Murder: True Crime Stories - UNSOLVED: The Tylenol Murders, Pt. 3

Episode Date: June 25, 2024

As the investigators on the Tylenol Task Force zeroed in on leads, two potential suspects emerged. Both had the means, and motive, to do it. But was either one the Tylenol Killer? Murder: True Crime Stories is part of Crime House Studios. For more, follow us on Instagram @crimehouse. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When a murderer makes the news, it's easy to form an internal narrative about what happened. We try to piece together all the information, like how the killer and the victim knew each other, how authorities caught the killer, and the outcome of the trial. But sometimes, the answers refuse to reveal themselves. But sometimes, the answers refuse to reveal themselves. Even after decades of digging for information, sometimes there's just no solution. And when it came to the Tylenol murders, investigators were hitting a brick wall. Every lead they found, whether it was in a defunct travel agency or a bar in the heart of Chicago, seemingly disappeared. But they kept pushing, no matter how many dead ends they found.

People's lives are like a story. There's a beginning, a middle, and an end. But you don't always know which part you're on. Sometimes the final chapter arrives far too soon, and we don't always get to know the real ending. I'm Carter Roy, and this is Murder True Crime Stories, a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Every Tuesday, I'll explore the story of a notorious murder or murders. At Crime House, we want to express our gratitude to you, our community, for making this possible. Please support us by rating, reviewing, and following Murder True Crime Stories wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly matters.

This is our third and final episode on the Tylenol murders, a string of tragic and sudden deaths in 1982 that left the entire nation on edge. In our first episode, we traced seven mysterious deaths that occurred throughout the Chicago area. Last week, we followed along as investigators pursued two suspects in what became known as the Tylenol murders. Today, we'll witness their decades-long search for answers. All that and more, coming up. All that and more coming up. Hey everyone, it's Carter.

I have a favor to ask you. If you are enjoying Murder True Crime Stories, I would be honored if you took a moment to rate and review us on Apple and Spotify. Your valuable feedback helps us improve and expand our reach so other true crime fans can find us too. Your support means everything. On October 13th, 1982, Robert and Nancy Richardson's headshots were displayed on the CBS Evening News. The FBI was looking for the couple in relation to the Tylenol murders. They were the first suspects federal investigators identified since the deaths occurred on September 29th. When Kansas City Sergeant David Barton saw Robert's face on the TV, he immediately dialed the Tylenol task force. He told them he didn't know where the Richardsons were, but he did know that Richardson was not their name. The man whose face glared at him from the screen was really named James Lewis,

and he'd slipped through Barton's fingers not once, but twice. After Barton got off the phone, he packed a suitcase and caught a flight to Chicago the next day. As soon as he got off the plane, he made his way to the task force's headquarters. Reporters swarmed outside, but the sergeant didn't hesitate. He went straight through the doors and into the office where he opened up his suitcase. Inside were mountains of documents and evidence. Evidence that Barton had collected against James Lewis for two separate crimes. crimes. Here's what Barton knew. James Lewis was born in 1946 in Memphis, Tennessee. His family was poor, and over the course of a few years, his parents abandoned him and his six siblings. When he was two, Lewis was adopted, but this wasn't a fairy tale ending. He was a tough kid to raise, to say the least.

It's alleged that when he was 19, Lewis physically assaulted both of his adoptive parents. He was arrested the same day. Lewis's adoptive mother petitioned to have him sent to a mental institution rather than serve jail time. Because of her intervention, Lewis got another chance at a meaningful life. When he was in his early 20s, Lewis moved to Kansas City for college, but he wasn't up to the task. He failed and dropped out, twice. However, something good did come out of it. In 1968, he met his future wife, Leanne, who would later go on to be known as Nancy Richardson. James and Leanne got married after less than a year of dating, and it seems like they were happy together. They started their own tax business called Lewis & Lewis and had a baby girl named Tony. Tony was

the light of their life, but she had serious health problems. In 1974, when Tony was five, she had to have heart surgery. The weeks following the operation were touch and go. Unfortunately, Tony did not survive. An autopsy showed that the sutures in her heart had torn. The Lewis's mourned, but they were there for each other. They also continued to run their business and seemed to enjoy helping people in their neighborhood. One of those people was a man named Raymond West. Raymond was well-known in the community. He was unmarried and had no children, so he had a lot of time to socialize with his neighbors.

