The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers (91 page)

ingested had contained a lethal mix of normal Tylenol Skeptical jurors convicted Tuggle of first-degree mur-and deadly cyanide.

der on September 18, 1984, but they dredged up sym-Those results had yet to be reported on the afternoon pathy enough to recommend the statutory minimum of September 29 when three members of the Janus fam-sentence of 10 years in prison. Sentenced accordingly, ily, residing in another Chicago suburb, swallowed Debra still faced one more trial, on charges of murder-Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules and shortly collapsed.

ing her first three sons. Conviction on those charges None of the three was saved, despite best efforts of could bring a death sentence, but Tuggle’s luck had physicians working around the clock.

finally begun to change.

With the body count at four and holding for the On December 7, 1984, Circuit Judge Floyd Lofton moment, a local firefighter, Lieutenant Phillip Cap-dismissed all three outstanding murder counts. There pitelli, began putting two and two together in his mind.

was no scientific evidence to indicate a homicide in He was aware of Mary Kellerman’s death from conver-Ronald Johnson’s death, the judge declared, and state sations with a relative; now, with reports of the Janus law barred the prosecution from using Tuggle’s prior triple poisoning on his police scanner, he huddled with conviction on an identical crime to make the case. As coworkers, soon making the link between Extra-far as Thomas Bates and William Henry were con-Strength Tylenol and four victims to date. Warnings cerned, Judge Lofton ruled that the statute of limita-were issued throughout greater Chicago on September tions had run out on their deaths after 10 years of 30, but three more victims had already been poisoned official inaction. Prosecutors vowed to appeal the rulin the meantime, none of whom survived.

ing, but their efforts were futile, leaving Tuggle with the On October 1, 1982, the manufacturers of Extra-prospect of mandatory release at age 36 in 1994.

Strength Tylenol recalled some 264,000 bottles of their Dr. Merrill, meanwhile, had established a system for product from stores in Chicago and environs, while the tracking suspicious SIDS deaths in Arkansas. He was U.S. Food and Drug Administration broadcast warnings hot on the trail of another sinister case—four deaths in for consumers to avoid the drug until such time as an one family—when his superiors fired him in January investigation was completed. Four days later, the recall 1985. Officially, Merrill was canned for airing “unwar-went nationwide after police in Oroville, California, ranted criticism” of state health officials. In his view, blamed Tylenol laced with strychnine for the near-fatal the doctor had been punished for “making waves” and convulsions suffered by victim Greg Blagg. By October 6, exposing the foibles of a negligent bureaucracy.

authorities in Canada, Great Britain, Norway, Italy, the No motive was advanced by prosecutors in the Tug-Philippines, and South Korea were also taking steps to gle case, but her behavior—including the bungled sui-clear the suspect bottles from their shelves. The following cide attempt—points toward another case of

day, authorities in Philadelphia retracted their suicide MUNCHAUSEN’S SYNDROME BY PROXY, in which unsta-verdict in the April 3 death of a student, William Pascual, ble mothers or other caregivers deliberately harm their deciding the incident “might have been connected” to charges, thriving on the resultant sympathy and atten-poisoned Tylenol capsules. A fresh examination of Extration. Then again, perhaps she simply hated children.

Strength Tylenol capsules found in Pascual’s apartment found them contaminated with cyanide.

Back in Chicago, meanwhile, investigators traced the

“TYLENOL Murders”

deadly capsules to the stores where they were pur-The unsolved “Tylenol murders” are unique among ser-chased. On October 4, it was announced that one addi-ial killings in that the slayer never actually saw his vic-tional tainted bottle of Extra-Strength Tylenol had been tims and had no idea of their identity or number until he found at each of five stores examined. Because of the (or she) was advised of the deaths by media reports. Per-small number found citywide, police concluded that the haps predictably, by its very nature, the case has also Tylenol was bought or stolen, “spiked” with poison by had a greater impact on American society—and

a lurking killer, then surreptitiously returned to store beyond—than any other case of serial murder in history.

shelves. That judgment was buttressed on October 5

The terror began on September 29, 1982, when 12-after medical examiners toured the Tylenol plant in Fort year-old Mary Kellerman, a resident of suburban Elks Washington, Pennsylvania. Cyanide was used at the Grove Village near Chicago complained to her parents plant, but security measures were tight, and the odds of a scratchy throat and sniffles. Treated with an Extra-against in-house contamination were pegged at “a mil-Strength Tylenol capsule, Mary was found unconscious lion to one.”

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“TYLENOL Murders”

The immediate result of the scare was a call for new no clues behind. It is a testament to human nature that, and stricter safety features in the packaging of patent with the Tylenol scare at its height, certain opportunis-medicines. In Illinois, Cook County’s board of supervi-tic felons tried to jump on the bandwagon, demanding sors passed an ordinance on October 4, 1982, requiring cash to avert future poisonings, but while they went to that all such containers sold within the county must prison on extortion charges, none was ever linked to have “tamper-proof” seals. The very next day, a federal the actual murders. There was also a brief rash of task force convened to address the problem on a

“copycat” crimes, with victims in Colorado and Florida national basis. By October 6, Secretary of Health and injured, respectively, by eye drops and mouthwash Human Services Richard Schweiker had issued execu-tainted with acid. In the final analysis, homicide investitive orders requiring tamper-resistant seals on all patent gators in Illinois, California, and Pennsylvania could medicines and similar items designed for human con-never decide if their poisoning cases were linked. Offi-sumption. Another step toward safety from random cially, the unknown “Tylenol killer” faces seven counts poisoning followed with invention of the “caplet”—

of murder for the crimes around Chicago, if and when that is, capsule-shaped (but solid) tablets that cannot be police are able to identify a suspect. But at 23 years and opened and contaminated.

