James Lewis, Suspect in the 1982 Tylenol Killings, Submitted DNA, Print Samples

James Lewis and his wife gave DNA and fingerprint samples.

ByABC News
January 8, 2010, 12:02 PM

Jan. 8, 2010 — -- James Lewis, the one and only suspect in the 1982 Tylenol killings, has been forced by a judge to surrender DNA samples to investigators, ABC News has learned.

No one has ever been charged in the Tylenol poisonings that left seven people dead and an entire nation paralyzed by fear.

Lewis, 63, and his wife, Leann, appeared at a closed hearing at the Middlesex Superior Court Wednesday to determine whether they have to submit to the grand jury's subpoena, according to sources close to the case.

The judge ordered them to comply with the subpoena and both James and Leann Lewis turned over samples, according to investigators.

"The investigation into the 1982 Tylenol killings is still ongoing" said FBI Special Agent Ross Rice told ABC News' Chicago affiliate WLS-TV today.

"No arrests have been made and no criminal charges filed," said Rice.

Lewis spent 13 years in prison for sending a $1 million extortion letter to Johnson & Johnson, the manufacturers of Tylenol, in which he asked them to "stop the killing." Lewis was released from prison in 1995 and he moved to Boston.

Lewis has admitted to writing the letters to Johnson & Johnson, and after his arrest Lewis gave authorities detailed plans on how the capsules could have been injected with lethal doses of cyanide.

But Lewis has always maintained his innocence in the actual poisonings of the Tylenol capsules. When asked about the drawings, he has claimed he was only trying to be a "good citizen" by giving authorities detailed sketches depicting how someone might go about injecting cyanide into Tylenol capsules.

"I could tell you how Julius Caesar was killed, but that does not mean I was the killer," Lewis told the Chicago Tribune in a 1992 jailhouse interview.

In a subsequent interview, Lewis told WLS-TV that he believed the "Tylenol murderer is still dancing in the streets."

The Tylenol murders changed the way foods and medicines are packaged in the U.S., introducing tamper proof packages so consumers could be certain their products had not been contaminated.

Lewis' attorney, David Meier, did not return messages left by ABCNews.com, but told the Boston Globe earlier this week that he would not be offering comment on the reports of the hearing. "Proceedings such as [these] are supposed to be secret precisely to protect the reputations of innocent people like James Lewis and his wife," Meier said.

A representative for Johnson & Johnson told ABCNews.com that they were referring all questions to the authorities.

The FBI today did not respond to messages left by ABCNews.com.

In February 2009, the Lewis' Cambridge, Mass., home was search after the FBI discovered "new leads" into the unsolved murders, crediting the advanced scientific testing made available in the nearly 30 years since the incident.