It is SO refreshing to hear about a company that actually did the right thing in the face of this tragedy. Including actually paying for advertising telling consumers not to use their product!
1 there was no coming back from that kind of negative publicity without immediate over dramatically positive press. Otherwise like the rest of their mishaps they are settled out of court and pushed under a rug. J & J did it to save face definitely not because they cared that much. They are bad bad bad to the bone!
I absolutely love that they just settled on the lawsuit and didn’t go to court… That’s awesome and a good way to say I’m sorry even though there no real way to say sorry on a death..
I was in my 30's, married with 2 children at the time of the Tylenol Murders. My wife and I, immediately threw out all the Tylenol we had in our home. It was strange when tamper-proof products started showing up everywhere. Until then there was a sense of human decency. The age of innocence and trust that was a common part of life, was gone forever. I remember it created a whole new awareness in everything, not just medication.
The fact that three people in the SAME family died within hours of each other from Tylenol is absolutely terrifying. I can't imagine the family's horror and confusion just hit with continued waves of grief. I also feel terrible for Mary Kellerman's family, she was so young and I imagine that her parents felt a lot of guilt for giving her the Tylenol.
I remember this. They didn’t have the tamper proof packaging for the same reason that they didn’t have metal detectors at schools. No one could imagine that someone would do something like this.
@@viiperbiite Some do, depending on the type of troublemakers common to the school or the school district as a whole. It's more common in urban schools than suburban & rural town schools.
@@viiperbiite I know most schools in NYC do, but it depends on the school district. I think they’re supposed to detect firearms because of school shooting fear.
I knew about this case since I was a kid, but I never knew that Tylenol is basically the reason why we have safety seals; or that they never caught the person who did this. Very interesting yet unsettling case!
I just still cannot believe they never found out who did this. Like they could still be out there living their life... it's so creepy. There were two kinda similar cases in Japan, the coca cola murders and the paraquat poisonings, if you wanna read about those.
This story is studied in marketing classes. Johnson and Johnson pulled ALL Tylenol from every store shelf and disposed of it. They completely changed packaging by putting those lid seals on the jars and the jars into the boxes. It used to be that you’d go and get a jar on the shelf. Everyone thought it would be the end of Tylenol. But since J&J pulled ALL Tylenol from every single shelf of every store in the US, it is seen as a marketing success story.
The compressed pill tablets became more popular after. Some complained that they were difficult to swallow so they put a sugar “microcoat” on them, similar to the old version but tamper-proof (only if you completely replaced them).
I completely agree!!! Kendall has an unbelievable amount of respect when covering cases & always strives to incorporate and share the story of the family who have been affected!
Can we just take a moment to appreciate Kendall struggles with reading due to her dyslexia and still perseveres with research to bring us her amazing videos!
I myself was a very famous detective (well, still am) back in 1982. I trailed and found the killer but he took a child hostage and forced me to drop my gun and he got away.
This is why anti-tamper packaging is required on most over the counter medications. The Federal Anti-tampering act was passed after this tragedy making it required.
I remember the Tylenol scare. We just never thought about someone poisoning anything before that happened. It was just normal for products to not have safety seals, but looking back now, it just seems weird they ever were made without them.
I can't even imagine how horrifying it would be to lose one member of your family, and then HOURS later several more die, seemingly out of nowhere. It baffles me that the person who did this never got caught!
Adam buying flowers for his wife makes me both so happy and so sad. Like one of the last memories she has is him coming home with their little kids and a bouquet of flowers. They were just supposed to have a normal night.
I thought of this case when all those social media 'stars' were opening ice cream containers and licking them in the store. That was just gross but could have easily escalated quickly.
I learned about this case in pharmacy school during our pharmacy law class! -- Also, side note- The reason your doctor only wants you to take Tylenol (aka acetaminophen) is because NSAIDs like aspirin and Advil (aka ibuprofen) can cause birth defects. Specifically, when taken in the later stages of pregnancy, NSAIDs can prematurely close the ductus arteriosus, which is a blood vessel that normally closes spontaneously after birth. If it closes too early while the fetus is still in the uterus, it can cause serious damage. This risk is associated with the third trimester. In Oct 2020, the FDA also released a warning saying that NSAID use at 20+ wks of pregnancy can lead to rare but serious kidney problems in the fetus. HOWEVER, I feel like the safety of Tylenol is a little over-exaggerated. Yes, it is generally considered safe in pregnancy, especially compared to NSAIDs. Definitely use it if needed; high fever can harm the baby so it should be treated appropriately. But it's not without its own risks. Large doses can do some serious liver damage. Please be careful not to overdose (quite easy to do unintentionally: lots of cold medicines- like Dayquil, for example- have acetaminophen added to them for pain and fever relief so read ingredient lists carefully). And of course, consult your doctor/pharmacist if you have any questions or concerns :)
i wish to be like you. you’re awesome. side note - i once took too much mucinex for my cold and went to school and was high for hours. never again lol.
Thank you for explaining! I am wondering how could people overdose “accidentally “? I’ve been giving my 8 month old Tylenol for teething and it’s the only thing that helps on the worst of days! My normally happy baby has been SO miserable 😕
Unfortunately, Tylenol just doesn't work for me, especially for muscle aches and pains (I have an old back injury that causes a lot of pain). The only OTC med that helps in that case is Advil (ibuprophen). I try to keep it to a minimum though.
I actually learned about this in a college level mass media course a couple years ago. Because like Kendall said, it was taught as an example of good crisis management in PR.
I learned about this case in my Forensics class in high school because we were learning about fingerprints and handwriting samples so we used this case to learn more about that.
I remember this case specifically being a covered topic at the university I graduated from with a PR specific degree (also in the Chicago area) because of the same reason of crisis management in PR. I am interested to know if other college not local to the area discuss this specific case in communication related degrees.
@@ElizabethNicoleSchwartz I totally agree with everything you said, I should have specified that PR was a concentration of the communications degree at the college I went too just like mass communications was too. For me, it’s local in the the sense that the areas mentioned are roughly 5 minutes away from the area I live in. I was surprised by the lack of information that I did not know.
I was a very young child at the time this happened. I barely remember it except for my mother racing through the house in a panic and tossing all the Tylenol into the trash. Tying it up. And taking it out to the trash can. It was a very scary time in Chicago.
Yes I recall that. I was just shy of 15 and it was a scary summer. Everyone was throwing out their Tylenol. Stores took it off their shelves. Very scary indeed.
I feel like this changed my mom to this day. I remember my mom being so scared after this crisis. She changed a lot over nignt, constantly checking and double checking everything. Even to this day she's always worried about things being tempered with. I remember clear as day standing in the bathroom as a kid and seeing my mom going through the medicine cabinet grabbing the Tylenol and flushing it down the toilet, she actually wore dishwashing gloves to open the bottle. It's so weird hearing this story again, I remember it like yesterday. Nobody thought Johnson and Johnson would ever recover from this
This is literally what happened with oxycontin and other opiates. They lead everyone to believe that it was safe and didn't cause addiction or any adverse effects while fully knowing it was addictive and making doctors prescribe it for every little thing possible.
