From "The ‘Tylenol murders’ terrified a nation. The main suspect is dead at 76. Seven people died in 1982 after taking cyanide-laced Tylenol pills, sparking a national panic" (WaPo).
James W. Lewis became a suspect after he was discovered to be the one who sent a letter to Johnson & Johnson that said "As you can see, it is easy to place cyanide (both potassium & sodium) into capsules sitting on store shelves. If you don’t mind the publicity of these little capsules, then do nothing…." He demanded a million dollars. He was convicted, but only of extortion.
Ten years later, he gave an interview in which he (O.J. Simpson style) explained how he'd have done the murdering if he had. He'd have been "a heinous, cold-blooded killer, a cruel monster." But he was just the husband of a woman Johnson & Johnson had fired.
Do you remember the Tylenol panic of 1982? We became aware that we had no way to know whether the items on the store shelf were in the same condition they were in when they left the factory. There were endless opportunities for nefarious characters to intervene. But in the end, we were appeased by the abandonment of the capsule format. Johnson & Johnson invented the "caplet" — a pill in a capsule shape — and imposing "tamper-proof" packaging.
Lots of people, myself included, thought the Tylenol brand was ruined. It was associated with sudden death. I was surprised to see the brand survive. Perhaps most readers of today's obituary are learning about the murders for the first time and have had no idea of an America before "tamper-proof" packaging and caplets.
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35 comments:
Today, he would have shorted the stock and never been caught. Good thing criminals are dumb.
I remember it well. Never bought capsule form pharma before or after this wakeup call.
I remember it well. Just prior to that I had turned down a job offer from J & J. My best friend in grad school had accepted and he was working at corporate at the time. I thought I had dodged a bullet, but J & J ended up looking in good in the way they handled the crisis. It became the case study for others in how to communicate and cooperate with the public and those investigating the event.
The brand ended up not being ruined, as it could have been any brand of headache medicine that could have been tampered with. Instead, being the first to create the "caplet" a new (not really), safe form of the product.
Unfortunately, J & J itself has forgotten the lesson. See Ethicon and DePuy.
"I was surprised to see the brand survive."
This was before my time but I had always heard the CEO making the decision to pull the bottles nationwide immediately and mitigate future hazard by sealing bottles was what saved it.
Unlike Bud Light, rapid and conscientious about faces can and will save reputations. Sadly this lesson appears to have been lost in corporate America.
The brand survived due to Johnson & Johnson's public reaction to the incidents: being straightforward with the public, pulling millions of dollars worth of product from shelves, cooperating fully with the investigation, not fighting lawsuits from the affected families, implementing safeguards, etc.
It was clear to the public that J&J was not responsible for the deaths, and poisoned caplets could just have well come from any other pharmaceutical company's products. Indeed, there were many copycat incidences of poisoning or reports of poisonings from products of other companies very soon thereafter.
The Tylenol poisonings incident is looked on in retrospect as a masterclass on how to restore public confidence in a tainted product.
Back then, we were shocked and alarmed but, of course, accepted it as true because it was reported by the major news anchors and newspapers. I wonder how such an event would go today? Would we feel we had to pick sides on its validity?
we became aware that we had no way to know whether the items on the store shelf were in the same condition they were in when they left the factory.
fortunately, NOW, the factories are in China..
And there is no way to know what condition they were in when they left the factory.
We need to move production back into the United States,
for better labor laws
for better environmental laws
for better production laws
for the simple fact that When (not IF, WHEN) armed conflict starts with China, we won't receive their products
Don't think we'll be in an armed conflict with China? Did ya think that we'd be in an armed conflict with Russia?
The only REAL Question is: Will Our war with Eurasia be still going on when our war with Eastasia resumes?
Magic 8-Ball: Sources say YES
I never left aspirin, having missed whatever scare was designed to cause that.
I was fifteen years old when the Tylenol Murders went down and remember it very vividly. A curtain of trust was torn away then, never to be replaced. I was shocked by the realization of how easy it was to commit mass murder that way! We drink and eat everything, everything goes into our mouths, I mean look at us!
After that time every item in the store was suspect if there was even the slightest defect in the aluminum and then plastic seals. I opened my Starbucks Macchiato coffee creamer this morning by gently pulling the plastic ring with a satisfying snap that indicated no nefarious vengeance-seeking husband has tampered with this sweet sweet liquid. Especially since it comes at eight dollars a bottle!
I can afford an eight dollar bottle of coffee creamer because I buy my pain pills for 2 cents a pop!
Tylenol costs roughly $10 for a bottle with a hundred 500mg pills, or 10 cents a pill. The same acetaminophen/paracetamol pills will cost you 2 cents if bought without the Tylenol brand name.
