Tyrone C. Fahner, a Republican who headed a Chicago law firm and was a leader in civic affairs after a legal career that included serving an appointed term as Illinois’ attorney general, died Monday at his home in Northfield.
A product of Jim Thompson’s stable of assistant federal prosecutors, Fahner’s career included leading a task force that investigated the Tylenol murders and becoming chair at the law firm Mayer Brown, where he was a legal mentor to former Mayor Lori Lightfoot. No cause of death was given for Fahner, who was 81.
Though his tenure as a public official was short, Fahner sought to ensure Republicans were represented in Illinois even as the state shifted more Democratic. He served as finance chairman for the state GOP and assisted in recruiting Republican candidates for office. Meanwhile, Mayer Brown, with Lightfoot at times on the legal team, also represented the GOP in what ended up being largely unsuccessful efforts to curb Democratic gerrymandering of state congressional and legislative district maps.
From 2010 to 2017, Fahner was president of the Commercial Club of Chicago and its Civic Committee, which is made up of the top business executives from the city and region. The group during Fahner’s tenure pressed for changes in the state’s public employee pension system, though a 2013 legislative effort to change benefits was unanimously rejected as unconstitutional by the Illinois Supreme Court.
Fahner was best known as the face of the 200-member task force that investigated the 1982 deaths of seven Chicago-area residents from ingesting Tylenol cold capsules tainted with cyanide. As attorney general and in the midst of an election to keep the job, Fahner led daily news briefings as investigators sought to gather leads in the case. He was dubbed “Tylenol Ty” by statehouse denizens in Springfield, while Democrats accused Fahner of using the free airtime for political gain.
“It wasn’t a grab for authority,” Fahner told the Tribune in 2022. “I had people dropping dead all over the place.”
The case, which panicked the nation and led to tamper-resistant over-the-counter pharmaceutical packaging, was never conclusively solved. James Lewis, the lone suspect who had been convicted of trying to extort Tylenol’s makers, died in July 2023 at the age of 76. Lewis maintained he did not poison the capsules.
Fahner was born in Detroit, Michigan, to a union autoworker father and a mother who was a telephone operator. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan, his law degree from Wayne State University Law School and a master’s degree in law from Northwestern University School of Law in 1971.
In the early 1970s, he became an assistant federal prosecutor under James R. Thompson, who was then the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. Fahner headed the official corruption section. His most celebrated case was helping win the conviction of powerful Chicago Ald. Thomas Keane, the City Council’s Finance Committee chair, on mail fraud and conspiracy charges in 1974.
After Thompson was elected governor in 1976, he chose Fahner to be director of the Illinois Department of Law Enforcement, which is now the Illinois State Police. Fahner served two years before moving into private practice. But when Illinois Attorney General William Scott was convicted of federal tax evasion in 1980, Thompson appointed Fahner to the vacancy.
“I’ve been very lucky in both my professional and personal life. I’ve been blessed with a rare opportunity. I hope I do well,” Fahner said. “My only regret is that the opportunity comes at the expense and tragedy of another human being. Bill Scott has been a fine and distinguished attorney general.”
Seeking a full four-year term in 1982, the same year as the Tylenol panic, Fahner was sometimes ill at ease on the campaign trail and acknowledged he was “a little naive about” not knowing to contact local Republican officials when he came to town. He also sought to burnish his GOP credentials by claiming he used to sweep the driveway of George Romney, the former GOP governor of Michigan. Fahner was defeated by Democrat Neil Hartigan.
After losing, Fahner joined Mayer Brown as a partner, served on its management committee from 1985 to 2007, was its co-chairman from 1998 to 2001 and its chairman from 2001 to 2007.
“The Mayer Brown community mourns the passing of our friend, colleague, and former chair, Ty Fahner,” the law firm said in a statement.
“A mentor to many, Ty was a respected leader who guided the firm through a time of incredible growth and change. His dedication to the Chicago community through extensive civic and charitable work reflected his deep commitment to service. Ty’s legacy of leadership and friendship will be profoundly missed,” the law firm said.
Fahner also served on the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad from 2007 to 2023 as an appointee of President George W. Bush. He also served from 1988 to 1991 as an appointee of President Ronald Reagan to the Board of Foreign Scholarships.
Fahner joined the board of trustees of the Shedd Aquarium in 2004 and became the chairman of the board in 2012.
Survivors include his wife, Anne. Arrangements were pending.
Chicago Tribune’s Stacy St. Clair contributed.