The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 220 - Tylenol Man

Episode Date: November 17, 2016

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine James Lewis and the Tylenol Murders. SOURCESTOUR DATES REDBUBBLE MERCH

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week I read a story from American history to my friend. Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is going to be about. Unless you look at the iPad you had like a cheater. You have been using an iPad this whole time. Do you want to look who to do? I'll do one bottle. People say this is funny. Not Gary Gareth. Stay okay. Someone or something is tickling people. Is it for fun? And this is not going to come to Tickly Podcast. You are Queen Fakie of made-up town. All hell Queen Shit of Liesville. A bunch of religious virgins go to mingle and do what? Fray. Hi Gary. No. Has he done my friend? No.

1946. Nice. Theodore Lewis was born in Memphis, Tennessee. I don't think his last name is Lewis here. That seems to be a mistake I made. Okay. Theodore was born in Memphis, Tennessee. His parents were migrant workers. After the family moved to Waco, Texas. Should it be Waco? Considering recent history, yes. His dad just up and bailed on the family. Okay. A few months later theater's mom took off also. I don't think that's okay. I think that's kind of like a race. The one person's like later you're like oh no it's like it's like when you hand somebody like an empty beer just so they hold it and you don't have to throw it

out. Right. It's like it's not your problem anymore. You got to go throw it out. That's your thing. So that left James who's a toddler and his two sisters who were seven and nine in a transient hotel outside of Joplin, Missouri. Literally the elder is nine? Yeah. So the mom left two girls seven and nine and a toddler in a transient hotel in Joplin, Missouri of all places. Oh this is gonna work out fine. Social workers took the kids and immediately split them up. That's what he did at that time. Break up the family. Yep. The family. Yep. The big brothers agency were placed in charge of Theodore and then they found him a new

home with Floyd and Charlotte Lewis. Okay. Because Theodore's life had already been a nightmare they decided the best thing to do would be to rename him James Lewis. Okay. People. Yeah it's not a cat. I would feel but I would even feel we're doing it to an animal. Animals know their fucking name. You can restate. They figure it out. Cats you can. But a fucking human? Jose's changed his name since the election of Trump. Is that true? Yeah. He's now Joe Sey. And he's doing an accent. He's still coming for him. I already reported him. No. So James could take a couple guys to carry him. Yeah. I mean look it's gonna be heavy. It's gonna be hard. He's now in a situation where you have to call the fire

department to get him out of the apartment. I'm not leaving unless there's food. There's my oxygen. I'm one. James grew up close to a chemical plant that made explosives. This guy's having a hell of a run. His new mom worked in a shirt factory and his dad was a sharecropper. Okay. Jim was not having the best time. His cousin quote. He was in a lot of trouble. A very mixed up boy. He always did things that ordinary people wouldn't. My aunt tried to give him back to big brothers because she couldn't handle him but they wouldn't take him back. So his adopted family tried to return him. And they were told no. Yeah. They were like uh-uh. You fucked that up. Nope. You took him. No. You fucked that shit up. You took the empty beer can. How long you had this four years? You could

totally fuck this up. We're not taking this. Nope. There's like a there's a time limit. Did you check the time limit? We have the receipt. Yeah. Look at the receipt. This is one year. We want to trade him in for another boy. We like that one over there. You already broke this one. Come on. We'll take two. One for two. This isn't Costco. Well come on James. Mommy loves you. When James was 12 his adopted father died. Okay. So it's like this guy's hitting all the points. Well not a lot of people get to lose two dads. Four. Very lucky. The next five years he lived with his adopted mom in a house that had no plumbing or electricity. They're fight clubbing it. They oh Jesus they are. She remarried in 1964. Now a teenager Jim pretty much scared the shit out of his mom so much so

that she started sleeping with a gun under her pillow. Whoa. That's real scared. This is why you don't abandon your children in Joplin and die on them and try to give them back. And why you don't adopt. I don't know why you hate me. I just tried to give you away once. But at school James got good grades played trombone in the marching band and worked on the yearbook. Things were different at home. That's where he would lose it. It is believed that when he was 19 he chased his mother around the house with an axe and was charged with assaulting his stepfather after he broke several of his ribs. He's got a new dad. Yeah. I remember I said she got remarried in 64. Oh yeah. Yeah. Right. Oh wait. But wait he's gone. He died. That one died. Oh no. She remarried. She

remarried. Oh gosh. He's trying to kill his third dad. Yeah. He's trying to kill his third dad. Come on. Have a little respect. I hate threes. It's a shitty number. I want my fifth dad. So he was having such a hard time that he tried to kill himself by taking 36 Anderson tablets. He was then committed to a Missouri state mental hospital in 1966 and diagnosed with catatonic schizophrenia. Okay. So he's he's super. Yeah. It's shit's fucked up. Super. James was also a smart kid to love school. He went to the University of Missouri at Kansas City. There he met Leanne Miller and they were soon married. Okay. He's back on track. He's back on track. But right back on track. The two were social mitzvitz. She was a small and plain and wore

glasses. Leanne deferred to Jim in June 1969. They had a daughter Tori Ann. Okay. Who had Down syndrome. Okay. And tons of health issues. The things are things are coming together. But they adored her. The two started working as bookkeepers for Haley's instant tax service. They managed. We'll do your taxes right now. They managed the business for two years until James lost his shit on the owner. The owner wanted to bring home a calculator for the night and James went bug fuck on it. Oh God. Jesus. That's amazing. He liked his Calchi man. That's my Calchi. Okay. My Calchi. All right. Okay. All right. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. You don't sleep with it. You don't sleep with my Calchi. Sleep with it. You know I sleep with my calculator. Sorry. Sorry.

