The Tylenol Murders

This case study highlights the issues raised in Who Died First concerning survivorship.

Newlyweds Stanley and Theresa Janus cut short their honeymoon on learning of the sudden and inexplicable death of Stanley's brother, Adam, back home in Chicago, Illinois.

At a family gathering in Adam's home shortly after they arrived, Stanley and Theresa understandably felt lousy. Adam's medicine cabinet contained a bottle of Tylenol - a big-selling over-the-counter brand of pain-relief medicine - and Stanley and Theresa each swallowed a few capsules.

Soon, they too were gravely ill. It later emerged that Adam's bottle of Tylenol was one of several that had been laced with poison. Someone in the Chicago area had inserted tampered capsules into numerous bottles of the medicine and placed them to the shelves in chemist's shops.

Stanley died quickly; Theresa lingered, kept alive on a respirator. She died two days later.

Theresa clearly died after Stanley, but a lot of money was at stake depending on whether their deaths could be considered simultaneous.

If they died simultaneously, his life insurance proceeds would go to his mother, not to Theresa (or her estate).

If she died after him, the proceeds would go to her and form part of her estate on her death.

The trial and appellate courts each decided that she survived him. Her father, as her administrator, received the proceeds.

Police quickly determined the source of the poison capsules, and the manufacturer issued a massive, costly nationwide recall. The poisoner was never caught.

Janus v. Tarasewicz, 135 Ill.App.3d 936, 482 N.E.2d 418, 90 Ill.Dec. 599 (Ill.App. 1 Dist. 1985)