For a 500% markup you are getting pills that are put through an American quality assurance process. If you want the cheap no-brand, you will be relying on Chinese quality assurance.
In both cases the ingredients will be coming from China, the difference is where the factory is and how it is run.
Personally I would not buy a Chinese car at any price, but I'm popping their pills whenever I need.
A couple of years ago I had a stroke caused by a pill. That particular one was manufactured under the tightest quality control our fine pharmaceutical companies can provide. My insurance company paid $57 for that pill and then $145,000 to treat what that pill did to me.
Two-cent pills, one hundred forty five thousand and fifty seven dollar pills, what's the difference amirite?
I'll tell you why the Tylenol brand survived. It's because they were a sympathetic victim. They weren't negligent; no one was securing products back then. Tampering was just something that didn't happen! They were just a regular company putting out a good product that helped people and they got screwed. The people at Tylenol weren't seen as some greedy bastards that cheaped out on consumer protection, they were victims and after they and the rest of the industry started to proof their packaging people said well they did all they could do and now everything is safer, what else can be done?
Have you ever thrown out a perfectly good item because you didn't like the way the tamper seal looked?
I remember the 1982 Tylenol panic.
It was a huge boon to the packaging industry with whom I did some consulting ten years later.
We were living in Chicago at the time. My bride worked at the Bureau of Prisons MCC where Lewis was detained. A true sociopath.
The serious and quick response (pulling all product nationwide immediately and coming up with solutions to mitigate the threat) by J&J, plus the understanding by the public (they weren't a skittish herd) that this was a malicious actor(s?) exploiting unrealized vulnerabilities went a long way to saving the brand.
Business schools used to use the Tylenol story as a case study in how to respond to a problem with your product. To my knowledge no contaminated packages were found outside of the Chicago area their product recall was nation-wide. J & J tan commercials telling consumers not to use Tylenol until they had made the packaging tamper-proof.
It cost them a lot of money, but they saved their brand and, if I’m recalling correctly, actually increased their market share.
Whether they still teach J&J’s response to a crisis as a case study, well, looking at Gillette and Anheuser-Busch and other large firms in recent years, I’d say the lesson has been lost.
Really crazy how weak we were on crime back in the day
If I had been a family member of one of those 7 dead people, that man would not have reached the age of 76. He was clearly the one who laced the capsules and got away with being a serial killer.
My dad was an ER Physician working that first night in the Chicagoland area. I was in 7th grade. I remember he called home to say he would be late, that he suspected he had a patient with cyanide poisoning. So, my dad was the first ER doctor to diagnose the first victim.
He came home, and the doctor on the next shift ended up being interviewed on the CBS national news. I asked my dad why he didn't stick around to be interviewed, and he simply replied he didn't want to be on TV and wasn't interested.
A kid in my Jr. High at the time (Elmhurst, IL) had an aunt that was one of the victims. Seems crazy now looking back that the tamper proof seals were not implemented long before this incident.
Tylenol, Acetaminophen, 500 mg, 225 count $18.34
Rite Aid, Acetaminophen, 500 mg, 225 count $13.99
Amazon Basic Care Caplets, Acetaminophen, 500 mg, 500 count $11.38
(Amazon prices)
Why do people buy any Tylenol brand acetaminophen?
Tylenol survived by taking immediate action -- stopping production of capsules, removing their product from store shelves, exchanging capsules with tablets, and committing to not put new product on store shelves until it could be produced and packaged in a safe manner. They did not adopt a bunker mentality. They communicated their plans, and expressed compassion for victims. It was clear that Tylonel was not "at fault" for the tainted product. No food, drink, or medicine product was distributed in the tamper proof manner that we are accystomed to today. Tylonels quick and responsible actions was rewarded with trust by consumers. Tylonels lesson of effective disaster response has been unlearned by manufacturers and industries since 1982.
I remember the 1982 Tylenol panic.
It was a huge boon to the packaging industry with whom I did some consulting ten years later.
And the landfill industry.
According to Wikipedia:
Lewis sent the demand letter and was convicted for that alone.
“In 2007, authorities determined that the letter had an October 1, 1982, postmark, meaning that, if Lewis's
timeline was accurate, he would have begun working on the letter prior to the first news reports concerning the poisonings.”
It took the “authorities” from 1882 to 2007 to examine the postmark.