When Tony was alive, she liked to sit in the window of the house, and Raymond would wave to her and make her smile. So he was no stranger to the Lewises when they took him on as a client. Raymond was retired and he used their services for a few years. But in July 1978, Raymond called a friend to complain that his tax man was, quote, that his taxman was, quote, hanging around too much and acting fishy. That was the last time anyone spoke to Raymond. Right around the same time, a $5,000 check was deducted from Raymond's bank account. The check was made out to Lewis and Lewis. A few days later, another one of Raymond's friends reported him missing. This friend also described a lot of suspicious encounters between himself and James Lewis in the days since Raymond disappeared. In one instance, the friend decided to change the locks on Raymond's door.

As he did so, James Lewis pulled up and started screaming at him. Lewis eventually left the man alone, but the man was shaken. Suspicion mounted against James Lewis. But before the authorities jumped to any conclusions, they needed more information. This was how Kansas City Sergeant David Barton first learned about James Lewis. He knew Lewis had been spending a lot of time at Raymond's house, so he and his team searched the place twice. During their second search on August 14th, 1978, they found Raymond West's dismembered body in his attic. Kansas City police charged James Lewis for Raymond's murder four days later.

When Sergeant Barton questioned him, Lewis readily admitted that he cashed the $5,000 check. He was Raymond's tax accountant after all, and that was the cost of doing business. But Barton knew better. $5,000 was a lot of money. For reference, that's just under $25,000 today. A regular guy wouldn't pay that much for someone to do their taxes. And Raymond West was definitely just a regular guy. But he did have some extra money stashed away. Barton had looked into his finances and learned that Raymond had between $40,000 and $50,000 in savings. He figured that James Lewis probably knew this as well. Maybe Lewis wanted that money for himself.

Perhaps even more striking, Barton noted in his records that Lewis treated his interrogation almost like a game. It was as though he enjoyed defending himself. Barton left this interview more suspicious than ever. self. Barton left this interview more suspicious than ever. He got search warrants for Lewis's station wagon, and when officers looked through the vehicle, they found alarming clues. Lewis's car contained 34 canceled checks in Raymond's name, Raymond's tax returns, and most importantly, a rope that matched the kind wrapped around Raymond's body when police found him. Lewis was charged with the murder of Raymond West. His trial was set to take place in one year.

As the trial date approached, the prosecutor, James Bell, poured through all the case files in preparation. He knew that getting a conviction would be tough because Raymond's body had been too badly decomposed for the coroner to determine an exact cause of death. But that was the least of his issues. Soon, Bell made a ruinous discovery. When police first arrested Lewis, they did not read him his Miranda rights, and that meant the arrest was invalid. So Bell had no choice but to drop the case. It was over. All of Sergeant Barton's hard work went out the window.

No one was ever tried for the murder of Raymond West. But this wasn't the end for Barton and Lewis. Soon, a twist of fate would land Lewis right back into Barton's lap. Hey there, Carter Roy here. If you're enjoying the chilling tales of murder true crime stories, then you'll love the Crime House original Mind of a Serial Killer. What sets Mind of a Serial Killer apart is its focus on the twisted psychology

of the world's most notorious serial killers. Names like Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, the Night Stalker, featuring expert psychological analysis from licensed clinical and forensic psychologist Dr. Tristan Engels. Mind of a Serial Killer will take you into their stories like never before. So get ready to uncover what drives someone to commit the unimaginable. Mind of a Serial Killer is a Crime House original. New episodes drop every Monday. Just search Mind of a Serial Killer and follow wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow wherever you listen to podcasts.

If you're fascinated by the darker sides of humanity, join us every week on our podcast, Serial Killers, where we go deep into notorious true crime cases. With significant research and careful analysis, we examine the psyche of a killer, their motives and targets, and law enforcement's pursuit to stop their spree. Follow Serial Killers wherever you get your podcasts and get new episodes every Monday. In 1982, Sergeant David Barton went to Chicago to tell the Tylenol Task Force everything he knew about James Lewis. The task force was stunned to learn that Lewis may have narrowly gotten away with murder.

