00:23,481 "Yeah, there's another one." His name was Roger Arnold. 5 00:00:24,566 --> 00:00:28,319 A fellow that owned a bar called investigators and said, 6 00:00:28,403 --> 00:00:30,030 "I just want to make you aware, 7 00:00:30,113 --> 00:00:34,367 this is a guy who says that he kept cyanide in his home, 8 00:00:35,118 --> 00:00:38,079 and he has talked about wanting to poison people." 9 00:00:39,372 --> 00:00:41,082 Police arrested this man, 10 00:00:41,166 --> 00:00:44,878 48-year-old Roger Arnold, and called him a "closet chemist." 11 00:00:46,171 --> 00:00:49,758 He himself had purchased cyanide, had it shipped to his home. 12 00:00:50,467 --> 00:00:55,513 And he worked in the warehouse of Jewel Food Stores, 13 00:00:55,597 --> 00:00:59,225 one of the places that the Tylenol was purchased from. 14 00:00:59,976 --> 00:01:02,771 When investigators searched Arnold's home, 15 00:01:03,897 --> 00:01:06,900 he had volunteered that he at one point kept cyanide, 16 00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:08,693 but they didn't find any. 17 00:01:08,777 --> 00:01:11,029 What they did find was a book 18 00:01:11,613 --> 00:01:15,992 that was essentially a recipe for how to poison someone. 19 00:01:16,868 --> 00:01:18,244 There was also mysterious powders, 20 00:01:18,328 --> 00:01:21,331 a few guns around that weren't properly registered, 21 00:01:21,414 --> 00:01:23,291 amateur chemistry setups. 22 00:01:23,374 --> 00:01:25,877 Kind of unusual for someone who worked as a warehouse worker. 23 00:01:27,003 --> 00:01:31,925 And he actually had a one-way ticket to Thailand in about two weeks. 24 00:01:32,926 --> 00:01:35,386 It turned out there was a lot of circumstantial evidence 25 00:01:35,470 --> 00:01:36,721 against Roger Arnold, 26 00:01:37,555 --> 00:01:39,933 but it was only circumstantial evidence. 27 00:01:40,725 --> 00:01:43,978 At this point, uh, the only thing that Mr. Arnold 28 00:01:44,062 --> 00:01:46,356 has been charged with are weapons violations. 29 00:01:46,439 --> 00:01:48,525 He had the interest in chemistry. 30 00:01:48,608 --> 00:01:51,236 I remember he had stuff found at his apartment. 31 00:01:52,028 --> 00:01:57,742 While that may be probative, that doesn't tell me he's the guy. 32 00:01:58,451 --> 00:02:00,537 It was made clear to you you were a suspect. 33 00:02:00,620 --> 00:02:02,080 What's your reaction to that? 34 00:02:02,163 --> 00:02:05,375 They can think what they want, but I've got nothing to do with it at all. 35 00:02:05,959 --> 00:02:08,044 After he was released on bond, 36 00:02:08,128 --> 00:02:11,214 Roger Arnold was heard to say in the courtroom, 37 00:02:11,297 --> 00:02:13,967 "I'd like to be in on the homicide of the guy 38 00:02:14,050 --> 00:02:16,177 who turned me in on this Tylenol business." 39 00:02:16,803 --> 00:02:19,389 A man was shot to death outside this Chicago tavern 40 00:02:19,472 --> 00:02:20,682 early Saturday morning. 41 00:02:20,765 --> 00:02:26,020 Later on, Roger Arnold was so angry at this bar owner 42 00:02:26,104 --> 00:02:29,607 who reported him to police that he tried to kill him. 43 00:02:31,192 --> 00:02:33,820 Problem was, he got the wrong guy. 44 00:02:34,654 --> 00:02:37,740 He killed a perfectly innocent person who had no connection 45 00:02:38,324 --> 00:02:39,909 and wound up going to prison. 46 00:02:41,077 --> 00:02:43,580 Roger Arnold shot John Stanisha. 47 00:02:44,664 --> 00:02:49,252 In a sense, that man was the eighth victim of the Tylenol murders. 48 00:02:49,919 --> 00:02:54,799 Roger Arnold died in 2008, but Chicago police detectives, 49 00:02:54,883 --> 00:02:58,553 several of them, to this day, consider him the prime suspect. 50 00:02:59,512 --> 00:03:02,974 I do think that Roger Arnold would have benefited 51 00:03:03,057 --> 00:03:05,059 from a deeper vetting, 52 00:03:05,727 --> 00:03:07,729 but I think they gave up on Roger Arnold 53 00:03:07,812 --> 00:03:11,024 because they thought they actually had the real killer. 54 00:03:58,196 --> 00:04:00,949 Now that I have this possible new truth 55 00:04:01,824 --> 00:04:04,535 that this was not a madman going store to store, 56 00:04:05,036 --> 00:04:07,664 I started questioning the official narrative. 57 00:04:08,331 --> 00:04:12,001 I feel like this case has had tunnel vision since day one. 58 00:04:13,127 --> 00:04:15,672 From the very beginning, this whole case has been 59 00:04:15,755 --> 00:04:17,882 that Johnson & Johnson is the do-gooders, 60 00:04:17,966 --> 00:04:23,096 a fantastic company who's looking out for their customers' best interests. 61 00:04:24,097 --> 00:04:25,765 I'm not that worried about Tylenol. 62 00:04:25,848 --> 00:04:28,726 I'm worried about all of us. We're all in this together. 63 00:04:29,310 --> 00:04:34,107 But I think that market share is all that matters here. 64 00:04:34,691 --> 00:04:38,152 The company now faces the worst threat in its 96-year history 65 00:04:38,236 --> 00:04:41,572 to its image and to its most profitable product, Tylenol. 