The 1904 Olympic Marathon was a disaster, and I’m here to tell you about it. Welcome back to Cold Case Mysteries with Rohith Koneru where I talk about everything other than cold case mysteries. In this episode, we are talking about the 1904 St. Louis Olympic Marathon, a race that included fraud, rat poison, feral dogs, and multiple instances of near-death. Let’s get into it.

The course of the race looked like this, the runners would run a few laps around the track at Francis Field, then run along a bunch of streets in suburban St. Louis, and finally come back to Francis Field to finish the race. To take into context how bad this marathon was, out of all 1421 Olympic marathon runners from every Olympic Games, the winner of this 1904 marathon ranks 1398 out of 1421, which is the 2nd percentile. Out of the 41 runners that registered to race in the marathon, only 14 finished. Oh no.

Boston Marathon champion John Lorden was one the favorites to win this race. He made it two blocks before vomiting profusely and dropping out. 

There are many reasons why this marathon went so terribly, so ill list a few:

• It was very hot outside. The ideal marathon temperature is 45 degrees. On that day in St. Louis, it was over 100 degrees outside.
• There was only one water source on the entire track, ONE. It was 12 miles into the race. Even worse, many athletes suffered intestinal problems from drinking the water.
• The running path was mainly dirt roads. This would be fine, but race officials were driving cars all over the path, which kicked up dust. This caused some runners to swallow so much dust that their stomach membrane rubbed off, like William Garcia, who was found 19 miles into the race coughing up blood on the street. He almost bled to death
• There were a lot of feral dogs. One competitor got chased off course by a mile. He finished 9th.

One racer went by the name Felix Carvajal. A mailman hailing from the great country of Cuba, Carvajal raised money by running across the entirety of Cuba in order to sail to America. He then stowed away on trains all the way to St. Louis, where he finally showed up to the race. All of the other competitors were wearing normal attire, short sleeves, shorts, and athletic shoes. My man Felix was wearing long johns, heavy shorts, long sleeves, and dress shoes. It was 100 degrees outside. He is about to run 26 miles. Felix was broke so the stole some peaches and ate them as he was racing. He was doing pretty well until he stole some apples from an orchard which turned out to be rotten. He got a stomach ache and took a nap on the sidewalk. After some time, he woke up and just started running again. He finished 4th. FOURTH? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Felix wasn’t even invited to the race, he just showed up.

Fred Lorz was fast out the blocks but is now falling behind due to cramps. He eventually throws in the towel and gets in a car to go back home. At the 16-mile mark, Thomas Hicks has built a considerable lead but is starting the fall victim to cramps as well. He begs his trainer for water, but he won’t give it to him. Instead of water, he feeds him egg whites and rat poison. Smart guy. Meanwhile, on his car ride home, the car Fred Lorz is in breaks down, so he decided to start running again just for fun. At 20 miles, Thomas Hicks is falling apart even more. In response to this, his trainer gives him more egg whites, more rat poison, and BRANDY. While this is happening, Fred Lorz strolls past Hicks looking full of energy and unfazed by the conditions. Without knowing that Lorz already dropped out of the race, Hicks is crushed. Hicks eventually finds out that Lorz is out of the race and keeps going, but he is not in the best condition. He finished his bottle of brandy, so a bystander gives him another bottle. After a couple miles, race officials and his trainer are practically carrying Hicks, but they still refuse to give him water. However Hicks pulls through and as he enters the stadium, he sees the organizers present the trophy to FRED LORZ. After finishing, Hicks was driven to the hospital immediately, he probably never ran in a marathon again.

In the end, Fred Lorz admitted to cheating, and Thomas Hicks was awarded first place, but I dont think he really cared. And that is the story of the 1904 St. Louis Marathon.

Sources:

https://youtu.be/M4AhABManTw 

What’s up fellas, I just came across the best online argument that has ever taken place. Also, I have completely abandoned the cold case mystery thing. This argument took place in a 2007 bodybuilding forum on Bodybuilding.com, and it has been forever immortalized as the greatest, most intelligent debate ever held. 

The adventure starts with an unassuming question from an innocent user which reads,

This is a great question by this random guy, he is just wondering if he can do full body workouts every other day without getting hurt (you can). The same guy then makes another post,

Soooo, if you go to the gym every other day for a week, you will go 5 days a week? Yea, just did the math and it checks out. Everything was going well until somebody called out this innocent user, saying

This also makes sense, if you divide 7 by 2, you get 3.5. This guy clearly went to school. However, one of our protagonists, Josh, answers back.

Josh also has a point, if you go to the gym every other day starting from Monday, you will go four days. Also, you can’t have a half workout, right? Well, our other protagonist, Justin, has an answer for us. He says,

Here we see that Justin uses a technique called long division. He divides 7 by 2 and gets a remainder of 1, then brings down a zero, inserts a decimal point into the answer, and finishes it off by dividing 10 by 2, which leaves him with the answer of 3.5. Very sophisticated stuff going on here. However, Josh is unfazed by Justin’s logic, he responds,

From my calculations, Josh is also correct. With the long division method, dividing 8 by 2 gives you 4 times a week. Maybe Justin is all muscle and no brains. Josh seems to have won the debate, but Stevie comes out of nowhere and says,

Stevie really hit Josh with the “Grow up and admit when you are wrong. Believe me you will get a a lot further in life this way.” GAME OVER. Pysch, Josh responds,

While we don’t have the image of Josh’s calendar, you can image that it was a calendar with 15 days on it, which means Josh is right, 2 weeks is 15 days which means Josh didn’t double count Sunday. Justin responds,

Justin claims that 15 days does not equal 14 days, and sprinkles a lil Spanish on top to add insult to injury. Josh fires back,

He claims you don’t count the first day, which probably makes sense. So Josh wins? NO, Justin returns fire,

Justin believes he has to spell it out for Josh, but Josh responds with,

Josh uses credible evidence from a primary source and includes an annotated bibliography. Justin replies,

Justin is clearly getting angry which means he is losing the debate. Justin goes to far by insulting Josh’s public schools, wow. Now I will be here forever if I show every post between our two protagonists because there are hundreds, but they basically go back and forth calling each other names, throwing insults at each other, and debating whether a week is from Sunday-Sunday or Saturday-Saturday. This goes on until Josh suddenly goes offline. He doesn’t post for a while and Justin starts going on a victory tour. Justin calls Josh a moron and a variety of words I can’t write, but it seems lost for Josh. Even other people who weren’t even involved in the argument chime in and start shaming Josh. Where is our hero and when is he coming back? Justin continues to build an army of cronies to rally against Josh, but Josh hasn’t posted in hours. Keep in mind this thread has been going on for days now. Soon, Justin goes to bed as well and more people start having the same debate all over again, but we don’t care about some irrelevant fools, we just want to know where Josh went. Some random says,

