# Suspect in 1982 Tylenol Murders is dead **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 10, 2023, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspect-in-1982-tylenol-murders-is-dead/986852 "2023-07-10T09:13:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2025, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspect-in-1982-tylenol-murders-is-dead/986852/41 "2025-05-26T23:17:12Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > If that’s how it was done, what evidence could there be of the crime? I mentioned this before, but there was a healthy amount of circumstantial evidence, just little of it linking him directly. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspect-in-1982-tylenol-murders-is-dead/986852/42 "2025-05-27T03:48:13Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > And that would be only a certain kind of killer, one who just wants to kill and doesn’t care who actually gets killed. A killer who doesn’t need or want the visceral sensation of watching someone die at their hands, but does want very much to get away with it. Someone who is looking for a feeling of power and invincibility? I wonder if serial-killer profilers have done any work on that type of killer. The motive in this case was apparently extortion; not a sociopathic compulsion to kill ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspect-in-1982-tylenol-murders-is-dead/986852/43 "2025-05-27T06:28:17Z")
While extortion was a part of the motivation, this is also an area where the circumstantial nature of the evidence against Lewis comes into play. Lewis’ daughter had a heart condition and she died after an operation when the sutures used failed. The sutures were made by a subsidiary of Tylenol maker Johnson & Johnson. While some witnesses said he never blamed the company, his website was full of diatribes against Johnson & Johnson and also the subsidiary. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspect-in-1982-tylenol-murders-is-dead/986852/44 "2025-05-27T15:59:04Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > John Waters has a bottle of Tylenol from the same lot as the cyanide-laced capsules. My God, what a ghoul. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspect-in-1982-tylenol-murders-is-dead/986852/45 "2025-05-27T16:04:26Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > While this guy may have done it, I can also see a con man trying to cash in on the killings via extortion. Agreed. If so, it was also very stupid because he could have conned himself into several murder charges. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspect-in-1982-tylenol-murders-is-dead/986852/46 "2025-05-27T16:06:26Z")
Criminals are usually not noted for their intelligence. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2026, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspect-in-1982-tylenol-murders-is-dead/986852/47 "2026-09-27T23:24:15Z")
News in the Tylenol case > **[Idaho officials solved a cold case that may have a connection to the infamous...](https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2026/sep/23/idaho-officials-solved-a-1982-cold-case-that-may-h/)** > > BOISE – Idaho law enforcement believe a man found dead after poisoning himself in a Boise church 44 years ago could have a connection to the 1982 Tylenol killings, an unsolved string of homicides that roiled the nation and changed the way consumers... > 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.” ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2026, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspect-in-1982-tylenol-murders-is-dead/986852/48 "2026-09-28T20:45:53Z")
I was at an impressionable age when this story broke. For years afterwards, I was afraid to take pills, even after they introduced tamper-proof packaging. James Lewis was certainly an extortionist in the Tylenol case, and the other major suspect Roger Arnold was certainly a murderer, in a separate case. But I have never been convinced either of them was the Tylenol murderer. I’m not convinced they were innocent either, I’ve been on the fence. From other news stories I’ve read, I gather there is DNA evidence from inside one of the Tylenol bottles and fingerprint evidence the outside of one of the boxes that have been tested against Lewis and Arnold and found not to match either. The person or persons who left that evidence is not necessarily the killer. For example, the DNA could conceivably be from an innocent J&J employee, and the fingerprints could be from a pharmacy shelf-stocker or a shopper who put the box back on the shelf after deciding not to buy it. But if either matches Betkouski that would be pretty darn conclusive, since I can’t fathom any innocent explanation. I’ll reserve judgment unless and until I hear the results of comparing Betkouski’s fingerprints and DNA against the evidence. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspect-in-1982-tylenol-murders-is-dead/986852.md?page=2)