FBI Investigates Unabomber In '82 Tylenol Deaths
CHICAGO (WWJ/AP) - The FBI has requested a DNA sample from Unabomber Ted Kaczynski as part of its investigation of the 1982 Chicago-area Tylenol poisonings case that killed seven people, officials said Thursday.
A University of Michigan PhD, Kaczynski, is serving a life sentence in federal prison after pleading guilty in 1998 to setting 16 explosions that killed three people.
He so far has declined to voluntarily provide a DNA sample in the Tylenol case. Chicago FBI spokeswoman Cynthia Yates wouldn't comment on whether the agency would try to compel him to give one.
She said the FBI is pursuing DNA from "numerous individuals'' in the investigation, but declined to give details on the others.
The U.S. Marshals Service is currently auctioning off items seized from Kaczynski's home. Ahead of that auction, he filed a motion asking California courts to order the government to keep certain items seized from his cabin in 1996, including journals that could prove his whereabouts in 1982 and other evidence that could clear him in the Tylenol case.
The Tylenol case involved the use of potassium cyanide and resulted in a mass recall. Kaczynski said he has "never even possessed any potassium cyanide.''
In a space of three days beginning Sept. 29, 1982, seven people who took cyanide-laced Tylenol in Chicago and four suburbs died. The deaths triggered a national scare and a huge recall, and eventually led to the widespread adoption of tamper-proof packaging for over-the-counter drugs.
In 2009, federal agents searched the Boston home of James W. Lewis, who served more than 12 years in prison for sending an extortion note to Tylenol maker Johnson & Johnson demanding $1 million to "stop the killing.'' Lewis has denied being involved in the poisonings.
No charges have ever been filed in the deaths.
Kaczynski was born and raised Chicago, Illinois. He excelled academically at an early age, was accepted into Harvard University at age 16, where he earned an undergraduate degree. He later earned a PhD in math at the University of Michigan.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
