His death comes after 40 years of intense scrutiny from law enforcement, in which Lewis played a cat-and-mouse game with investigators. Local authorities questioned him as recently as September.
Christy Gutowski, Stacy St. Clair | Chicago Tribune , was found dead Sunday at his home in suburban Boston, multiple law-enforcement sources confirmed to the Tribune.
Former assistant U.S. attorney Jeremy Margolis, who successfully prosecuted Lewis for an attempted extortion related to the case, also expressed regret that Lewis was never held accountable for the murders. Mary Kellerman, Mary McFarland, Mary “Lynn” Reiner, Paula Prince, and Stanley, Adam and Terri Janus. Their deaths prompted a national recall of the medicine and led to the adoption of tamper-evident packaging.a Tribune series
Days after the murders, Lewis sent a letter to Johnson & Johnson, demanding payment to “stop the killing.” After being convicted of attempted extortion, he offered to help investigators find the killer. He met with them several times, drawing detailed sketches showing ways of filling the capsules and providing flowcharts on how to carry out the poisonings without getting caught.
“Have you been harassed over something for 40 years that you didn’t have anything to do with?” he asked. Lewis met with investigators on an overcast afternoon at a hotel within walking distance of his condo. They spoke for several hours in a recorded interview. Investigators left Boston the next day without making an arrest. The meeting was the most significant sign of activity in the case in a decade. But the investigation appears to have stalled afterward.
Since then, however, advancements in technology had allowed the FBI to determine the letter was mailed Oct. 1, 1982, the Tribune reported. The FBI asked Cook and DuPage County prosecutors in 2012 to move forward with a grand jury, stating that it was law enforcement’s best — and perhaps last — chance at bringing justice to the case. No charges were ever approved.
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