HELL NO, NO NO NO. There is absolutely no way we are stopping this now, this guy should be banished from Earth and sent to the moon with a perfect living environment so he can live the rest of his life in solitude as he grows weak due to the moon’s lower gravity. However, when morning hits, Justin is back at it again. The reign over the forum is getting to his head as he says things like, ” I know I’m college educated and far smarter than those around me”. You can clearly tell that Justin doesn’t win a lot in life because his head is in outer space. However, an entire day since his last post, the eking returns to his throne with this response,

Josh plays it cool, which is what I would do in this situation. If you act like you don’t care after making your opp fully invested, it is a brutal blow, and it clearly affected Justin,

Justin has clearly lost his mind, he has snorted too much dry-erase marker and now he can only see Martians, someone please help him! NO, Josh is ruthless, he has no mercy, he hits Justin with the finishing blow,

This post marks the noticeable end of the debate, and for good reason. Josh crafted this response with no regard for human life, it makes me feel kind of bad for Justin. While I do think that Josh wasn’t trolling, the fact that I was rooting against Justin the entire time made this ending so much better. And the cherry on top, Josh pretty much tricked Justin into writing a 3000-word paper on working out every other day. Long Live king Josh

SOURCES::

https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=107926751&page=4

On October 16, 1916, the biggest beatdown in college sports history took place. Cumberland College stepped onto the turf and lost to Georgia Tech 222-0. That is not a typo. If you came here for the usual murder mysteries, you should stay, because this game was a goddamn murder.

Before we get into the story, let me show you some stats from this game:

1/3 of all of Cumberland’s plays resulted in a turnover, that means 15 turnovers during the entire game

5 pick sixes by Georgia Tech

30 Extra points made by Georgia Tech

0 Georgia tech drives that took 4 or more plays to score

0 Fourth downs faced by Georgia Tech

0 First downs made in the game. Cumberland always punted or turned the ball over. Georgia Tech always scored

0 Passes attempted by Georgia Tech

This was not sports. It was a massacre.

BACKSTORY:

It is the year 1916. The Cumberland football program is struggling. Last year’s coach didn’t know what he was doing and had the players play catch and duck duck goose during practices. Predictably, none of the players came back the next year, which left the football program in shambles. Cumberland’s athletic manager thought that if he created enough hype around the baseball team, he could gather enough money to fund the football team. So he convinced a minor league baseball team to dress-up as Cumberland players and play their next game against Georgia Tech, it was a blowout. Cumberland was hitting every ball and after they got bored, they started bunting every ball and still got three more runs. The game ended with a score of 22-0, leaving Georgia Tech’s coach humiliated. Tech’s coach was none other than John Heisman.

THE GAME:

John Heisman is a legend in the football world. If you take a look at a regular football game, everything was created by Heisman. The forward pass, snap, and even the information on the scoreboard were created by Heisman. He was the god of football, and Cumberland just pissed him off. At this point, Cumberland doesn’t have a football team – Heisman doesn’t care. Cumberland v. Georgia Tech is on the schedule and if Cumberland doesn’t show to the game, Heisman threatens to charge Cumberland $3,000, which is money they cannot afford to spend. So Cumberland rounded up a team full of law students and flew on down to Atlanta to play in a friendly football game. Just kidding.

It is October 7th, Cumberland’s return man H.J. Carney looks up at the opening kickoff and catches it, nice job! Cumberland’s quarterback, Edwards, makes a block on the right side of the field. Carney looks to the left side of field and sees pure horror. All the blockers have whiffed entirely, Carney doesn’t move. He gets clobbered. Edwards, who made a block on the right side of the field, is knocked out. Cumberland has lost their quarterback on the first play of the game. This is pretty much the story of the entire game.

By the 18th play of the game, Georgia Tech is up 28-0. Cumberland hasn’t made it past the 25 yard line. A couple plays later, Cumberland actually stops Tech on the one yard line. Just kidding, Georgia tech stopped at the one yard line intentionally in order to get one of their running backs his first touchdown, how sweet. The next play, Tech receives the kickoff, yep, they received the kickoff after scoring. This is because teams had a choice to give the ball to the other team after they scored, and Cumberland did that out of pure fear of the demon, John Heisman.

It is early in the second quarter, and Cumberland actually manages to get to a Third down with one yard to go. Cumberland’s coach decides to punt. In the huddle, the players decide that they do not want to punt on third-and-one, a good decision if I do say so myself. The center snaps the ball and Cumberland’s running back receives the pitch. This is his chance to go down in the history books as the only non-embarrassment on the team. Out of fear, the running back punts anyway.

It is now play 48. Edwards, the quarterback that was knocked out in the first play of the game is sent back in. He cant walk straight, cant speak right, and is showing blatantly obvious concussion symptoms. Edwards cant call for the snap and his impatient center snaps it anyway. Edwards is drilled right in the face with the snap. He is knocked out cold again. He is getting carried off the field again.

Even though this game is amazing, it was probably very boring as well. from plays 44 to 82, Cumberland never even left their own red zone, THIS IS NOT OKAY. They haven’t gotten a first down yet and, spoiler alert, they never will. I would be the first fan to walk out if I was in attendance.

Tech’s kicker is bored. His name is Jim Preas and he has just scored 18 extra points in the first half. Preas makes a bet with his teammate that he can kick a kickoff through the uprights, but he goes even further. Jim Preas bombs the kickoff and turns on the jets. Blinded by sun and fear, Cumberland’s returner freezes. The balls bounces of his head. Jim Preas catches the deflection in the end zone. Jim Preas has just caught his own kickoff for a touchdown.

The score at half-time was 126-0. Cumberland’s team is not doing so hot. Cumberland’s coach has to talk to the monster himself, John Heisman. The coach asks if they can shorten the game as Georgia Tech has already proven their point and Heisman agrees? Whaaaaaat? He agrees to shorten the game, by FIVE MINUTES. He is truly a monster, a one of a kind being that no one can ever replicate, a person with no emotion and no regard for human life either. He is John Heisman.

It is now the third quarter and Edwards is back in the game for a third time. The ball is snapped and he pitches the ball to Johnny Dogg, who pitches it back. He pitches the ball to Johnny Dogg again, who pitches it back, again. Neither of them are willing to take the ball. Quite irritated, a Georgia Tech tackler tackles them both, and Edwards is carried out of the game for a third time.

It is now the end of the game, the score is 222-0 and Georgia tech is about to seal the game with a extra point. In an act of futile resistance, Cumberland blocks the extra point and ends the game at 222-0. A truly magical act of sporting.