I don't want the calculator anymore. It's not a calculator. It's Calchi. Oh God. So he was fired. For what? I'm kidding. Soon James and Leanne opened a. I'm assuming he was fired for going crazy about a calculator. Yeah. Okay. So they opened their own tax service business called Lewis and Lewis. All right. When they were there they met and became friendly with an older man named Ray West. Ray was also a client. Ray was there to comfort them when Tori Ann died from complications after heart surgery on December 10th, 1974. Oh boy. So she was around five. They loved her. They talked about her all the time. They were completely grief-stricken and would continue to talk about their daughter and show off her drawings to anyone who came in.

Okay. Now Ray was a lifelong bachelor who lived with his mother until she died in 1977. Okay. Ray was well-known around the neighborhood. He helped everybody out. Every Sunday he brought newspapers to the florist. I guess that's what they back then they wrapped up flowers in the newspaper. So you bring them down. They still did that with like fish and chips in England. Would you bring them newspapers or do they just. They use newspaper. So I'm sure it's gonna get them somewhere. Not the most hygienic. On July 23rd, 1978 he told the florist he was feeling sick and went home. Ray, Ray West. Yeah. Okay. The next day Ray's friend Charles banker couldn't get ahold of him and became concerned. He drove over to Ray's house and found

all the doors locked and the car in the garage. No one answered the door. The cops came. They called James to see if he knew anything and James said Ray had gone to the Ozarks for a few days with his girlfriend. Cops thought sounded good. That sounded good but it was weird to Charles because Ray had never had a girlfriend. Okay. And if he was going away he would tell everyone. So Charles filed a missing persons report. Two days later he went back to Ray's house and found a note written on Lewis and Lewis letterhead. Oh, if I please. What? Let's just okay. Go ahead. I'm already flagging. This is stupid. Quote, Ray's out of town until Thursday for further information called Jim. Charles called the police. This time the cops forced

their way in. Everything seemed fine. They also found a note that said it was on the living room table. It said, quote, please don't disturb until after one. Sleep in late. Raymond. I mean, oh boy. I mean, there are so many problems with that idea. Hey Ray, who you writing that note for? Hey, you never know. In case people think I'm dead. I'm just sleeping late. I don't know. Charles immediately said that was not Ray's writing and he never signed things Raymond. Then the next day there's going to be a note that's like I hired somebody to write these for me. Don't ask any more questions about that. Raymond. Charles then bought new padlocks and locked all the doors. Now, as he was doing this, James drove up to the house, got out of his car,

and ran up yelling, What in the hell are you doing? The right thing. Charles explained that he's putting on new locks. They spoke briefly. Then Lewis left drove around the corner and parked behind a delivery truck and watched what was going on. Super not suspicious behavior. Incredibly not suspicious. So shady. Nothing suspicious about it. He eventually the delivery truck drove away and he just sat there for another five minutes. Oh gosh, I should move. Charles did not go back to Ray's house until August 14. How long of a gap is that? Okay, so he went missing on July 23. Okay. So we're three weeks in. So that's a long time. Yeah. When they arrived, when Charles arrived, he smelled something terrible. Was there a note upstairs farting?

Don't come up. Raymond. He searched the home and noticed there were some slight differences in the bedroom than when you've been there before. Then he moved a sheet and found dried blood. Now police knew they were looking for a body because of the dry blood and because it smelled like a dead body. Oh gosh. Ray had been gone for 21 days. It's summer. They found a lawn chair covered in blood in the basement, raised to pay an eyeglasses in a garbage bag. They checked the attic because there was a giant blood stain leaning up to it that they had somehow missed before. What? And there was Ray decomposed with both legs severed at the hip joints and tons of blood. The evidence show he had been pulled up into the attic by

a harness with a pulley device. Oh my God. But they couldn't figure out the cost of death. No wounds, no trauma. Wait, they couldn't figure out the cost. It was the leg removal. No, that happened after he was dead. Oh God. What? But what they did find was a $5,000 check made out to James that had been withdrawn on the day Ray disappeared. Oh my God. I forgot the police existed. Let me tell you something about this guy. He's a fucking shrewd planner. Good. Smart. Smart. Does not leave any tracks. Smart. Hello, the name's red, red herring. James was arrested. He made excuses for everything and gave fingerprints and a handwriting sample. James said he did not have Ray's checkbook and then police searched his car where they found his checkbook.

Seems pretty open and shut here, David. Along with 20 feet of knotted white rope, which is exactly weird, weirdly knotted white rope was what was used on the pulley. Weird. And a black attaché case with papers bearing West's name. Interesting. And a note that said I murdered him. Oh no, James said he did not kill Ray. Oh really? Okay. Didn't do it. Nope. Didn't do it. Nope. All this stuff is easily explainable. I'm framing myself. So he starts with capital murder. But just before the October 1979 trial date, the prosecutor asked for a dismissal of the case. James had a very good defense lawyer. Police had made tons of mistakes arresting James, including not reading him his Miranda warning, which meant all of the

evidence gathered inadmissible inadmissible. And the coroner still had no cause of death. Okay. James lawyer quote. It is one thing to kill somebody. It's another thing to dismember them after they're dead. And while dismembering somebody after they're dead is repulsive and repugnant. It's not homicide. It's my impression that he did not do it. Wait, there really is no foul play prior to Ray's death. So the lawyer, James lawyer, yeah, says that he doesn't think he killed them, but that he did get out of here, take the body apart after after that. I mean, wow. That is what? Yeah, I mean, look, he's a good attorney. The only thing he's guilty of is removing the legs and putting him in the attic. Some other creep killed him.

Oh, boy. I mean, if the judge was probably like, sorry, I'm going to need that one more time, four more times. This is why we hire the stenographer. Bring that to me. I want to read it. So that was it. The Lewises went back to their accounting business. I'm sorry. That was it. So that they had to drop the case because not reading misrights. Yeah, basically, they fucked up and other things like the chain of evidence and all because they fucked up. I'm going to go get my taxes done by that guy who took the legs off that guy he didn't murder. He's the best. They renamed their accounting business No Legs, Lewis. That'd be the best. Then I would go to them.

