Chicago Stories
The Janus Family Tragedy
Clip: 10/3/2025 | 6m 41sVideo has Closed Captions
Adam, Stanley, and Theresa Janus all took Tylenol from the same tainted bottle.
The Tylenol poisonings took the lives of three members of the Janus family in Arlington Heights, leaving the family and the community in shock.
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Chicago Stories is a local public television program presented by WTTW
Lead support for CHICAGO STORIES is provided by The Negaunee Foundation. Major support is provided by the Abra Prentice Foundation, Inc. and the TAWANI Foundation.
Chicago Stories
The Janus Family Tragedy
Clip: 10/3/2025 | 6m 41sVideo has Closed Captions
The Tylenol poisonings took the lives of three members of the Janus family in Arlington Heights, leaving the family and the community in shock.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship- My family.
They're from Poland and they all came to the United States because they wanted a better opportunity, a better life for their children.
- Kasia Janus's family settled in Chicago, a city with one of America's largest Polish communities and fit right in.
They gathered for mass and other celebrations at St. Hyacinth Catholic church on the northwest side.
- It is a grand church, and my Uncle Stanley and my Aunt Theresa, they got married over the summer of 1982.
I just remember lots of dancing.
Everyone, just happy.
Lot of dancing.
That's all I remember.
We like to dance.
- Kasia's father Adam worked for the post office in Arlington Heights, a middle class Chicago suburb.
The family of four blended into the leafy neighborhood while maintaining their Polish roots.
- It was a a really loving home.
Both my parents spoke Polish.
My mom would always make Polish food, pierogi, gobki, stuffed cabbage, rosol.
chicken soup, potatoes, and my dad was all about the family.
He loved his family.
That was his world.
He used to spoil me a lot.
I was daddy's little girl.
It was great.
- Kasia's father picked her up from preschool on Wednesday, September 29th, 1982, his day off from work.
- And we went to Jewel to run some errands, picked up some flowers for my mom, which my mom would tell me that he was a romantic.
- Kasia's still recalls the fateful moment.
Her father, who wasn't feeling well, reached for a bottle of America's leading pain reliever.
- I remember him picking up the bottle, put it in his basket, and you know, it was time for us to go.
We went home.
He gave her the flowers and I thought that was so sweet, and that's when our lives just changed forever.
When I heard my mom screaming, I ran to him along with my brother.
I remember standing by him and just nudging him and just saying, wake up, TaTa.
Wake up.
But he wouldn't wake up.
- Charles Kramer was a young lieutenant in the Arlington Heights Fire Department when the emergency call came in - As one of the calls that will go down.
I'll never forget, I can remember every detail.
Even though I'm 83 years old, I can still remember every single detail he responded to nothing we did.
The breeding was rapid and shallow.
His eyes were fixed and dilated like he was already dead.
- Paramedics rushed Adam to Northwest Community Hospital just three blocks away.
The 27-year-old died later that afternoon from an apparent heart attack.
- Everyone was surprised for someone who was healthy to all of a sudden die unexpectedly like that.
- Kasia's extended family gathered at her home to grieve and make funeral arrangements.
Her Uncle Stanley and Aunt Theresa back from their honeymoon in Hawaii struggled to make sense of Adam's death.
- They were just so grief stricken.
You know, here's my uncle who just lost his best friend and wanted something to relieve his headache, and the bottle was sitting on the counter.
And then that's when it all happened.
Again, - Fires responding to an address, - And again, the same message code one at 1262 South Mitchell for a man down.
The paramedics looked, they said, it can't be.
He's dead.
Something's not right.
So we pulled up in front and the screaming coming outta the house, the hysterics was unbelievable.
I get in and there's four meds working on a young guy on the floor, and this girl comes up and she's grabbing my arm and she's hysterical.
She's calling Stanley Stanley.
She's pulling on my arm and all of a sudden she lets out a groan and goes down.
Talk about deja vu.
- They took the couple to the same hospital where Stanley's older brother had died just hours earlier.
Doctors were unable to revive the newlyweds.
No one understood what could have stricken three healthy young adults in less than six hours.
- I have never seen anything like this before with this rapid deterioration.
No matter what our men did, nothing seemed to work.
Helen Jensen is the village nurse.
So I called her - And they didn't know if it was infectious that if it was some sort of an Ebola or something.
So I went out to the house and it was spotless.
They checked carbon dioxide and they checked for gas and going through everything.
I found a bottle of Tylenol and I found the receipt in the garbage.
It was a brand new bottle and there was six capsules missing and there were three people dead.
And I said, it's gotta be the Tylenol.
Something is in these Tylenol.
So we went back to the hospital and they said, oh no, can't be, can't be Tylenol.
And I laid out the capsules again and counted them in front of them and I said, there are six capsules missing.
There are three people dead.
That has to be the Tylenol.
Searching for Tylenol Murder Suspects
Video has Closed Captions
Clip: 10/3/2025 | 6m 38s | Authorities investigate a man named Roger Arnold. (6m 38s)
A Second Look at the Tylenol Murders
Video has Closed Captions
Clip: 10/3/2025 | 11m 18s | Authorities relaunch the Tylenol murder investigation. (11m 18s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip: 10/3/2025 | 11m 42s | Authorities follow a lead on James Lewis. (11m 42s)
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Chicago Stories is a local public television program presented by WTTW
Lead support for CHICAGO STORIES is provided by The Negaunee Foundation. Major support is provided by the Abra Prentice Foundation, Inc. and the TAWANI Foundation.