Uncooperative J&J Fuels Dissident 1982 Tylenol Murders Theory

Johnson & Johnson, trusted maker of baby shampoo and medicine cabinet staples including Tylenol, is currently under investigation by Congress.
The feds question the company's manufacturing quality-control processes, transparency with the public regarding safety concerns, and accountability, given several recent recalls. For a recap of the charges/stonewalling, read this NYT piece.
What's intriguing about this situation is how it connects to the infamous – and still unsolved – Tylenol poisoning murders of seven Chicago-area residents in 1982.

A decade ago, I published an investigative profile of the prime suspect, a man who is still being questioned as the possible "madman" who, according to the official story, either purchased or stole bottles of Tylenol capsules from retail locations, inserted capsules filled with potassium cyanide into these bottles, put the bottles back on store shelves and then waited to see who would eventually purchase and ingest the deadly poison.

A former J&J employee, Scott Bartz, has a decidedly different theory, one that's becoming more credible in light of J&J's evasive behavior of late.

Bartz believes the 1982 contamination likely happened during the repackaging and distribution of Tylenol capsules, not at retail.

On his exhaustively detailed Web site, Bartz explains how a J&J-affiliated employee would have had the opportunity to slip the cyanide-laced capsules into the supply chain without detection. He further shows how – in his opinion – J&J deftly kept investigators obsessed with finding a "madman" haunting stores, rather than probing its less-than-pristine manufacturing facilities and its many middlemen "contractors" who handle all those over-the-counter medicines you think are carefully monitored, tested and secured.

I've followed this case for a long time, and the more I dig, the deeper the rabbit hole seems to go. I didn't know the "repackaging" industry even existed until I met Bartz. I find his research fascinating, but frustratingly difficult to verify.

One unequivocal fact remains:  the victims and their families have yet to receive justice.
Perhaps the heat coming down on J&J will thaw their cold case.
Turn up that sunshine, Congress.

History Repeats. Literature Reminds.

Between the BP disaster, the flash crash, the Guatemalan sinkhole and that revolting cat litter ad campaign Cats Against Clay, I’ve been a wee agitated and blue. 

My escape hatch? Classic stories by “Lost Generation” writers.

Hemingway’s Indian Camp was brilliant, if not exactly a picker-upper. I reached for a Nathanael West collection. 

Miss Lonelyhearts nearly stopped my heart. But his short novel, A Cool Million published in 1934, had me laughing – and crying – with recognition.

The hard-luck tale about “the dismantling of Lemuel Pitkin” seemed ripped from the headlines I was trying to avoid. 

Let’s see, we have…

• Crooked bankers foreclosing on a widow, not because she was so terribly behind on her payments, but so that an interior decorator could dismantle her cottage and set it up in his Fifth Avenue boutique as a marvelous exemplar of shabby chic.

• This same lifestyle merchant executing perhaps the first-recorded viral marketing scheme:  driving a team of horses through Central Park, “not for pleasure, as one might be led to think, but for profit. He had accumulated a large collection of old wagons in his warehouse and by driving one of them in the mall he hoped to start a vogue for that type of equipage and thus sell off his stock.”  

• Environmentalist rage expressed by one Chief Israel Satinpenny railing against the palefaces’ pillage, “all the secret places of the earth are full. Now even the Grand Canyon will no longer hold razor blades. Now the dam, O warriors, has broken and he is up to his neck in the articles of his manufacture.  He has loused the continent up good. But is he trying to de-louse it? No, all his efforts go to keep on lousing up the joint. All that worries him is how he can go one making little painted boxes for pins, watch fobs, leatherette satchels.”

• Tea Party-types led by a former U.S. president who’d be a fine cuddle for Ms. Wasilla, “How could I, Shagpoke Whipple, ever bring myself to accept a program which promised to take from American citizens their inalienable birthright: the right to sell their labor and their children’s labor without restrictions as to either price or hours?  The time for a new party with the old American principles, was, I realized, over-ripe. I decided to form it; and so the National Revolutionary Party, popularly known as the ‘Leather Shirts,’ was born. The uniform of our ‘Storm Troops’ is a coonskin cap like the one I am wearing, a deerskin shirt and a pair of moccasins. Our weapon is the squirrel rifle.”