All right. So they go back to their accounting business and then they started other businesses. They had a business. They'd started with a pharmacist to import industrial pill-making machines that had been manufactured in India. James liked to brag about his international business connections and deals. But everything he was involved in was failing. Kansas City cops thought James was running a credit fraud enterprise. Quote, he would invent an address, pound a mailbox into the ground, then pull the mailbox out of the ground and move on to the next place. So basically, he's getting credit with a fake address. He's putting a fucking mailbox in some crazy place that looks like there's an address there. Then they deliver the credit card or whatever.

And then he pulls the mailbox out and I mean, this is next level. He's using the same mailbox? Yeah, it's fucking the best thing ever. Now I'm on his side. Now I'm on his side. I mean, look, if you can expose that flaw, I think you're allowed to. Cool credit card. Well, let's get the mailbox. Get out of here. He's also swinging clients in a land deal. Police searched his home, found evidence, and issued a warrant. The Louis's then went on the run in their 69 Dodge Rambler. Okay. They came up with the aliases Robert and Nancy Richardson and moved into a small apartment in Chicago. Leanne got work as a bookkeeper. James just read books and had high brow discussions

with neighbors. Sounds like a fun job. Quote, I thought he was the smartest man I ever spoke to. He always talked about money, not necessarily having some, but he used to go through the financial sections of newspapers all the time and cut small pieces out. Okay. Always a smart person. This is we know this guy. He's the most annoying man on earth. Yeah, he's the new Doseki's spokesperson. The most annoying man on earth. Quote, it was like he went to the Salvation Army and bought his suits. He wanted to look dressed to have a tie and coat on. James always acted like he had somewhere to go, though all he did was walk Leanne to the bus stop and meet her for lunch. Sometimes he got her office to show her a fancy pen he bought.

He was super proud of his handwriting. Here he is. What? Look at that, huh? You believe how lucky you are? Look at that. Look at that. Look at that. That is unbelievable penmanship. Look at that. Bring everybody gather around. I'm going to see this. Oh, I made. Who's doing Z's like this? Honestly. Who's doing cursive Z's like this? Come on. Give me high fives. Who wants me to write him a letter? Thousand bucks a letter. Come on. My letters are unbelievable. You see my handwriting? Don't walk by this. Boy, you're going to wish you could read that again. Whoa. In January 1982, James got a job at Chicago attack service, but it didn't go well. Okay. The owner found a mistake like James had made on a tax form and James completely lost his shit.

He was fired on the spot. It's a calculator too. So then he started doing temp work. Okay. Always fun. Meanwhile, things were not going well at Leanne's job. The new owner, Fred McKayhee, was blowing it. Bank accounts were overdrawn and airlines had pulled the agency's ticketing privileges. He was using company money to pay his personal bills. Leanne quit in April 1982. But before she did, she stamped a stack of blank envelopes with postage from the business meter. The postmark was April 15, 1982. Okay. Yeah, it doesn't make any sense, right? No. The next week, the business was shut down. The owner gave everyone final checks. They all bounced, including Leanne's last check. But Leanne and James had cashed her check at a currency

exchange. When the currency exchange came asking for the money back, the Lewises became quote agitated. They were very adamant in their position that they didn't owe the money that they had worked for it and that McKayhee was a crook and he should have to pay. Okay. Okay. He has to pay. That guy, that guy there. James was reading law books and he got the rest of the employees together and had them file complaints with the Illinois Department of Labor Wage Claim Board. Okay. So with a bunch of documents, they went to the August 3rd hearing with all of her coworkers. James was the group spokesman. Okay. He wanted the wage claim officer to look at the owner's... Let's let the schizophrenic lead this. He wanted the wage claim officer to look at the owner's personal accounts. So he

wants him to look at McKayhee's personal account. Sure. But he can't. That's beyond his scope. He can't look at personal accounts. Okay. James was then told he couldn't speak because he wasn't even an employee and then he went and sat in the corner and watched and then the ruling went against the employees. Oh boy. They were tight. There was no money in the business accounts and that's, that was the end of it. James and Leanne then got into a screaming match with the owner McKayhee and the owner threatened Leanne. Oh boy. Around this time, James got a freelance column published in the Chicago Tribune in July along with his photograph. It was called a slice of Chicago life. It was about people watching for 10 minutes. He cut off some guy's legs. It was a slice of

Chicago. The best pizza in town by a man who removed legs from a body admittedly and probably murdered him. It was about people watching for 10 minutes at State and Madison. It was written in verse. Okay. One well dressed evangelist bullhorn blasting promises of salvation. A one-legged man walking proud and alone. That's awkward. One information booth in the middle of the sidewalk ignored. One blue and white police car sitting empty. Windows open. How far are you getting into this before you're like, I'm never reading another word. Jesus Christ. This guy's amazing. Meanwhile, James and Leanne paid only $50 to the currency exchange and then fled Chicago on September 3rd. Okay. Time for new names. On September 4th using the names Karen and William Wagner. There

we go. The Wagner's. The Lewis's, the Richardson's, the Wagner's. They bought one-way train tickets to New York City where they checked into a shitty fleabag hotel in Manhattan. Again, as Robert and Nancy Richardson. Sure. 95 per week rent. Okay. Leanne found temp work as Nancy Richardson at a real estate firm called Abrams, Benish and Riker. Now back in the suburbs of Chicago, on September 29th. Now this is quite some time. This is about a month later, I think every left. Okay. This is in Chicago. Yeah. 12 year old Mary Kellerman woke up with a sore throat. She took extra strength Tylenol, then collapsed and died. Adam Janus, 27, had a cold and called in sick to work. He took two extra strength Tylenol and fell into a coma at 1154 AM. Mary Reiner,

27, just had her fourth baby. She bought some Tylenol. Oh boy. Took it and was soon in a coma. A 31 year old woman was at work when she said she was going to the back office to take some pain medicine. She did collapsed. All these people were soon dead. The confused family of Adam Janus got together that evening at 5 PM to talk about funeral arrangements. His younger brother had a headache and asked his wife to get him some extra strength Tylenol. He took two and so did she a few minutes later. He dropped in the living room as the paramedics took him out. She collapsed. They both died. The house was quarantined. Wow. Two firemen from different stations were on the phone talking about their day when they realized the similarities in the cases.