But Barton's story was far from over. What he was about to tell them would lead directly into their investigation. In late 1981, about a year before the Tylenol murders took place, mail carriers in Kansas City contacted the police about rural mailboxes popping up outside of town. The mailboxes had their own addresses, but they weren't assigned to any homes. To the carriers, it was a surefire indication that someone was using these fake addresses to carry out some kind of fraud. David Barton was assigned to the case. He had a team set up 24-hour surveillance on one of the main roads the mail carriers had mentioned.

Shortly after, Barton's team returned with a license plate number linked to none other than James Lewis. In no time, police got a warrant to search Lewis's home. They found a binder that contained instructions on how to use rural mailboxes to commit credit card fraud. Evidence revealed that Lewis had used the mailboxes to scam his tax clients out of more than $17,000. That's over $80,000 today. Barton was ready to finally nab Lewis. He got an arrest warrant and returned to Lewis's home. But when he got there, Lewis and his wife Leanne had vanished without a trace. Barton had to move on, but he always regretted losing track of Lewis. He hoped that one day he'd have the chance to finally bring him to justice. That chance came sooner than expected. Less than one year later, on that fateful day in October 1982, when Lewis's face appeared on his TV screen under the name Robert Richardson.

On that day, task force investigators stared at the mountain of documents and photographs that Barton had laid before them. Barton's story painted a picture of a potentially violent repeat offender. Special Agent Roy Lane Jr., an FBI agent on the task force, began to feel like he understood his suspect now. The task force dug more into Lewis's background and found something that explained one of the lingering mysteries from Barton's investigation. Back in 1981, when Barton and detectives searched Lewis's home in relation to mail fraud, they found a small black book. It was titled Handbook of Poisoning, and on page 196, it explained how much potassium cyanide is needed for a fatal dose.

And investigators had found Lewis' fingerprints on that exact passage. Lewis's fingerprints on that exact passage. For the first time, the task force told the public that they thought James Lewis might be the Tylenol killer. While they couldn't take him down for murder just yet, they could arrest him for the mail fraud in Kansas City, as well as attempted extortion for the letter he sent to Johnson & Johnson after the Tylenol murders. But, as usual, they still had to find him. Just like when Barton first interviewed him, it seemed like Lewis enjoyed the cat-and-mouse game of being chased. He dangled a carrot by sending letters to the Chicago Tribune, the Department of Justice, and even President Ronald Reagan, denying that he was the killer and taunting the task force's fruitless efforts to find the real culprit.

Every letter was postmarked from New York City, but Agent Lane wanted to place Lewis in Chicago at the time of the murders, But Agent Lane wanted to place Lewis in Chicago at the time of the murders, so he and other agents combed through plane and train tickets between New York and Chicago. Unfortunately, they couldn't find the evidence they were hoping for. Thankfully, this wasn't their only tactic. Task Force investigators spoke with FBI agents in New York, who used some good old-fashioned grunt work to alert the city. They passed out flyers and put up wanted posters so folks could be on the lookout.

On December 13th, 1982, exactly two months since Barton saw Lewis on TV, a New York public Library employee spotted a man he thought he recognized. The librarian was on the fourth floor when he noticed the man taking notes from a database of major newspapers. Something about the man made the librarian feel suspicious. The librarian thought they recognized the man's face. They beelined for one of the library offices and threw open the door. Plastered on the wall in front of him was an FBI-wanted poster. It was James Lewis. The librarian immediately contacted the FBI. When they arrived, Lewis was still copying down the addresses of major newspapers. He was arrested, and a judge set his bond at $5 million, which nobody was willing

to pay. And Lewis would be in jail for a while. His trial for mail fraud in Kansas City was scheduled for May 1983, about five months away. His trial for attempted extortion wouldn't occur until that October. In the meantime, Agent Roy Lane Jr. and his colleague, Agent Gray Steed, tried to build a murder case against him. They knew he'd be behind bars at least until the end of the extortion trial, but if he was found innocent, he'd be right back out in the world again and vanish. So they wasted no time. Their biggest obstacle was their inability to place Lewis in Chicago at the time of the Tylenol deaths. But Lewis may have blown his own cover. In his letter to President Reagan, Lewis admitted that he used resources from the travel agency where Leanne had worked