The fact that cops went down to neighborhoods to announce not to take Tylenol just goes to show how far we've come technology-wise. I remember my dad mentioning this and he remembers throwing away a bottle of Tylenol. Crazy that they never found who did it. That's how I learned that this case is the reason we have safety seals on all OTC medications.
Right? I thought too the suspect got caught and do remember this as I was a young girl in Tennessee and it was scary to then imagine a culprit going around slipping poison into store products sold changed my perspective even at such a young age.
I find these cases so interesting, the “why are things the way they are now” kind of stories. I feel horrible for the families and how scared everyone obviously was at the time.
I called my grandmother and asked her about this. She was in her early 20s and she said it was very weird. Everyone was flushing their Tylenol or sending it back. She said it was scary but it was also strange because back then you didn’t really think of this
There's a similar case that happened that was solved it was a woman called Stella Nickell that originally murdered her husband with Excedrin and to cover it she tampered with extra bottles and placed them on shelves in other stores.
@@graceyoung3771 Me too! I was sitting here asking my husband am I crazy? I KNOW I remember it was a woman who killed her husband and tried to make it look random. Came to the comments to see if anyone else knew what I was talking about. Relieved to know I wasn't having a completely false memory!
I was in my 30s when this happened. Even before people were told to throw away their Tylenol, we threw ours away. It was scary to buy almost anything that wasn’t sealed properly. Even food products. We watched the stock market plummet, and heard of the changes being done. Even when it was ‘safe’ again people became loyal to other pain companies. Then before you knew it, all medications came super sealed. Shortly after that you’d find toys in shrink wrap. Then they went to hard plastic. Everyone’s faith was shaken for a few years. Most people felt sorry for Johnson & Johnson, knowing this also ‘happened’ to them. We weren’t sure if they would ever recover.
I feel like Tylenol is always considered the “safest” pain reliever, as it does not cause the same bleeding, stomach upset, kidney damage, etc. that ibuprofen and aspirin can. It’s very upsetting to think about feeling so safe taking a medication, only for it to result in these terrible deaths.
Nothing is 100% safe. Also, every persons body is different. The only thing that can even put a dent in my pain other than opiate pain medication is ibuprofen.
Yes, and in pregnant women, ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) & Aspirin products are contraindicated because they can cause an important passageway in the baby’s heart to close when taken in late pregnancy (after 30 weeks). That passage needs to stay open while the baby is still inside the uterus and is meant to close up soon after birth.
@@littleNica98 there were 4 or 5 additional deaths attributed to tainted Tylenol in Western States. This was a random sabotage by single individual connected to or worked in Chicago distribution center.
honestly Johnson and Johnson proved to be so amazing in this case. They were for the people here, even marketing against their own brand? wow very nice, wish more companies cared like that.
My mom told me about this about a year ago… lol… she mentioned it because she was complaining about the packaging in various food, medicine and other home products that she has trouble with opening due to her carpal tunnel syndrome. She then told me how the Tylenol murders precipitated more regulations and standards for packaging on medicine and all products really.
Hello! Certified Pharmacy Tech here! This is still being covered in pharmacy training/school today. I wasn’t born during the Tylenol case but I remember (and worked during) a recent mass recall of Zantac. It was never brought back to shelves or pharmacies.
I'm glad you covered this! People in Chicago, and in general in the midwest (I grew up in Ohio) have a HUGE distrust of Johnson&Johnson products after this. Then, there was the baby powder fiasco (bottles laced with asbestos)! When the J&J vaccine came out, there was huge pushback bc of the lack of trust with J&J. I'm 27 now, but I remember my parents and grandparents literally wanted nothing to do with J&J products. I still hesitate to take Tylenol, even though my doctor says I need to stop taking ibuprofen.
That is so crazy because I’m from Ohio too and 26y/o. Realizing now we have NEVER had Tylenol in our house growing up or many J&J products. That’s crazy I’m now putting that all together!
Your dad was right, this story is really scary & maybe even more terrifying than a serial killer, because imagine taking a paracetamol & dying after, its crazy.
@@DavidKen878 dude I'm trying to be nice. Idk if this was a joke or not but dont be so pessimistic. She seems like a genuinely good person. Why did you feel the need to say that?
@@Me-iq4se I just asked how you would know if you don't know the person. Especially since you're basing it on arbitrary things like being nice. That's all.
I always thought it was someone trying to kill a specific person and they tampered with more bottles to complicate the case. I seem to remember a case similar to that around the same time
@@caitlynnbright84 yeah they caught her. it was a lady who tampered w a bottle of excedrin to give to her husband, and to cover up her actions afterwards she went and tampered w ones on the shelves.
Outstanding presentation. I remember 9/30/82 as if it were yesterday. I was a hospital administrative employee at the time....on the heels of HIV beginning to infect people locally....,sheer terror. The nurse practitioners with whom I worked were stellar, absolutely strong and inspiring. I'll never forget their integrity and their ability to calm panicking patients and employees.
A fascinating story, and it’s so taken for granted that these days there’s tamper-proofing on products. I’m so gutted they never figured out who the culprit was. Perhaps one day this will come to light.
I remember this happening. People were scared everywhere, not just Chicago. For a while, no one would even buy it. That's why a lot of things have tamper resistant packaging now.
Wish there was a way to make tamper resistant packaging less wasteful tho. A lot of it is plastic. There needs to be more environmentally friendly alternatives.
I've heard this story before, but I had no idea that J&J were so proactive when it came down to the safety of their customers. I have to admit, I am impressed with how quickly they handled things. Good for them.
I actually lived in Arlington Heights in the 80’s and remember this well! I can’t believe it hasn’t been solved yet! Such a tragedy! Thank you for sharing this story
Kendall Rae, have you ever heard about the story of 17 year old Brittanee Drexel? She ran away from New York to Myrtle beach for spring break and has been missing ever since. It’s 5:11 AM and I’m up thinking about her. Her story was the first story I heard about and it’s what got me into true crime. It’s been 13 years and I still think about her and wonder if justice will ever be served. Praying for her family.
I remember this, my Mom searched the whole house, my Dads company, everywhere. She had a bucket full and took it to the hospital. They were also collecting the bottles.. it was big stuff.
I love Kendalls true crime videos. She is a great storyteller and she cuts straight to the point. No wasted time. Excellently paced. Just wanted to say that.
i was just telling my kids about this happening, and how that’s the reason for the foil AND the cotton AND the child proof tops on all aspirins now. this was wild.
Sooo I’m Australian and we don’t have cotton in our pill bottles. I just found out about this through googling it after reading your comment and I’m so weirded out! That’s a good idea, though.
