cover of episode S1: The Tylenol Murders (From "Crimes of the Centuries")

S1: The Tylenol Murders (From "Crimes of the Centuries")

2021/7/1
logo of podcast Strange and Unexplained with Daisy Eagan

Strange and Unexplained with Daisy Eagan

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Shownotes Transcript

Strangers! We're taking a break this week, but we wanted to share the FASCINATING AND TERRIFYING TALE of the "The Tylenol Murders" from another Obsessed Network podcast: "Crimes of the Centuries"

When 52-year-old Bruce Nickell suddenly dropped dead in Washington state, investigators at first thought he'd died of a heart attack. But then a second person collapsed, and police realized that the two victims had both taken the painkiller Excedrin. Suddenly, they realized they were dealing with a copycat of a case that had haunted federal investigators for nearly 15 years. 

In that earlier case, seven people died when someone randomly tampered with the over-the-counter painkiller to replace some of the powder inside capsules with enough cyanide to kill an entire family. Those deaths changed how medication is packaged nationwide and made it a federal crime to tamper with such products -- a legal change that years later came back to bite Nickell's killer.

**If you enjoyed this episode, you can find and subscribe to "Crimes of the Centuries" wherever you get your podcasts. **