Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders is a 3-part docuseries, directed by Yotam Guendelman and Ari Pines and produced by Joe Berlinger, about the still unsolved 1982 case of 7 random people in the Chicago area who died when they took Extra Strength Tylenol capsules that contained cyanide. At least 7 people died before word got out to stop taking the popular medication and its manufacturer, Johnson & Johnson, pulled it from shelves all over the country; copycat poisonings later in the 1980s killed others, as well.
Opening Shot: At what looks like a recreation of a 1980s detective room at a police station, reports about the 1982 Tylenol murders play on a TV.
The Gist: Guendelman and Yates talk to detectives and federal agents that investigated the case, as well as families of some of the victims. One of the things that the detectives and medical examiners try to give is perspective on how tough it was to even determine that these random people, from a 12-year-old girl to seemingly healthy adults would literally drop dead. The fact that they took Extra Strength Tylenol capsules right before they died was the only link; when a medical examiner recognized that the manner of death could have been from cyanide poisoning and tests for it came back positive, the link to the Tylenol was made.
Once the link to Tylenol was established, Johnson & Johnson worked quickly to warn everyone in the US about the dangers, going so far to recall every single bottle of Extra Strength Tylenol capsules on store shelves. Given that Tylenol is one of J&J’s best-selling and most profitable products, it was in their best interest to be in front of this issue.
Another piece of perspective is a reminder of what drug packaging was like in the early 1980s. There was no tamper-proof packaging then, no seals that would be broken if a cap was opened. The capsules could be opened, the medicine poured out, and another powder subbed in; it wasn’t hard for someone to take a box off a shelf, open up the bottle, put in a couple of tainted capsules, and put it all back.
The investigation did turn to a man named James William Lewis, who was linked to a threatening letter sent to J&J. But authorities have never been able to prove he poisoned the Tylenol.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? This is the second installment of Cold Case series produced by Berlinger. The first was Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey? There was also a 2024 docuseries about the murders called Painkiller: The Tylenol Murders.
Our Take: For people who weren’t around back in 1982, Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders is an informative look at how truly scary those killings were. Tylenol was (and is) a ubiquitous drug that people take every day for headaches, muscle aches, fevers, etc. The idea that you could take a tainted capsule and drop dead from it was truly frightening, and no one was spared from being a potential victim.
The story took over the media in the fall of 1982, and J&J took out somber TV ads warning people to stop taking Extra Strength Tylenol. It was an unprecedented event, but it was also one that generated lots of changes that people take for granted now, like over-the-counter drugs coming in tamper-resistant packaging. If you get annoyed at those plastic wraps around caps and covers over bottle openings, it’s because of the Tylenol murders all those decades ago.
All of that, and the investigation into Lewis and other leads that continue to this day, will be a part of this series. And it’ll be interesting to see how far the investigation has progressed in the decades since.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: James Lewis is interviewed in the present day. We see him, with his glasses perched at the end of his nose, saying “I wouldn’t hurt anybody.”
Sleeper Star: We’ll give this to the production designers who were able to reproduce what Extra Strength Tylenol looked like back in the day, to give people a good indication of how easy it was to put poison in the capsules.
Most Pilot-y Line: It’s a bit of a nitpick, but we wanted the first episode to go into a few more details about how the connection was made to tainted Tylenol capsules, and how they managed to find examples of them.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders is a good recap of a case whose impact has definitely been forgotten in the intervening decades.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.