Chicago was not the only place that suffered from a killer who used the medicine cabinet as their loaded gun. The same thing happened in the Pacific Northwest.
The Excedrin poisonings in 1986 were just as horrific and also aided in the birth of tamper-proof packaging to protect against these incidents occurring again and again. However, unlike the Chicago poisoning, this time someone was convicted of the crime.
Death of the Open Bottle
Four years after the nightmare in Chicago, in June 1986, a similar tragedy happened 2,000 miles away in the Pacific Northwest.
Sue Snow, a forty-year-old bank executive, woke in her home in Auburn, Washington, with a mild headache. She took two Extra-Strength Excedrin capsules from an open bottle. Within minutes, she collapsed on her bathroom floor. She would later die at Harborview Medical Centre.
Doctors were quicker to react this time and detected the distinct bitter-almond smell of cyanide during the autopsy. Local law enforcement and the FDA braced themselves for another indiscriminate poisoner to emerge.