to book travel tickets for them under all sorts of fake names. Agents Lane and Steed wondered if Lewis had done the same thing to return to Chicago and commit the Tylenol murders. But even with this new lead, they never found any hard evidence that Lewis was in Chicago at the time. They had to look for other ways to indict him on murder charges. At least this time, he couldn't run. At least this time, he couldn't run, because on May 26, 1983, Lewis was convicted of mail fraud and later sentenced to 10 years in federal prison. This bought the FBI more time to build a murder case against Lewis, but maybe they were looking in the wrong place. There was still another suspect in the Tylenol murders, Roger Arnold, the bar regular who Chicago detectives Charlie Ford and Jimmy Gilday believed committed the murders. In October 1982,

Ford and Gilday had arrested Arnold on gun charges before he was released on bond. To be clear, Arnold hadn't been charged with the Tylenol murders, but word of his arrest spread through town. The accusation stuck to him. The news called him a psychopath and people vandalized his home. He couldn't shake the rumors and suspicious glares, and he couldn't shake his own anger that grew as a result. Eventually, Arnold's anger fixated on the man who he believed caused all this trouble for him in the first place, Marty Sinclair, the bar owner who had called Ford and Gilday with the original tip on Arnold. Arnold felt like Marty had ruined his life, and he wanted him to pay.

On the night of June 18, 1983, Arnold went out drinking as usual, but he wasn't just having a night out on the town. He was on the lookout for Marty. And eventually, Arnold spotted him leaving a bar with a couple of friends. Arnold made his way toward them. He called out to Marty. Before anyone could say anything, Arnold pulled out a gun and fired. Marty's body hit the ground and Arnold fled. After escaping the scene, he threw his gun into the Chicago River. The next day, after speaking with his lawyer, a sober Arnold turned himself in. He was brought to an interrogation room.

in. He was brought to an interrogation room. A few minutes later, Jimmy Gilday walked through the door. Before asking Arnold any questions, Gilday pulled out a wallet and removed a driver's license. He held up the license for Arnold to see. Arnold glanced at the license, but he was confused. He didn't recognize the man in the photo, nor did he recognize the name, John Stanishaw. Arnold looked up at Gilday. The detective waited to see if things would click, but when Arnold clearly didn't understand, Gilday said, But when Arnold clearly didn't understand, Gilday said, You just killed that man. Arnold had no idea what Gilday was talking about, so the detective explained.

The night before, Arnold, enraged and likely intoxicated, thought he saw Marty Sinclair leaving the bar, but it was actually a man who resembled Marty. That man was John Stanislaw. He was a father, and he had nothing to do with the Tylenol murders, and Arnold shot him in cold blood. Arnold broke down. He confessed to the murder of John Stanishaw and awaited trial at a maximum security prison in Illinois. Detectives Ford and Gilday saw an opportunity here. Despite the investigation into James Lewis, they still believed Arnold was the Tylenol killer. And in their eyes, the harsh conditions at the prison gave them some leverage with Arnold. Maybe if they offered to get him transferred, he might be willing to talk to them more about the Tylenol murders. He'd already

confessed to one murder. Maybe he'd confess to more. But the state's attorney wouldn't allow it on the grounds that the FBI wouldn't allow it because they already had a suspect in custody, James Lewis. Charlie Ford couldn't believe they were still at this crossroads. He accused the FBI of having tunnel vision like he'd said all along he claimed that the agents viewed him and gilday as quote crooked big city cops FBI agent Lane responded with an even temper he claimed that the task force did in fact investigate possible suspects outside of James Lewis. But they had to follow the evidence, and they were certain that James Lewis was their man.

