Netflix unpacked one of the most infamous unresolved mysteries in Chicago in “Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders” | TV / Streaming

“For relief, you can trust, trust Tylenol. Hospitals do it. ” – From a television advertisement from 1981 for Tylenol.

In the second episode of the documentary series in three parts of Netflix True Crime “Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders”, James Lewis raped an additional Tylenol box for four decades after he became the first suspect in case, and said to the filmmakers out of camera: “Do you think I will open this and send me to camera projects?”

His face was masked in a kind of semi-repeat smile, Lewis struggles with the leaf seal on the bottle, noting: “It’s quite well sealed … Everyone opens a bottle and swears my name.” It’s a scary and scary moment in the last interview with Lewis before his death in July 2023 – but he was not mistaken about the people who curse his name.

For those of us who remember the tylenol murders of 1982, in particular those of us who lived in the Chicago region, it is practically impossible not to think of this horrible chapter in our history whenever we fight a little with a retractable strip on a bottle of drink, a seal of induction on personal care products or in the places of the plastic helmet or other drugs against the drugs. There were certain types of Sabor -resistant packaging, however, it was the shocking murders of seven innocent people who took Tylenol capsules prevented from potassium cyanide that caused the era of the restorative and regulated packaging.

“Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders” is the Second Documentary Series to Revisit the Case in Recent Years, on the Heels of the Five-Part Paramount+ Project Titled “Painkiller: The Tylenol Murders” in 2023. (I Gave That Series Three Stars at the Time.) Much of the Later Series Focused on the Efforts of 13-Year-Old Isabel Janus and Her Efforts to Find Answers to the Tragedy That Took the Lives of Her Eunt and two big uncles, as well as the efforts of journalist Brad Edwards to find Lewis, finally meeting him face to face the Lewis building, Lewis refusing to engage.

The Netflix series has production values ​​and higher benefits to have this interview with Lewis. He does a solid job of the chronicle of the case thanks to the required use of memories of investigators, journalists and friends of the deceased, combined with instructive graphics mixed with archive images – but if you know the details of the case, there are no revolutionary revelations that are found in the two series. Many staff members responsible for the application of laws who were part of the investigation remain convinced that Lewis was the killer; Others argue that Lewis, who served 12 years in prison for sending a note of extortion to Johnson & Johnson, could not have filled crimes.

In addition to the two documentary series on this case, Chicago tribune The investigative journalists Christy Gutowski and Stacy St. Clair organized a firmly original podcast entitled “Uncedled: The Tylenol Murders” in 2022 – but we have never seen a big and spishy, ​​drama or streaming series, ala “Zodiac”, “Sam”, “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmmer Story” Monster: Jeffrey Dahmmer Story “,” Mindhunter “, The Monster Story”, “Mindhunter: The Monster Story”, “Mindhunter: The Monster Story”, “Mindhunter: The Monster Story”, “Mindhunter: The Monster Story”, “Mindhunter: The Monster Storou Versace” The film of Netflix “extremely bad, shocking badly and vile” about Ted Bundy, and AL.

There are so many twists and turns, so many amazing coincidences, so many indelible images, so many moments of spell that is in this story. Stanley and Teresa Janus joining a family rally to cry the death of Stanley’s brother, Adam, only for Stanley and Teresa to take Tylenol at home and also succumb. The mayor of Chicago, Jane Byrne, called a live television press conference at midnight to announce a ban on the city of the sale of all Tylenol products. Police cars go up and go down the street to give warnings and police striking at the doors. Warnings broadcast via an analysis of news during football matches. (Getting information in the masses was such a different thing in the days of pre-internet and pre-social media.) James Lewis writing a letter of extortion from the zodiac to Johnson & Johnson, writing, “Gentlemen: as you can see, it is easy to place cyanide, both potassium and sodium, in seated capsules.” The bizarre and tragic episode involving Roger Arnold, who became a suspect (but was exempt), blamed a local bar owner for having put him back to the police, went to the bar who intended to kill the owner, but mistakenly shot a father of six 46 -year -olds who looked like his target. Not to mention the case of Westchester’s County’s Woman, NY, who died of cyanide poisoning after having ingested Tylenol capsules in 1986 – a few years after the death of the Chicago region, and while James Lewis was in prison.

In the latest episode of the Netflix series, the Special Agent of the FBI, Gray Steed, notes: “I think we were actively involved in the case, believe that James Lewis not only wrote the letter, but planted the cyanide leading to the death of seven people”, while the former police officer of Chicago Surint. Richard BRZECZEK says: “James Lewis is an A ******, but he is not the Tylenol killer.”

After more than four decades, we are there. We could see more documentaries or podcasts of real crime, perhaps even a theatrical version or a dramatic series in streaming one day. But it is likely that Tylenol murders will never be resolved. We will never know with certainty of the identity of the Bobolier who did not crawl through an open window or do not hide under a bed, but terrorized a community through the placement of random boxes of pain on the local shelves of the stores.