In Chicago 1982, taking acetaminophen was slightly like enjoying Russian Roulette. At the least seven folks died after ingesting cyanide-laced Additional Power Tylenol capsules and to today, the feds by no means nailed the offender. In 2025, Chilly Case: The Tylenol Murders documentarians Yotam Guendelman and Ari Pines received their man — or not less than, the Netflix filmmakers received the FBI’s lone suspect, James Lewis, to talk in nice size on digital camera. It was producer Molly Forester who landed Lewis.
“She was given the duty to get him and she or he introduced him,” Guendelman stated. “She’s the perfect at this.” Joe Berlinger, an government producer on the docuseries, can also be no slouch within the area himself.
In 2022, as journalists camped out on Lewis’ garden hoping for a soundbite that by no means got here, it was Forester who received him to open the entrance door. She promised Lewis he’d get to inform his full story — a promise she’d reiterate over the following yr.
“You’re a human being,” Forester pitched Lewis. “We wish to speak to you as a human being — even in case you did all of this horrible stuff.”
“She simply type of received his belief,” Guendelman stated.
There’s little question that Lewis, deserted as a child by his dad and mom, has finished some horrible stuff. However what was by no means confirmed — and nonetheless hasn’t been — is whether or not of not Lewis did this “horrible stuff.”
Forester and Lewis, and thru osmosis Guendelman (and thru additional osmosis, Pines) and Lewis, ended up having a “actually intimate” rapport, Guendelman stated.
There was one different issue that definitely didn’t damage. “As you possibly can see on the present, he loves consideration,” Guendelman stated. “However he by no means gave an interview as a result of he was so cautious.”
One factor Lewis has by no means been accused of is being dumb — or, in all probability, being a superb dude. Although by no means charged within the precise Tylenol killings, Lewis was convicted of extortion for sending a letter to Tylenol maker Johnson & Johnson taking accountability for the deaths and demanding $1 million to cease them. Lewis stated later that his letter was an try to level authorities to his spouse’s former boss. He received a 10-year sentence.
Years earlier, in 1978, Lewis was charged within the homicide of Raymond West, who had employed Lewis as an accountant, however poor police work killed any likelihood of a conviction. In 1983, Lewis was convicted of mail fraud; one other time, he was accused of aggravated rape, however the alleged sufferer selected to not undergo with the case.
In different phrases, Lewis knew there was a number of alternative to slide up throughout an interview.
“There was one thing in him that needed to say what he needed to say, for a few years,” Guendelman stated. “Having folks mainly attempting to get you for 40 years, I assume additionally makes you wish to speak and luxuriate in this consideration.”
Shortly after their interview, Lewis died.
In 1982, not less than seven Chicago-area residents died after taking laced Additional Power Tylenol
Courtesy of Netflix
It might have been cool to get a confession on tape — “the dream of each documentarian” — Guendelman conceded, a la Robert Durst in The Jinx. However there’s a distinction between Durst and Lewis.
“Jim shouldn’t be the one suspect on this case,” Pines stated. “We don’t know for certain that he’s accountable.”
Roger Arnold, a dock employee who admitted to possessing potassium cyanide, was additionally investigated by police.
“So we didn’t do that interview simply to get a confession out of [Lewis], however to actually confront him about all of the arduous questions on this case and the opposite instances…that he was suspected of prior to now,” Pines continued.
It was not for an absence of attempting, after all. And Guendelman and Pines have already confirmed their work’s price to the authorized system.
Guendelman and Pines are the duo behind Shadow of Fact, a doc in regards to the 2006 homicide of 13-year-old Israeli lady whose physique was present in a faculty toilet. Roman Zadorow, a Ukrainian immigrant who had labored on the college, was arrested and convicted. Properly, he was convicted till Guendelman and Pines got here alongside.
The four-part Shadow of Fact, since acquired by Netflix, resulted in a retrial for Zadorow. He was finally acquitted and launched.
“True-crime documentaries do have a number of energy to alter actuality,” Pines stated, “and so they can obtain crucial issues.”
Chilly Case: The Tylenol Murders is now out there on Netflix.