On this day in 1982, a sick 12-year-old girl in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, unwittingly takes an Extra-Strength Tylenol capsule laced with cyanide poison and dies later that day. She would be one of seven people to die suddenly after taking the popular over-the-counter medication, as the so-called Tylenol murders spread fear across America. The victims, all from the Chicago area, ranged in age from 12 to 35 and included three members of the same family. Johnson & Johnson, the maker of Tylenol, launched a massive recall of its product and offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person or people responsible. At the time, it was unusual for companies to recall their products.
Turns out the capsules weren't laced at the factory, they were taken off the store shelves, laced and returned. While the Tylenol murders were never solved, the crisis led drug makers to develop tamper-proof packaging, which had been largely nonexistent before the Tylenol Terrorist struck.
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