Criminal: The Tylenol Murders Still Unsolved

Chicago, September 1982. A 12-year-old girl wakes up with a sore throat. Her parents give her a Tylenol capsule. She collapses and dies. Within days, more people across the Chicago area fall ill and die. Nobody knows why.

Investigators eventually discovered the common thread: capsules of Extra-Strength Tylenol had been laced with cyanide. Seven people died. Panic spread across the country almost overnight.

In this episode of Criminal, host Phoebe Judge walks through the 1982 poisonings and the frantic search for whoever tampered with the bottles. The show is known for its calm, careful storytelling, and that restraint makes the story hit harder. It is a tight look at how ordinary shelf items became a source of fear, and how the response changed the way products are packaged and sold. Tamper-resistant seals on medicine, food and drinks trace back to this case.

And the biggest question is still hanging. Decades later, no one has been convicted of the murders. Investigators have revisited the case over the years, and it remains officially unsolved. Who put those capsules on the shelves, and why? Press play tonight and listen on Apple Podcasts, or find it wherever you get your podcasts.