They both then looked at their incident reports. And the only thing in common was Tylenol. The police were called. The Tylenol from the first girl's home was found in a police station drawer. A nurse had already grabbed the Tylenol from the home where the three Janus family members had died. As she thought it was suspicious they had all taken the Tylenol. A doctor got a poison specialist on the phone who told them to open and smell the bottles. They smelled like bitter almonds. That's what cyanide smells like. Oh dude. What? I kind of remember this. What year is this? 82. Yeah. Flight attendant Paula Prince came back from a Vegas flight that night, bought extra strength Tylenol at the store, then went home and was murdered by poisoning. She would not be found for

two days. Federal, state, and local law enforcement agents were mobilized. This was the first case of deadly random large-scale product tampering. The Illinois Attorney General Tyrone Fauner was the main spokesman. He held press briefings twice a day, which is great for him because he was running behind in his election. Quote, I was on TV every night. People who didn't know who it was all of a sudden did. Here we go. What? What? Don't you what me? You know you just threw a landmine and told me to step. There were hundreds of people working on the case and it was very confusing. I never remember. This is before computers. Yeah. Could you imagine a case like this? If you're a cop or FBI, everybody's coming in. Yeah. There's no way to fucking really communicate. Yeah.

Yeah. Some law enforcement started withholding information so they could be the one to solve the case. Always good. Always. That's your hearts in the right place. There was, as hacky as it sounds, a difficult relationship between the FBI and the local cops. Well, Dave, I mean, I think we can all see how that plays out. The local cops are there. The feds come in. They shut them down. The small town sheriff all of a sudden has a vendetta. He's going to be the hero in the end. It's these feds. They just can't get their heads out of their own asses. It's a small town guy, hard of gold. He's going to prove them wrong and perhaps get offered to be an FBI agent at the end of all this and say, you know what? No, I'm happy here. Officials focused on getting Tylenol

off store shelves and recalling bottles. Mayor Jane Byrne called for the removal of all Tylenol products from Chicago during a press conference. This started a global panic about Tylenol. Tylenol headquarters look good. How's that? What? Good. What? Glad he didn't go with vitamin C. What's happening? Tylenol makers Johnson and Johnson really didn't want to do a recall. Just sniff them. Is it so hard to just ask you guys to sniff them before you take them? If they smell like nuts, they're nuts, not Tylenol. Guys, look, all we're saying is if it smells like almonds, you will be poisoned by that bottle. But if not, you get rid of a head. Take them. Finally, the company gave to pressure and offered a $100,000 reward for info on the killings.

The company then set up labs and began a long process of testing capsules for contamination. Investigators looked into if it had been done to manipulate Johnson and Johnson stock. They looked into the Puerto Rican terrorist group FALN. Disgrunt those employees everywhere on the drug chain were investigated. Advil. Advil, the Advillers. The Advillers. Shop lifters from stores where the Tylenol were purchased were investigated. Cars that had been ticketed nearby were checked out. Family members and friends and victims were looked into. Now, so where are all that they're all coming from? Ace one source. They don't know. They don't know. They just know now. They have the lot numbers of the poison capsules. How widespread is this? This is just. Only in most of

Chicago. Okay, right. Okay. After the first week, they were getting nowhere. They really thought some evidence would come, but nothing. They must have had headaches. Everyone had a headache, but no, I don't want to take aspirin. None of them. Also, by the way, how hard is it to put cyanide on almonds? Come on. A no brainer. You're going to be fine. But trust me, I was alive when none of us took any pain pills for a while. Yeah, right. And that was the only thing on market was Tylenol. I don't think there was really a bear I think was around. Yeah, but everyone's like screw you bear. We'd rather have headaches. No, no, I love a medicine created by the Nazi Party. I'm sorry. So bear made a lot of money off the whole German thing. You know what, Dave,

is there anything on earth that isn't totally fucked? So after the first week, the investigation is getting nowhere. They really thought some evidence would come, but it wasn't coming. None of the boxes, bottles or capsules had usable fingerprints. The working theory was that the murder had gone to each store, bought the pills, then emptied out capsules and then filled them with cyanide. Oh, God. Return the box to the store shelf, gluing it. So these are like gel caps. Right. So like the openable caps. Yeah. Wow. So they're just, I thought maybe like the actual aspirin just had like cyanide on it. No, he's filling capsules up with cyanide. So that's why that explains dropping dead immediately. Oh yeah. The media were being

pushed by their bosses to get answers that the police did not have. Good. Always good. Meanwhile, in New York City, James is watching the news. Almost forgot about little Jimmy. He's watching the news and coming up with a plan. Okay. To ruin Leigh Ann's boss, Fred McKay. Oh boy. He had been planning this all along. And the Tylenol murders gave him the opening he needed. Now I remember when Leigh Ann left her job, she took stamped, metered envelopes. Right. And because of the investigation into McKay's finances, Lewis had his bank account numbers. So Lewis, Lewis wrote, so James Lewis wrote a letter and put it into one of those envelopes and mailed it to Johnson and Johnson. Oh God. Oh God. He wrote a confession letter. Nope.

