Possible Suspect in 1982 Tylenol Cyanide Poisoning Named

This article recalls the 1982 Tylenol killings and the national panic it caused.

It turns out tomorrow is the 44th anniversary of the first death:

On Sept. 29, 1982, seventh-grader Mary Ann Kellerman complained to her parents of a sore throat. In turn, she took an Extra-Strength Tylenol to ease her symptoms. However, her condition became much worse. Adam Janus, a postal worker, similarly took Tylenol and was unable to wake up from his nap. He was taken to the emergency room in critical condition and unfortunately passed away in the hospital.

A California chemist who had worked with Lockheed Martin killed himself months after the Chicago-area Tylenol poisonings.

He killed himself in an Idaho church. At the time, his identity was unknown. Police called him the "Unknown Wanderer." He had $1900 in cash in his pocket with instructions to use the money to pay for his cremation. The note was signed "Wm. L. Toomey," but no man of that name was found to exist.

His method of suicide was taking cyanide. But it was a different form of cyanide than that used to poison the Tylenol capsules. That can be explained away by wanting to hide his identity as the killer (if he is the killer).

Reportedly, he told coworkers that he thought cyanide would be an effective way to kill people without being caught.

Maybe this is the killer.

But maybe not.

A man found dead in a church halfway across the country may have suddenly unlocked the key -- quite literally -- to one of America's most famous unsolved crimes.

On Dec. 4, 1982, a parishioner at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Boise found a man collapsed under a pew. She had worked as a nurse, so she quickly recognized the man was either dying or already dead. A priest was summoned to give his last rites, and police came not long after. In the dead man's pockets were a typed suicide note and $1,900. The note said the money was enough to cover his cremation and any additional funds should be donated to the church. It was signed Wm. L. Toomey.

No such man existed. His fingerprints came up empty for matches, and it seemed like his sandy-colored hair might have been a dye job to conceal his appearance. Even a feature on "Unsolved Mysteries" in 1990 did nothing to uncover the identity of the man dubbed the Unknown Wanderer. All that was known for sure was that he had used cyanide to kill himself.

The case went cold, but in 2019 Ada County Sheriff's Office cold case investigator Tim Cooper took a fresh look at the evidence. Among the items preserved since 1982 was an engraved key found in the man's possession. Cooper traced it to a neighborhood in Jacksonville, Fla. He learned a homeowner there disappeared in 1982, and he was eventually declared dead in absentia. His name was Dr. Mathew Betkouski.

...

But although he had a successful career, working at one point for Lockheed Martin on a NASA-related project in New Mexico, Betkouski had a reputation for making unsettling comments. Former coworkers told Cooper that Betkouski spoke of how to commit a "perfect crime," had a "history of volatility" and referenced cyanide as an ideal way to kill without detection. He also mentioned putting poison in over-the-counter medication, an especially worrisome comment coming from someone who had worked in multiple drugstores.

"It was said that Dr. Betkouski attempted to obtain some type of pills or capsules from a pharmacy in the Las Cruces area," Cooper said at a press conference last week. "He said this would be for an experiment. For reasons not fully understood, Dr. Betkouski created a disturbance at the location and the police were summoned."

Less than three months before Betkouski killed himself, a national terror was unfolding in Chicago. In late September 1982, seven people took over-the-counter Tylenol for their usual aches and pains. The capsules had been opened and filled with potassium cyanide, killing the people who took them. The crimes sent widespread panic throughout the country. At the time, tamper-proof seals were not standard, and investigators believed someone had swapped in the poison after the bottles were placed on shelves. Johnson & Johnson issued one of the largest pharmaceutical recalls in American history as investigators tried to find the culprit.

...

Now, Ada County detectives think Betkouski may be a compelling suspect. He and his wife divorced the year before the Tylenol murders, and he killed himself in the months after the Chicago cases.

So is this the guy? Since I jumped on the "Black Dahlia Zodiac" story too quickly, I'll reserve judgment.

posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 01:12 PM

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