SOURCES

At first glance, the poem “this is a rubbish of human rind” by E.E. Cummings seems like your average poem, and that’s because it is. The poem has four stanzas that are evenly sized and its structure is very similar to every other average poem that ever existed. There is no unique punctuation

or spacing and the rhyme scheme is nothing special. The thing that distinguishes this poem is its cryptic meaning. During my first read, I was overwhelmed with many questions. What is “this”? Is the “this” from each stanza the same? What is the significance of the first line of each stanza rhyming? To answer all these questions, I read through the poem again. I noticed a few small things like the rhymes that appear at the end of every stanza, but nothing substantial, so I reread closely, one stanza at a time.

The poem’s first line already requires a close look: what is rubbish of human rind? Rubbish usually refers to waste or something that is trash and rind is the tough outer skin of certain fruits, so I concluded that “human rind” is just human skin or the outer flesh layer of a human. After taking apart that phrase, I determined that “this” is the waste of human skin, which makes no sense. Because the literal meaning made no sense, I decided to try to determine the plot of the first stanza as it might give me clues as to what “this” is. My first thought was war. Because of prior research on E.E. Cummings, I know he worked as a medic in WW1 for some time, so maybe this first stanza was inspired by the horrors he saw in WW1 as a medic and the “rubbish of human rind” is a dead body. The rest of the stanza fits with the war plot as the dead person could’ve been holding a picture of loved ones when they died. The second thing that comes to mind is a break-up. Maybe the speaker is describing a person going through a breakup and the “rubbish of human rind” is the person going through the breakup that is down in the dumps and not doing anything. If the person going through the breakup is sitting at home feeling sorry for himself, the speaker could describe him as a waste. The clue that led me to this plot theory was the photograph with the word love underlined. Since I couldn’t decide which plot theory was better, I concluded that “this” referred to a person and moved on to the second stanza.

The first question that came to mind when I read the second stanza was is the girl mentioned in the same person mentioned in the first stanza or are they completely different. I determined that this girl was a completely different person because both the situations I mentioned dont fit in the second stanza. Since the subjects of each stanza are different, I determined that the “this” mentioned in each stanza is different as well. The phrase “who died in her mind” makes me think that the girl mentioned is depressed or going through some kind of mental problem. The mention of the gadgets purring and gangsters dining while the girl is suffering alludes to the idea that the world goes on no matter what a person is going through.

The third stanza is trickier to understand compared to the first two. The speaker tells us that “this” is a deaf dumb church. What does even mean? My first thought was that a deaf dumb church was a church that doesn’t do what it is supposed to do. The purpose of churches is to transform society into a better and more peaceful place to live, and maybe the church doesn’t do that, which is why it is called deaf, dumb, and blind. The “if in its soul” could be some sort of uncertainty within the church, which is why it is not doing its job properly. The cause of this uncertainty could be the “hole in its life” where something is missing, perhaps something that could get rid of the uncertainty and help the church to fulfill its job of uplifting again. During my first read, I knew that bells tolling represents death, but I didn’t know what the old vines meant. However, after a quick google search on the symbolism of vines, I determined that the vines represent some sort of connection to god, which is what churches are all about.

The fourth stanza was a little less cryptic than the third. The subject of this stanza is a “dog of no known kind”, perhaps a dog of unknown breed. The speaker states that the dog has two different colored eyes, one white and one black. At first, I didn’t understand the meaning behind the multicolored eyes, but then I realized that one white eye and one black eye would mean that the dog only sees in black and white. If that is the case, the rest of the stanza delivers a clear message, the dog is spiritually lost because it only sees the world in black and white.

When analyzing this poem as one cohesive piece, there is less relation between stanzas compared to most poems. The only things that the stanzas have in common are the “this” at the start of each stanza and a meaning behind each stanza. After analyzing each stanza, it is clear to me that each stanza portrays a different cruel message. The first portrays the message that the world can be very cruel. The second portrays the message that even if you are going through something terrible, the world will still go on. The third portrays the message that uncertainty can lead one off their path and leave them with something missing. The fourth portrays that if you see the world in black and white, you will become spiritually lost in the world. You will stray from your path like the deaf dumb church, be ignored like the girl who died in her mind, and suffer like the rubbish of human rind.

It’s July 8, 1982, you are on a flight from Chicago to Los Angeles and sitting in the window seat, good for you! You are about 20 minutes from landing and you look out the window to get a glimpse of the beautiful view from 16,000 feet in the air, but you see something completely different. 16,000 feet above the ground, you see a man, chilling in a Sears lawn chair with 35 weather balloons keeping him afloat. He is cold, very sunburnt, and holding a radio, some sandwiches, and a 2-liter bottle of Coke while staring out to the sky. That man, my friends, is Larry Walters.

If you clicked on my blog for the usual unsolved mystery stuff, I am sorry to disappoint. The regular broadcast will resume next blog, probably. Before I begin, this is a true story. Everything mentioned in this blog actually happened

THE BACKSTORY:

I personally have never been in an Army-Navy Surplus store, but according to people from my parent’s generation, kids love that store. It has a bunch of things that the military use like Swiss Army Knives, MREs, and those little waterproof notepads, but those were the things that a normal kid would be interested in. Larry was far beyond normal, he liked the weather balloons.

Now if you don’t know what a weather balloon is, it is nothing like your average balloon. They are meant to go into the sky and collect meteorological data, but these things can fly, and I mean FLY. The max height a Boeing 747 can fly is about 45,000 ft; a weather balloon can go up to 100,000 ft. No people had ever taken to the skies with weather balloons, so 13-year-old Larry made it his dream to challenge the likes of NASA and fly using weather balloons.

THE PLAN:

Larry is now 33 years old. It is still his dream to fly using weather balloons. He has been obsessing over it for the past 20 years. Larry claims that if he doesn’t take to the skies with his army of balloons, he will go crazy. Good on you Larry.

If you think Larry has been doing nothing for the past 20 years, you would be very wrong. He has come up with a mission plan that is almost as well thought out as NASA’s Challenger launch. Here it is. The launch site will be Larry’s girlfriend’s backyard, her name is Carol by the way. Carol plays a very important role in this mission, she is Larry’s air traffic controller, ground control chief, and main investor. Even though Carol is against the idea, she has still managed to spend 3000 to 4000 dollars on equipment. His target altitude is 7000 feet and based on Larry’s accurate calculations, the landing spot is the Mojave Desert, 55 miles away from the launch site. 