October 6, 1982, the letter arrived. Johnson and Johnson, parent of McNeill Laboratories. Gentlemen. Already. Really. Assuming. Yeah. I guess there were no ladies. Sexist work environment. Gentlemen. As you can see, it is easy to place cyanide, both potassium and sodium, into capsules, sitting on store shelves. And since the cyanide is inside the gelatin, it is easy to get buyers to swallow the bitter pill. Another beauty is that cyanide operates quickly. It takes so very little and there will be no more time to take counter measures. If you don't mind the publicity of these little capsules, then do nothing. So far I've spent less than $50 and it takes me less than 10 minutes per bottle. If you want to stop the killing, then wire $1 million to bank

account number 8949597 at the Continental Illinois Bank, Chicago, Illinois. The other attempt to involve the FBI or local Chicago authorities with this letter, a couple of phone calls by me will undo anything you can possibly do. So of course that's McKay's bank account. You know, he's just, you'd think he would learn a little more in the framing game. What? This is foolproof. This is foolproof. How did you find me? You put your bank account number on there. That's the scenario in his head. Use your own envelope. Yeah. Use your own envelope and told us your bank account number. Besides that, someone squeal. So he knew the envelope and the bank account will lead him to McKay, obviously. But his assumption was that the FBI

would investigate him and quickly rule him out for the killings. But during that investigation, they would uncover all of his white collar gripes, okay, which basically is just going bankrupt. Right. Okay. So, okay. So within hours, something happened that he didn't plan on and that was that the FBI had fingerprints from the letter. Oh boy. Law enforcement didn't de-grill McKay, but it didn't add up. They then asked McKay if anyone held a grudge against him. Yeah. Yeah. Mr. Lewis Robertson Wagner. Sure. Jim and Nancy Richardson, he said. Agents found some of Jim's old correspondence from a previous job and the writing was easily matched with the note. Well, I mean, and he's the kind of guy who'd be like, I can't lie,

those beautiful letters are mine. You've caught me. Do you want to see the pen that I wrote it with? I'm guilty of having addictive handwriting. So the FBI went public with the letter on October 7th. James then told Leigh Ann that evening what he had done. She didn't understand. That was your day. Good. Well, so. Oh, I got those nectarines you like. I did something impulsive, okay, with the envelopes that I plan on using. Oh, I thought we agreed we'd talk about those before we use it. What did you do? I sort of tried to frame McKay for that Chicago thing where all those people died. No one's paying attention, I don't think. Oh, I thought you did something crazy. Yeah, that's good. It's good play. It's solid. You want to make sure you have one that's not too firm,

nectarine-wise. When he turned her, she just turned around and stared at the wall. Oh. Oh. Words? Please? Honey? Oh, boy. You know how to make me feel bad. A week later, a warrant was issued and a picture of James was published. Kansas City cops looked at the photo and called Chicago. They said there was actually a guy named James Lewis who was suspected of murdering Ray West. I just took his legs. Enough with that. Can't a guy take off a guy's legs after he's dead? Come on. Not a crime where I'm from. It's not murder. Up until now, law enforcement thought James was just pulling off a hoax to get money. Now they thought he was the Tylenol murderer. Oh, boy. She's really messed up. Though there was another suspect,

Doc Worker Roger Arnold. Roger liked to get drunk and talk. One night, he was talking about the Tylenol murders and someone took note and snitched on him. He was arrested on an old warrant. There were coincidences. He worked at a warehouse with the father of one of the victims. His wife was in a psychiatric ward of a hospital across from the store where the bottle of Tylenol had been bought and he was a closet chemist. Okay. The FBI searched his home and found a bag of chemical powder, beakers, and funnels. But the powder turned out to be potassium carbonate, not cyanide. Arnold yelled at reporters, quote, I'm not saying what the chemicals were used for, but it was nothing illegal. Leave my potassium carbonate alone. Come on. Quit treating me like

a weirdo. Get a fellow like potassium carbonate. I'm just a guy with beakers and potassium. He was charged with assault and weapons violations and then released on bond. He was very, very angry. Then the law turned all their attention back to James Lewis. He wasn't working in New York, but things were about to get difficult for him. By mid-October, 1982, photographs of the Lewises were on television screens and front pages nationwide. Oh, boy. On October 14th, one of the owners of the hotel they lived in saw a bearded James in the lobby. He felt like he knew James from somewhere and asked, quote, do I know you from someplace? Do you live maybe in another building of mine? 94th Street, 84th, 99th, 17th Street?

James said he was from Missouri. It wouldn't be until later the owner would remember where he knew James from. Leanne didn't return to her temp job the next day. Once again, the couple made a run for it. On October 18th, a worker from Leanne's temp job called the New York City Police Department. Cops and FBI agents flooded Manhattan for days, searching block by block, but they could not find the Lewises, who are now staying in transient hotels. On October 18th, they checked into a roach infested shared bathroom hotel. The meeting was all over the James angle. It's talking to his friends and anyone who had ever met him and they all gave differing opinions. Quote, he could talk to you on any subject and convince you no matter how much you knew he knew more. What a dick.

Yeah. Just that's why it's weird that that's why I hate him the most. Yeah. Yeah, I know it all. And another quote. He seemed to have a good heart. He'll be getting a kick out of his life reading about himself and he'll be five steps ahead of everybody. He's that smart. So like that guy. Nope. Next. Others saw a bad guy. The man who gave Lewis his first job in Kansas City said quote, he has the most bizarre personality I've ever met in my life and I've met thousands. Okay, I like it. Another quote. He'd glare. He'd stare at you and not say anything. Interesting. One woman said after minor disagreement, James refused to talk to her for three months. Hopefully you put that time on it right then. Three months. No.

Okay, it's up. So how are you? I'm good. You're crazy. No, no. Ted, your acquaintance said quote, he has ice in his veins. Okay. So obviously, James's plan to get McKay is not going well. Terribly. He's confessed to killing people now. The FBI clearly didn't give a shit about Fred McKay. James has made himself the target. So he sent a death threat to President Ronald Reagan. Oh, that's always the right direction. Hoping to lead authorities to Fred McKay. Wait, he's still Fred McKay. He's like, I wish he didn't take those envelopes. Really? If I can give anybody advice, it's lock up the envelopes. Dear Mr. Reagan, I'm going to kill you.