counting since the crimes, it seems unlikely that the case Still, prevention was easier than punishment in this will ever actually be solved.

troubling case, where the lurking killer (or killers) left
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U

UNSOLVED Murders

well and leave no tracks behind, are automatically Apprehension of serial killers is not a foregone conclu-omitted from such estimates, since law enforcement has sion, by any means. In this century, 18 percent of all no clue that they exist.

recognized repeat slayers have given detectives the slip, JOHN GACY is a case in point, along with DEAN

including at least four—BELLE GUNNESS, BELA KISS, Carl CORLL, JUAN CORONA, and Milwaukee’s JEFFREY DAH-Menarik, and Randolph Dial—who eluded police after MER. By themselves, these four men collectively claimed their identities and crimes were publicized. More com-more than 100 victims without arousing police suspi-mon, by far, are stalkers like London’s “JACK THE RIP-cion and were betrayed in the end by some careless misPER” or the American “ZODIAC” and “MOONLIGHT

take or a fluke of circumstance. Less prolific but luckier MURDERER,” whose crimes excite the public for a time in the end, Eugene Butler spent the last seven years of before they simply fade from public consciousness, for-his life in a North Dakota mental institution; he had ever unidentified.

been dead two years before construction workers razed Various reasons typically advanced for the cessation his former home and found six corpses buried in the of unsolved serial murders include speculation on the crawl space.

killer’s death, imprisonment on unrelated charges, or Author Carl Sifakis, in his Encyclopedia of American commitment to a mental institution. In the absence of a Crime (1982), speculates that the true American mur-name, however (and conclusive evidence connecting der rate may be double the figure recorded each year if any given suspect to the crimes in question) such theo-we consider MISSING PERSONS plus homicides disguised ries are nothing more than idle mind games. A more as accidental deaths or suicides. MEDICAL MURDERS are troubling notion—that certain serial killers voluntarily also sometimes difficult to recognize, certified as “nat-

“retire” from the hunt—is less welcome to police and ural” deaths by inexperienced doctors . . . or by the civilians alike, since it implies the slayer may resume his killer himself if he happens to be the attending physi-homicidal acts at any time as he or she sees fit.

cian. Homicide statistics are further skewed by the fact FBI spokesmen are frequently asked to speculate on that victims discovered years after death—as with the the number of unidentified serial killers at large in 29 discovered on Gacy’s property in 1978—are logged America. Their estimates typically range from 35 to 50, in the year of discovery, rather than the years in which sometimes as high as 100, while critics claim the figures they were murdered.

thus elicited are too conservative. The plain truth is that See also PROFILING

no one knows how many homicidal stalkers are at large on any given day. Police can only tabulate the cases they have recognized—that is, the ones in which repeated
UNTERWEGER, Jack

murders have been linked by circumstantial evidence.

A native of Styria, in southeastern Austria, Unterweger Another breed of killer, those who hide their victims was the illegitimate son of an American soldier and an
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UNTERWEGER, Jack

Austrian prostitute. Born in 1951, he was raised among hookers and pimps, growing up wild with an unpredictable temper. He was a chronic truant by age nine and logged his first arrest at 16 for assaulting a prostitute. Over the next nine years, he accumulated 16 convictions—mostly for sexual attacks on women—and spent all but 12 months of that time behind bars. Briefly freed in 1976, he was charged with murder after he bludgeoned another streetwalker with an iron bar, then strangled her with her own brassiere. In court, he admitted his crime, telling the judge, “I envisioned my mother in front of me, and I killed her.”

Sentenced to life imprisonment, Unterweger followed the lead of certain American convicts, reinventing himself as an author of “important” literature. Over the next 14 years, he produced various poems, plays, short stories, and an autobiography that made him the toast of Viennese café society. Influential Austrians petitioned the government for his release, and the “rehabilitated”

killer was paroled on May 23, 1990. “That life is over now,” he told the press. “Let’s get on with the new.”

And so he did. Overnight, Jack become a fixture on television talk shows, posing as a model of prison rehabilitation, enjoying most-favored-guest status at high-society cocktail parties. Money follows celebrity, and Unterweger sported designer clothes, drove a Ford Mustang with the license tag reading “Jack 1,”

and acquired a blond girlfriend the same age as his last victim. Unfortunately, Jack’s “new life” was a charade. Austrian police report that Unterweger killed at least six prostitutes within his first 12

months of freedom.

Jack Unterweger poses with a hangman’s noose. (Author’s In June 1991, Jack got a chance to take his show on collection)

the road. An Austrian magazine commissioned him to write about crime in Los Angeles. Winging off to L.A.

with his lover, Unterweger wangled several ride-alongs with his teenage lover on a jaunt that would take them with local police. He wrote a couple of articles, focus-through Switzerland, France, and Canada and back ing primarily on Hollywood prostitutes, but Jack also once more to the United States. Along the way, he had a more personal interest in his subject. The first vic-paused for telephone calls to the Austrian media, alter-tim, 35-year-old Shannon Exley, was found in Boyle nately taunting police and proclaiming his innocence. A Heights on June 20. Number two, 33-year-old Irene trail of credit card receipts led manhunters to Miami, Rodriguez, was found in the same neighborhood 10