James Lewis, the suspect in the 1982 Tylenol poisonings that killed 7 in the Chicago area, has died

By MARK PRATT
Associated Press

Police say the suspect in the 1982 Tylenol poisonings that killed seven people in the Chicago area and triggered a nationwide scare has died. Police in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said Monday that officers, firefighters and EMTs responded to a report of an unresponsive person at about 4 p.m. Sunday. They found James Lewis dead in his home in the city. Police say he was 76. Police say the death is not considered suspicious. No one was ever charged in the deaths of seven people who took drugs laced with cyanide. But Lewis served more than 12 years in prison for sending an extortion note to Johnson & Johnson, demanding $1 million to “stop the killing.”