66 00:04:42,699 --> 00:04:47,036 Johnson & Johnson will do anything to save their brand. 67 00:04:47,120 --> 00:04:50,123 Well, what is everything and anything to save a brand? 68 00:04:54,460 --> 00:04:57,297 In public statements, the manufacturer Johnson & Johnson said 69 00:04:57,380 --> 00:05:02,135 there was no cyanide used in any part of the Tylenol manufacturing process. 70 00:05:02,218 --> 00:05:03,970 But four days after the first deaths, 71 00:05:04,053 --> 00:05:07,140 Chicago's medical examiner made a stunning announcement. 72 00:05:07,223 --> 00:05:09,058 At a conference yesterday morning, 73 00:05:09,559 --> 00:05:15,440 I asked the two representatives from McNeil Laboratories 74 00:05:15,982 --> 00:05:20,236 if anywheres in the vicinity where Tylenol was being prepared, 75 00:05:20,320 --> 00:05:22,363 cyanide was present. 76 00:05:22,447 --> 00:05:23,448 The answer was, "Yes." 77 00:05:24,490 --> 00:05:27,035 In the beginning, when Johnson & Johnson was asked, 78 00:05:27,118 --> 00:05:31,372 they said there was absolutely no cyanide in any of their plants. 79 00:05:32,332 --> 00:05:38,087 Then it became known that they were using it at McNeil, 80 00:05:38,755 --> 00:05:43,343 basically as a test to determine if there was lead in the capsules. 81 00:05:44,093 --> 00:05:48,473 But they claimed it was locked up in a place 82 00:05:48,556 --> 00:05:51,642 that was not near the factory floor. 83 00:05:52,268 --> 00:05:55,063 Yes, cyanide is used in the plant in the quality control area. 84 00:05:55,146 --> 00:05:58,524 It's kept under lock and key. Joe, you can talk about that if you want. 85 00:05:58,608 --> 00:06:01,486 Right, there's a small quantity that's kept in a very secure place 86 00:06:01,569 --> 00:06:03,154 in the plant for QC purpose. 87 00:06:03,237 --> 00:06:05,740 When in reality, it wasn't locked up, 88 00:06:05,823 --> 00:06:09,410 and almost anyone could walk into the room where they were keeping it. 89 00:06:09,494 --> 00:06:13,539 So, if you wanted to introduce it into the process, 90 00:06:13,623 --> 00:06:15,124 it's right there for the taking. 91 00:06:24,467 --> 00:06:26,260 My next question simply was, 92 00:06:27,053 --> 00:06:31,391 "At any time… did you test Tylenol for cyanide?" 93 00:06:32,517 --> 00:06:35,478 The answer was, "Yes, and it was always negative." 94 00:06:36,771 --> 00:06:40,149 Well… …what comes to my mind is… 95 00:06:41,442 --> 00:06:45,446 "Why do you test for cyanide?" You people take it from here. 96 00:06:46,197 --> 00:06:49,117 What Dr. Stein is saying is, 97 00:06:49,200 --> 00:06:52,662 if Johnson & Johnson is testing for the presence of cyanide, 98 00:06:52,745 --> 00:06:57,250 they have a concern that somewhere in their own process, 99 00:06:57,333 --> 00:07:01,504 cyanide might possibly appear in their product. 100 00:07:01,587 --> 00:07:04,424 Our first reaction was, uh, one of fear. 101 00:07:04,507 --> 00:07:07,927 Uh, could this possibly have somehow happened 102 00:07:08,010 --> 00:07:11,639 in our… in our manufacturing process or our facility? 103 00:07:13,099 --> 00:07:15,393 Certainly, from a corporate perspective, 104 00:07:15,476 --> 00:07:18,855 there was no deliberate effort on the part of Johnson & Johnson 105 00:07:18,938 --> 00:07:21,649 to distribute contaminated Tylenol. 106 00:07:21,732 --> 00:07:27,280 But we also don't know whether there was some kind of problem 107 00:07:27,363 --> 00:07:30,825 either at their two manufacturing facilities 108 00:07:30,908 --> 00:07:33,494 or anywhere along the distribution chain 109 00:07:34,495 --> 00:07:39,375 that might have led to these bottles being contaminated. 110 00:07:46,549 --> 00:07:48,426 I think, in retrospect, 111 00:07:48,509 --> 00:07:51,304 we can see the investigation 112 00:07:51,387 --> 00:07:54,348 was problematic from the start. 113 00:07:56,642 --> 00:08:02,982 The investigators did send inspectors who spent hours in these plants 114 00:08:03,065 --> 00:08:09,363 and instantly exonerated Johnson & Johnson from any possibility 115 00:08:09,447 --> 00:08:12,825 that these contaminations took place within their plants. 116 00:08:13,409 --> 00:08:15,578 Michael Schaffer, the chief toxicologist 117 00:08:15,661 --> 00:08:18,122 of the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office, 118 00:08:18,206 --> 00:08:22,293 was satisfied that no cyanide contamination occurred in the plant. 119 00:08:22,376 --> 00:08:24,587 Unequivocally, yes, I would say that. 120 00:08:27,173 --> 00:08:33,679 There is simply no way that he could make that declaration that quickly. 121 00:08:33,763 --> 00:08:37,475 Inspections of drug plants take far, far longer. 122 00:08:38,518 --> 00:08:43,064 The Food and Drug Administration conducted an independent investigation 123 00:08:43,147 --> 00:08:49,028 and blessed those facilities as safe within weeks of this crisis. 