James Lewis, prime suspect in the Tylenol murders, found dead

Elyssa Kaufman
Updated ·2 min read
31

CHICAGO (CBS)-- The prime suspect in the 1982 Tylenol murders has been found dead in his Massachusetts apartment.

According to Cambridge police, James Lewis was found unresponsive on Sunday just after 4 p.m.

He was pronounced dead shortly after. Police said his death was "determined to be not suspicious."

In 1982, seven people in the greater Chicago area died after taking Tylenol laced with cyanide.

Soon after, a man wrote an extortion letter to Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary, the maker of Tylenol -- demanding $1 million to stop the killings. The man who wrote that letter was James Lewis. He would later spend a dozen years in prison for attempted extortion.

Sources tell CBS 2 Chicago, this is a frustrating day for law enforcement who've been investigating the case for decades. CBS 2's reporting uncovered Lewis was a prime suspect since day one, and officials felt they had sufficient circumstantial evidence for Lewis to be charged.

 CBS 2 Investigators began re-examining the case back in April; reporter Brad Edwards traveled to Massachusetts in 2022 to try to track down Lewis. Edwards interviewed him.

"I was hoping to see justice," one source told CBS 2.

Lewis was never charged with the murders, but he was convicted of trying to extort $1 million from Johnson & Johnson in the days after the cyanide-laced pills showed up on store shelves.

He was living at the very same Cambridge apartment he moved into after being released from prison.

He was really the only living known person of interest and had not been seen or heard from in more than a decade.

CBS Chicago interviewed family members, attorneys, and law enforcement officers whose lives were forever impacted by the murders. The victims' last moments to stories from inside the internal investigation are documented throughout the interviews.

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