Wow. Unabomber Ted Kaczynski is already one of our most notorious domestic terrorists. Wouldn't it be something if he were also the one behind another famous scare?
The FBI said Kaczynski was among "numerous individuals" from whom the Bureau tried to obtain voluntary DNA samples as part of a reexamination of the 1982 killings in which seven Chicago residents ingested Tylenol capsules laced with deadly cyanide.
[. . .]
The FBI announced it was making a reexamination of the Tylenol case in 2009 "given the many recent advances in forensic technology" and new tips which had been called in on the 25th anniversary of the murders two years before.
Even if Kaczynski isn't a strong suspect, the FBI is doing a valuable service by ruling him out with DNA. That would narrow the list of suspects to 4,599,999,999!
It's easy to forget what a big story this was. That was the year before I came back to Fort Wayne, and I lived in Michigan City at the time, right around Lake Michigan from Chicago. I hadn't seen saturation news coverage that strong before -- the only thing in my experience I can compare it to is the coverage of the 500 Indy starting a few weeks before Memorial Day. People stopped buying Tylenol, and throwing out what they already had. I heard somebody on WOWO this morning wondering how the brand was saved. I remember that, too -- it was with an agressive campaign committed to honesty and public safety. Good example for corporate America. I wonder why this type of tampering as terror doesn't happen often.
Comments
There's a recall of Stilton cheese in the news today. McNeil recalled not only Tylenol, but Motrin, Benedryl, and Zyrtec in 2010.
Lead paint on children's toys. Melamine in food additives. Olives at Chi-Chi's. Contaminated eggs. Hamburger with e. coli. Mad cow disease. Tomatoes. Spinach. Peanut butter.
How would a terrorist get anyone's attention, when corporate America is already poisoning our food and medicine?
Harl, if one were to take the documented instance of contaminated food and divide it by the total of food consumed, what would you guess the percentage to be?
I'd guess it to be fairly low. It's not non-existant; Chi-Chi's went out of business.
On the other hand, you haven't answered my question: how would a terrorist get anyone's attention? If nobody notices what you're doing, you're not terrorizing anyone.