Photo:AP Photo/Charles Krupa
AP Photo/Charles Krupa
The primary suspect in a string of 1982 murders in Chicago that resulted from Tylenol that had been laced with cyanide died on Monday.
James Lewis, was found unresponsive on Sunday just after 4 p.m. and was pronounced dead shortly after at the age of 76, police in Cambridge, Mass., told PEOPLE in a statement.
Though he was never charged for the deaths, Lewis was arrested in New York City in 1982 for sending a ransom letter to Tylenol manufacturer Johnson & Johnson demanding $1 million in exchange to “stop the killing,” according to theAssociated Press.
While in police custody, Lewis detailed to investigators how the suspect who was behind the killings may have operated. He admitted to sending the ransom letter, but said he hadn’t intended to collect on it, the AP reported. He spent 12 years in prison but always denied his involvement in the Tylenol poisonings.
Since the initial investigation, there have been several attempts to renew the case from Illinois authorities, including one in 2009. During that time, the FBI seized several items from Lewis’ home and he ended up giving his DNA to the FBI, per the AP.
The Chicago Tribunethenrevisited the caselast year in a podcast series, which re-examined the documents in the case and found that the postmark letter on Lewis’ ransom letter appeared to show that he had written it before the killings became publicized, per NBCNews.
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Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy Margolis, who had prosecuted Lewis for extortion, toldThe Chicago Tribuneand CBSNewsChicago that he “was saddened to learn of James Lewis’ death” — not because of the death itself but because Lewis “didn’t die in prison.”
Helen Jensen, a retired nurse who previously helped treat the victims in the Tylenol poisonings at a Chicago hospital, told the AP that she hoped Lewis’ death might help the victim’s families find some closure.
“His death is a conclusion. Not necessarily the conclusion everyone wanted,” Jensen told AP. “But it is an end. I’m 86 now. And I am glad I got to see the end before I die.”
source: people.com
