The Cold Case Ledger

In late September 1982, seven people in the Chicago suburbs died after taking Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules laced with potassium cyanide. The murders triggered a 31-million-bottle recall, rewrote American product safety law, and created the tamper-evident packaging still on every medicine cabinet shelf today. The prime suspect — James William Lewis, who sent a $1 million extortion letter — was convicted only of extortion, paroled in 1995, and died in July 2023 without ever being charged with the killings. A Netflix documentary followed in May 2025. Forty-three years later, the case remains officially open.

On June 12, 1994, two people were stabbed to death outside a quiet condominium in Brentwood, Los Angeles. The man charged with their murders was one of the most famous athletes in American history. What followed was 134 days of courtroom theater, a nation divided by race and celebrity, and a verdict that still haunts the legal system three decades later. This is the story of People versus O.J. Simpson.

On the morning of May 25, 1979, six-year-old Etan Patz walked two blocks from his SoHo loft to his school bus stop — alone for the very first time. He never arrived. The case became one of the most consequential child disappearance cases in American history: it gave us National Missing Children's Day, the milk carton campaign, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. It also gave us 33 years of unanswered questions, a false suspect, a dramatic 2012 confession, two criminal trials, and a stunning 2025 appeals court ruling that overturned the only conviction the case ever produced. As of today, a third trial looms — and the U.S. Supreme Court may decide the case's fate any day.