124 00:08:50,446 --> 00:08:52,740 But we can't know with certainty 125 00:08:52,823 --> 00:08:57,411 how well the cyanide was controlled in these facilities, 126 00:08:57,495 --> 00:09:00,540 the number of employees who might have had access to it, 127 00:09:01,165 --> 00:09:06,796 because so little is known about how those facilities operated. 128 00:09:06,879 --> 00:09:10,174 The product has been in distribution now for several weeks. 129 00:09:10,258 --> 00:09:14,595 Uh, it was distributed nationwide in August from two sources, 130 00:09:14,679 --> 00:09:18,349 one from the company's plant in Texas and one in Pennsylvania. 131 00:09:18,432 --> 00:09:22,853 The idea that it could be in, uh, that distribution for that length of time 132 00:09:22,937 --> 00:09:26,274 and not cause illnesses elsewhere makes the chances of it 133 00:09:26,357 --> 00:09:29,777 being a very widespread phenomenon very remote in my judgment. 134 00:09:31,696 --> 00:09:35,241 Johnson & Johnson needed the contaminated bottles 135 00:09:35,324 --> 00:09:40,371 to be very limited in number and in geographic scope 136 00:09:40,454 --> 00:09:44,166 because only then could they believably say 137 00:09:44,250 --> 00:09:46,919 that there was one madman 138 00:09:47,003 --> 00:09:51,382 who put the poisoned Tylenol on store shelves himself. 139 00:09:52,425 --> 00:09:53,884 If there are more bottles, 140 00:09:53,968 --> 00:09:57,847 if those bottles are in a wider geographic area, 141 00:09:57,930 --> 00:10:02,685 then Johnson & Johnson's story starts to break down. 142 00:10:03,269 --> 00:10:05,187 Today, the company moved quickly to recall 143 00:10:05,271 --> 00:10:07,773 more than a quarter million bottles nationwide. 144 00:10:09,066 --> 00:10:13,571 One of the great problems with the way this investigation went forward 145 00:10:13,654 --> 00:10:18,159 is that the company did most of the investigating, 146 00:10:18,242 --> 00:10:22,204 even though they seemed to have every reason 147 00:10:22,288 --> 00:10:25,625 to hide the extent of the contamination problems. 148 00:10:26,917 --> 00:10:32,340 When Johnson & Johnson announced the nationwide recall of Tylenol, 149 00:10:33,090 --> 00:10:38,471 Johnson & Johnson themselves did nearly all of the testing of the bottles. 150 00:10:39,055 --> 00:10:42,725 We set up special laboratories to test Tylenol capsules 151 00:10:42,808 --> 00:10:45,269 to detect other cyanide poisonings. 152 00:10:46,145 --> 00:10:49,732 The problem with this, of course, is that Johnson & Johnson had 153 00:10:49,815 --> 00:10:54,195 an enormous interest in making sure 154 00:10:54,278 --> 00:10:58,074 that very few of these bottles were shown to be contaminated. 155 00:10:58,157 --> 00:11:00,409 More than eight million capsules 156 00:11:01,035 --> 00:11:05,081 have been tested by us, the FDA, and other agencies. 157 00:11:06,040 --> 00:11:09,043 Fewer than 75 capsules, eight bottles, 158 00:11:09,710 --> 00:11:13,214 all in the Chicago area, have been found to contain cyanide. 159 00:11:20,262 --> 00:11:23,432 It was all initiated by the people from Johnson & Johnson. 160 00:11:23,516 --> 00:11:25,142 I could never say enough good about 'em. 161 00:11:25,226 --> 00:11:28,270 I've never seen any company come forward with law enforcement people 162 00:11:28,354 --> 00:11:31,732 and cooperate, uh, the way the McNeil Lab people have. 163 00:11:32,316 --> 00:11:37,071 Would you let a suspect perform their own investigation? 164 00:11:37,655 --> 00:11:41,784 No. There's gonna be a lot of bias there, and you're not gonna know. 165 00:11:42,368 --> 00:11:45,579 I believe we don't know how many bottles were out there. 166 00:11:45,663 --> 00:11:48,165 We have no idea how many other people died. 167 00:11:48,249 --> 00:11:49,417 Let me ask you something. 168 00:11:50,292 --> 00:11:53,462 What are the chances that seven healthy people 169 00:11:53,546 --> 00:11:57,550 between the ages of 12 and 35, they were the only victims? 170 00:11:58,300 --> 00:12:00,928 How many old people died? 171 00:12:01,011 --> 00:12:02,763 How many people were driving a car, 172 00:12:03,347 --> 00:12:06,809 took two capsules, and went into seizure and crashed? 173 00:12:08,144 --> 00:12:11,230 There could be more victims to this that we never knew about 174 00:12:11,313 --> 00:12:17,528 because a cyanide test is very rarely done in a normal autopsy toxicology screen. 175 00:12:17,611 --> 00:12:21,782 If you don't have any reason to suspect it, it normally isn't done. 176 00:12:22,450 --> 00:12:25,202 In the case of an elderly person, 177 00:12:25,286 --> 00:12:28,414 if they had taken Tylenol and there was nothing suspicious, 178 00:12:28,497 --> 00:12:30,416 it could absolutely be missed 179 00:12:30,499 --> 00:12:32,543 'cause you would think it was a natural death. 180 00:12:33,127 --> 00:12:36,547 Originally, my mom's death was labeled as a brain aneurysm. 181 00:12:37,631 --> 00:12:39,759 They had no idea that it was cyanide. 