James W. Lewis, the prime suspect in the deaths of seven people in 1982 from cyanide-laced Tylenol, has died. He was 76 and found unresponsive at his home in Cambridge, Mass. The scandal rocked the pharmaceutical world and changed the way manufacturers packaged medications. He was never officially charged with any involvement in the crime, and denied his involvement until his death, though investigators always suspected otherwise. The Tylenol poisonings went unsolved.ย
Investigators discovered someone laced Extra-Strength Tylenol with deadly potassium cyanide, killing seven people in the Chicago area in the Fall of 1982. Despite maintaining his innocence, in October 1982, Lewis sent a letter to Johnson & Johnson, the parent company of MacNeil Consumer Products which manufactured Tylenol, saying he would “stop the killing” if he were paid $1 million. He was later convicted of extortion in 1983. He spent 12 years in federal prison for extortion. While a fugitive on the extortion charge, he continued his odd behavior. He wrote a series of rambling letters to The Chicago Tribune denying the crimes. But his run-ins with the law didn’t stop.
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A reported financial accountant by trade, in 1978, Lewis was charged with murder in the death of Raymond West, a 72-year-old man from Kansas City, Mo., who had hired him as an accountant. The elderly man’s dismembered and decomposed body was found hanging from a pulley in his attic the same day Lewis was caught trying to cash a forged check on West’s account. The case was dismissed after the judge found that the police did not inform read Lewis of his Miranda rights at the time of his arrest.
In 1983, Lewis was convicted on six counts of mail fraud involving a scheme to obtain credit cards by using information from clients of his tax preparation service in Kansas City in 1981. Following his release from prison in the Tylenol extortion case, Lewis moved to the Boston area in 1995. His crimes continued.ย
He was indicted in Massachusetts in 2004 on six charges, including aggravated rape and drugging a person with “intent to stupefy or overpower” for sexual intercourse, and held without bail until 2007 after the victim opted to discontinue cooperating.
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