Emulators of the Tylenol killer made this Halloween truly scary
Pain relievers, nasal spray, candy, orange juice. Poisons, acids, pins and needles. There seems to be no limit to the numbers, targets or methods of copycats seeking to emulate their demonic hero, the still unknown poisoner who murdered seven people (and, it was disclosed last week, might have come hair-raisingly close to killing an eighth) by placing cyanide in Tylenol capsules.
The Food and Drug Administration in Washington counts 270 incidents of suspected product tampering that have been reported around the country in the month since those Chicago-area deaths, and the total swelled rapidly last week. It clearly has been inflated by the hysteria of consumers who blame any nausea or headache on poisoned food and medicine; the FDA so far judges only 36 of the incidents to be "hardcore, true tamperings." Still, that was more than enough to send real rather than make-believe chills coursing through many parents as Halloween approached.
The main concern was a spate of incidents involving candy that had been tampered with. In the Long Island suburbs of New York City, two women discovered straight pins in Candy Corn and Baby Ruth bars. Another straight pin turned up in a KitKat bar in Norwalk, Conn., and a sewing needle in a candy bar in Pensacola, Fla. In Chicago, three children became ill after eating KitKat bars.
Provoked by such incidents, and the prominent display they got almost nightly on TV news last week, more than 40 communities in the U.S. banned Halloween trick-or-treating. "I feel like the Grinch—you know, the one who stole Christmas," said Councilman Paul Sharp of Hammond, La., which enacted a ban. Rhode Island Governor J. Joseph Garrahy urged parents to substitute Halloween house parties for trick-or-treating, and New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean signed a law mandating six months in jail for anyone convicted of contaminating Halloween candy, even if no one was harmed.
For all the fear, the copycats have not yet killed anyone. But whoever put mercuric chloride into Excedrin Extra-Strength capsules purchased by William Sinkovic of Aurora, Colo., narrowly missed. Sinkovic, 34, suffered acute kidney and liver failure. Emergency surgery saved his life, but he is still in serious condition.
Pain relievers and other over-the-counter medicines are a major target of the Tylenol killer's admirers. Rat poison was discovered in an Anacin capsule in Grand Junction, Colo. Two people suffered fever and nausea after taking Anacin in St. Albans, Vt. In Mills, Wyo., Brian Leyba, 25, suffered acid burns after using Sinex nasal spray, and in Grand Junction, Larry Tingley, 38, a patient at the Veterans Administration Medical Center, is being treated for corneal burns caused by hydrochloric acid in Visine eye drops.
But copycats seem to be turning to food products too. In Minneapolis, 14-year-old Marlon Barrow fell ill after drinking chocolate milk from a carton that proved, on analysis, to contain traces of sodium hydroxide, a caustic chemical. In Juno Beach, Fla., Policeman Harry Browning, 27, began vomiting within seconds of drinking Tropicana orange juice that could have been injected with insecticide. In the Detroit area, two razor blades and one nail were found in packages of Ball Park Franks within 24 hours last week.