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Tylenol case: clues, proposals

The 100 FBI agents and Chicago police investigating September's Tylenol murders sifted clues, chased leads, extended their search to Kansas City, Mo., made an arrest -- and still came up empty last week.

Roger Arnold, 48, was arrested after police received a tip that he kept cyanide in his South Side Chicago home. Although he was arraigned on other charges (including failing to register firearms), there were curious coincidences in terms of the Tylenol poisonings that killed seven people in the Chicago area. For the past 13 years Arnold has worked on the loading dock of the Jewel Food warehouse in suburban Melrose Park. Tainted Tylenol was found in two Jewel supermarkets. Describing Arnold as a "closet chemist," police searched his house and turned up a suspicious-looking plastic bag of white powder, along with drug manuals that contained instructions for encapsulating cyanide. A lab test found the powder to be a harmless carbonate, but Arnold admitted that he had kept sodium cyanide in his basement several months ago for "experiments." Nevertheless, Chicago police insist that Arnold, now out on bail, "is not a prime suspect at this time."

In another development, a federal arrest warrant was issued for Chicago Residents Robert Richardson, 36, and his wife Nancy, 35. Richardson was accused of at tempting to extort $ 1 million from McNeil Consumer Products Co., the manufacturers of Tylenol, with a handwritten note demanding money "if you want to stop the killing." But when his picture flashed on the TV news, detectives in Kansas City recognized him as James W. Lewis, who had been freed on murder charges stemming from the 1978 mutilation in Kansas City of one Raymond West. A nationwide arrest alert was ordered.

Meanwhile, the Proprietary Association, a Washington-based organization that represents the nation's major pharmaceutical manufacturers, unveiled detailed proposals for packaging that would clearly tip off the consumer when a product has been tampered with. The association has urged the Food and Drug Administration to adopt a "uniform, national approach to the problem" to discourage state and local authorities from enacting separate and possibly conflicting regulations.

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