Key Dates

Key dates in life of Tylenol poisonings suspect

BYLINE: By The Associated Press

SECTION: STATE AND REGIONAL

LENGTH: 421 words

Some key dates in the life of James W. Lewis, suspected in the 1982 Tylenol cyanide deaths in the Chicago area:

Mid-1940s Born Theodore Elmer Wilson in Missouri; adopted at age 3.

1973, 1974 Arrested after physical confrontations with his stepfather.

1974 Daughter Toni, who had a congenital heart defect, dies at age 5.

1978 Accused in the dismemberment slaying of a 72-year-old former accounting client in Kansas City, Mo. The case was dismissed after a judge ruled that seizure of property from his apartment was illegal.

December 1981 Moves with his wife, Leann, to Chicago from Kansas City. They assume aliases and Lewis gets a job as a tax preparer. He is fired after what his employer called a violent outburst.

Sept. 6, 1982 Couple moves to New York.

Sept. 29-Oct. 1, 1982 Seven people in Chicago and suburbs die after taking cyanide-laced Tylenol.

Oct. 6, 1982 Authorities say Lewis writes extortion letter to Johnson & Johnson, parent of Tylenol manufacturer McNeil Consumer Products Co., demanding $1 million "to stop the killing." The next week, the FBI identifies Lewis as the writer and obtains a warrant for his arrest.

Dec. 12, 1982 Arrested at a New York City library after a nationwide manhunt.

May 26, 1983 Convicted of six counts of mail fraud after a four-day trial in a 1981 credit card scheme in Kansas City. Lewis was accused of using the name and background of a former tax client to obtain 13 credit cards.

July 12, 1983 Sentenced to 10 years in prison for mail fraud. Police described Lewis as a "chameleon" who lived in several states, used at least 20 aliases and held many jobs, including computer specialist, tax accountant, importer of Indian tapestries and salesman of jewelry, pharmaceutical machinery and real estate.

Oct. 28, 1983 Federal jury convicts Lewis of extortion in the Tylenol case.

June 14, 1984 Sentenced to 10 years for extortion. He also serves more than two years of a 10-year sentence for an unrelated tax-fraud charge. Lewis represents himself at sentencing hearing.

June 20, 1986 U.S. Court of Appeals upholds extortion conviction, dismissing his claim he didn't receive a fair trial.

Oct. 13, 1995 Released from the federal prison in El Reno, Okla. Arrives at Boston's Logan International Airport with his wife; they settle in Cambridge, Mass.

2004 Accused of rape in Cambridge; spends three years in jail awaiting trial before the charge is dropped when the victim refuses to testify.

Feb. 4, 2009 FBI agents from Chicago and Boston raid his Cambridge condo and take boxes and a computer.

Another Video

Some Links to News & Information

The Chicago Tribune

The Boston Globe

The Boston Herald

The Cambridge Chronicle

A Biography of Mr. Lewis

His Robotphobia

Alas! I Cannot Help Them.

The trucks were still out there today

A couple of Associated Press people left messages on my home phone, asking for me to tell them something about Mr. Lewis. (Apparently I'm the only neighbor dumb enough to talk to reporters.) But I only met him once, many years ago, when he and his wife were going door to door talking about some condo issue. Everything I know about him comes from the web. I would gladly invent some stuff if I could be sure nobody would get sore about it not being true.
Speaking of which, this morning I saw the clip of me on Fox News, and they identified me as Jo Almeda!

A View of the Pavilion Roof (I Live in the other building)

AP Photos

The Associated Press (Josh Reynolds) photos of the Chicago FBI guy visiting our lovely condo building.

Wow, I 'm an Expert on the Tylenol Man!

Here's the link : http://necn.com/Boston/New-England/2009/02/04/Possible-break-in-unsolved/1233788873.html

Some of the Newsfolk Covering the Tylenol Man Story

See this story, it has more detail that most. I was quoted by the Globe once, then again.

Love Thy Neighbor? Not This One!

This is James W. Lewis and his wife LeAnn. The couple lived in Chicago for a few months in 1981-2, after which they moved to New York. They were calling themselves Robert and Nancy Richardson, because James was wanted on Kansas City charges: bilking elderly people out of land and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. Since LeAnn had been fired from her Chicago travel agency job for taking office stationery for personal use, James needed to take revenge on her ex-boss. The 1982 Tylenol poisonings gave him the means: he wrote a note to Johnson & Johnson (on the travel agency letterhead) demanding one million dollars to end the poisonings and signed it with the ex-boss's name. He asked that the money be transfered to an account belonging to said ex-boss. However, his clever plan backfired. Apparently he did not think to type the note or to disguise his handwriting. Police found his fingerprints on the letter and matched the handwriting. Since the couple were in New York when the Tylenol bottles must have been tampered with, James was only charged with extortion. After serving 13 years of his 20-year sentence he was released. He and his wife moved into a lovely building in Cambridge, MA, which happens to be one of the 2 buildings in my condo association. Luckily it wasn't my building. Still, it was pretty close.
Fast forward to July 29, 2004. Once again, Mr. Lewis is in trouble with the law. His partner in a consulting business claimed he had used spice spray on her and struggled with her for four hours before raping her. When the case finally came to trial, the accuser refused to testify against him and Lewis was released. Recently he's been giving interviews, bewailing his wrongs. Being suspected of the Tylenol killings caused him great anguish: "I can tell you it is a big weight to have thrown at you and it is nothing that your mother prepares you for and it is not something that you learn about in school" (see McCabe).
I don't suspect him of being the Tylenol poisoner. But I do call him the Tylenol man; writing that note earned him the name.

Bibliography:
McCabe, Neil W., "My Chat With the Tylenol Man" The Alewife, October 03, 2007
Bell, Rachel, "The Tylenol Terrorist: Looking for Answers" TruTV Crime Library
Hilts, Philip J. and Joyce Wadler, "Wanted on Extortion Charges; Tylenol Figure Arrested in New York" The Washington Post, December 14, 1982, Tuesday, Final Edition, First Section; A1
Roger Nicolsen Interview: http://youtube.com/watch?v=WH4iQzHdtIU&feature=related