He also has thought out his equipment for the last 20 years, this is the list of equipment:

1. Lawn chair purchased from Sears for $110. I think you might’ve got scammed Larry. This is his space vessel
2. 30 one-gallon jugs of water tied to the lawn chair. These are crucial to weigh Larry down and prevent wind from whipping him all over the place. 
3. 42 Weather Balloons. These are Larry’s thrusters. They are not cheap. RIP Carol’s bank account
4. BB Pistol. Used to shoot out the weather balloons when Larry wants to descend. Simple but effective I guess
5. Altimeter. Used to track altitude
6. A radio. Carol also has one on the ground. Larry will use this throughout the flight to update Carol about the flight’s status and things like that.
7. Parachute. I’m sure you won’t need it Larry.
8. Life Jacket. I forgot to tell you guys that Carol’s house is right next to the ocean. Given that the target destination is 55 miles in the opposite direction, Larry doesn’t seem to have much confidence in himself
9. Extra pair of glasses. Larry wears glasses by the way. This seems like a really good idea…
10. 35mm camera. Used to take pictures.
11. 2-liter bottle of Coke: Gotta have your priorities straight
12. Sandwiches: Can’t fly on an empty stomach

The aircraft created by Larry with all these materials was properly named the “Inspiration 1”.

There are obviously many flaws in his plan: Larry didn’t even have a seatbelt, the lawn chair doesn’t have a consistent center of gravity, and did you even notify the LA airport about this? But, Larry believes in the plan, so I believe in the plan.

THE FLIGHT:

Launch day has finally arrived and Carol is not looking too happy, but she is still helping. Carol, Larry, and Larry’s friend Ron are preparing the lawn chair for launch. They tie the lawn chair to the ground with 2 pieces of rope. Larry sits in the chair and they tie the jugs of water along with the fully inflated helium weather balloons to the chair. Larry is now floating in his chair a few feet off the ground. The ground team cuts one of the ropes and while doing a final check-up, the second rope snaps, sending Larry shooting up into the sky at over 1000 feet per minute, he is gone. Larry’s glasses fall off in the process.

Before I go further, I want to recognize the genius of a person who decided to record these radio transmissions. Because of this person’s efforts, we have fully recorded audio of the radio transmissions between Carol and Larry. Here is one radio transmission that I found pretty funny:

Carol: “We got your glasses and they’re OK. Nothing’s wrong with your glasses down here. Over.”

Larry: “Well that’s good news.”

Larry is stranded thousands of feet in the air in a LAWN CHAIR and they are worried about his glasses? At least they are staying positive.

Minutes pass by and Larry just keeps on ascending. Larry’s maximum planned height was 7000 feet. He is currently at 16,000 feet. He isn’t breathing as easily. He is sunburnt. He is cold. Why doesn’t Larry just shoot some of the balloons out with his BB gun? Well…

He dropped it. 

Actual picture of the Inspiration 1

While shooting out some of his balloons 16,000 feet in the air, Larry fumbled his only means of descent and watched it fall, and fall, and fall, until it was out of his sight. Larry shot out 7 balloons, which leaves him with 35.

Putting that mishap aside for a second, I wonder if he is on target to land in the Mojave Desert like he planned? Well…

He’s way off course.

Larry Walters is now stranded on a flying lawn chair that is going to space. You’ve done it now Larry.

If he jumps out with his parachute, he’s afraid he will get caught in power lines. But he does have luck on his side, as the authorities are now aware of the situation and are helping Larry to safely land. During the entire flight, Carol is stressing. Here are some of the things she says on the radio:

Carol: “OK so you can see marine land, so you’re heading toward- Oh My God, you’re heading toward the ocean already!”

Carol: “Are you sure you’re OK? There’s planes up there! We can hear them! Are you sure you’re OK?”

Did I mention that Carol went into debt for the sake of this flight? Carol seems to really care about Larry, and he is lucky for that.

Larry’s luck doesn’t end there though. By god’s grace, 35 balloons is the exact amount needed to make a safe descent at 16,000 ft in the air. LARRY IS COMING DOWN. The police turn off the power so Larry doesn’t get electrocuted and he lands, safe and sound. I know you are amazed right now.

He climbs out of his contraption and just gives it to a random kid on the street without a second thought. He gets arrested shortly after.

THE AFTERMATH:

Authorities want to charge him with some sort of violation, but they don’t even know which one. One of the authorities stated, “We know he broke some part of the Federal Aviation Act, and as soon as we decide which part it is, some type of charge will be filed.” They are completely clueless on what to do with Larry. After a couple of months, he gets fined $1,500.

He did it. He fulfilled his lifelong dream.

LIFE AFTER:

The kid who Larry gave his lawn chair to after landing actually came forward with the chair years later. He had left the chair mostly untouched and it still had tethers and 13 one-gallon water jugs attached. It was donated to Smithsonian and is now on display in a museum for the public to admire.

Larry never ended up taking any pictures while he was 16,000 feet in the air. He said that he was so amazed that he forgot to take a single picture and that it was a “helluva view”, and I honestly get that. Larry may have been a little crazy, but he did what he wanted to do and enjoyed every single second of it. Larry is the only person to have sat in a lawn chair, sipped some coke, eaten a sandwich, and enjoyed that view from 16,000 ft in the air. The skies were clear on that day. At 16,000 ft, if you look closely, you can just barely see the curvature of the horizon. Larry is one of only few people to see the Earth’s curve through the naked eye, without any protection from the elements. He was truly a trailblazer, but deep down, he was just a boy who wanted to play along with his imagination and follow his heart.

Larry later broke up with Carol, his girlfriend of 15 years, and 11 years after his flight, he walked to the edge of a nearby forest and took his own life at the age of 44. He left nothing behind.

SOURCES:

If you want to hear the recorded radio messages => markbarry.com 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawnchair_Larry_flight

Video of Larry taking off and losing his glasses => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFFVVo9usFY

Good video about this story => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7w_v9J7iOc&list=PLUXSZMIiUfFSCYW1o-4whWtepyVlsfuCC&index=2

Larry Walters Interview => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wWds5r4DZs

Something I learned from the first semester of senior year is that I have had senioritis since freshman year. I asked my sister how to stay motivated to do school work and she told me that it is hard to stay motivated because I have senioritis, and it was then that I realized that I have had senioritis this whole time. I also learned that there is no point in taking things so seriously academic wise and it is important to go to things such as football games in order to let off some steam and make the most of your final year in high school. One piece of advice I would give to someone transitioning into senior year is that you should stay on top of homework so that you can do all the fun stuff that happens. For example, one week I was procrastinating all my homework and because of that, I had to do everything on Friday night and couldn’t go to a football game. With that being said, it is not the end of the world if you don’t do your homework on time as teachers can be more forgiving than you think. Over the last six months, I have learned that going to college will be my savior. I have never liked high school and the lifestyle in college sounds much more fun and relaxed. My perspective on grades also changed, I realized that getting good grades isn’t as important as my parents make it out to be. Ever since this realization, I only check my grades about once a week compared to last year when I checked my grades every day. I also realized that being lazy is not a bad thing. This semester has been my laziest semester and now that I am at the end of the semester, I am chillin, stress-free. I found out that my lazy lifestyle works out fine when it comes to school work and I don’t have to change my lifestyle just because someone thinks I should. 

