Friday, January 15, 2010

KSHB reporter confronts man over 32-year-old murder

Posted by Justin Kendall on Fri, Jan 15, 2010 at 11:51 AM

click to enlarge KSHB's Russ Ptacek (left) confronting James Lewis on cable access.
  • KSHB's Russ Ptacek (left) confronting James Lewis on cable access.

Cool story from KSHB Channel 41's Russ Ptacek in which he confronts James Lewis, who was once a suspect in the Tylenol murders from the 1980s, during a Massachusetts cable access TV show.

Lewis was promoting his new book Poison! The Doctor's Dilemma when Ptacek called in. Sounds like Lewis had been ducking Ptacek for months, and I guess he also didn't want to talk about the 1978 murder of Raymond West, who Lewis was charged with killing and dismembering but was released because police officers didn't read him his Miranda rights.

Here are a couple of excerpts:

"You may remember this man's body

(West) was butchered," persisted Ptacek on the call-in show, "and I

understand that you have training in butchering from 4-H. That's

according to the former prosecutor here."

"The former prosecutor lied to you," answered Lewis.

...

"Can you just tell me," continued Ptacek, "are you innocent of the Raymond West murder?"

"Absolutely," answered Lewis.

As

for the Tylenol murders, in which seven people died after taking

Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide in the 1980s, Lewis was convicted

of writing an extortion letter demanding $1 million. Lewis denies

committing the murders, but does admit to writing the letter to cash in

(that'll get you 12 years).

Ptacek also reports that a authorities have recently taken DNA samples from Lewis in connection with the Tylenol murders case.

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