@@erm492 yes, i do remember the cotton being in the bottles back when I was a kid now that you say that! maybe it was just the foil and then the plastic on the outside that was added. crazy to think things weren't packaged that way before this! (with the plastic on the tops)
I was 8 years old when this happened. My Mom threw away everything in our house… Flintstone Vitamins, St Joseph’s aspirin, Tylenol. It was mass hysteria.
Back then "tamper proof" didn't exist. Oddly enough though, no one even thought about people messing with stuff like that. Until the Tylenol poisonings. My biggest fear when I had my son was Acetaminophen Toxicity.
I remember when this happened. I was in grammar school. I am from Chicago so the panic was real. My mom had the Tylenol tablets and I remember her saying to my stepdad “See??? I told you the tablets are better than the capsules.” I guess she was team Tablet all the way.
I’m just a little older than you (based on your comment), it was still an instilled fear when I was growing up by had subsided by the time I was around 9. So it possibly subsided when you were a toddler. Might be why you didn’t hear about it.
i know right! I'm thinking about pain and fevers... like, if we as humans had a bit of a higher pain tolerance, I feel that maybe tylenol wouldn't have come back from that at the speed that it did... I don't know..
I heard this case from my mother, I was complaining about how much packaging my aspirin had and she was like “That’s to protect it from being poisoned, that happened with Tylenol in the 80s” I was like “what!!?” scary af. I regretted complaining about it lol
You must have been so anxious, I can't imagine. What was the discussion around it like at the time? I'm sure afterwards that it was terrifying to purchase and take medicine at all for a while.
For the record, never flush down medicine in your toilet. It can poison the water that comes through your city's water lines. Always go to a pharmacy disposal box, ask your local pharmacist
I will never, ever forget this case; this happened during the same week that I had given birth to my first son. It would have been horrific in any circumstances, but as a brand new, first time mom my heart was so broken for the Kellerman family, who lost their only child.
I actually heard this case in school. It was a marketing class talking about how companies Handel situations and how Johnson and Johnson was a good company for taking a good risk and taking the blow.
I was around for the Tylenol crisis. I still won't take it because as a child to have just taken an extra strength Tylenol 10 minutes before seeing the news report, imagine the mental trauma! Hard NOPE.
It’s crazy that even your grandmother was affected by this tragedy her and so many other mothers must’ve been riddled with anxiety for giving their children a pain relievers!
I remember hearing about this on the news when it happened. My mother threw out the Tylenol. Rarely took it since until I was pregnant. My doctor gave me a single dose, unfortunately the bottle was part of one of their recalls that year. I ended up in hospital (to monitor the baby). Johnson & Johnson sent me a disclaimer along with a refund check of $3.99. When I called (just once as a follow up call) for information of the recall, they sent me a cease and desist order. Another shady company along with Nestle.
Omg this just reminded me of the time when someone was doing something bad with anthrax and envelopes. That's why a ton of people don't like the sticky weird glue on envelopes anymore. We need a video on this too.
I was only 3 and this affected people for years. I remember being 10-12 and still hearing family and friends talk about precautions because of their fears from this.
Kendall, Love from the U.K. ! 🇬🇧 I have become aware in recent months of many true crime channels seeming to take advantage of the horror of the crimes for their own popularity/to get viewers. You are one of the few that I don’t think that about AT ALL. You do so much for victim’s families and to raise awareness. I think you’re great and very inclusive and genuine. Thank you. 😊
I was 14 when this happened and remember this happening. It was so scary. Kudos to Tylenol for their reaction. But believe it or not I did not remember that they never caught the person awful. But I remember this causing all the tamper proof packaging.
I remember this vividly. My mother freaked out, especially when she heard that we had 3 bottles from one of the batches. One of our "saving grace" was we lived in PA at the time. She refused to buy Tylenol for years after this.
I was 17 and live in IL. It was the first true crime case that scared me because it hit so close to home. My mom threw out all of our pain killers (aspirin and Tylenol). It was months before she bought the safety sealed Tylenol.
Now it makes so much sense why whenever I buy a OTC medicine it has a seal and a warning that if the seal has been broken to immediately report it. Never knew the reason why and now I do. This was really interesting case to listen to. Thanks for talking about it.
I remember this, I was like 10 at the time. I also remember people being freaked out by it and throwing away any medicine they had recently purchased (not just tylenol) I didnt realize they never actually found out who did it though. yikes
An adjacent story that also occurred in the 80s in the Seattle area- the case where a woman tampered with Excedrin using cyanide to kill her husband. Also killed another lady. The medical examiner also detected the almond scent during an autopsy!
I learned about this case in college, as part of a required course as an environmental studies and political science major. You covered it just as throughly. TY
The name Mary isn't unusual in this case. Generally you can tell how old an individual is by their name. Some names are just old and it would be rare to hear it now. If this happened in the 80s, Mary was still a relatively common name. Love the video. I've heard of this case before but that's okay, I like listening to your voice.
I’m 40…lived in the Midwest at the time, and remember the transition in packaging…so sad!😢 Thank you to J&J for taking such swift and selfless action!❤️
I remember when this happened. This is why over the counter meds now have the safety seals. It was a pretty crazy time, we were advised to throw away all of our Tylenol.
I read about this last month when I was sick with Covid. I was struggling to open up a Tylenol bottle and wondered, why the hell they made it so hard to get to the medicine, when you're already extremely weak from your illness. ✨ Safety precautions ✨
I was born a couple years after this happened but I remember hearing about this as a child. This was crazy and am so grateful for the safety advances that have been made.
I’m from Chicago and used to live in Schaumburg and can I just say the way you pronounce it makes me giggle. Thank you for bringing attention to cases like this!
OMG YES, I remember this! I was a freshman in high school. I had severe health anxiety as it was and REFUSED to take any medication for a while after that!
I remember when that happened, but I was young, like 8 years old, so I don’t remember many of the details. My Mom still won’t take Tylenol though. I’m glad you covered this, very interesting.
I remember this as a young girl! We threw out our Tylenol and everyone was so frantic about it. It didn’t occur to me at the time about the tamper proof packaging. We take that for granted these days bc it’s a given bc of this case. What truly upsets me is that these people all died and that the perpetrator(s) have never been apprehended. So sad!
Yes. It is weird when you hear a story like this and it happened so close to home. I grew up very close to the Yorktown Mall in unincorporated Glen Ellyn. I was almost 15 and it was a very scary summer for sure.
I remember this as a kid and when you mentioned that universities use this case as a good example of crisis management, my crisis management course at the University of Denver (DU) did use this case. I was the oldest person in the class aside from the instructor and we both recalled how scary the whole situation was.
I remember this (I was in my teens in the 1980s) and how everyone was too scared to take Tylenol (even in Canada). It was a crazy time, but I think Johnson & Johnson's reaction and quick response was quite impressive and they didn't really mess around. This is the response all companies should make when dealing with tampered products, but I suspect only a few actually would today.
