How 7 Unsolved Murders Changed the Way We Eat and Drink
Busting through layers of consumer packaging can be a real headache. But in a world of meddlers and tamperers, it’s a small price to pay.
People lick ice cream and return the carton to freezer shelves. A hospital nurse replaces medication with saliva. A person at the grocery store slips sewing needles into packages of soft bread rolls. Delivery drivers sneak bites of customers’ food.
Crooks, con artists, and pranksters have long messed with consumer foods and medications. Recent cases such as these have again brought attention to this disturbing, often disgusting, and sometimes downright dangerous crime.
Despite the enactment of federal laws which criminalized product tampering and created standards for tamper-evident packaging, the FDA investigates hundreds of new cases each year. This may seem like a lot, but there would surely be many more — if not for the response to seven horrifying murders in suburban Chicago in 1982.
The case unfolds
On Wednesday, Sept. 29, in Arlington Heights, Illinois, 27-year-old postal worker Adam Janus felt sick. He bought a bottle of Extra-Strength Tylenol, and once home, swallowed two capsules.