See front of envelope. Really check this envelope out. In the letter to Reagan, he demanded changes in federal tax policy or the Tylenol killings would continue and the White House would be attacked with headaches, remote controlled modeled airplanes that would jam secret service radio transmissions. I mean, he's droning them. It's so fucking complicated. Yeah, it's so. Yeah. A lot of airplanes, tiny ones, little tiny airplanes, and you guys will be able to talk to each other. Second, when you say like tiny airplanes, like throw this out. Just as tiny airplanes. But nothing happened. So he started writing to newspaper editors. He sent the Chicago

Tribune just in using these envelopes, trying to frame McKay. A bunch of documents about the McKay payroll situation. Oh no. Why isn't anybody getting that? They're not getting that. The real criminal. This is over $500. That's how much the paycheck was. $511. He wrote a letter to the president saying he was going to kill him for $500. And $11 of which he got everything, except for $50. He got it all. It's just that he, wait a minute, yeah, because he screwed them over at a check cashing place. So what is he mad about? What is he doing? This guy fucked up my credit report. I mean, and now the overcorrection that's going on. This is like a stain that you just keep cleaning with the wrong product. Oh God. Okay. Now I think we might just need to embrace a

purple carpet at this point. Honey, all I did was threaten the president this time. That's it. Give me all of your envelopes. Oh my God. You are such a minx. I love you. But let's just wrap it up. I got a right to the Chicago Tribune. All right, I'm going to write one to Nancy Reagan, and then I'll come to bed. So he writes to the Tribune quote, as you have probably guessed, my wife and I have not committed the Chicago area tile murders. Dude, we do not go around killing people. We never have and we never shall. Contrary to reports, we are not armed unless one means in the anatomical paraplegic sense, Waka Waka. Hey, by the way, if you confess to removing a guy's legs, you don't get to make paraplegic jokes. You know that's why he did it, though.

You know that's why he did it. Some of my best friends are paraplegics. I can razz him. We shall never carry weapons no matter how bizarre the FBI and police reports. Domestically, weapons are for two quite similar types of mentalities. One criminals to the police, we aren't either, signed Robert Richardson. I hate him, too. I think this, it's like just it. Well, I mean, obviously he's very hateable already. But that is just he's a very, it's a very annoying letter. No, he's a dick. He's making jokes and he's giving a list. Those are two red flags. In November, he sent the Kansas City star a seven page letter titled a moral dilemma. Quote, I grew up as a southern Missouri hillbilly. Then life was relatively simple.

Values of right and wrong were clear cut black and white. The law was to be obeyed. The sheriff was to be obeyed and respected and on and on. He just went on and on about his whole fucking life story. Okay, blah, blah, blah, blah. He also taunted Kansas City authorities to reopen the Ray West murder case. Okay, which they did. Why would he do that? What is he doing? Why? What like, is this a game show? He's out of his fucking mind. He must know something that no one else knows. There must like a Martian must have come to him and been like, confess in the craziest ways possible. Kansas City police sent representatives to Chicago with boxes of evidence and the FBI found something one latent print off the rope and

pulley in the attic. It was ID'd as the right thumb of one James William Lewis. I thought it was going to be that Wagner guy. During the week of Thanksgiving, James sent another letter explaining he had made the extortion attempt to shine the light on the real criminal, Fred McKay. Now he's just coming out with it. Look, since you're not getting it, I have to hit you over the fucking head. Fred McKay is like, please, James, stop. I'll give you the $50. It is, quote, it is my hope that by sending the friend McKay, he murdered me. What are you saying this? Stop talking about Tylenol. Okay, I didn't do the Tylenol. I did take that guy's legs. This is the real thing. The real thing is

that he owes me $500. Well, not me, but personally, he fucked up my credit. That's worse. You guys have an unhealthy obsession with one man, me, that you're just not going to let it go until you have your way. Very different from what I'm doing to Mr. McKay. Very different. It is my hope that by sending the information to the press, those powers which have prevented an investigation will acquiesce so that the matter can be properly examined. I have attempted to act as an informant to act on the side of the law, but the FBI and their state associations have used their precious resources to terrorize, humiliate, ridicule, and speculate in public about the private lives of my family and me. No. Is this what a person who attempts to be a

good citizen should expect from the United States Department of Justice? Pelt, I mean, good lord. He's trying to point out there's a criminal out there. James versus reality. With this letter, he signed his real name and he put his right thumbprint on the letter. I mean, why? So he just, he's fucking so at the same time as being, he's like taunting them at the same time. Right. But James and Leanne still weren't running. They had just moved a few blocks away in New York. James said they were out on the streets every day, not taking precautions, not hiding. The day before, which I don't know if I believe that, if he's so visible on magazines and newspapers and shit. The day before Thanksgiving, Leanne signed for a $140 money order from her

father at a Western Union office. They were seen on video, but still the FBI could not find them. Leanne got a job as a bookkeeper under the name Carol Scott. Okay. The FBI put out word everywhere. James, everywhere that James could get his hands on a Kansas City or Chicago newspaper, right? So they know he's reading these newspapers because it's clear he was communicating. So then now they're like, okay, he's got to be right at a place where he gets these newspapers smart. And then on December 13, 1982, a New York public library librarian called and said she had just handed a paper to James Lewis. The FBI rushed down and arrested him. James pleaded not guilty at his extortion arrangement, but they still couldn't connect him to the Tylenol murders. They couldn't

connect anyone. The task force was cut down by 80% in January. Tylenol returned to store shelves. They were now as we have now without cyanide. There's a little, there's a little cyanide free. Like they've come up with a little cartoon character, cyanide free. Yeah. Sammy cyanide says nope, nope. No. Okay. So now Tylenol was as we know it today, tamper resistant. The drug company had lost. So before this, it's literally just a box and a and inside is the the bottle and you just pop it open. And that was it. And there's that's it. Right. Now they've got a seal. They've got the cotton cotton. This is this the cotton is from this cotton was originally used for prescriptions that had like maybe a temperature situation or couldn't be moved around a lot.

