Chicago Tylenol murders: Who did it? Questions still surround James Lewis

thank you Forty years ago seven healthy Chicago area residents died after taking Tylenol with cyanide. There were three main persons of interest in early 1982, but investigators were never able to solve these

murders

, but now there is a possible break in the case. CBS 2 Investigator Brad. Edwards has learned that one of the Tylenol suspects, James Lewis, is again at the center of the investigation. Lewis was interviewed for hours outside his Boston home last week. Brad has traveled thousands of miles tracking the life of Lewis, a person connected to another murder. You've probably never heard of him, but prosecutors and detectives won't soon forget: It was here in Kansas City, Missouri, where police made the connection that has become the hottest lead yet in the search for the suspected cyanide killer. of Tylenol, James Lewis, in a strange 1978.

Raymond West murder case victim had his legs cut off his body stuffed in a plastic bag by Detective Dave Barton my involvement in the Raymond West case began when a body was found in the attic of one house a hoist was used to lift the body up the attic, do you remember anything about the hoist? No, what I remember are the ropes. I know the knots. He was in the Navy and a sailor and I realized that this was not an ordinary thing. No and I opened those rope bags that included the nooses that tied Raymond West's legs and torso.

Do you remember that smell now? Okay, yeah, I'll never forget it. That case had been dismissed for insufficient medical evidence and inadequate police procedures. just another of the comments that plagued this case: was it the Raymond West murder case that finally led Chicago police to investigate James Lewis or Marie Cervedra sat down with Brad who found even more red flags after digging In Lewis' past for months when we were specifically pursuing him, the third suspect who looked into his background did something. He gave you a bit of a thrill while you investigate. You investigate all the time.

I'm just curious if anything caught your eye and made you think it's okay. I'm really into something that you're on or I made you try even harder to get information from it to find it to be a piece, uh, part of this piece that you're working on, yeah, and you're right, there's that jolt of energy when you're researching something like this and you find a little nugget I went to the National Archives looked at the entire case Archive of over a thousand pages actually filed against James Lewis I mean, it started from moment one, you know, I found out he was born to parents in Memphis Tennessee, soon after he was abandoned by said parents, then he was adopted and raised in a small place near the Ozarks called Carl Junction Missouri and then, as a young man, he tried to murder his adoptive mother with an axe, the real coup.

What I focused on was what happened four years before the Tylenol

murders

occurred. It took place in '82. We had a flashback to 1978. In 1978, a tax client of James Lewis, his client Raymond West, was found murdered and dismembered and mummified remains were found. in the attic of his house in Kansas City and I thought I had to track down everything he could. I have to track down everything available about the murder of Raymond West. We explain everything in the next article, but you know. One of the critical elements that opened the case initially was after Mr.

West disappeared. James Lewis tried to cash a five thousand dollar check from the missing man and you're putting out all these threats and there's red flag after red flag after red flag James. Lewis was a suspect, he didn't get his Miranda warning, actually a technical case was thrown out a couple years later. James Lewis was the center of an investigation that was actually a large investigation involving identity fraud and land fraud that was in 1981, it was a federal investigation. case and a state case the feds and the local cops broke into Lewis' house in Kansas City they got a ton of evidence they thought they had a good case bam James Lewis skips town comes to Chicago a year later the Tylenol murders well , you can watch Brad's Full Story tonight on CBS 2 News at 10 and we have a section on our website dedicated to the victims' families to hear their stories and stay up to date with the investigation.

Visit cbs

chicago

.com. Analgesic. You can also see a preview of various parts. Documentary series we produced a painkiller that will arrive later this fall.