I was a kid when this happened and even though I don’t exactly remember the event, I do clearly remember how scared my mom and grandma was let have any meds especially Tylenol. I can remember my grandmother going through the house and throwing out any Tylenol she had. I don’t think she ever went back to using Tylenol to the best of my memory. I had not thought about this in years thanks for the nostalgia moment!!!
This story reminds me of what happened in Australia a couple years ago where someone was sticking needles in strawberries. They had to throw out so many strawberries, it wasn't as bad as this obviously. But it was scary and there was so much food wasted.
I was born in and live in Illinois. I totally remember this case. I also remember how scared people were throughout the state. I myself wouldn’t buy Tylenol.
There was a similar situation in England (not sure what year) where they had to recall baby food as some were contaminated with glass. Such a shocking situation to think that there are people out there that get some sort of gratification on hurting or killing others for no apparent reason and this one to target babies is probably the worst I’ve heard of. Love listening to your reviews on true crime ❤️ keep them coming x
I’ve heard about this before, but I didn’t realize how close I lived near it, nor did I know most of the details. I went to the same junior high as the first victim, crazy
What a nice Sunday afternoon surprise! The topic is tragic and I remember it vividly despite being born in 1990, but this was a huge deal-the fear and ramifications lasted for years. Parents were incredibly weary, now my mom (RoseMARY) scolds me for NOT taking Tylenol, I take Ibuprofen.
The way she told the story.. I realized for the first time how truly tragic this story was.. the one family losing the two brothers.. I cannot imagine what it would’ve been like for their family to lose them both so suddenly.: from taking Tylenol.. The grief would’ve been unbearable. Absolutely unbearable.
Kendall you are such an excellent story teller. I remember this happening when I was a kid but you brought so many details out that it was like experiencing it for the first time. Thank you so much for what you do. Love your videos 💖
It is SO refreshing to hear about a company that actually did the right thing in the face of this tragedy. Including actually paying for advertising telling consumers not to use their product!
You never heard about there baby powder poisoning people?
1 there was no coming back from that kind of negative publicity without immediate over dramatically positive press. Otherwise like the rest of their mishaps they are settled out of court and pushed under a rug. J & J did it to save face definitely not because they cared that much. They are bad bad bad to the bone!
@@dawnbonneville7923 sure have!
I absolutely love that they just settled on the lawsuit and didn’t go to court… That’s awesome and a good way to say I’m sorry even though there no real way to say sorry on a death..
@@bj.reo87 too true
I was in my 30's, married with 2 children at the time of the Tylenol Murders. My wife and I, immediately threw out all the Tylenol we had in our home. It was strange when tamper-proof products started showing up everywhere. Until then there was a sense of human decency. The age of innocence and trust that was a common part of life, was gone forever. I remember it created a whole new awareness in everything, not just medication.
That’s insane how everything changed in an instance, thank god we have tamper proof labels now because some people are just sick minded
After that happened, I never took another Tylenol. To this day.
So true but so sad. Changed back then but now 30 years later there’s NO human decency
@@michaelakeene2696 Ole' Jay Browne, in the comments, is proving your point. I bet they scream "equality" and have blue hair too. 🤦♀️
@Jay Browne what are you talking about?!
The fact that three people in the SAME family died within hours of each other from Tylenol is absolutely terrifying. I can't imagine the family's horror and confusion just hit with continued waves of grief.
I also feel terrible for Mary Kellerman's family, she was so young and I imagine that her parents felt a lot of guilt for giving her the Tylenol.
Hill is
I know so horrible
why did they not alert the public immediately?
Right
@@jeanarino732 unfortunately it probably would have caused more panic than anything
I remember this. They didn’t have the tamper proof packaging for the same reason that they didn’t have metal detectors at schools. No one could imagine that someone would do something like this.
they have metal detectors in schools??
@@viiperbiite Some do, depending on the type of troublemakers common to the school or the school district as a whole. It's more common in urban schools than suburban & rural town schools.
@@viiperbiite I know most schools in NYC do, but it depends on the school district. I think they’re supposed to detect firearms because of school shooting fear.
@@viiperbiite they didn’t always check students it’s much more common nowadays
@@viiperbiite my thoughts exactly! I still find it insane that school shootings are a thing!
I’ve never heard of this happening in schools here 🇬🇧
I knew about this case since I was a kid, but I never knew that Tylenol is basically the reason why we have safety seals; or that they never caught the person who did this. Very interesting yet unsettling case!
I just still cannot believe they never found out who did this. Like they could still be out there living their life... it's so creepy. There were two kinda similar cases in Japan, the coca cola murders and the paraquat poisonings, if you wanna read about those.
Use her request form that would be cool to hear about.
Coca cola??? I need to know more. That's all I drink lol
@@bj.reo87 yes I would love a video about these.
Maybe someone from the makers of Aspirin. It’s very suspicious.
I agree, Its so sad and scary that they could still be out there.
This story is studied in marketing classes. Johnson and Johnson pulled ALL Tylenol from every store shelf and disposed of it. They completely changed packaging by putting those lid seals on the jars and the jars into the boxes.
It used to be that you’d go and get a jar on the shelf.
Everyone thought it would be the end of Tylenol. But since J&J pulled ALL Tylenol from every single shelf of every store in the US, it is seen as a marketing success story.
Interesting! Thanks for sharing
Yes! We learned about this in my marketing classes too, and product/brand management!
That’s actually really interesting, they were really on top of it and that probably saved them to best honest
In my country we don't use bottles of pills, we use the "tablets", which you can't touch without it being visible
The compressed pill tablets became more popular after. Some complained that they were difficult to swallow so they put a sugar “microcoat” on them, similar to the old version but tamper-proof (only if you completely replaced them).
I'm not surprised Audible sponsors her. She's an amazing storyteller
I completely agree!!! Kendall has an unbelievable amount of respect when covering cases & always strives to incorporate and share the story of the family who have been affected!
I want a Kendall book!! Or at least Kendall reading books in Audible to us 😂😂
I play all her videos when I’m working or when I’m stressed. I love her voice and how she tells stories.
I was just trying to listen to another crime podcaster and it was so boring and monotone I had to come back here 😩
Can we just take a moment to appreciate Kendall struggles with reading due to her dyslexia and still perseveres with research to bring us her amazing videos!
She is truly amazing 💖💯
My son has the same struggles and watching her makes me feel great for him and his future xx
She is such a pro. Great voice, great research, excellent presentational style. This is a really polished channel. Love her work!!
Wow I didnt know this and her delivery is on point too. Not many ppl have that skill
Dyslexic 🙋♀️
We’ve gotta find ways around it. She may have software.
Even if I already know a story in detail, I'll still watch Kendall cover it because she just does it better.
Kendall always has new insight, even though we all know what happened
When I find a case I’ll always search it to see who else has covered it, I like getting different takes.
I feel the same 🤗
I myself was a very famous detective (well, still am) back in 1982. I trailed and found the killer but he took a child hostage and forced me to drop my gun and he got away.