I was in marketing at my company and we had a lunchtime consultant come in and lecture the marketing staff on two disasters, the Tylenol murders and Union Carbide's Bhopal gas tragedy. The consultant explained how J&J's reaction to the Tylenol issue was absolutely the right one, whereas UCC's Bhopal response added to the tragedy and resulted in the company's eventual demise. All of those attending were pretty well assured that we had learned a great marketing lesson, until the corporate head of marketing informed us (after the consultant had left) that "of course, we wouldn't handle any situation like that like J&J did."
I guess some people never learn...
This guy's crimes went way beyond Tylenol:
In 1978, he was charged in Kansas City, Missouri, with the dismemberment murder of Raymond West, 72, who had hired Lewis as an accountant. The charges were dismissed because West’s cause of death was not determined and some evidence had been illegally obtained.
Lewis was charged in 2004 with rape, kidnapping and other offenses for an alleged attack on a woman in Cambridge. He was jailed for three years while awaiting trial, but prosecutors dismissed the charges on the day his trial was scheduled to begin after the victim refused to testify, the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office said at the time.
"Product surety" (tamper evidence, counterfeiting diversion etc) used to be one of my specialties.
Nothing, nothing at all is tamper"proof" the best you can ever hope for is tamper resistance and/or tamper evidence (shows it has been tampered with.
I can even replace the contents of a sealed food can using tools found in most kitchens. You won't detect it even if I tell you it might have been tampered with.
Be careful what you buy and where you buy it.
John Henry
Tylonels lesson of effective disaster response has been unlearned by manufacturers and industries since 1982.
The Tylenol story is still taught in business schools, isn't it? Probably not in the one that "Bud Light" marketing genius attended.
J&j no longer makes Tylenol.
As of 1 Jan they spun off all consumer products as "Kenvue"
Nyse listed in may
Owes several billions in talcum powder settlement
John Henry
Blogger gilbar said...
we became aware that we had no way to know whether the items on the store shelf were in the same condition they were in when they left the factory.
fortunately, NOW, the factories are in China..
And there is no way to know what condition they were in when they left the factory.
We need to move production back into the United States,
We have no idea of what is really in those Chinese products while they are in the factory, let alone after they leave.
I remember broadcasted grainy security cam footage of at least one of the victims selecting a bottle. As a kid, I found that very creepy.
I didn't remember what became of the perp.
To this day, it crosses my mind when I get a bottle of shampoo etc that has no protection.
Black Bellamy,
Was the pill manufactured wrong?
https://youtu.be/pPh9eQ0m6-I
John Henry
Typing,
Lederle (now part of Pfizer) used to make pipericillin in Puerto Rico. They made Lederle brand name and generic pipericillin
Both identical raw materials, processing, people. The only difference was the label.
Bacardi makes Bacardi brand rum and another bar brand rum. Same rum, same bottle, same everything but the label.
Rite-aide, Walgreens Walmart, CVS, and 100 other brands of Aspirin and acetaminophen and ibuprofen and and 500 other products are made byperrigo in Allegan MI.
"Contract drug Manufacturing" is a huge business. As is contract food, beverages, batteries and everything else manufacturing.
It is different from "generic manufacturing" perrigo makes nothing under their under their own brand.
Mylan makes generic drugs like aspirin but sells it under the Mylan name.
John Henry
"James W. Lewis"
I am reminded of this guy every time I go to open a new bottle of pretty much everything.
I was in my 3rd year of law school, with a products liability class amongst my course load, and it made an opportunity for discussion.
"I can even replace the contents of a sealed food can using tools found in most kitchens. You won't detect it even if I tell you it might have been tampered with."
Have you seen the last episode of Season 1 of The Bear on Hulu? :-)
Bellamy,
Tylenol in a variety of presentations (along with motrin) is made in Las Piedras Puerto Rico and Fort Washington PA by Kenvue, formerly j&j. I've spent a lot of time in the pr plant over the past 40 years including most of this April and May.
Most store brands of acetaminophen aspirin and ibuprofen are made in in Allegan Michigan. I've spent time working in that plant too.
All American all 3 plants.
The active pharmaceutical ingredient (api) for both companies for all 3 products is mainly imported from India and China.
It is supposedly regulated by us fda. Reality is that enforcement is sporadic and lax.
Barbara Egan has done some terrific investigative reporting on this in the past. Mostly in Fortune. Most is findable online.
John Henry
Sorry Katherine Eban not Barbara Egan.
Index of articles here.
https://fortune.com/author/katherine-eban/?page=2
John Henry
My Property Law textbook used a case that arose from the poisoning. Saddest case I had to read. A brother and sister-in-law of one of the victims both took tainted Tylenol at the victim’s home after his funeral. Both died at nearly the same time. The issue was who was the beneficiary of their estate.
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