182 00:12:39,842 --> 00:12:43,679 It's only because of three victims in one family 183 00:12:43,763 --> 00:12:47,099 that it was hard to deny something was seriously wrong. 184 00:12:47,183 --> 00:12:49,393 So, to me, 185 00:12:49,477 --> 00:12:52,772 the evidence would show that there's many more bottles out there 186 00:12:52,855 --> 00:12:54,064 and probably more dead. 187 00:13:01,447 --> 00:13:05,034 Because we turned over most of those bottles, 188 00:13:05,576 --> 00:13:07,953 we don't know what was tainted there. 189 00:13:09,371 --> 00:13:14,001 They tested such a tiny, little percentage and destroyed the rest. 190 00:13:14,084 --> 00:13:15,669 Johnson & Johnson today announced 191 00:13:15,753 --> 00:13:18,798 it is destroying 22 million bottles of the product 192 00:13:18,881 --> 00:13:21,133 which were returned by distributors and consumers. 193 00:13:21,217 --> 00:13:24,970 We're just gonna destroy 'em. We, uh… We have hired… 194 00:13:25,054 --> 00:13:28,724 …an outside, uh, firm specializing in product destruction, 195 00:13:28,808 --> 00:13:30,810 and they are handling it at the present time. 196 00:13:30,893 --> 00:13:33,395 It's going to be destroyed. That's how we assure it. 197 00:13:33,479 --> 00:13:35,940 They are being incinerated, uh, this week. 198 00:13:36,732 --> 00:13:39,944 I'm assuming that if we would've gotten all of those bottles, 199 00:13:40,027 --> 00:13:43,781 and it wasn't turned over to Johnson & Johnson to test and destroyed, 200 00:13:43,864 --> 00:13:48,369 I think we would've found a lot more poisoned capsules in these bottles. 201 00:13:51,539 --> 00:13:55,876 Only a mass murderer would want to destroy all the evidence. 202 00:13:56,836 --> 00:13:59,922 If you're serious about prosecuting somebody, 203 00:14:00,005 --> 00:14:05,135 you don't destroy millions of capsules that are involved in a criminal case. 204 00:14:05,219 --> 00:14:08,055 You're behaving in a way that seems to implicate you 205 00:14:08,138 --> 00:14:10,099 in the murders themselves. 206 00:14:11,433 --> 00:14:15,396 Jim Burke of Johnson & Johnson, you have our deepest admiration. 207 00:14:18,065 --> 00:14:22,027 James Burke would eventually receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, 208 00:14:22,111 --> 00:14:25,865 the highest civilian honor that the United States gives. 209 00:14:26,532 --> 00:14:29,577 President Reagan said it was more than just good business, 210 00:14:29,660 --> 00:14:30,828 describing Burke as… 211 00:14:30,911 --> 00:14:34,415 Someone who in recent days has lived up to the very highest ideals 212 00:14:34,498 --> 00:14:37,835 of corporate responsibility and grace under pressure. 213 00:14:38,878 --> 00:14:43,340 And Burke, while seen as open and honest, 214 00:14:43,424 --> 00:14:48,512 in fact ran the company to be very closed and very secretive. 215 00:14:52,641 --> 00:14:56,478 Johnson & Johnson was crossed off the list of suspects 216 00:14:56,562 --> 00:14:58,898 from the get-go in this case. 217 00:14:59,648 --> 00:15:01,650 It remains unsolved. 218 00:15:03,068 --> 00:15:08,157 Is it unsolved because Johnson & Johnson was really never considered 219 00:15:08,240 --> 00:15:12,620 to be responsible in any way for these poisonings? 220 00:15:13,662 --> 00:15:17,041 That's a question that we simply do not have the answer for. 221 00:15:25,049 --> 00:15:27,134 After ten years on the inside, 222 00:15:27,217 --> 00:15:30,471 James Lewis was released from federal prison today, 223 00:15:30,554 --> 00:15:34,725 the only person ever connected to the crime that victimized the nation. 224 00:15:35,434 --> 00:15:37,645 How does it feel to be a free man? 225 00:15:38,270 --> 00:15:43,651 In 1995, James Lewis is released from prison. 226 00:15:43,734 --> 00:15:47,404 Did you have anything at all to do with the poisoning of those people? 227 00:15:47,488 --> 00:15:48,447 Mr. Lewis… 228 00:15:48,530 --> 00:15:52,368 He leaves for Cambridge, Massachusetts, 229 00:15:52,993 --> 00:15:55,287 where he goes to join his wife, Leann. 230 00:15:56,705 --> 00:15:59,083 And then he goes quiet. 231 00:16:00,125 --> 00:16:06,507 Nobody really hears anything about James Lewis for another ten years. 232 00:16:07,716 --> 00:16:12,930 At which point, then he re-emerges as a rape suspect. 233 00:16:17,726 --> 00:16:19,937 In July 2004, 234 00:16:20,020 --> 00:16:23,816 a woman in a condominium complex in East Cambridge 235 00:16:23,899 --> 00:16:27,987 was reported initially missing by her dad, 236 00:16:28,070 --> 00:16:31,615 who called the police after not being able to make contact with her. 237 00:16:34,034 --> 00:16:38,247 The dad went to the apartment, found his daughter in distress. 238 00:16:38,330 --> 00:16:41,458 She was suffering from shock. She was disoriented. 239 00:16:41,542 --> 00:16:45,129 She was sick, and she was subsequently taken to a local hospital. 240 00:16:46,630 --> 00:16:51,552 We can conclude from the results of the sexual assault kit that was performed, 241 00:16:52,219 --> 00:16:54,388 she had trauma to her cervix. 