So cotton was put in there for a specific purpose. And there's never with Tylenol or aspirin. So now you've got he's the reason. So now you've got the you've got the cotton, you've got the resistant top right that you have to puncture to get it sealed. That's all that's all because of this. Wow. Not him, the tall but the guy whoever it is or the person. The company Johnson Johnson had lost $100 million and new regulations were now instituted by the US Food and Drug Administration before 1982. Right. Only moisture and temperature sensitive medications have protective seals. Now they all did. Lian would not speak to investigators. She was charged with misappropriating the social security number she used to become Nancy Richardson.

She was offered a deal but never spoke. Wow. Computer just looked at the wall. Yeah. Nancy is a poltergeist. Disappointed. Oh boy. She's singing the disappointed song again. Computer consultant John Staniscia was leaving a Lincoln Avenue bar on the morning of June 18, 1983. Staniscia looked like the bartender previously accused and still angry Roger Arnold thought had snitched on him. He's the bar. He's okay. Right. Got you. Yeah. The glue slips sky. So he thinks this is who snitched on him. Okay. Right. Arnold walked up to Staniscia, yelled you turn me in and shot him in the head killing him. You think I'm capable of killing people? Now you know. I am not. Oh wait. No. Take backs. Wait. Oh no. Arnold would be tried and

convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Wow. That's kind of light. After a six day trial, James Lewis was found guilty of attempted extortion on October 27, 1983. Okay. He was extorting himself. He was 37. In prison, James offered to be of a... Okay. First of all, no one would eat his pastries in them. Wait. Whoa. Excuse me? None of the other prisoners. He worked in the kitchen and they refused to eat his pastries. Oh, because they were like he's gonna make cyanide empanadas. I think that's what they were doing. Yeah. They also gave him the technique, the nickname Tylenol man. Oh man. That is. Hey, Tylenol man. Don't want to eat your pastries. My name is James. Okay. Okay. TM. Don't Tylenol man. What's going on? I didn't have anything to do with it.

I wrote it in an envelope. Hey, Tylenol man. I'm not Tylenol man. I just took a man's legs once. Huh. You know what? Stick to Tylenol man. Okay. So, he's in prison and there. So, he hasn't been sentenced yet, but he's in prison having been convicted, right? He's in that time period. So, he offers to be of assistance to the Tylenol task force. You know what? I think we should team up. You know what? I'm clearly a mastermind of some kind. Look, you guys are deep in this. I'm deep in this. Let's pool our resources and come to the conclusion that it was probably macaque. Come on. You like if they said yes to that? Look, we have three zones here. We're looking for the guy. Yeah. Also, I think we should probably reopen the macaque part. I mean, that guy is just such

a dickhead. You know he owes me $50. He called assistant US attorney Jeremy Margolis, who had helped put him in jail. Margolis and James met several times in Margolis's office discussing and theorizing on the murders for hours and hours. Why is he allowing that? So, James is actually maybe making, go ahead. James came with quote, probably hundreds of pages of manuscripts, diagrams, and theories as to how these killings might have happened. Is he humoring him or is he like actually like, you gotta point there, James. The cops, despite the problems with the theory, have decided that he did it. Oh, they think that James did it. A bunch of them did. Okay. Okay. And he did not. Fuck no. Yeah, right. He just, he framed right. Yeah, he just, he just, he did, he did the worst

framing job possible. Could this moron pull off the Tylenol murders? No. He's a fucking moron. What he could do is pull off implicating himself in the Tylenol murders that he had nothing to do with. So in one drawing, James went into great detail about how a breadboard could be used to put poison into capsules by drilling holes in the board, then placing empty caplet halves into the holes, then filling them with cyanide and scraping off the excess with a knife, recapping the capsules, and then putting them back into the original containers. He said it could be done in a store parking lot. So he's, I don't know why he's, I just think he likes to talk and be heard, but this is actually a smart idea on how to do it. So he is making it look like he did it by coming up

with his ideas. Yeah. That work. That he's nailing it. Right. So FBI agents and policemen were there during all the meetings, taking notes, hoping Lewis would screw up, but he never did. No. That's what I did. No. I know what I say. I'm talking about the other one, like the eyeball that your eye in your head. I'm going to actually shock a lot of people here. McKay, he didn't do this. James was also not happy about the judge who convicted him, or his defense attorney, Michael Monaco, his attorney then stepped down. James filed a motion that the judge should be removed because he had relationships with corrupt teamsters, affiliations with the same attorney general's office that refused to investigate McKay and statements

to the federal bar association calling prisoners who acted as their own attorney psychopaths. Okay. The motion was denied. Oh, shocking. James was sentenced to. Can you kill McKay? No. Dammit. James was sentenced to 10 years in prison, where he's obviously called Tylenol man. In 1987, he filed for a sentence reduction. Okay. Quote. This is what he writes. Lewis was convicted not because he committed any crime, but because the US attorney Daniel Webb in open court threatened to kill the jurors with poison and with a gun. The defendant will never forget the fear in the jurors eyes. Mr. Webb committed the crime of extortion in open court and acted amounted to jury tampering. No one complained the

poor jurors when they themselves were the victims of such acts of terrorism. Wait, that's completely bullshit. It is the craziest thing that he's done so far. Okay. Now he is starting to crack. I mean, this isn't a great sign. Yeah. Well, you can easily go through the court records and be like, yeah, there's no, no, I don't see him. I don't see anything about poison. There's nothing about a gun in here. Nothing about him pointing a gun at the jury. Well, there we go. You will convict. You will convict. We don't need to deliberate. And if you don't, I will shoot you and poison your families. I rest my case. We're with him. We, what did they, yeah. Yep. Guilty. There we go. No way you can appeal this. Yep. So shockingly, his motion was denied.

