By Davina Willett
Court TV

The Tylenol Tamperings

Another high profile case which remains unsolved is the Tylenol Tamperings that killed seven people between September 29 and October 1, 1982, in Chicago's West Side. There was not an immediate link that all victims had died after consuming Tylenol tablets, but once the connection was made, Johnson & Johnson, the company that manufactures Tylenol, went into crisis management overdrive.

Seven people died after taking Extra Strength Tylenol.

In fact, the case is widely regarded in marketing and public relations circles as an example of prodigious crisis management by a company staring down bankruptcy, rather than remembered for its tragedy.

Autopsy reports on the victims determined that each had died after ingesting an Extra Strength Tylenol capsule laced with cyanide. It was also determined that the killer had emptied about 20 or 30 Tylenol capsules, refilled them with crystalline potassium cyanide, and placed the tampered products on store shelves, apparently on a Wednesday afternoon.

The Tylenol Tampering case reportedly received more television news air time than any incident since the assassination of President Kennedy. The killer has never been caught, however, prior to 1982, tamper-proof capsules and tamper-proof packaging were virtually unknown, and now consumers are warned regularly, 'Do not use if safety seals are broken.'