Lessons I am taking away:

• Maximize fun, Minimize work: While I have been living on this philosophy for a while, I kicked it up a notch this semester. If I had work that wasn’t necessary, I didn’t do it, if I had work that was mandatory, I did it as quickly as possible, for example, why read Beloved when I can just read the SparkNotes, it’s faster and more convenient. The result of this lifestyle? Everything is fine, my grades are fine, I’m not going to end up homeless, and best of all, I haven’t gone insane.

• Senior year doesn’t matter: Let’s be honest, no one really cares about their grades senior year. If you are stuck doing homework all day, you are missing out. Football games are a thousand times better than doing math homework. Your grades don’t really matter anyway, especially during second semester. You will never catch me selling my soul doing homework instead of hanging out with my friends. Teachers are generally more lenient anyway so worst case scenario you could turn your homework in late.

• Filling out government documents is a pain: The FAFSA might be the worst form that ever exists. Filling out that thing might be the worst experience of my life and I never want to do it again. It’s also useless because I doubt that I will get any financial aid anyway. Lesson learned, Always leave at least a month of time to fill out any government document, it is a major pain.

• Think about your future: Lately, I have been thinking about my future and I have realized that I don’t want to work a regular 9-5, sounds boring and probably is boring. I am going to major in computer science and I decided to start early and learn now so I get a head start. I will continue to learn about coding and might try to become the next Jeff Bezos, you never know what might happen. 

Everybody, welcome to the final installation of Cold Case Mysteries with Rohith Koneru, I am your host Rohith Koneru and I am actually sad to end this great series of blogs. I usually have no interest in AP Lit activities but these blogs were actually kinda fun. Today, we are covering the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, one of the most famous unsolved mysteries of all time, especially because Amelia Earhart is one of the most famous women in history. Let’s get into the case.

On July 2, 1937, Amelia Earhart, along with her navigator Fred Noonan, disappeared while attempting to be the first person to ever circumnavigate the globe. I just have one question, why would you ever want to circumnavigate the globe? Don’t get me wrong, flying is really fun, for the first 30 seconds after taking off. After that, my butt starts hurting, my long legs get suffocated, and I am forced to sit in weird positions in order to survive the rest of the flight. Flying is not fun. Amelia Earhart must’ve been crazy to want to fly around the world in her dinky 1900s plane. 

On June 17, 1928, Earhart became the first woman to cross the Atlantic, even though she was a passenger that didn’t fly the plane at all. However, she became the first woman to pilot a plane across the Atlantic when she made the 15-hour trip from Newfoundland to Ireland on May 20th, 1932. She showed her great skill as a pilot when she dealt with problems such as ice on the wings of her plane, a leak in the fuel tank, and her engine catching on fire. She also set the record for the longest flight without refueling and was the first female pilot to complete a nonstop transcontinental flight. It is safe to say that she was the Micheal Jordan of flying.

In 1937, Amelia embarked on a 29,000-mile, 40-day flight around the equator. I’ll say it again, this chick must be crazy. Every time I take the 19-hour flight to India, I feel like I want to die, but Amelia “Babe of the Sky” Earhart over here wants to go on a 40-day flight? I say put her in an insane asylum.

It is important to note that Amelia flew in a special plane called the Twin Engine Lockheed 10-Electra which could hold a 1000 pounds of fuel. A whopping 42 days into her journey, Earhart and her navigator were preparing to leave Lae, New Guinea for the final 7000 miles of her expedition. When departing from Lae, the Electra was filled to the brim with 1000 pounds of fuel in order to make the 18-hour flight to Howland Island in order to refuel. Harry Balfour, the radio operator in Lae,   made an agreement with Earhart to send transmissions to each other every hour. After takeoff, Balfour noticed stronger headwind speeds than predicted and tried to relay warn Earhart, however, she didn’t seem to get the transmissions from Balfour.

Around 2 pm, Balfour finally received a transmission from Amelia; she gave her speed, altitude, and said the status of the flight was ok. It is important to note that the altitude Amelia reported was 7000 feet. This is important because in her next transmission an hour later, she stated that she had risen to 10,000 feet, a move that would’ve been very uneconomical fuel-wise. It is unknown why Earhart rose in altitude. 

As Amelia and Noonan neared Howland Island, their destination, it is estimated that they would’ve been down to their last 100 gallons of fuel. Off the coast of the island, a boat called the Itasca was stationed in order to provide weather and communications to Earhart as she got closer to the island via radio. We know that Earhart did get close to the island because the Itasca heard her transmissions, which grew stronger as time went on. In one of her final transmissions to the Itasca, Earhart told the crew “We must be on you but cannot see you” and “Gas is running low”.  

Amelia last recorded transmission was received by the Itasca, she told them “We are on the line 157, 337. We will repeat message. We Will repeat this on 6210 kilocycles. Wait.” It is sad that Earhart’s voice was frantic in these final transmissions and she was never heard from again.

Over the following weeks, the Itasca along with two other ships would search for Earhart, however, not a single sign of Earhart, Noonan, or their plane was found. With all that information out of the way, let’s get into the theories.

Theory 1:

First, the most likely theory, Amelia and Noonan ran out of fuel due to the strong headwind and 3000-foot altitude climb and crashed into the ocean. While it is said that Amelia’s plane on a full tank should’ve lasted 24 hours instead of just 20, the JPL calculated that with the 3000-foot altitude climb and the strong headwind, Amelia’s plane would’ve lasted 20 hours, which lines u with the timing of Amelia’s last transmission. 

However, from 2002 to 2017, a 2,000 square nautical mile was searched where Earhart could’ve crashed. They used advanced techniques like sonar mapping, but no trace of Amelia was found. 

Theory 2:

The second theory is that Earhart became a cast away on a nearby island called Nikumaroro. Nikumaroro is on the line 157, 337, and is only 350 Nautical miles away from Howland Island. Earhart could’ve spotted the small island while panicking and decided to have an emergency landing due to low fuel. During low tide, it could’ve been possible for Earhart to pull off an emergency landing on the shore of the island. You may believe this to be all speculation, and you right, however, roughly 2 years later, British Colonial Officer Gerald Gallagher found remnants of a campsite on the island. He also found a tool for calculating latitude and longitude and a partial human skeleton along with 12 bones. Amelia and Noonan? 

The bones were given to a physician who determined that the bones belonged to a European man who was short and stocky, which means they could not belong to Earhart or Noonan. This theory would’ve ended right there, however, the physician literally BURNED THE BONES. With this fact, I think that the physician is Amelia’s main opp. I think that he purposely burned the bones so that no one could get closure on her death.