242 00:16:55,014 --> 00:16:57,933 There was ligature marks around her wrists. 243 00:16:59,601 --> 00:17:02,938 Her lips were, like, literally so dry and cracked. 244 00:17:04,273 --> 00:17:08,527 It was almost from a burn, from some type of poison. 245 00:17:09,570 --> 00:17:15,826 And the urine sample had ethanol and acetone in it. 246 00:17:16,827 --> 00:17:22,666 The results were consistent with her story of what had transpired in that house. 247 00:17:26,128 --> 00:17:30,090 Statement that she gave at the hospital is that her neighbor 248 00:17:30,174 --> 00:17:35,721 sprayed something in her face, and he pulled her into his apartment. 249 00:17:37,890 --> 00:17:42,895 She said it burned, and she was force-fed some type of liquid. 250 00:17:45,230 --> 00:17:47,941 It made her go in and out of consciousness. 251 00:17:51,361 --> 00:17:53,947 She remembers him getting on top of her. 252 00:17:55,282 --> 00:17:57,284 She remembers being assaulted. 253 00:17:58,911 --> 00:18:00,954 She's kept overnight, 254 00:18:01,622 --> 00:18:05,125 and she has very little memory of what had happened. 255 00:18:07,711 --> 00:18:10,339 That neighbor turned out to be James Lewis. 256 00:18:15,719 --> 00:18:19,932 When I was told it was James Lewis from the Tylenol business in Chicago 257 00:18:20,015 --> 00:18:24,728 from the 1980s, it was pretty disturbing to learn 258 00:18:24,812 --> 00:18:28,357 that we had such a dangerous predator living in the city 259 00:18:28,440 --> 00:18:29,650 and we didn't know about it. 260 00:18:31,610 --> 00:18:33,028 We took him into custody. 261 00:18:33,112 --> 00:18:35,114 He was charged with six crimes, 262 00:18:35,697 --> 00:18:39,326 assault and battery, drugging a person, poisoning a person, 263 00:18:39,409 --> 00:18:42,079 kidnapping, and sexual assault. 264 00:18:43,413 --> 00:18:45,499 I did not kidnap her. 265 00:18:46,250 --> 00:18:49,753 There was no evidence that I had ever been with her 266 00:18:49,837 --> 00:18:53,966 or touched her in any way, shape, or form, not even shaking hands. 267 00:18:56,510 --> 00:18:58,804 We didn't get any of his DNA. 268 00:19:00,430 --> 00:19:05,310 So, there were no specimens found on her or within her from him. 269 00:19:07,771 --> 00:19:10,858 James Lewis was sent off to jail. 270 00:19:10,941 --> 00:19:15,112 It took almost three years for this particular case to go to trial. 271 00:19:17,156 --> 00:19:19,158 So, the first day of trial, 272 00:19:19,241 --> 00:19:23,453 she was visibly shaking and crying, like, uncontrollably. 273 00:19:25,205 --> 00:19:27,374 She now knows who James Lewis is. 274 00:19:27,457 --> 00:19:30,335 She looks at what happened with Tylenol. She's terrified. 275 00:19:30,836 --> 00:19:34,923 It was just too much for her to be able to get up on that stand. 276 00:19:37,759 --> 00:19:41,722 The prosecutor made a decision that they could not go forward. 277 00:19:42,431 --> 00:19:45,684 So, he's released, and it's as if it never happened. 278 00:19:47,936 --> 00:19:52,816 You know, I spent three years fighting that in the county jail, 279 00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:56,111 and you know, three years is a heck of a long part of your life 280 00:19:56,195 --> 00:19:59,198 over something that is so nonsensical. 281 00:19:59,781 --> 00:20:04,077 How do you meet questions like that and try to answer them 282 00:20:04,161 --> 00:20:07,539 when there's… …they're about things that never happened? 283 00:20:08,790 --> 00:20:12,920 He's suspected of everything from murder to kidnapping and sexual assault, 284 00:20:13,003 --> 00:20:16,548 as well as being a suspect in the Tylenol business. 285 00:20:17,216 --> 00:20:19,259 He's capable of just about anything. 286 00:20:23,513 --> 00:20:27,935 So, at some point after James Lewis is out of prison, 287 00:20:28,018 --> 00:20:32,731 a jailhouse informant came forward and wanted to speak with the detectives. 288 00:20:36,235 --> 00:20:40,697 I was incarcerated at Cambridge Jail in Cambridge, Mass, 289 00:20:42,032 --> 00:20:44,576 for, uh, statutory rape. 290 00:20:45,702 --> 00:20:49,957 First time I met him, he was, uh, put in a bunk right next to mine. 291 00:20:51,208 --> 00:20:53,418 I found out he was originally from Missouri, 292 00:20:54,002 --> 00:20:57,589 just a couple hours southwest of where I used to live. 293 00:20:58,966 --> 00:21:01,677 A lot of common ground between us. 294 00:21:02,469 --> 00:21:06,682 Two country boys, so to speak, stuck in the middle of a concrete jungle. 295 00:21:07,599 --> 00:21:09,393 And the more he was around me, 296 00:21:09,476 --> 00:21:11,478 the more things he would start talking about. 297 00:21:15,732 --> 00:21:17,442 Jim did like to brag 298 00:21:17,526 --> 00:21:20,946 about only thing ever getting caught and convicted of 299 00:21:21,029 --> 00:21:23,031 was the extortion letter. 300 00:21:24,408 --> 00:21:26,285 I said, "So, you're telling me that 301 00:21:26,368 --> 00:21:28,870 you're responsible for the Tylenol poisonings?" 