This story is so scary.. Tampered medication killing people like that. Also, I can't imagine the horror and grief the Janus family felt, how terrible!
Gotta remember it was tampered with ! Chances of this happening today are very slim.
They were tampered with by a person outside of the factory
This is why anti-tamper packaging is required on most over the counter medications. The Federal Anti-tampering act was passed after this tragedy making it required.
It’s terrifying
@@melanielangham1212 n0m1
I remember the Tylenol scare. We just never thought about someone poisoning anything before that happened. It was just normal for products to not have safety seals, but looking back now, it just seems weird they ever were made without them.
Me too!!!
That’s what I was thinking, I can’t believe there ever weren’t those safety seals to help show any signs of tampering
Welcome to the real world.
@Tr00dy Clymes Mountns Good point. You are right. Thank you for replying.
@Tr00dy Clymes Mountns unless the capsules were put in the bottles randomly on production line.
I can't even imagine how horrifying it would be to lose one member of your family, and then HOURS later several more die, seemingly out of nowhere. It baffles me that the person who did this never got caught!
Adam buying flowers for his wife makes me both so happy and so sad. Like one of the last memories she has is him coming home with their little kids and a bouquet of flowers. They were just supposed to have a normal night.
I thought of this case when all those social media 'stars' were opening ice cream containers and licking them in the store.
That was just gross but could have easily escalated quickly.
Wasn't that like at the beginning of covid too
I learned about this case in pharmacy school during our pharmacy law class!
--
Also, side note- The reason your doctor only wants you to take Tylenol (aka acetaminophen) is because NSAIDs like aspirin and Advil (aka ibuprofen) can cause birth defects. Specifically, when taken in the later stages of pregnancy, NSAIDs can prematurely close the ductus arteriosus, which is a blood vessel that normally closes spontaneously after birth. If it closes too early while the fetus is still in the uterus, it can cause serious damage. This risk is associated with the third trimester.
In Oct 2020, the FDA also released a warning saying that NSAID use at 20+ wks of pregnancy can lead to rare but serious kidney problems in the fetus.
HOWEVER, I feel like the safety of Tylenol is a little over-exaggerated. Yes, it is generally considered safe in pregnancy, especially compared to NSAIDs. Definitely use it if needed; high fever can harm the baby so it should be treated appropriately. But it's not without its own risks. Large doses can do some serious liver damage. Please be careful not to overdose (quite easy to do unintentionally: lots of cold medicines- like Dayquil, for example- have acetaminophen added to them for pain and fever relief so read ingredient lists carefully). And of course, consult your doctor/pharmacist if you have any questions or concerns :)
Jane I love yuh💕 you are so sweet
Thank you for explaining that! I was definitely wondering lol
i wish to be like you. you’re awesome.
side note - i once took too much mucinex for my cold and went to school and was high for hours. never again lol.
Thank you for explaining! I am wondering how could people overdose “accidentally “?
I’ve been giving my 8 month old Tylenol for teething and it’s the only thing that helps on the worst of days! My normally happy baby has been SO miserable 😕
Unfortunately, Tylenol just doesn't work for me, especially for muscle aches and pains (I have an old back injury that causes a lot of pain). The only OTC med that helps in that case is Advil (ibuprophen). I try to keep it to a minimum though.
I actually learned about this in a college level mass media course a couple years ago. Because like Kendall said, it was taught as an example of good crisis management in PR.
I learned about this case in my Forensics class in high school because we were learning about fingerprints and handwriting samples so we used this case to learn more about that.
I remember this case specifically being a covered topic at the university I graduated from with a PR specific degree (also in the Chicago area) because of the same reason of crisis management in PR. I am interested to know if other college not local to the area discuss this specific case in communication related degrees.
@@kayleyrich2138 mass media is a communication related degree and I'm from Minnesota, so not super local? but still pretty local.
@@ElizabethNicoleSchwartz I totally agree with everything you said, I should have specified that PR was a concentration of the communications degree at the college I went too just like mass communications was too. For me, it’s local in the the sense that the areas mentioned are roughly 5 minutes away from the area I live in. I was surprised by the lack of information that I did not know.
I was a very young child at the time this happened. I barely remember it except for my mother racing through the house in a panic and tossing all the Tylenol into the trash. Tying it up. And taking it out to the trash can. It was a very scary time in Chicago.
Yes I recall that. I was just shy of 15 and it was a scary summer. Everyone was throwing out their Tylenol. Stores took it off their shelves. Very scary indeed.
@@pamelasmith6221 wow interesting!!
yes very interesting. thank you for both sharing your firsthand insight
Kudos to Johnson and Johnson, this is how companies should react. They cared about their customers, and acted accordingly.
I feel like this changed my mom to this day. I remember my mom being so scared after this crisis. She changed a lot over nignt, constantly checking and double checking everything. Even to this day she's always worried about things being tempered with. I remember clear as day standing in the bathroom as a kid and seeing my mom going through the medicine cabinet grabbing the Tylenol and flushing it down the toilet, she actually wore dishwashing gloves to open the bottle. It's so weird hearing this story again, I remember it like yesterday. Nobody thought Johnson and Johnson would ever recover from this
i literally could see these deaths being covered up in today's times. horrifying. It could happen to anyone at any minute
It happens all the time.
Yeah they’re definitely still doing it, it involves multiple areas of the government and big pharma. It’s a huge money maker.
This is literally what happened with oxycontin and other opiates.
They lead everyone to believe that it was safe and didn't cause addiction or any adverse effects while fully knowing it was addictive and making doctors prescribe it for every little thing possible.
The fact that cops went down to neighborhoods to announce not to take Tylenol just goes to show how far we've come technology-wise. I remember my dad mentioning this and he remembers throwing away a bottle of Tylenol. Crazy that they never found who did it. That's how I learned that this case is the reason we have safety seals on all OTC medications.
I was around during this time. It was frightening. I didn’t realize the murderer had never been found until now. Thank you for being this case.
Right? I thought too the suspect got caught and do remember this as I was a young girl in Tennessee and it was scary to then imagine a culprit going around slipping poison into store products sold changed my perspective even at such a young age.
I find these cases so interesting, the “why are things the way they are now” kind of stories. I feel horrible for the families and how scared everyone obviously was at the time.
I called my grandmother and asked her about this. She was in her early 20s and she said it was very weird. Everyone was flushing their Tylenol or sending it back. She said it was scary but it was also strange because back then you didn’t really think of this
It makes me feel really old reading that someone’s GRANDMOTHER was in her 20’s in the 80’s
@@sailorarwen6101 ....lol.........me too!
@@sailorarwen6101 lol my mum was in her 30s in the 80s... she would have been 32 exactly. And I still feel quite young!
There's a similar case that happened that was solved it was a woman called Stella Nickell that originally murdered her husband with Excedrin and to cover it she tampered with extra bottles and placed them on shelves in other stores.