To this day, people are still skeptical whether that's true. In any case, that was the end of Ford and Gilday's investigation into Roger Arnold. The man who shot and killed John Stanislaw would never face charges for the Tylenol murders, but he would pay for his other crime. On January 11, 1984, Arnold was convicted of murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Arnold was convicted of murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison. A few months later, James Lewis would face punishment of his own. He was found guilty in his extortion case and was set to be sentenced in June 1984. But in the meantime, he stayed busy. he stayed busy. He reached out to Agent Roy Lane and offered to help Lane solve the Tylenol murders.

Special Agent Lane was initially surprised when James Lewis offered to help solve the Tylenol murders, but he quickly spotted Lewis' game. He thought Lewis not only enjoyed the attention, but wanted to learn more about the case in order to deflect attention away from him. So Lane flipped the script. He wanted to make Lewis think he was accepting his help, but Lane would actually try to get a confession out of Lewis. Lane enlisted the help of Jeremy Margolis, the assistant U.S. attorney on the task force.

They called Lewis and told him they'd love to talk. Over the course of a few meetings, the investigators asked Lewis seemingly endless questions about the Tylenol murders. In one instance, Lane and Margolis asked Lewis how the killer would have poisoned the capsules. In return, Lewis created seven pages of detailed sketches outlining different potential techniques. In reality, Lane and Margolis were trying to elicit something called a psychotic leak. Essentially, the investigators believe that Lewis still fantasized about the murders and that by making triggering comments, they might get him to mistakenly confess. But in the end, Lane and Margolis didn't get anything out of Lewis that would give them grounds to charge him for murder.

But the interviews did give prosecutors more ammo in the other cases against him. During Lewis's sentencing hearing on June 14, 1984, the judge gave Lewis 10 more years in prison. On top of the mail fraud charges, that's 20 years total. However, he ended up only serving 13 years. In 1995, he was released from prison and moved to Massachusetts with Leanne. And it wasn't long before he got into more trouble. he was released from prison and moved to Massachusetts with Leanne. And it wasn't long before he got into more trouble. Lewis went into business with a woman whose name we don't know, and the two eventually got into a dispute.

Things turned violent. We won't get into details, but according to the Chicago Tribune, Lewis was indicted on the alleged charges of kidnapping, assault and battery, drugging to confine, drugging for sexual intercourse, and aggravated rape. In the end, the woman decided not to testify against him, so prosecutors dropped the charges. By 2007, Lewis was still a free man, but he wasn't off the radar. At this point, Roy Lane Jr. had been retired for about 10 years. The Tylenol murders were considered a cold case, but due to the advent of new DNA testing technology, the case was reopened and Task Force 2 was born. Agent Lane was back on the case. One of their major efforts was to find a match for DNA samples found on the poison pill bottles. They tested samples from James Lewis and from the remains of Roger Arnold, who had passed away by this point. Neither man matched the samples found on the bottles.

But Agent Lane had another tactic up his sleeve. He enlisted a fellow agent to pose as an author who was writing a book about the Tylenol murders. Lane reached out to Lewis and told him the author wanted Lewis's help writing the book. For the next year and a half, Lane and his colleague met with Lewis. They probed his memory, much in the same way Lane and Margolis had back in 1983. his memory, much in the same way Lane and Margolis had back in 1983. Up to this point, Lewis had always claimed that it took him three days to write the J&J extortion letter. This makes sense, considering how detailed the letter was. If Lewis wasn't the killer, he would have had to do his research. During one of their meetings, Lane again asked Lewis how long it took him to write the extortion letter. Lewis told him the same as usual, three days. Then,

Lane pulled out a calendar. He reminded Lewis that the letter arrived at J&J on October 5th, 1982. Back then, investigators couldn't make out the postmark date because it was smudged, but now, new technology allowed them to read the date, October 1st, 1982. Lane pointed to October 1st, 1982 on the calendar. Then he counted back three days. He landed on September 29th, the same day the first victim died. Lewis shrugged and looked at Lane. So what? Then Lane explained that news of the deaths didn't break until September 30th. If Lewis took three days to write the extortion letter,

that would mean he started writing it the day the victims died, before anyone else in the world knew it happened. Lewis squirmed in his seat and admitted that Lane had a point. squirmed in his seat and admitted that Lane had a point. He didn't admit to anything else, but it did give Lane some leverage. Throughout all their meetings with Lewis, Lane and his colleague recorded their conversations on video. They even had other agents trail him. We don't know what intel those agents gathered, but we do know that between surveilling Lewis and speaking with him, Task Force 2 eventually had grounds to raid Lewis's home in 2009. They collected boxes of evidence and confiscated Lewis's computer.