302 00:21:28,954 --> 00:21:31,623 He goes, "Well, if I got away with it, what would you think?" 303 00:21:33,333 --> 00:21:39,923 Jim said that it was done out of revenge for his daughter that had passed. 304 00:21:41,300 --> 00:21:44,720 She'd had a patch put on her heart, and the patch gave way. 305 00:21:45,345 --> 00:21:49,558 He blamed Johnson & Johnson for the faulty patch. 306 00:21:52,519 --> 00:21:57,733 And that was his way of getting back at Johnson & Johnson 307 00:21:57,816 --> 00:21:59,276 for the loss of his daughter. 308 00:22:01,194 --> 00:22:02,738 Our daughter's death, 309 00:22:03,739 --> 00:22:09,077 she died simply because the patch on the atrial wall pulled loose. 310 00:22:10,329 --> 00:22:12,205 It was a mechanical failure. 311 00:22:12,289 --> 00:22:14,708 That wasn't caused by an individual. 312 00:22:15,292 --> 00:22:17,961 I'd have no revenge against anyone. 313 00:22:18,503 --> 00:22:22,841 If I tried to sit down and think of a revenge, 314 00:22:23,550 --> 00:22:29,348 I could not think of anything that would be… useful or sensible. 315 00:22:30,140 --> 00:22:31,516 What's it going to do? 316 00:22:33,727 --> 00:22:35,354 According to Jim, 317 00:22:35,437 --> 00:22:38,732 only reason he's gotten away with the Tylenol poisonings 318 00:22:38,815 --> 00:22:44,196 is because all the cops are too stupid to put the case together. 319 00:22:45,989 --> 00:22:48,283 He's a real-life bogeyman, as I call it. 320 00:22:48,784 --> 00:22:50,869 You know, teach kids, "Don't be afraid of nothing." 321 00:22:50,952 --> 00:22:53,163 "There's no such thing as a bogeyman." 322 00:22:53,246 --> 00:22:57,209 Well, America, there is one. His name's James Lewis. 323 00:22:58,752 --> 00:23:01,463 I didn't confess to him or anybody else. 324 00:23:02,172 --> 00:23:05,300 Jailhouse informants, they sometimes do stuff like that, 325 00:23:05,384 --> 00:23:09,096 and they want to try to get time cut. 326 00:23:09,179 --> 00:23:13,350 Get something for… incriminating somebody else, 327 00:23:13,433 --> 00:23:16,645 um, by just accusing them of it. 328 00:23:17,646 --> 00:23:19,731 I never asked the DA, 329 00:23:21,441 --> 00:23:25,404 FBI, detectives that came to see me, I never asked them for anything 330 00:23:26,154 --> 00:23:27,781 except for, "Put him away." 331 00:23:30,617 --> 00:23:32,452 Later on, in 2006, 332 00:23:33,537 --> 00:23:36,748 we had a big meeting in the Chicago FBI headquarters 333 00:23:36,832 --> 00:23:41,044 where we went over every piece of evidence that was obtained in this case. 334 00:23:42,379 --> 00:23:45,382 The idea was to work a cold case, go back, review, 335 00:23:45,465 --> 00:23:47,843 and see if there was something that we missed. 336 00:23:48,593 --> 00:23:52,139 James Lewis was certainly more than a person of interest. 337 00:23:52,722 --> 00:23:55,892 But we still had some pieces of the investigation 338 00:23:55,976 --> 00:24:00,063 that had to be put together if, in fact, there were going to be charges made. 339 00:24:01,523 --> 00:24:04,109 When it comes to the FBI and James Lewis, I mean, 340 00:24:04,192 --> 00:24:05,694 he was their obsession. 341 00:24:06,194 --> 00:24:08,572 He was the only one they thought did it. 342 00:24:09,364 --> 00:24:11,658 They were sure he was their guy, 343 00:24:11,741 --> 00:24:13,994 and they were… they were gonna get him for it. 344 00:24:14,619 --> 00:24:16,580 So, I did have contact with him. 345 00:24:17,080 --> 00:24:20,876 And he told me that he understood that I wanted to interview him. 346 00:24:20,959 --> 00:24:26,673 The man that they put on this task, Roy Lane, was no slouch. 347 00:24:28,300 --> 00:24:30,177 That's a formidable opponent. 348 00:24:30,260 --> 00:24:36,141 And if you make a single mistake and accidentally lie to an FBI agent, 349 00:24:36,933 --> 00:24:43,857 that lie is enough to get you convicted of a crime and put in a federal cell. 350 00:24:47,736 --> 00:24:50,655 I'm just trying to figure out when day… 351 00:24:50,739 --> 00:24:54,493 what day was it that you… you wrote the Tylenol letter. 352 00:24:54,576 --> 00:24:58,246 Well, you take the postmark, and you go backward three days. 353 00:24:59,915 --> 00:25:02,542 It got to a point where 354 00:25:02,626 --> 00:25:08,340 Roy Lane is kind of casually talking to Lewis in a hotel room, 355 00:25:08,423 --> 00:25:10,592 and the FBI is listening. 356 00:25:11,134 --> 00:25:17,307 Lane, in an effort to nail down the timeline of the ransom letter, 357 00:25:17,390 --> 00:25:21,895 actually pokes a hole in Lewis's story. 358 00:25:23,522 --> 00:25:27,567 He said he spent three days working on the letter to Johnson & Johnson. 359 00:25:28,235 --> 00:25:31,947 And then when would the Tylenol letter have been started? 