The measurements taken by the physician were reanalyzed years later and it was found that the bones could’ve belonged to a taller-than-average woman, and guess what, Amelia Earhart was 5’ 8”. 

It is speculated that Amelia and Noonan could’ve been eaten alive by the 3-FOOT LONG CRABS that live on the island. These crabs, called the coconut crabs, can rip open a coconut with their claws and could’ve easily killed Earhart and taken some of her bones with them. On top of that, Amelia could’ve used her plane’s radio to signal for help for a week as long as the radio wasn’t underwater. Sure enough, Several radio transmissions were heard from Earhart throughout the week after her crash, all of which, were during low tide on Takumaroro. One girl named Betty Klenck claimed that she heard one of Amelia’s transmissions on her short-wave radio. She claims that a female voice said “This is Amelia Earhart, Help me!” and also that the female voice was arguing with a male voice in the background. This finding was reported to the Coast Guard, however, they dismissed the claims completely.

This theory seems legit, however, multiple Navy planes flew over the island a week after Amelia’s disappearance and saw absolutely nothing.

In the end, we have two solid theories, but there is evidence against both theories, so no conclusion can be made about Amelia’s disappearance. Who knows? Maybe aliens abducted her plane in the air. Unfortunately, we will most likely never know and this mystery remains unsolved.

Sources:

Hello people, welcome back to Cold Case Mysteries with Rohith Koneru, I am your host Rohith Koneru and you already know I have a good case today. I will be honest, due to my addiction with the game Bad Piggies, I have found myself in a situation where I only have an hour to write this post, so I might skip over some stuff. However, I guarantee you will be entertained as I am reviewing the creepiest case so far that has even been turned into a Netflix series. This case involves a million-dollar house, a gamer, and young blood??? Let’s get started.

In June 2014, Maria and Derek Broaddus, along with their 3 children, fell victim to a series of stalker attacks after moving into their new home at 657 Boulevard in Westfield, New Jersey, the then 30th safest town in the US. This stalker has been active as late as 2017 and I swear I saw him outside my window the other day after learning about this case. Who knows, you might see him too after reading this post.

657 Boulevard was the Broaddus family’s dream home as they were ecstatic to move into the 1.3 million dollar home, for about 3 days. Only three days after the Broaddus family purchased the house, they received a letter in the mail which was addressed to “The New Owner”. The letter started off with a greeting but took a full 180, it read,

“Dearest new neighbor of 657 Boulevard, allow me to welcome you to the neighborhood. How did you end up here? Did 657 Boulevard call to you with its force within? 657 Boulevard has been the subject of my family for decades now, and as it approaches its 110th birthday, I have been put in charge of watching and waiting for its second coming. My grandfather watched the house in the 1920s and my father watched in the 1960s. It is now my time.

Who am I?… There are hundreds and hundreds of cars that drive by 657 Boulevard each day. Maybe I am in one. Look at all the windows you can see from 657 Boulevard. Maybe I am in one. Look out any of the many windows in 657 Boulevard at all the people who stroll by each day. Maybe I am one. … You have children. I have seen them. So far I think there are three that I have counted. … Do you need to fill the house with the young blood I requested? Better for me. Was your old house too small for the growing family? Or was it greed to bring me your children? Once I know their names I will call to them and draw them to me.” 

– The Watcher

This guy is giving me some weirdo vibes, the way he says “It is now my time” like he is in some sort of anime is kind of funny and makes me think that he is a grown man living in his mom’s basement or something like that. If Beetlejuice or Ice JJ Fish came out as the watcher I would not be surprised. Imagine the family’s disappointment when they expected a welcoming gift but got this atrocity of a letter instead.

After receiving this letter, the family reached out to the previous owners, the Woods family. In the previous 2 decades of living at 657 Boulevard, the Woods family said they have only received a letter from the watcher once, a couple days before they moved out. They ended up throwing out the letter without a second thought. The Woods family said they never felt watched when living at the house and rarely left their doors locked

I think the Woods family just didn’t mention the watcher to the Broaddus family to be honest. They probably mentioned that the house comes with 6 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms but they never mentioned that it came with a Watcher as well. If they did mention the Watcher, the value of the house probably would’ve decreased and they wouldn’t have secured the bag. Smart move.

The two families soon reported the letters to the police and all of the neighbors were deemed suspects. This was also kept a secret from everybody. 

Two weeks later, Ice JJ Fish struck again with another letter, this time more creepy. The letter mentioned specific things like the children’s birth order and nicknames. It also referenced the Broaddus’ daughter painting on an easel asking, “Is she the artist in the family.” The letter goes on to say “It has been years and years since the young blood ruled the hallways of the house. Have you found all of the secrets it holds yet? Will the young blood play in the basement? Or are they too afraid to go down there alone? I would be very afraid if I were them. It is far away from the rest of the house. If you were upstairs you would never hear them scream. Will they sleep in the attic? Or will you all sleep on the second floor? Who has the bedrooms facing the street? I’ll know as soon as you move in. It will help me to know who is in which bedroom. Then I can plan better.”

After receiving this, the family stopped visiting the house and halted their move altogether. Time went on and there were no leads on the case, no fingerprints, and no suspects. Both the parents suffered from mental health problems and it didn’t help that nobody would buy the house from them because of the Watcher. I know I was making fun of him before, but Ice JJ Fish has taken it too far. He also has to stop calling the kids “Young Blood”, it doesn’t sound cool when a stalker who lives in their mom’s basement says it. The Broaddus family even tried suing the Woods family, but the judge just threw the case out.

Two years after the first letter, the Broaddus family FINALLY found someone that would rent the house, but under one condition: they could back out if another letter arrived. I think you can guess what happens next.

The letter was addressed to “The vile and spiteful Derek and his wench of a wife Maria.” A bit harsh my friend, you can’t really insult this family when you still live in your mom’s basement after TWO YEARS. The letter went on to say “657 Boulevard survived your attempted assault and stood strong with its army of supporters barricading its gates… My soldiers of the Boulevard followed my orders to a T. They carried out their mission and saved the soul of 657 Boulevard with my orders. All hail The Watcher!!! … Maybe a car accident. Maybe a fire. Maybe something as simple as a mild illness that never seems to go away but makes you fell sick day after day after day after day after day. Maybe the mysterious death of a pet. Loved ones suddenly die. Planes and cars and bicycles crash. Bones break. You are despised by the house… and The Watcher won.”

This feels like a scene straight out of Despicable Me. The Watcher is Gru and his minion soldiers have successfully driven the Broaddus family out of the house. ALL HAIL THE WATCHER.