I remember this crime story! Pure evil
Yes I was beginning to think I was experiencing some form of the Mandela effect, but you are right.
That's what I thought happened here!
I swear I saw an episode of an anthology series that says she was probably inspired by this incident.
@@graceyoung3771 Me too! I was sitting here asking my husband am I crazy? I KNOW I remember it was a woman who killed her husband and tried to make it look random. Came to the comments to see if anyone else knew what I was talking about. Relieved to know I wasn't having a completely false memory!
I was in my 30s when this happened. Even before people were told to throw away their Tylenol, we threw ours away. It was scary to buy almost anything that wasn’t sealed properly. Even food products. We watched the stock market plummet, and heard of the changes being done. Even when it was ‘safe’ again people became loyal to other pain companies. Then before you knew it, all medications came super sealed. Shortly after that you’d find toys in shrink wrap. Then they went to hard plastic. Everyone’s faith was shaken for a few years. Most people felt sorry for Johnson & Johnson, knowing this also ‘happened’ to them. We weren’t sure if they would ever recover.
I feel like Tylenol is always considered the “safest” pain reliever, as it does not cause the same bleeding, stomach upset, kidney damage, etc. that ibuprofen and aspirin can. It’s very upsetting to think about feeling so safe taking a medication, only for it to result in these terrible deaths.
Just don't take Tylenol after a night of drinking. It can damage your liver.
Nothing is 100% safe. Also, every persons body is different. The only thing that can even put a dent in my pain other than opiate pain medication is ibuprofen.
@@geekinthepink33 or liver tumors
Yes, and in pregnant women, ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) & Aspirin products are contraindicated because they can cause an important passageway in the baby’s heart to close when taken in late pregnancy (after 30 weeks). That passage needs to stay open while the baby is still inside the uterus and is meant to close up soon after birth.
It can also kill babies if taken after they get their vaccines. Please every one research this but best to never poison them in the first place.
My degree is in PR and I can confirm during my crisis management unit that we learned about Tylenol and the excellent response they made.
If you hadn’t heard of the Tylenol poisoning, you should definitely look into the Bayer/HIV history.
Do you know any good videos on this? I’m definitely curious!
Yes I agree.very much so it's important
Look Into the HIV virus and study programs. It's a worm hole. People need to wake up
My oldest uncle had also died from taking Tylenol, in the 1980’s. He started convulsing and foaming at the mouth. He was only 27 years old.
My deepest condolences 💐
Makes me wonder how many people died from Tylenol and they kept it hush so it would soften the blow
@@littleNica98 I agree!
@@littleNica98 there were 4 or 5 additional deaths attributed to tainted Tylenol in Western States. This was a random sabotage by single individual connected to or worked in Chicago distribution center.
🙏
honestly Johnson and Johnson proved to be so amazing in this case. They were for the people here, even marketing against their own brand? wow very nice, wish more companies cared like that.
My mom told me about this about a year ago… lol… she mentioned it because she was complaining about the packaging in various food, medicine and other home products that she has trouble with opening due to her carpal tunnel syndrome. She then told me how the Tylenol murders precipitated more regulations and standards for packaging on medicine and all products really.
Hello! Certified Pharmacy Tech here! This is still being covered in pharmacy training/school today. I wasn’t born during the Tylenol case but I remember (and worked during) a recent mass recall of Zantac. It was never brought back to shelves or pharmacies.
what’s the mass recall of Zantac about?
There was another brand, back then. Thank God we didn't take Tylenol, it Can destroy your liver. Check it out. To this day I won't take Tylenol.
A chemical in zantac has induce cancer
Ted K. denied any involvement with these killings. In that case, his word should be honored. After all, he was a trustworthy, honest guy.
I vividly remember when this happened. I was a kid, but my Mom was really afraid to take any over the counter meds after this. It was scary.
Don't capitalize the word "mom."
I'm glad you covered this! People in Chicago, and in general in the midwest (I grew up in Ohio) have a HUGE distrust of Johnson&Johnson products after this. Then, there was the baby powder fiasco (bottles laced with asbestos)! When the J&J vaccine came out, there was huge pushback bc of the lack of trust with J&J. I'm 27 now, but I remember my parents and grandparents literally wanted nothing to do with J&J products. I still hesitate to take Tylenol, even though my doctor says I need to stop taking ibuprofen.
Good point. J&J collected all of the Tylenol bottles as evidence, instead of the IL State Police or FBI-chain of evidence was broken and destroyed.
You can take the store brand Acetaminophen, maybe. Not J&J but same drug.
That is so crazy because I’m from Ohio too and 26y/o. Realizing now we have NEVER had Tylenol in our house growing up or many J&J products. That’s crazy I’m now putting that all together!
@Ladyrose13 I work in a drugstore and the pharmacists always recommended acetaminophen over ibuprofen
@Ladyrose13 Ibuprofen is also bad for the liver. It's all about dose and frequency.
Your dad was right, this story is really scary & maybe even more terrifying than a serial killer, because imagine taking a paracetamol & dying after, its crazy.
This is the earliest I've ever been. Congrats on your pregnancy Kendall! I just know you and Josh are going to be amazing parents!
How do you know? You don't even know her. Lol
@@DavidKen878 dude I'm trying to be nice. Idk if this was a joke or not but dont be so pessimistic. She seems like a genuinely good person. Why did you feel the need to say that?
@@DavidKen878 kendall just seems like a kind, genuine, hardworking person, which are good qualities for a parent.
@@Me-iq4se I just asked how you would know if you don't know the person. Especially since you're basing it on arbitrary things like being nice. That's all.
@@alexandrahansen2388 All of this qualities apply to abusers as well. That's not enough to say whether or not a person will be a good parent.
I always thought it was someone trying to kill a specific person and they tampered with more bottles to complicate the case. I seem to remember a case similar to that around the same time
I think there was a copycat. They caught them cuz of a fishtank chemical they found in the pills
@@annacostello5181 yes that was the case!
Yes! I was thinking the same this. Like wait what?! They caught the wife right?
@@caitlynnbright84 yeah they caught her. it was a lady who tampered w a bottle of excedrin to give to her husband, and to cover up her actions afterwards she went and tampered w ones on the shelves.
@@clarissabatt231yeah and she crushed poison in the same bowl she used to crush fish food and, the exedrine had trace of the fish food?
Outstanding presentation. I remember 9/30/82 as if it were yesterday. I was a hospital administrative employee at the time....on the heels of HIV beginning to infect people locally....,sheer terror. The nurse practitioners with whom I worked were stellar, absolutely strong and inspiring. I'll never forget their integrity and their ability to calm panicking patients and employees.
A fascinating story, and it’s so taken for granted that these days there’s tamper-proofing on products. I’m so gutted they never figured out who the culprit was. Perhaps one day this will come to light.
The guy in the bar could have been the killer. They just don't have enough evidence to prove it.
