EXCLUSIVE: Netflix is expanding another one of its non-fiction strands.
The streamer has ordered a three-part documentary series about the Tylenol murders, which saw at least seven people die in the early 1980s in Chicago as a result of ingesting cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules.
The Tylenol Murders is part of the Cold Case franchise, which Netflix launched last year with Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey, which reexamined the killing of the six year old from Colorado.
That series came from director and producer Joe Berlinger, who will produce Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders. It will be directed by Yotam Guendelman and Ari Pines, who directed Israeli true-crime series Shadow of Truth, which subsequently aired on Netflix.
The Cold Case strand is similar to its Turning Point franchise, which includes three series – Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War, Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror and Turning Point: The Vietnam War, which all come from Brian Knappenberger. Netflix also has the successful Untold sports strand.
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Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders, which will premiere on May 26, revisits the crime that shattered the nation’s trust in the safety of everyday brands. The deaths sparked nationwide panic and became one of the largest criminal investigations in U.S. history. The series will ask whether there was one mastermind behind these horrific deaths, or whether that theory is simply a convenient scapegoat in a darker conspiracy and potential cover-up.
No one was ever charged or convicted of the poisonings but one man was convicted of extortion for sending a letter to Tylenol manufacturer Johnson & Johnson, where he took responsibility for the deaths and demanded $1M to stop them.
The series will feature never-before-seen interviews and testimonies from key players.
Berlinger, who directed Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster and Netflix’s Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, will exec produce alongside Jon Kamen, Jen Isaacson, Craig D’Entrone, Yotam Guendelman, Ari Pines, Mika Timor, Maor Azran and Dan Adler. It is produced by RadicalMedia, Silvio Films, MA Production in association with Third Eye Motion Picture Company.
Berlinger said, “Re-examining unsolved cases with a fresh perspective and investigative rigor is at the core of the Cold Case franchise. With the JonBenét Ramsey story we were able to show how the mishandling of a case nearly destroyed the Ramsey family and now, with the Tylenol Murders, we can look back even further to the early 1980s when a string of random deaths gripped the country with fear and uncertainty. These two cases remain unsolved and our hope through the unprecedented access we gained is that the families of these victims can obtain some answers and closure.”
“Before 1982, nobody thought twice about opening a bottle of painkillers. Today, every tamper-proof seal is a reminder of that dark moment—when cyanide-laced capsules transformed an everyday medicine into a murder weapon, permanently reshaping consumer industries. For more than 40 years, this case has been viewed through a narrow lens, locked onto a single theory while crucial evidence and promising leads were left unexplored. Perhaps that’s why, even after all these years, the case remains unsolved,” added Guendelman and Pines. “With Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders, we’re taking a fresh look at this complex, haunting puzzle, shedding new light through overlooked evidence, unheard testimonies, and troubling inconsistencies. Our hope is that by expanding the narrative, we might bring the families of the victims a step closer to the answers they’ve awaited for decades.”