On October 13, 1995, James Lewis was released from the federal penitentiary at El Reno, Oklahoma, and went straight back to Leanne, who was waiting for him. In 2009, the FBI and the Illinois State Police executed a search warrant of James Lewis' apartment in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Nothing was found. In 2010, Lewis and his wife, Leanne, gave DNA samples at the request of investigators. No charges have been brought. It's not known why they conducted the searches as the warrants and affidavits were impounded by the court. The public cannot examine the court filings. With the Tylenol case being reactivated, no one outside of the case can examine the investigator's records from the 82 or 86 or currently active investigations are exempt

from the Freedom of Information Act. There's, they, okay. But, but if they're still looking at James Lewis in 2010, it means they do not believe their own long-held story that a lone madman bought the Tylenol, purchased it in stores, and then put cyanide in and replaced it. Because he was in New York at the time. Right. So they're going against their own long-held theory, absolute theory that that's what happened. In 2011, former Johnson and Johnson employee and whistleblower, I didn't write down his name, but he wrote a book called The Tylenol Mafia. In it, he breaks down mistakes investigators made. They treated Tylenol coming off the shelves like a recall instead of an investigation.

And all capsules were shipped to Johnson and Johnson and destroyed them. Less than 1% of capsules in Chicago were inspected. So that means we actually don't know how many cyanide capsules were out there. They were all destroyed. Right. Johnson and Johnson is not going to fucking tell you. Yeah. They said they found one. Really? Really? So it just happened to be that seven people got them? Mm-hmm. Yep. What do you think, Johnson? I'm with it. Yeah, for sure. I agree with Johnson. Investigators immediately targeted people like family members and tried to build a case against them instead of following leads. Any possible DNA evidence was contaminated in 1982 because lab workers used their bare hands. Oh, God. They also thought Mary

Reiner's capsules had come from a bottle of regular strength Tylenol, but she had actually mixed extra strength Tylenol in with her regular strength. At that time, women got extra strength Tylenol when leaving the maternity ward, which means it was in the hospital chain, which means it was not tampered with on a store shelf. It means it was in the supply chain. One lot number of pills, so the lot number that she had on her pills, was originally put on the list and then later removed from lists by authorities. Why? Because they didn't want it known that it... Oh, God. They never looked at repackaging facilities. So the way this works is acid, acetaminophen powder is made at a plant, and then it's shipped in drums, and then it's bottled

or broken down into other sizable quantities at what's known as a repacking plant. So wait, so, okay, but so within this, this could just so easily, this just so easily is a crime from inside. Like someone is making the acetaminophen or someone who is like working in packaging or that's... Yeah, right. Right, so it's broken down at this other place. Early reports stated that no evidence of the packaging had been violated. So originally they say in early, early reports that the Tylenol was not tampered with. And then that was just... That doesn't fit the story. Then it was just gone. Right. Right. So Westchester DA Carl Vigari, he believed that, that was what the evidence he was going on,

and he spoke out and said, in any criminal investigation, you don't accept the statements of a witness who has interest in Johnson & Johnson, in this case, is certainly not a disinterested party. So he's off the range with all the other cops. Right. And then the FBI and FDA clamped down saying, quote, sophisticated scientific techniques have revealed that tampering indeed occurred. And then Vigari never spoke about it again. Okay. So that being said, this is, this was an entirely new way of people dying, of people getting killed. Right. They didn't, they always look for motive. Right. So this was a whole new way of looking at. Right. Killings. Super, please show us please

superintendent. I mean, it's a terribly insane Polish name, BRZCZEK. I mean, who's... Brzeczki. Says, quote, this is what he says as of 2012. My opinion is that this was an initial homicide where the bad guy knew the victim and that was it. And then to cover it up, the bad guy went and contaminated the other ones. This motive makes the most sense to me, but it doesn't because now it is clearly maybe our first domestic terrorism thing. 2012. Rick Kaplman, Sergeant with the Arlington Heights Police. Without divulging any more than this, the investigation is at this point open and active. They are actively pursuing leads even at this date. Superintendent... It wasn't James Lewis. James Lewis was an asshole and opportunist. He tries to extort some money from Johnson and

Johnson and he went to jail. He was in the joint a long time. When someone is in the penitentiary, you can go and talk to him with or without his lawyer present in all those years, all the work on James Lewis to put it together. Nothing. Well, so there's two things I think. I think that number one, it was a new kind of crime that they weren't used to dealing with. I also think they fucked up pretty big with evidence. But I also think that when you're in the desperate, desperate place trying to find anything and then some fucking nut job comes in, of course they swung to him. Which happens a lot. I think which happens a lot. I think a lot it's like you're in the business of answering questions

and when you don't have answers, people get frustrated. So you need to find something that fits. And it's a whole nother... They didn't understand that some rando could fucking do it for some ridiculous reason at a plant. Who's still out there, by the way. Which is crazy. Yeah. It reminds me in that sense of it's so interesting that there are times where there's just a completely new thing that we have to fathom. It's almost like a color you never knew existed. And you're just all of a sudden like, oh shit, it's everywhere. And it's crazy. I think I just remember hearing about that. But I remember like... I remember the fear and how big of a deal it was. But the fucking James Lewis thing is just...

Yeah. I was just going to write a story about the Tylenol murders. And then you were like, hello. Wait, what the fuck is this? Hello. Calculator fights. Yeah. Well, it's always fun to sit around and have a laugh in these interesting times. Why? What's going on? Indians lost their words here. Are you talking about Chelsea Handler coming back?

Yeah. Yeah. Hey, I just want to throw a shout out to Chelsea Handler because she talked about leaving the country. But she said that people need her now in her voice. And I think she's right. And I just want to thank you, Chelsea. But I've never seen you this emotional. Yeah. It's been delighted. There's a crazy level of Hollywood self importance that I think is delightful.

And I think it's really important to know that you, Chelsea Handler, now in today's world... It's brave. You're brave. It's brave. Thank you for not moving to Canada. Yeah. The Spain, I think, was the... Thank you for speaking for those who can't speak, Chelsea Handler. Yeah.

Thank you. Yeah. Boy, you... How do you feel? Jesus Christ. Santa cares. Uh, what did you say? Santa cares.