THEORIES:

The first suspect is a guy nicknamed “The Gamer”, exactly what I have in mind. One night when 2 police were surveying 657 Boulevard, a car suspiciously pulled over next to the house at 11 P.M. and then drove off. The car was traced to a young woman whose boyfriend lived on the same block as 657 Boulevard. The young woman told police that her boyfriend played some weird video games including one where he played as a character named the Watcher. 

I am willing to bet my firstborn that these two have broken up. Just imagine the argument they would’ve had after the boyfriend found out that his girlfriend told the police he plays weird video games that could link him to the case. 

On a serious note, because of the way the media portrays video games, I highly doubt that this theory is true. If everybody was judged by what games they played, half of all the 7th graders in America would be on death row for killing their friends and family on Fortnite. This theory could be true, but it is just speculation and I think that Ice JJ fish is a better suspect tbh.

Another theory is that the Broaddus family was behind it all. People found it odd that the family was able to move from a cheap home to an expensive home in such a short time and suspect that the home was too expensive for the family, so they came up with the Watcher as a way to get out of paying for the house. Maybe the family was aiming for big media deals for their story and if they were, it worked like a charm as the Broaddus family made upwards of 10 million from the Netflix show.

It’s a far-fetched theory, but I like it.

Even though this case took place recently, authorities were still not able to name a prime suspect. The Broaddus family may have been able to secure the bag, but they were not able to secure their house or their mental health. Either way, this mystery remains unsolved.

ALL HAIL THE WATCHER

SOURCES:

https://www.thecut.com/2022/10/the-watcher-657-boulevard-update.html

Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold Case mysteries with Rohith Koneru. I am your host, Rohith Koneru, and today we will be covering the chilling murder of The Boy in the Box, a case that has been left unsolved for over 65 years and is known as one of Philadelphia’s most baffling murder cases. A quick disclaimer, everything I say is for SATIRICAL purposes only and if you read this murder mystery, you probably won’t be able to sleep for the next couple of weeks and you probably will be scared of every cardboard box you see. With that out of the way, let’s get into the case.

On February 25th, 1957, a young hunter set out into the woods next to Susquehanna Road, Philadelphia when he came across a box, with a boy inside. I’m serious. The boy was 4-6 years old, naked, weighed 30lbs, and was 3’3” tall. He was found wrapped in a blanket, his hair cut and body recently washed with scars in several places along his body. Funnily enough, the hunter did not report the dead body to the police because he didn’t want them to confiscate his muskrat traps. A few days later, a college student was investigating the woods when he also found the boy in the box, but he also didn’t call the police until the next day. There were no witnesses and the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.

To be honest, I don’t even blame these guys for not reporting the body, there is a 50/50 chance that I wouldn’t report the body either. If you report the body, you are guaranteeing yourself a week of questioning and becoming a suspect, something that I am too lazy for. If you want to be a good citizen, go ahead, I’m just saying that I am an average citizen that may or may not report the body.

Police kept the boy at the morgue where investigators from 10 different states came to identify the body, to no avail. Police sent out 400,000 flyers with the boy’s face and tried fingerprinting the boy and found that there was no record that he EVER EXISTED. This is some nightmare fuel right here.

The box the boy was found in

The main piece of evidence that the police used was the box the boy was found in. The box, which originally contained a bassinet, had a serial number that the police used to trace it back to a JCPenny store 15 miles away. This JCPenny shipped 12 of these bassinets, however, every single buyer paid in cash, leaving no record of their purchase. Even

though 8 of the purchasers came forward, all of them either still had the box or put it out for trash collection. Although promising, the box ended up being a dead-end.

The next piece of evidence is the blanket the boy was wrapped in. Investigators found out that the blanket was made in either Quebec or North Carolina, however, thousands of these blankets were manufactured and purchased, leaving the blanket as useless evidence

Another clue was a blue corduroy Ivy league style hat found 15 feet away from the box. This hat was made by a small hat company in South Philadelphia, Eagle Hat & Cap Company. The hat was custom made and the owner of the company actually remembered the person who ordered it. She described the man as Blonde and 26-30 years old. Police asked all over Philly, however, no one recognized the hat or the man’s description. Another dead-end.

With all the evidence out of the way, let’s get to the theories.

THEORY #1

In 1960, Remington Bristow, a man who was so obsessed with this case that he carried a mask of the boy’s face in his bag, consulted a psychic, who told him to look for a house that matched a foster home only 1.5 miles away from the site of the body. At the foster home, Bristow found a bassinet that could have been the same one sold at JCPenny and blankets that were similar to the one that the boy was found in. Shortly after Bristow’s death in 1993, an investigator by the name of Tom Augustine continued where Bristow left off. He went to the home of Arthur Nicoletti, the previous owner of the foster home. Before Bristow died, he theorized that Nicoletti’s wife was the mother of the boy in the box, but had no proof. But, in a CRAZY turn of events, Nicoletti’s wife was also his STEPDAUGHTER. BRUUUUUUHHHHH.

I’m going to come clean: I am NOT making this up and I am dying of laughter right now. I also only told you about this theory because of this insane plot twist, I can’t make this stuff up. The theory concludes that Nicoletti’s wife/stepdaughter is the mother of the boy in the box, but honestly, I never even believed this theory was true.

THEORY #2

Now that we have moved on from that catastrophe of a theory, let us look at an actual theory that may be true. In 2002, a psychiatrist in Cincinnati contacted Tom Augustine because her patient, a woman named Martha, wanted to speak to the police. Martha claimed that when she was 11 years old, she and her mother went to a house where her mother purchased a boy from his birth parents. Martha said that she was sexually abused and beaten by her mother and that her mother wanted to do the same to the boy she just purchased. However, Martha says that her mother killed the boy after struggling to bathe him and drove to Philidelphia to abandon him. Martha spoke to three different investigators, and out of the three, all of them believed Martha’s story to be true. Even though this is a strong theory, there is no actual evidence to back it up, which means that it is an invalid theory.

Today, the boy’s grave is marked as “America’s unknown child” and due to a lack of evidence, witnesses, and suspects, this mystery remains unsolved. 

SOURCES:

https://allthatsinteresting.com/boy-in-the-box

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_in_the_Box_(Philadelphia)

Hello everybody and welcome to the second installment of Cold Cases with Rohith Koneru. In this episode, we will be covering the poisoned Tylenol pill murders, a case which at the time, was completely unheard of and caused a national media frenzy. Let’s get started

Do you know where the seals on medicine bottles came from? Well, these murders were actually the reason for the

implementation of safety seals on all medicine bottles. On September 29th, 1982, 7 people in the Chicago area ingested poisoned Tylenol pills and passed away a few hours later. The victims include a 12-year-old and a young married couple who lived in LISLE, I LIVE IN LISLE, this is way too close to home. With that out of the way, let’s go over the victims.

