The Nation - News from Sept. 3, 1986

An apparent prankster who told a Pennsylvania supermarket that its Jell-O products had been poisoned with cyanide was sentenced to five years in prison by a federal judge in Scranton. Judge Edwin Kosik told Norman Mark Allen, 21, that he hoped the stiff sentence would deter others from making product-tampering threats. The market pulled all Jell-O products from its shelves but no evidence of tampering was found. Allen was said to be the first person prosecuted in the United States for making a false food-tampering threat.