TYMURS NYC: The 1986 Tylenol Murder

On February 7, 1986, forty months after the 1982 Tylenol murders in Chicago, Johnson & Johnson received news that Tylenol had captured its largest share ever of the over-the-counter painkiller market. That night, in a home just outside New York City, a young woman swallowed two Tylenol capsules at bedtime. She was found dead the next morning.

So began Johnson & Johnson's second Tylenol poisoning crisis. This time, however, a tenacious district attorney was not buying the story promoted by J&J and the FDA of a madman who had planted the poisoned capsules in the retail stores. This time, Johnson & Johnson was a suspect.