360 00:25:32,030 --> 00:25:33,365 Whatever the postmark is. 361 00:25:33,448 --> 00:25:35,075 You don't know it? Y… Yeah. 362 00:25:35,575 --> 00:25:37,160 And then a couple days before that? 363 00:25:37,244 --> 00:25:38,954 -Three days. -Three days. 364 00:25:39,538 --> 00:25:41,623 At least three days I'm working on it. 365 00:25:43,708 --> 00:25:47,754 Lewis mailed that letter on October 1st. 366 00:25:47,837 --> 00:25:49,673 If you track that back, 367 00:25:49,756 --> 00:25:53,093 it means he wrote the letter before the story broke, 368 00:25:53,176 --> 00:25:56,137 which meant he had prior knowledge. 369 00:25:57,180 --> 00:26:00,934 What is the date of the homicides? The twenty… something? 370 00:26:02,519 --> 00:26:05,021 The first one was here. 371 00:26:10,819 --> 00:26:11,778 It was? 372 00:26:13,238 --> 00:26:15,991 But the Tylenol letter would have had to have been sent… 373 00:26:18,201 --> 00:26:20,120 The Tylenol letter was sent, uh… 374 00:26:23,957 --> 00:26:25,584 I see your quandary. 375 00:26:27,127 --> 00:26:31,423 At that point, I think he realized that he either had screwed up 376 00:26:32,007 --> 00:26:33,717 and he gave himself away, 377 00:26:33,800 --> 00:26:37,804 or he screwed up that he actually misremembered something 378 00:26:37,887 --> 00:26:41,266 and had given Lane the… the sort of rope to hang him with. 379 00:26:43,268 --> 00:26:48,481 Looks like my memory is at fault, and I didn't work on it for three days. 380 00:26:48,565 --> 00:26:50,400 It seems like I worked on it for three days 381 00:26:50,483 --> 00:26:52,402 because that's the way I usually do things. 382 00:26:53,028 --> 00:26:54,404 But… I don't know. 383 00:26:54,487 --> 00:26:57,198 I had originally written the letter 384 00:26:57,282 --> 00:27:03,121 after I heard about the incident in Chicago, and not before. 385 00:27:03,204 --> 00:27:07,083 I could not therefore write some type of letter about an incident 386 00:27:07,167 --> 00:27:09,961 that I didn't even know was going to happen. 387 00:27:10,462 --> 00:27:12,922 My memory of the timeline is not accurate. 388 00:27:16,384 --> 00:27:19,429 The game plan was to let him talk, 389 00:27:19,512 --> 00:27:23,850 and we were feeling comfortable that we were on the right track. 390 00:27:25,518 --> 00:27:30,774 Enough probable cause was obtained to search James Lewis's apartment. 391 00:27:30,857 --> 00:27:33,568 There's breaking news tonight about the Tylenol pill murders. 392 00:27:34,152 --> 00:27:36,237 Hours ago, FBI agents searched the home 393 00:27:36,321 --> 00:27:39,282 of James W. Lewis in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 394 00:27:40,408 --> 00:27:46,331 The goal was to look for any documents related to the Tylenol murders. 395 00:27:46,414 --> 00:27:49,668 Investigators, as we know now, never able to pin the murder on him, 396 00:27:49,751 --> 00:27:51,586 so this investigation heating up still. 397 00:27:51,670 --> 00:27:56,591 I opened the door, and I knew exactly who those people were. 398 00:27:57,258 --> 00:27:59,260 My wife was talking on the phone. 399 00:28:00,136 --> 00:28:02,430 I said, "There are some police here." 400 00:28:03,139 --> 00:28:05,684 "You know what they're here for, don't you?" 401 00:28:06,518 --> 00:28:09,104 "The Tylenol thing from many years ago." 402 00:28:09,771 --> 00:28:11,773 And she starts crying. 403 00:28:11,856 --> 00:28:14,984 You know, these people, what am I going to do if they… 404 00:28:16,444 --> 00:28:19,781 put handcuffs on me and I never see her again? 405 00:28:20,281 --> 00:28:22,742 Authorities say only that new information 406 00:28:22,826 --> 00:28:24,911 led them to Lewis's Cambridge apartment. 407 00:28:24,994 --> 00:28:28,623 They were observed last night removing a great deal of possible evidence, 408 00:28:28,707 --> 00:28:30,625 including Lewis's computer. 409 00:28:31,209 --> 00:28:32,836 What's the date on this? 410 00:28:33,420 --> 00:28:37,090 "They hope for a break in the '82 poisonings following raid." 411 00:28:38,174 --> 00:28:41,428 When the FBI raided James Lewis's apartment, 412 00:28:41,511 --> 00:28:46,224 I saw it on the news with everybody else, and I just… was shocked. 413 00:28:47,642 --> 00:28:49,644 I said, "That guy?" 414 00:28:49,728 --> 00:28:52,439 "They have nothing on this guy. How is it him?" 415 00:28:52,939 --> 00:28:56,109 But I thought if they had something, they must. We got this raid. 416 00:28:56,192 --> 00:28:58,319 They had at one time hundreds of suspects, 417 00:28:58,403 --> 00:29:00,029 but it all came down to this one man, 418 00:29:00,113 --> 00:29:04,033 and they just can't pin it on him, but apparently they're still trying. 419 00:29:04,117 --> 00:29:05,285 There was nothing. 420 00:29:05,368 --> 00:29:07,620 They were not able to produce anything. 421 00:29:08,580 --> 00:29:10,707 But they're still convinced it's him. 422 00:29:12,500 --> 00:29:15,503 I think all of us that were actively involved in the case 423 00:29:16,087 --> 00:29:19,299 believe that James Lewis not only wrote the letter, 424 00:29:19,382 --> 00:29:23,428 but planted the cyanide leading to the deaths of the seven people. 