Netflix Reopens America's First Product-Poisoning Crisis

On May 26, 2025, Netflix will premiere Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders, a documentary series examining one of America's most terrifying unsolved crimes—and an incident that would reshape consumer product safety regulations worldwide.

In the early 1980s, Chicago residents began dying under mysterious circumstances. What initially appeared to be heart attacks—including the death of a previously healthy man named Adam—soon revealed a darker pattern. Investigators and journalists discovered that over-the-counter Tylenol capsules had been deliberately contaminated with cyanide, a lethal poison. At least three confirmed deaths resulted from the tampering, with evidence suggesting six capsules had been removed from a single bottle and replaced with poison.

The discovery sent shockwaves across the United States and eventually the world. This was the first recorded instance of mass murder through consumer product tampering—a crime category that barely existed in law enforcement consciousness at the time. The poisonings sparked widespread panic. Consumers couldn't trust medications sitting on pharmacy shelves. Hospitals and retailers scrambled to respond. The psychological impact extended far beyond Chicago's borders, triggering copycat threats and fundamentally reshaping how the pharmaceutical industry approached product security.