Oh, Mr. Whipple. We’ve met before. Mr. West reminds us that we’ll meet him again and again.

Might as well squeeze a chuckle from the chaos.

Not Even a Fleeting Glance at Consequences

On Memorial Day I joined the crowds waiting to tour the USS Iwo Jima at Pier 88.

It’s not often we get a chance to board such an impressive vessel staffed with polite young people looking quite spiffy in their uniforms.

Walking the gangplank into its hull was an exercise in humility. What thick steel! What massive capacity – loaded this day with amphibious assault vehicles, tanks, helicopters and other military might which visitors were encouraged to touch, to pose for pictures upon, to fantasize about commandeering.

What an utter lack of evidence indicating its true purpose and effects.

I commend the government for allowing its citizenry to inspect how our tax monies get spent, but to understand the potency on display we should have been able to chat up a wounded soldier, a war widow and an Iraqi mother whose children now exist only in those PowerPoint slides denoting civilian casualties.

War is not as sexy and fun as posting pictures of yourself holding an unloaded M16 off the sunny coast of Manhattan. The smiles would not be as wide if we had to wipe blood from the trigger. Let’s remember that, and not just on Memorial Day.

Hombre with Hustle

Meet Pablo Juan Solis, the future president of Guatemala. Doubt me?

From his half-completed home in Santa Cruz, Pablo is running a capitalist empire with a social conscience.

We met him first as proprietor of a Spanish school. Soon Pablo revealed his bustling tour business and took us out for a spectacular day around Lake Atitlan. We spoke about his ambitions and learned that Pablo also...

Teaches English to indigenous populations
Provides Spanish classes via Skype each morning at 6am for doctors at the Mayo Clinic
Studies law at the university on weekends [and worked with Nobel Prize-winning activist Rigoberta Menchu]
Helps manage a local job training and community center
Paints signs for businesses
Monitors environmental health of Lake Atitlan, promoting sustainable economic growth
Parents his new baby boy, Alan, with his wife Paulina
Uses Google Chrome [it hasn't even formally launched in the U.S.A. yet!]
Is 24.

He puts we "busy" people to shame. I'm glad for it!

Futile Frugality

I'm starting to feel foolish about being a saver.

Writing isn't a big-bucks pursuit, but I've managed to support a decent lifestyle and sock away at least 10 percent of my gross income every year of my professional life.

My reward for this fiscal discipline? 1% interest. Inflation ran at 2.63% during 2009. 

Soon banks will be asking me to pay for the privilege of storing funds they can lend out at much higher interest rates. Where's the incentive to save? We're all aware that the financial crisis has hit over-leveraged customers. But what's not discussed is how those who eschew debt are paying dearly for doing the "right" thing.

Back in 2000, the average 6-month CD paid 6.5% interest while inflation was at 3.7%. This seems to my non-mathematical mind to be a golden ratio of sorts. I'm not suggesting we go back to, say, the rotten early 80s when a CD could pull 15.77% and inflation was 8.4%. But come on, bankers. Give a girl a reason to keep feeding the piggy.

Public Servant Whose Salary I'm Pleased to Pay

Robert J. Freeman is, appropriately enough, the man to see when looking to free government information from reluctant agencies.

As executive director of the Committee on Open Government, Freeman advises journalists and other interested citizens on the laws and procedures for accessing government records in New York.

I called him to discuss a criminal case that's currently "under seal." He had the answers I sought [though not the news I wanted to hear.]

Contact the good people at COOG if you're feeling foiled by FOIL matters. They know best how to negotiate bureaucratic minefields and access information to which we are all entitled.

Crazy Busy Beautiful Available Now

Busy ladies, have we got a sassy beauty book for you.

Kitchen Table Productions [Carmindy, Sarah Burningham, Jay Sternberg and yours truly] put together the best, budget-friendly beauty tips for gals who want to glow on the go.

You'll find answers to your most vexing makeup questions [Can a nervous Nelly handle liquid eyeliner? Yes.]

You'll chuckle at Carmindy's advice on tackling "The Nasties" e.g. zits, hangovers and, oh yeah, passion rash from necking with bearded boys.

You'll learn simple ways to update your usual looks, and come away with some wacky tips from ladies across the USA. Who knew Elmer's Glue worked as a pore strip?

Indulge in some girly fun! Order here for only $9.35!