But prosecutors in DuPage and Cook counties, where the Tylenol deaths took place, still weren't willing to roll the dice on whether a jury would convict. And, of course, the raids made Lewis realize that the so-called author's book was a ruse. And for the second time, he realized that Agent Lane was never actually on his side. Lewis was done talking. Once again, the case went cold. Then, in 2022, DuPage and Cook prosecutors' minds were finally changed. Apparently, the FBI had compiled a PowerPoint presentation

with arguments and evidence that James Lewis was the Tylenol killer. The PowerPoint was highly confidential, but Chicago Tribune reporters got their hands on a copy. It explained a lot of what we already know, like the timeline of the extortion letter, but it also contained some information never made public before. If you recall, Lewis's daughter Tony died after surgery when her sutures ruptured. As it turns out, those sutures were manufactured by none other than Johnson & Johnson. The thing is though, while it's safe to assume that Lewis saw a copy of Tony's autopsy report, there's no proof that he knew that J&J manufactured the defective sutures before the Tylenol murders occurred. As the Chicago Tribune puts it, they still have no direct physical

evidence tying him to the murders. The information in the PowerPoint was pretty damning, but it's still circumstantial. But the FBI made a compelling argument to DuPage and Cook County prosecutors. They laid out everything from Lewis's rough upbringing to his violent criminal past and insisted that a jury could be persuaded that Lewis committed the Tylenol murders. However, it all came too late. On July 9th, 2023, James Lewis was found dead in his home. An autopsy determined that he died of natural causes. An autopsy determined that he died of natural causes. And that was it.

With James Lewis and Roger Arnold both deceased, neither suspect will ever be charged with the deaths of seven innocent people. No one has ever been charged. Following Lewis's death, Helen Jensen, the nurse who first figured out that the seven victims were poisoned via Tylenol capsules, said that as a result of what she believes to be Lewis's actions, the American people lost our innocence. In her eyes, Lewis's death is a conclusion, but not necessarily the one everyone wanted. Many of the victim's families agree. Joe Janis, the brother of Adam and Stanley and brother-in-law to Stanley's wife Teresa, said his loved ones have never gone away from him. Monica Janis, Adam Stanley and Teresa's niece, was a child when they died.

In 2023, she said that looking at a Tylenol bottle takes her back to the most tragic moment of her family's life. What happened to the Janis family and the other victims continues to be a terrible tragedy. If there is any comfort to be taken from what happened to them, it's that safety measures have been put in place to prevent another tragedy like the Tylenol murders. And that someone like the Tylenol killer, whether it was James Lewis, Roger Arnold, or someone else entirely, will never be able to inflict that kind of pain and tragedy ever again. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Carter Roy, and this is Murder, True Crime Stories. Come back next week for the story of another murder

and all the people it affected. Murder True Crime Stories is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media at Murder True Crime Pod on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube.

Don't forget to rate, review, and follow Murder True Crime Stories wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference. We'll be back next Tuesday. We'll be back next Tuesday. Murder True Crime Stories, a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios, is executive produced by Max Cutler. This episode of Murder True Crime Stories was sound designed by Ron Shapiro, written by Sarah Batchelor, edited by Alex Benidon, fact-checked by Catherine Barner,

and included production assistance from Kristen Acevedo and Sarah Carroll. Murder True Crime Stories is hosted by Carter Roy. You may know a serial killer's crimes. Now, uncover the psychology behind them. Mind of a Serial Killer is a Crime House original. New episodes drop every Monday. Just search Mind of a Serial Killer and follow wherever you listen to podcasts. If you're fascinated by the darker sides of humanity, join us every week on our podcast, Serial Killers,

where we go deep into notorious true crime cases with significant research and careful analysis. We examine the psyche of a killer, their motives and targets, and law enforcement's pursuit to stop their spree. Follow Serial Killers wherever you get your podcasts and get new episodes every Monday.