A Cold Case Growing Hot? Tylenol Murders Back in the News...

Part 3 of Roger Nicholson's interview with James Lewis.

In 1978, Lewis was a tax accountant working in Kansas City when an elderly man was found dismembered and mummified in an attic, his remains hung in a bag suspended from the ceiling. Lewis was the prime suspect in that case, but it was thrown out of court. A judge ruled that the police had illegally seized evidence from Lewis -- evidence that included textbooks dealing with the uses of various poisons.

This wasn't the only time James Lewis was connected to a crime prior to his extortion conviction in 1982 -- not by a longshot -- but it was perhaps the most chilling example of an accusation against him.

Until, that is, those 7 people dropped dead in Chicago.

The final part of Roger Nicholson's interview with James Lewis.

To be sure, the FBI isn't really saying much at the moment about why they searched Lewis's residence today. Multiple news sources quoted the spokesperson for the FBI's field office in Boston, Gail Marcinkiewicz: "We have conducted searches in Cambridge today in relation to an ongoing criminal investigation."

Watching James Lewis's flat demeanor as he speaks to the animated Mr. Nicholson in the videos Nicholson posted on Youtube is chilling, no matter what Lewis may have actually done in the past. No matter how Roger Nicholson tried to provoke him, he never raised his voice, barely altered his position in the chair. There's something robotic about him.

Which is, perhaps, fitting, since Lewis has a lot of interesting ideas related to robots. This is a page Lewis first published on the Web in 1998, as a part of his long-standing website, CyberLewis.com. [Note: The pages are still online at this writing. I used Wayback Machine links assuming the current pages may be taken down later.]

Lewis titled the page, "Robotopia: Everything is free and nobody works." The entire screed is more fascinating if you read between the lines, for Lewis envisions an idealized world of leisure and pleasure for humans, and no work whatsoever. Everyone daydreams about such things, but any half-assed behavioral analyst would tell you that many criminal personality types see such a life as their ultimate goal, and will kill to achieve it.

Here's a typical quote from James Lewis's discourse on Robotopia:

Robotopia is a place where no one works, yet everyone on the planet eats what he or she wants, lives in spacious, modern homes wired with the latest high-tech gadgets, and the closets are gorged with expensive-looking, latest rage theads. No one works for pay, yet everything is free. Obligatory, worldwide welfare is the law of the planet. Robots do all the work, grow the food, manufacture endless varieties of flawless consumer goods and deliver to homes all over the globe, and even in outer space, absolutely free. Education, entertainment and medical services cost nothing. Anyone can live anywhere and move anytime. There are no passports, no immigration laws, no smuggling, no customs agents and no national borders. Airlines, buses, trains, taxies, automobiles, space tranports...all forms of transportation are fast, safe, reliable, clean and free...from anywhere to anywhere. Human labor is as rare as mules in Manhattan. Human labor simply does not exist.

You can explore much of CyberLewis.com via the Wayback Machine, if the site goes offline. If you do, you'll find examples of James Lewis's art, which is often digitally manipulated photography. Via the Wayback Machine, you can find what Lewis said in the recent past about being the only suspect in the Tylenol murders:

For a quarter of a century, since I was 36, millions of people worldwide , people that I have never met, have been calling me the Tylenol Man.

[...]

I am a very contoversial man, Most of the time, I try to lead a quiet life. Then, from time to time, like living near a long dorment voldano, I find myself in the middle of eruptiing firestorms of accusation and speculations by law enforcement officials,the press and now on Internet blogs

See what I have had to contend with for 25 years!September 29, 2007 was the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Tylenol murders in Chicago and its suburbs. It seems like it will never end, not matter how long I live. I am tired of running. I am now 61 years old. This is my website. Here, I am bringing many of the key Internet controversies into one website so you can judge for yourself who I really am.

At the moment, James Lewis is really the FBI's main suspect in the case. And the FBI, according to ABC News, has "new leads" in the case. Those leads brought the feds to Lewis's door again. There have been no arrests, so the FBI may walk away disappointed again.

And James Lewis can keep bemoaning his fate, as the eternal victim of terrible accusations. A look at the CyberLewis.com FAQ [not available through the Wayback Machine, but here's a Google cache] will illustrate what I'm talking about rather well.

Lewis may be just as innocent as he insists where the question of serial murder is concerned. But until investigators have a less-perfect suspect, he will remain in the crosshairs. 

[TheBostonChannel.com -- see also the following pdf of a Newsweek article published in 1982 -- "The Tylenol Scare."]