The Tylenol Murders of 1982

It’s hard to imagine now for younger people out there but back in 1982, there was no such thing as a tamper-proof bottle. Drugs, like Extra Strength Tylenol, were sold off the shelf in the bottle with a cotton ball tucked under the lid. No boxes glued shut and no protective foil seal across the lid. What happened in Chicago in the autumn of 1982 led to a change in the pharmaceutical industry and the packaging industry.

Mary Kellerman was only 12, the first and youngest victim of the poisonings. She woke around 6:30 on the morning of Wednesday, September 29, 1982 feeling sick with a cold; her parents…