On the morning of September 28, 1982, Mary Kellerman, a 12-year-old Chicago resident, was given a Tylenol tablet by her parents in response to complaints of a sore throat. A few hours later, she was dead. Kellerman was the first of at least seven people who would die in short succession in the Chicago metropolitan area after ingesting cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules. Those deaths and how they happened are the subject of Netflix‘s “Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders.”
In the three-part series, directors Yotam Guendelman and Ari Pines revisit the terrifying deaths that sparked nationwide panic, which turned into a public health crisis and led to Johnson & Johnson, the makers of Tylenol, to take swift action and create tamper-proof seals. Before the Tylenol poisoning case, medications and food items were frequently stocked on shelves with just a screw-on cap and no seal. The series, executive produced by Joe Berlinger, also reexamines the case – one of the largest U.S. criminal investigations that has never been solved.
Via interviews with key players, including FBI agents and police involved in the case, Guendelman and Pines investigate how the poisoned Tylenol bottles arrived on store shelves: Were they deliberately contaminated with cyanide? Or were the capsules accidentally contaminated at a Johnson & Johnson plant?
In addition to speaking with key players in the investigation, Guendelman and Pines (“Shadow of Truth”) also interviewed victim family members, journalists who reported on the murders, as well as the case’s primary suspect, James Lewis. Lewis was sentenced to 10 years in prison for writing an extortion letter regarding the poisonings, but his DNA was never linked to the suspect bottles.
“For 40 years, the investigation was focused in a single direction, which is Jim Lewis’ aspect,” says Pines. “What we tried to do in the series is broaden the scope. There are more theories out there, and they have a lot of merit in them.”
“The Tylenol Murders” is the second edition of Netflix’s Cold Case franchise. The inaugural series, “Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey,” began streaming in 2024 and was directed by Berlinger.
Variety spoke to Guendelman and Pines ahead of the series’ May 26 Netflix launch.
The doc investigates how Johnson & Johnson may or may not have played a role in the Tylenol murders. Are you hoping that the series will reopen the case and the investigation into Johnson and Johnson?
Pines: Johnson & Johnson is one of the biggest drug companies in the world. Tylenol to this day is one of their most popular drugs. I think in a case like this, when you realize what was at stake and what is still at stake, it’s very important to investigate every possible angle very thoroughly.
The series does not include any interviews with a representative from Johnson & Johnson. Did you reach out and request an interview?
Guendelman: We did, but they didn’t want to comment. Sometimes that is connected to the fact that big pharma companies (have been) under fire for many years now because of the opioid crisis and then the baby powder crisis.
The Tylenol murders forever changed how we view the products in our medicine cabinets. Do you think that, as a result of this series, people will become afraid once again to take Tylenol?
Guendelman: I think safety seals generally work. If the crime happened after the factory, of course. If it was within the factory, then we are screwed. But I hope people will not get scared, even though it is scary.
Pines: This is a very different type of true crime doc because in most documentaries that we see about murder cases, there’s a killer who actually murdered someone physically with a knife or a gun or some sort of weapon. It’s usually very graphic. In this case, the killer had no connection to the victims. No motive, yet there is something very scary in this uncanny notion that something as everyday as a pain reliever can suddenly turn into a weapon of mass murder.
How did you track down James Lewis and convince him to do an interview?
Guendelman: Our producer, Molly Forster, was the one who actually contacted him and got him to speak. She was talking with him and visiting him for, I think, probably a year before he actually agreed to sit in front of the camera. It was something that we knew we needed to do for the show because he is the most interesting character in the show.
The series makes it clear that testing for cyanide after someone dies is not typical. Do you think more than seven people died after taking Tylonel in 1982?
Pines: There probably are more cases. Cyanide becomes untraceable so fast. Even law enforcement to this day thinks that there’s probably more victims than only seven, probably many more.
Guendelman: I just wanted to add that the fact that all of these seven victims were so young, I think the oldest was like 30-something, there were probably other victims who were older who were likely treated as if they had a heart attack or some sort of natural death.
variety.com
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