James W. Lewis, the prime suspect within the deaths of seven individuals in 1982 from cyanide-laced Tylenol, a poisoning that terrified the nation and altered the way in which producers packaged drugs, died on Sunday in Cambridge, Mass. He was 76.

Mr. Lewis was pronounced useless after the authorities responded to a report of an unresponsive particular person at his house, Superintendent Frederick Cabral of the Cambridge Police Department stated on Monday. The reason behind dying was “not suspicious,” Superintendent Cabral stated, declining to remark additional.

Mr. Lewis spent greater than 4 a long time below scrutiny in reference to the infamous unsolved poisonings, through which somebody laced Extra-Strength Tylenol with lethal potassium cyanide, killing seven individuals within the Chicago space in September and October of 1982.

Mr. Lewis was by no means charged within the murders, and he denied any involvement in them. But in October 1982, he despatched a letter to Johnson & Johnson, the father or mother firm of MacNeil Consumer Products, the producer of Tylenol, saying he would “stop the killing” if he have been paid $1 million. He was convicted of extortion in 1983 and spent 12 years in federal jail.

After Mr. Lewis was convicted, he provided prosecutors assist in fixing the Tylenol murders.

“He is a prolific writer and artist,” Jeremy Margolis, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago who dealt with the extortion case towards Mr. Lewis, advised The New York Times in 2009, “and he provided me with great volumes of documents and a number of diagrams, all of which dealt with his theories as to what might have taken place.”

But Mr. Lewis steadfastly denied any involvement within the killings. When he was a fugitive on the extortion cost, he wrote a sequence of rambling letters to The Chicago Tribune disclaiming any connection to the murders. In one, he known as himself “a victim,” and demanded capital punishment for “whoever poisoned those capsules.”

Mr. Lewis was born on Aug. 8, 1946. He was variously described in news experiences as a tax advisor and tax accountant.

In 1978, he was charged with homicide within the dying of Raymond West, a 72-year-old man from Kansas City, Mo., who had employed him as an accountant.

Mr. West’s dismembered and decomposed physique was discovered hanging from a pulley in his attic the identical day Mr. Lewis tried to money a solid examine on Mr. West’s account. The case was dismissed after the choose discovered that the police didn’t inform Mr. Lewis of his rights on the time of his arrest.

In 1983, Mr. Lewis was convicted on six counts of mail fraud in reference to a scheme to acquire bank cards through the use of data from shoppers of his tax preparation service in Kansas City in 1981.

In 1995, after he was launched from jail within the Tylenol extortion case, Mr. Lewis moved to the Boston space.

He was indicted in Massachusetts in 2004 on prices of aggravated rape, drugging an individual with “intent to stupefy or overpower” for sexual activity, and 4 different prices, The Boston Globe reported. He was held with out bail till 2007, when the sufferer declined to go ahead with the prosecution, The Globe reported.

Over the years, investigators continued to scrutinize Mr. Lewis in reference to the Tylenol murders.

In 2009, F.B.I. brokers executed a search warrant at the condominium complex in Cambridge the place he lived. In 2010, Mr. Lewis attracted recent consideration when he launched a self-published novel, “Poison!: The Doctor’s Dilemma.” And simply final yr, on the fortieth anniversary of the killings, investigators traveled from Illinois to interview Mr. Lewis as they continued to attempt to crack the case, the native CBS affiliate in Chicago reported.

The deaths, together with that of a 12-year-old woman who had swallowed a Tylenol capsule hoping to fend off a chilly, unfold terror all through the nation and made Americans marvel if they may belief acquainted merchandise on grocery and pharmacy cabinets.

Drugstores and supermarkets throughout the United States eliminated Tylenol from their cabinets. State and native well being officers issued warnings, and 1000’s of apprehensive individuals who had taken the favored ache reliever flooded hospitals, docs’ places of work and poison-control facilities with calls.

In response to the deaths, Johnson & Johnson ordered a nationwide recall of 31 million bottles of Tylenol, with a retail worth of greater than $100 million. The firm pulled its tv commercials off the air. And it provided $100,000 for data resulting in the arrest and conviction of the “person or persons responsible for the murders.”

Just six weeks after the disaster erupted, the company also offered a solution: a brand new Tylenol bottle with security options to stop tampering together with a cotton wad, foil seal, childproof cap and plastic strip.

The bolstered design turned the trade normal after the Food and Drug Administration issued rules in 1982 requiring tamper-resistant packaging for all over-the-counter drugs. The following yr, Congress handed a regulation making it a criminal offense to tamper with packaged client merchandise.

The seek for the perpetrator, nonetheless, proved elusive.

After the deaths, greater than 100 state and federal brokers fanned out throughout the Chicago space in an effort to reconstruct the route of the poisoned capsules. But they may not decide the supply. Melaney Arnold, a spokeswoman for the Illinois State Police, stated in an announcement on Monday that, “at this time, the investigation is still ongoing.”