425 00:29:24,637 --> 00:29:28,099 And if, in fact, Mr. Lewis was responsible, 426 00:29:28,767 --> 00:29:33,062 I think they will continue to pursue it and hopefully get justice for the victims. 427 00:29:35,190 --> 00:29:39,903 James Lewis is an asshole, but he is not the Tylenol killer. 428 00:29:40,904 --> 00:29:46,326 This extortion letter to Johnson & Johnson would at best qualify for a sideshow. 429 00:29:47,368 --> 00:29:51,873 I have not seen nor heard of any evidence 430 00:29:52,457 --> 00:29:57,212 that ties James Lewis to the Tylenol murders. 431 00:29:58,630 --> 00:30:03,843 Why the FBI expended resources that they did 432 00:30:04,552 --> 00:30:09,974 in trying to tie him into the Tylenol murders, I do not know. 433 00:30:11,184 --> 00:30:12,644 But I can tell you this. 434 00:30:14,187 --> 00:30:16,064 In 2009, 435 00:30:16,147 --> 00:30:21,736 the FBI obtained a DNA sample from James Lewis. 436 00:30:22,487 --> 00:30:25,657 Now the feds are trying to use brand-new DNA technology 437 00:30:25,740 --> 00:30:28,076 to link him to the murders themselves. 438 00:30:29,577 --> 00:30:32,747 The bottles of Tylenol had partial DNA. 439 00:30:33,498 --> 00:30:36,584 But in those days, 1982, 440 00:30:36,668 --> 00:30:40,213 there wasn't a test to compare that with anything. 441 00:30:40,296 --> 00:30:41,881 There might be now. 442 00:30:41,965 --> 00:30:45,677 Did anything come out of these attempts to take his DNA? 443 00:30:45,760 --> 00:30:48,429 I… I really can't talk about that. I… 444 00:30:51,850 --> 00:30:54,143 So, is it a match? 445 00:30:55,770 --> 00:30:58,022 We still don't have a concrete answer. 446 00:30:59,691 --> 00:31:05,196 You're not going to have the FBI tell you DNA exonerates Lewis, 447 00:31:05,280 --> 00:31:10,451 'cause he's been their suspect since October '82. 448 00:31:11,244 --> 00:31:14,497 When you have a hammer in your hand, everything looks like a nail. 449 00:31:14,581 --> 00:31:16,082 Everywhere the investigators looked, 450 00:31:16,165 --> 00:31:19,294 they saw evidence of James Lewis being the killer, 451 00:31:19,377 --> 00:31:21,796 and they wanted it to be true. 452 00:31:24,132 --> 00:31:27,427 He's as much of a suspect today as he was in 1982. 453 00:31:28,011 --> 00:31:30,305 I think he will remain a person of interest 454 00:31:30,388 --> 00:31:34,058 until the day he dies and the last investigator dies. 455 00:31:35,935 --> 00:31:39,981 You can keep asking me questions forever and ever. 456 00:31:40,064 --> 00:31:44,485 If we ever do come up with a… a technology 457 00:31:44,569 --> 00:31:47,238 which allows you to read my mind, 458 00:31:48,072 --> 00:31:52,994 then you won't find anything in there that will be incriminating. 459 00:31:55,204 --> 00:31:59,167 I've managed to be able to give the same answers to the same questions 460 00:31:59,250 --> 00:32:00,585 for 40 years. 461 00:32:01,669 --> 00:32:05,798 All the stuff that I've been fighting for for so many years of… 462 00:32:07,467 --> 00:32:11,971 They'll never get it untangled before, uh, I'll be pushing up daisies. 463 00:32:23,149 --> 00:32:26,486 James Lewis, the man once suspected of being linked 464 00:32:26,569 --> 00:32:30,365 to the Tylenol murders that shocked Chicago and the nation, 465 00:32:30,448 --> 00:32:31,491 has now died. 466 00:32:33,534 --> 00:32:35,828 Unfortunately, James Lewis died, 467 00:32:35,912 --> 00:32:38,247 but I don't really know that that part matters. 468 00:32:39,874 --> 00:32:42,543 People that know I'm a victim's daughter, 469 00:32:42,627 --> 00:32:46,381 they always say, "Oh, didn't they get that guy? Didn't they get…?" 470 00:32:46,464 --> 00:32:48,049 No, that was the extortion writer. 471 00:32:48,925 --> 00:32:53,638 It's time to stop with this same old, same old, over and over again 472 00:32:53,721 --> 00:32:56,224 and try to open the door to new ideas. 473 00:32:57,725 --> 00:33:01,688 I've been working on this case for 15 solid years full-time, 474 00:33:01,771 --> 00:33:04,607 and before that, 42 years of missing my mom. 475 00:33:06,067 --> 00:33:08,528 So I might not have investigative training, 476 00:33:08,611 --> 00:33:11,614 but I'm heavily invested in this case. 477 00:33:13,491 --> 00:33:15,201 I think America is in a place 478 00:33:15,284 --> 00:33:18,079 that we do know that corporations lie to us. 479 00:33:18,788 --> 00:33:22,250 So, I do believe that the public are open and ready to understand 480 00:33:22,333 --> 00:33:24,085 that maybe the Tylenol murders 481 00:33:24,168 --> 00:33:27,797 did not happen the way that we've been told for 42 years. 482 00:33:28,589 --> 00:33:30,925 I don't think we'll ever know until they're willing and ready 483 00:33:31,009 --> 00:33:33,761 to open the documents and let us see all of them. 484 00:33:34,929 --> 00:33:37,557 I think everything should be thoroughly investigated. 485 00:33:38,057 --> 00:33:40,059 Victims' families want answers.