Lone suspect in Chicago's decades-old Tylenol murders found dead at 76

July 10 (UPI) -- James Lewis, who was linked to the infamous Tylenol murders in Chicago in the early 1980s, was found dead in his Massachusetts home Sunday.

Officials confirmed Lewis was found dead inside an apartment in Cambridge, Mass., more than 40 years after the murders of seven people in the Chicago area.

Lewis, 76, was the only person ever charged in the case, but he was never declared directly responsible for the seven deaths. Instead, he was found guilty of attempting to extort $1 million from Tylenol parent company Johnson & Johnson in 1982.

He was found to be the author of a ransom note demanding the money to "stop the killing."

The FBI arrested Lewis in New York City in December of 1982, and he ultimately spent 12 years in prison but was never charged for the murders.

While in prison, Lewis gave an interview in which he described how a person might have carried out the Tylenol murders, but he always maintained his own innocence.

Starting in late September of 1982 and lasting through early October of that year, seven people died in the Chicago area after taking Extra-Strength Tylenol pills later found to contain potassium cyanide, which can be deadly to humans.

That led to panic and regulators pulling Tylenol from store shelves while officials canvased door-to-door in the Chicago area to warn people of the potential threat.

It was only months later when Lewis sent the letter to the drugmaker. The FBI was able to match his fingerprints and handwriting to the ransom note.

But law enforcement officials could never concretely say Lewis was the person behind the actual murder plot, and the investigation dragged on for years.

In 2011, convicted serial murderer Ted Kaczynski said he was under investigation for the Tylenol killings. Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, died in June.

Cambridge police on Sunday did not specify Lewis' cause of death but said the death was "not suspicious."

"I was saddened to learn of James Lewis' death. Not because he's dead, but because he didn't die in prison," former Illinois Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy Margolis, who prosecuted Lewis in the extortion case, said in a statement Monday.