I remember this happening. People were scared everywhere, not just Chicago. For a while, no one would even buy it. That's why a lot of things have tamper resistant packaging now.
We all thought it happened at the factory!
Yes! I still think about it when I grab otc meds
Wish there was a way to make tamper resistant packaging less wasteful tho. A lot of it is plastic. There needs to be more environmentally friendly alternatives.
@@starojunes environment friendly products are literally made to be able to break down over easily. The exact opposite of tamper/kid proof.
Yeah. She covered all those points.
I've heard this story before, but I had no idea that J&J were so proactive when it came down to the safety of their customers. I have to admit, I am impressed with how quickly they handled things. Good for them.
Yea they were proactive with the Tylenol but not so proactive with their Baby powder that has killed and hurt so many women.
@@heathersargent289 my thoughts exactly
Shouldn’t congratulate people for doing the responsible thing
I actually lived in Arlington Heights in the 80’s and remember this well! I can’t believe it hasn’t been solved yet! Such a tragedy! Thank you for sharing this story
Lets just thank Kendall’s dad for the enlightenment!❤️✨👍🏽
Kendall Rae, have you ever heard about the story of 17 year old Brittanee Drexel? She ran away from New York to Myrtle beach for spring break and has been missing ever since. It’s 5:11 AM and I’m up thinking about her. Her story was the first story I heard about and it’s what got me into true crime. It’s been 13 years and I still think about her and wonder if justice will ever be served. Praying for her family.
You should fill out the form linked in description to get her to cover it...this sounds interesting and could be solved if enough ppl cover it.
I want to say she's covered her
@@ericamerica89 that’s what I thought too!!! But I searched and searched for “the video” and I didn’t find it.
fill out the form in the description, that’s how she will see your request for this case
Her case is so strange. There are a couple of people I think did it but it's just so confusing.
i saw the buzzfeed unsolved episode but felt bad that one family lost more people after that person
Shane & Ryan 💯 rocked unsolved!
I remember this, my Mom searched the whole house, my Dads company, everywhere. She had a bucket full and took it to the hospital. They were also collecting the bottles.. it was big stuff.
I love Kendalls true crime videos. She is a great storyteller and she cuts straight to the point. No wasted time. Excellently paced. Just wanted to say that.
This is so heartbreaking. I can't even begin to imagine how those poor families must have felt losing their loved ones so quickly like that :(
i was just telling my kids about this happening, and how that’s the reason for the foil AND the cotton AND the child proof tops on all aspirins now. this was wild.
Sooo I’m Australian and we don’t have cotton in our pill bottles. I just found out about this through googling it after reading your comment and I’m so weirded out! That’s a good idea, though.
I just did some reading and multiple sources say that the cotton was actually places there in the early 1900s to immobilise pills in the bottle
@@erm492 it’s seasonal here. In summer it has cotton to absorb moisture in winter no cotton ball
@@erm492 yes, i do remember the cotton being in the bottles back when I was a kid now that you say that! maybe it was just the foil and then the plastic on the outside that was added. crazy to think things weren't packaged that way before this! (with the plastic on the tops)
@@ElinWinblad That makes so much sense! I never new why it was there lol. But now some brands have the silca packs in there.
I was 8 years old when this happened. My Mom threw away everything in our house… Flintstone Vitamins, St Joseph’s aspirin, Tylenol. It was mass hysteria.
Back then "tamper proof" didn't exist. Oddly enough though, no one even thought about people messing with stuff like that. Until the Tylenol poisonings. My biggest fear when I had my son was Acetaminophen Toxicity.
I remember when this happened. I was in grammar school. I am from Chicago so the panic was real. My mom had the Tylenol tablets and I remember her saying to my stepdad “See??? I told you the tablets are better than the capsules.”
I guess she was team Tablet all the way.
I remember this. I was 16 years old and it was scary. God bless those who died and their families. ❤
Born and raised in Chicago for 30 years and this is my first time hearing about this!!
Same
I live in Texas and remember hearing about this when it happened. I had to have been about 6 or 7.
I’m just a little older than you (based on your comment), it was still an instilled fear when I was growing up by had subsided by the time I was around 9. So it possibly subsided when you were a toddler. Might be why you didn’t hear about it.
I think you’d have to be 50+ to remember this
It feels like this is a regular showing on true crime programs
I still wonder HOW the hell tylenol came back from this. And I realllly can’t stand how this is unsolved STILL!!
Ikr. I imagine this would put many people off of it forever
It wasn't the fault of the brand just a person tampering with the bottles in store
i know right! I'm thinking about pain and fevers... like, if we as humans had a bit of a higher pain tolerance, I feel that maybe tylenol wouldn't have come back from that at the speed that it did... I don't know..
It is not unsolved. A man did it to kill his wife. He tampered with other bottles to throw off the authorities.
@@katerinakiaha6925 source?
I heard this case from my mother, I was complaining about how much packaging my aspirin had and she was like “That’s to protect it from being poisoned, that happened with Tylenol in the 80s” I was like “what!!?” scary af. I regretted complaining about it lol
I was a junior in high school when this happened, it was insane. Thank you for covering this!
You must have been so anxious, I can't imagine. What was the discussion around it like at the time? I'm sure afterwards that it was terrifying to purchase and take medicine at all for a while.
For the record, never flush down medicine in your toilet. It can poison the water that comes through your city's water lines. Always go to a pharmacy disposal box, ask your local pharmacist
I will never, ever forget this case; this happened during the same week that I had given birth to my first son. It would have been horrific in any circumstances, but as a brand new, first time mom my heart was so broken for the Kellerman family, who lost their only child.
I actually heard this case in school. It was a marketing class talking about how companies Handel situations and how Johnson and Johnson was a good company for taking a good risk and taking the blow.
I was around for the Tylenol crisis. I still won't take it because as a child to have just taken an extra strength Tylenol 10 minutes before seeing the news report, imagine the mental trauma! Hard NOPE.
that's awful!
It’s crazy that even your grandmother was affected by this tragedy her and so many other mothers must’ve been riddled with anxiety for giving their children a pain relievers!
I remember hearing about this on the news when it happened. My mother threw out the Tylenol. Rarely took it since until I was pregnant. My doctor gave me a single dose, unfortunately the bottle was part of one of their recalls that year. I ended up in hospital (to monitor the baby). Johnson & Johnson sent me a disclaimer along with a refund check of $3.99. When I called (just once as a follow up call) for information of the recall, they sent me a cease and desist order. Another shady company along with Nestle.
It’s not the company’s fault tho. Some was purposely poisoning people
@@2129823293 But they sent her a cease and desist, just for asking a question, which is shady.
I agree about the shadyness. J&J has had too many "oops" for me and I try not to use anything made by them anymore.
@@dorindadouglas2847Right. They also have/had talcum powder in their stuff. I dont trust J&J
I think there were a lot of victims named Mary because that area of Chicago, especially in the 80s, was very Catholic.
