The suspect in the 1982 Tylenol poisonings that eliminated 7 individuals in the Chicago location, activated a acrossthecountry panic, and led to an overhaul in the security of non-prescription medication productpackaging, has passedaway, authorities stated on Monday.
Officers, firemens and EMTs reacting to a report of an unresponsive individual at about 4 p.m. Sunday discovered James W. Lewis dead in his Cambridge, Massachusetts, house, Cambridge Police Superintendent Frederick Cabral stated in a declaration. He was 76, cops stated.
“Following an examination, Lewis’ death was figuredout to be not suspicious,” the declaration states.
No one was ever charged in the deaths of 7 individuals who took the overthecounter painrelievers laced with cyanide. Lewis served more than 12 years in jail for sendingout an extortion note to maker Johnson & Johnson, requiring $1 million to “stop the killing.” He and his betterhalf moved to Massachusetts in 1995 following his release. Listed numbers for his betterhalf were not in service.
When Lewis was detained in New York City in 1982 after a acrossthecountry manhunt, he provided detectives a detailed account of how the killer may haveactually run. Lewis lateron confessed sendingout the letter and requiring the cash, however he stated he neverever meant to gather it. He stated he desired to humiliate his spouse’s previous company by having the cash sentout to the company’s bank account.
Lewis, who had a history of problem with the law, constantly rejected any function in the Tylenol deaths, however stayed a suspect and in 2010 offered DNA samples to the FBI. He even produced a site in which he stated he was framed. Although the couple lived briefly in Chicago in the early 1980s, Lewis stated they were in New York City at the time of the poisonings.
In a 1992 interview with The Associated Press, Lewis described that the account he offered authorities was just his method of discussing the killer’s actions.
“I was doing like I would haveactually done for a business customer, making a list of possible situations,”