Daywatch: Plans for golf project near Obama Center have stalled
Good morning, Chicago.
Forty one years ago, 12-year-old Mary Kellerman of Elk Grove Village swallowed an Extra-Strength Tylenol capsule after she woke with a nagging head cold. An otherwise healthy child, Mary died hours later despite doctors’ efforts to save her life.
Within 24 hours that same day — Sept. 29, 1982 — six other Chicago area victims would suffer the same inexplicable, catastrophic injuries after taking the painkiller. Their deaths sparked a worldwide panic after medical professionals quickly traced the cause to the over-the-counter medicine, which had been laced with potassium cyanide.
No one was ever charged with the murders, which led to the adoption of tamper-evident packaging.
Earlier this year, law enforcement’s lone suspect for decades was found dead in his home in suburban Boston. An autopsy later revealed James Lewis, 76, died July 9 of pulmonary thromboembolism, a blood clot in the lungs.
Authorities long maintained they had a “chargeable, circumstantial case” against Lewis, but prosecutors were hesitant to seek an indictment without direct physical evidence.
The unsolved murders and intense focus on Lewis were the subject last year of an award-winning Tribune series and companion podcast, “Unsealed: The Tylenol Murders.” Find it all at chicagotribune.com/tylenolmurders.
— Stacy St. Clair and Christy Gutowski
Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day.
Puzzles & Games | Today’s eNewspaper edition | Subscribe to more newsletters, including Chicago Theater Loop: A new newsletter just in time for the fall theater season
Tension between city and state over migrant crisis on the rise — as are cost estimates
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration defended his proposal to erect tent encampments for migrants arriving from the southern border amid mounting criticism of a security firm contracted for the plan and rising cost estimates for dealing with the steady stream of asylum-seekers.
Plans for Tiger Woods golf project near Obama Center have stalled, but hopes remain for restoration of existing courses
While the Obama Presidential Center is rising in Chicago’s Jackson Park, a closely related project favored by the former president continues to languish.
Backers still hope to resurrect the grand plan for a new professional tournament-quality course next door, but with little progress, residents remain anxiously waiting for restoration of two existing courses.
Trump Tower, one of the largest users of Chicago River water, sued again by state after failing to meet EPA rules to protect fish
The glass-and-steel tower, emblazoned with a sign spelling “TRUMP” in letters more than 20 feet high, is one of the city’s largest users of river water for its cooling systems. It siphons nearly 20 million gallons a day through intakes so powerful the machines could fill an Olympic swimming pool in less than an hour, then pumps the water back into the river up to 35 degrees hotter.
Judge finds two police officers not guilty in on-duty Pilsen shooting
Once a rare occurrence, the case is among a number of trials in recent years involving charges brought against police officers alleging unjustified use of force in on-duty incidents.
Christopher Liakopoulos, 44, and Ruben Reynoso, 43, were charged with two counts of aggravated battery with a firearm and two counts of official misconduct, all felonies. Liakopoulos has been with the department since 2001 and Reynoso since 2003.
Chicago’s trailblazing Black photojournalists are back together through an exhibit of their work
Photography brought four friends, teachers and trailblazers together at the South Side Community Art Center on a recent Saturday afternoon to talk about their work as Black photojournalists for Chicago’s mainstream newspapers in the 1960s and 1970s.
Those four men taught photography at the South Side center and, in 1973, they created an exhibit for the center titled “Through the Eyes of Blackness.” The exhibit, which was brought back 50 years later on Sept. 16, showcased dozens of photos from each man — Chicago Tribune veteran and Pulitzer Prize winner Ovie Carter; Chicago Sun-Times veterans Bob Black and Howard Simmons; and John White, who started with the now-defunct Chicago Daily News and won a Pulitzer with the Sun-Times.
Fans pay $1 to bid farewell to the ‘just horrible, a disaster of a season’ White Sox
Sharing in the collective misery of a nightmare season may have cost White Sox fans sleep, joy and even dignity. But at the team’s fourth-to-last home game Thursday, it at least didn’t cost much money.
The ballclub offered tickets for 89 cents — $1 with taxes — for its matchup against the Arizona Diamondbacks. And for the thousands of fans who came to cheer and grieve, the opportunity to bid farewell at a bargain was much needed.
Signature Room restaurant and lounge close after decades in former Hancock Center
A message posted to the restaurant’s Facebook and Instagram accounts Thursday afternoon addressed the “unexpected challenge” and said the closure, effective immediately, is permanent and comes with “profound sadness.”
Review: In ‘Mesmerized’ at Chicago Children’s Theatre, Ben Franklin solves a science mystery
As one of science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke’s adages goes: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. So if you happen to be the king of France in the 1700s and there’s a doctor waving around a magic wand and claiming to be able to pull a remedy for anything that ails you seemingly from thin air, who better to take a look than famed scientist and inventor Ben Franklin?
That mystical place between science and magic, the supernatural and the real, sits at the heart of Chicago Children’s Theatre’s world premiere production of “Mesmerized: A Ben Franklin Science & History Mystery.”