During the early morning hours of September 29th, Mary Kellerman, a 12-year-old girl from Elk Grove Village, awoke with a sore throat and a runny nose. Her parents proceeded to give her an extra-strength Tylenol, however, she would die a couple hours later due to cyanide poisoning. 

Later that day, Adam Janus, a 27-year-old postal worker would also die of cyanide poisoning. As Adam’s family was grieving his death at his house, his brother and sister-in-law, Stanley and Theresa Janus from Lisle, both experienced a severe headache, a common side effect after a death in the family. They both took an extra-strength Tylenol from a bottle in Adam Janus’ house and tragically died in the following days due to cyanide poisoning. This means that one family experienced three deaths on the same day. How tragic.

Over the next 3 days, 31-year-old Mary McFarland from Elmhurst, 35-year-old Paula Prince from Chicago, and 27-year-old Mary Reiner from Winfield all died of cyanide poisoning after consuming an extra-strength Tylenol. It was clear that something fishy was going on in Chicago.

The case of the Janus’ was a big clue for investigators; 3 deaths in the same house on the same day was unheard of. Cook county investigator Nick Pishos was able to piece together the clues and compared the Janus’ bottle of Tylenol to Mary Kellerman’s bottle. He found that they both smelled like almonds, and as you might know, cyanide smells like almonds. Autopsies performed on the victims showed that they had taken 100% – 1000% of the lethal dose of cyanide. A little unnecessary from the killer if you ask me. 

On October 1st, only a couple of days after the murders, authorities were certain that the victim’s Tylenol bottles were intentionally poisoned with cyanide, which lead to Johnson & Johnson, the parent company of Tylenol, pulling all Tylenol bottles off the shelves. In total, Johnson & Johnson recalled 31 million bottles of Tylenol and took other precautions to satisfy customers. In the end, this cost Johnson & Johnson over $100,000,000 and their share in the non-prescription pain reliever market dropped from 35% to 8%, which is crazy.

Before I continue with the case, I just want to say that I think I know who the culprit is: it has to be ADVIL. Think about it, Advil started to be sold over the counter in the 80s and these murders happened in 1982, only two years later. From the start, Advil must’ve known that Tylenol ran the entire pain reliever market, and to get their product to sell, they had to bring Tylenol down. Here’s what I think happened, Advil’s founder realized that not having seals on the bottles was a safety hazard, but instead of just telling the media about it, he saw an opportunity to get rid of Tylenol for good. So he strategically went to Chicago, one the biggest cities in America, poisoned several Tylenol bottles in multiple stores, and left without leaving any evidence behind. Smooth Criminal.

Clearly, Advil’s plan worked better than expected as money wasn’t the only thing Johnson & Johnson had to worry about. A media frenzy ensued, US newspapers ran over 100,000 separate articles about the incident and the FBI did not hesitate to get involved. As news about the murders spread across the country, people started to panic. People who believed they were poisoned packed into hospitals and call centers, causing the entire healthcare system to be backed up. On top of that, in the month following the murders, there were around 270 copycat murders. Great job Advil.

Even though the media was going crazy and everybody was acting like a zombie apocalypse started, investigators were actually able to make good progress on the case. Authorities were initially confused because the poisoned bottles were bought from different stores and each store got its Tylenol from a different production plant. Very Spooky indeed. Eventually, labs were set up and scientists started testing the over 10 million recalled pills. 50 capsules across eight bottles were found to be poisoned. Five of the bottles belonged to the victims, two bottles were sent back in the recall, and the last bottle was found on a shelf, unsold. No evidence was found on the last bottle and investigators could not get a look at the culprit as security cameras were not common back in the 80s. Using these clues, investigators determined that there was either one person or a small number of people purchasing Tylenol bottles, poisoning them, then putting them back on the shelves.

It is important to note that the Tylenol bottles would have been returned within a day of September 29th as the cyanide would eat through the capsules after some time. With the case overview out of the way, let’s get into the suspects

The prime suspect at the time was James Lewis, a tax accountant that lived in Chicago. A mere one week after the murders, Johnson & Johnson received a letter that had Lewis’ fingerprints on it, it read 

Gentlemen:

As you can see, it is easy to place cyanide (both potassium and sodium) into capsules sitting on store shelves. And since the cyanide is inside the gelatin, it is easy to get buyers to swallow the bitter pill. Another beauty is that cyanide operates quickly. It takes so very little. And there will be no time to take countermeasures.

If you don’t mind the publicity of these little capsules, then do nothing. So far I have spent less than 50 dollars and it takes me less than 10 minutes per bottle. 

If you want to stop the killing then wire $1,000,000.00 to bank account #84-49-597 at Continental Illinois Bank, Chicago, Illinois.

Do not attempt to involve the FBI or local Chicago authorities with this letter. A couple of phone calls by me can undo anything you can possibly do.

I actually have no clue why these serial killers keep sending letters to the police, first the axeman, now this guy? Stop it, you’re not cool, you’re just dumb. 

Anyway, Johnson & Johnson didn’t listen to the letter as a warrant for Lewis’ arrest was issued and he was eventually arrested on December 13th at a New York library. However, this was all for nothing as Lewis had NOTHING to do with the Tylenol murders. The bank account number listed in the letter belonged to a man who Lewis believed stole $500 from his wife. In short, Lewis only sent the ransom letter so he could expose the $500 theft and he had absolutely nothing to do with the case. This is so stupid that I don’t even have anything to say about it.

Another suspect is someone you might already know, Theodore Kaczynski, or the Unabomber. Kaczynski is currently serving a life sentence for killing 3 people and wounding many others by sending bombs in the mail. If there is a hall of fame for killers, he is definitely on there. Kaczynski is from Illinois and all of the Tylenol deaths occurred in Illinois, however, there is an unofficial Tylenol death that occurred in Sheridan, Wyoming two months before the Chicago killings. This is important because Sheridan, Wyoming is a town on the way to Kaczynski’s cabin in Montana. This means that he could’ve used Sheridan as a test run before moving on to a big city like Chicago. 

On top of that, many of Kaczynski’s victims involve wood, for example, one of his victims was named Frederick Benjamin Isaac Wood who lived at 549 Wood St. in Woodlake, California. Another victim was Percy Woods who lived in Lake Forest, Illinois. However, the cherry on top is the fact that two of the founders of Johnson & Johnson have the middle name Wood.

Ok, I know that it is kind of a reach to say that the Unabomber is responsible, but I have to report possible theories and suspects. With that being said, there is absolutely no chance that this theory is true.

Even with all these amazing theories and suspects, the crime was performed cleanly and no evidence was left behind. Since cameras weren’t common back then, authorities have no way of knowing what the killer looks like, and because of this, the Tylenol murder mystery remains unsolved. Before I go, I just want to say one thing: Advil did it.

SOURCES:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/tylenol-murders-1982