I was a really little kid living in the Chicago suburbs when this happened, but I remember everyone being very scared as the deaths mounted.
Omg this just reminded me of the time when someone was doing something bad with anthrax and envelopes. That's why a ton of people don't like the sticky weird glue on envelopes anymore. We need a video on this too.
I was only 3 and this affected people for years. I remember being 10-12 and still hearing family and friends talk about precautions because of their fears from this.
Kendall, Love from the U.K. ! 🇬🇧
I have become aware in recent months of many true crime channels seeming to take advantage of the horror of the crimes for their own popularity/to get viewers.
You are one of the few that I don’t think that about AT ALL.
You do so much for victim’s families and to raise awareness.
I think you’re great and very inclusive and genuine. Thank you.
😊
I was 14 when this happened and remember this happening. It was so scary. Kudos to Tylenol for their reaction. But believe it or not I did not remember that they never caught the person awful. But I remember this causing all the tamper proof packaging.
I remember this vividly. My mother freaked out, especially when she heard that we had 3 bottles from one of the batches. One of our "saving grace" was we lived in PA at the time. She refused to buy Tylenol for years after this.
Who buys 3 bottles of tylenol
I was 17 and live in IL. It was the first true crime case that scared me because it hit so close to home. My mom threw out all of our pain killers (aspirin and Tylenol). It was months before she bought the safety sealed Tylenol.
Now it makes so much sense why whenever I buy a OTC medicine it has a seal and a warning that if the seal has been broken to immediately report it. Never knew the reason why and now I do. This was really interesting case to listen to. Thanks for talking about it.
I remember this, I was like 10 at the time. I also remember people being freaked out by it and throwing away any medicine they had recently purchased (not just tylenol) I didnt realize they never actually found out who did it though. yikes
An adjacent story that also occurred in the 80s in the Seattle area- the case where a woman tampered with Excedrin using cyanide to kill her husband. Also killed another lady. The medical examiner also detected the almond scent during an autopsy!
I learned about this case in college, as part of a required course as an environmental studies and political science major. You covered it just as throughly. TY
The name Mary isn't unusual in this case. Generally you can tell how old an individual is by their name. Some names are just old and it would be rare to hear it now. If this happened in the 80s, Mary was still a relatively common name.
Love the video. I've heard of this case before but that's okay, I like listening to your voice.
I’m 40…lived in the Midwest at the time, and remember the transition in packaging…so sad!😢
Thank you to J&J for taking such swift and selfless action!❤️
I remember when this happened. This is why over the counter meds now have the safety seals. It was a pretty crazy time, we were advised to throw away all of our Tylenol.
I read about this last month when I was sick with Covid. I was struggling to open up a Tylenol bottle and wondered, why the hell they made it so hard to get to the medicine, when you're already extremely weak from your illness. ✨ Safety precautions ✨
I was born a couple years after this happened but I remember hearing about this as a child. This was crazy and am so grateful for the safety advances that have been made.
I’m from Chicago and used to live in Schaumburg and can I just say the way you pronounce it makes me giggle. Thank you for bringing attention to cases like this!
Same here! I had to see if anyone caught that! Lol
I noticed it. I was at UIUC.
I’m surprised no one else pointed it out haha
OMG YES, I remember this! I was a freshman in high school. I had severe health anxiety as it was and REFUSED to take any medication for a while after that!
I remember when that happened, but I was young, like 8 years old, so I don’t remember many of the details. My Mom still won’t take Tylenol though. I’m glad you covered this, very interesting.
Don't capitalize the word "mom."
I remember this as a young girl! We threw out our Tylenol and everyone was so frantic about it. It didn’t occur to me at the time about the tamper proof packaging. We take that for granted these days bc it’s a given bc of this case. What truly upsets me is that these people all died and that the perpetrator(s) have never been apprehended. So sad!
So weird hearing my hometown mentioned in this! Surprised more people don’t know about this case though. Great vid!!
^
Yes. It is weird when you hear a story like this and it happened so close to home. I grew up very close to the Yorktown Mall in unincorporated Glen Ellyn. I was almost 15 and it was a very scary summer for sure.
same! i knew about this case but didn’t realize it started so local
Grew up going to the Flyer's games as a kid. Always heard about this story growing up.
@@pamelasmith6221 I'm in the Valley! Crazy to find neighbors through a UA-camr! 😆
I remember all this!
I had no idea that the person who was responsible for doing this was never caught.
I remember this as a kid and when you mentioned that universities use this case as a good example of crisis management, my crisis management course at the University of Denver (DU) did use this case. I was the oldest person in the class aside from the instructor and we both recalled how scary the whole situation was.
I remember this (I was in my teens in the 1980s) and how everyone was too scared to take Tylenol (even in Canada). It was a crazy time, but I think Johnson & Johnson's reaction and quick response was quite impressive and they didn't really mess around. This is the response all companies should make when dealing with tampered products, but I suspect only a few actually would today.
I was a kid when this happened and even though I don’t exactly remember the event, I do clearly remember how scared my mom and grandma was let have any meds especially Tylenol. I can remember my grandmother going through the house and throwing out any Tylenol she had. I don’t think she ever went back to using Tylenol to the best of my memory. I had not thought about this in years thanks for the nostalgia moment!!!
This story reminds me of what happened in Australia a couple years ago where someone was sticking needles in strawberries. They had to throw out so many strawberries, it wasn't as bad as this obviously. But it was scary and there was so much food wasted.
I was born in and live in Illinois. I totally remember this case. I also remember how scared people were throughout the state. I myself wouldn’t buy Tylenol.
Our family friend is Mary Reiner’s widow 😔 such a sweet family, how horrendously terrifying. Thanks for covering 💜
There was a similar situation in England (not sure what year) where they had to recall baby food as some were contaminated with glass. Such a shocking situation to think that there are people out there that get some sort of gratification on hurting or killing others for no apparent reason and this one to target babies is probably the worst I’ve heard of.
Love listening to your reviews on true crime ❤️ keep them coming x
I’ve heard about this before, but I didn’t realize how close I lived near it, nor did I know most of the details. I went to the same junior high as the first victim, crazy
What a nice Sunday afternoon surprise! The topic is tragic and I remember it vividly despite being born in 1990, but this was a huge deal-the fear and ramifications lasted for years. Parents were incredibly weary, now my mom (RoseMARY) scolds me for NOT taking Tylenol, I take Ibuprofen.
Kendall, you are glowing! Good luck with your baby girl. Thank you for bringing this case to us. I vaguely remember it.
The way she told the story.. I realized for the first time how truly tragic this story was.. the one family losing the two brothers.. I cannot imagine what it would’ve been like for their family to lose them both so suddenly.: from taking Tylenol.. The grief would’ve been unbearable. Absolutely unbearable.
Kendall you are such an excellent story teller. I remember this happening when I was a kid but you brought so many details out that it was like experiencing it for the first time. Thank you so much for what you do. Love your videos 💖