In 1982, someone in the Chicago area laced Tylenol capsules with cyanide and put the bottles back on store shelves. Seven people died. The recall that followed pulled about 31 million bottles, and it’s the reason the foil seal is on everything you open today.
That’s one of five cargo crime stories Grace Sharkey and I traded for this Halloween edition of Freight Friends. We also cover a Silk Road silk lawsuit from the 670s, Henry Every’s raid on the Mughal treasure ship Ganj-i-Sawai, the ghosts of the St. Lawrence River and the Reno Gang’s 1866 robbery of a moving train. Every story ends with how the same crime shows up in freight today.
Chapters
00:00:00 Welcome to Spooky Supply Chain
00:05:50 Grace’s ghost hunting adventures
00:25:33 The Silk Road merchant who never came back
00:38:47 A word from SPI Logistics
00:39:49 The Tylenol murders and the birth of the safety seal
00:57:55 Henry Every and the biggest pirate heist in history
01:13:32 The River Remembers: ghosts of the St. Lawrence
01:34:59 A word from CargoRex
01:36:01 The Reno Gang robs a moving train
01:44:03 Who’s in the Cargo Crime guide
01:47:30 Grace’s cargo crime takeaways and what’s next
01:51:54 Where to find Grace, and goodbye
Coming soon: the Cargo Crime guide
At the IANA Intermodal Expo in Long Beach, I recorded six interviews with people who fight cargo crime for a living. They’re the heart of our Cargo Crime guide, coming to CargoRex Research the first week of November.
▪ Scott Cornell, SPG Cargo & Logistics and TAPA
▪ Joe Ohr, NMFTA
▪ Bernardo Mendez Arista, GateIn AI
▪ Reed Loustalot, Truck Parking Club
▪ Jared Palmer, EPIC Insurance Brokers
▪ Kristy Knichel, Knichel Logistics
▪ Cargo Crime guide on CargoRex Research: https://cargorex.io/research
Links from the episode
▪ Grace Sharkey on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-sharkey-%F0%9F%9A%9B%F0%9F%A4%96%E2%9D%A4%EF%B8%8F-31940765/
▪ Orderful: https://www.orderful.com
▪ NMFTA Threat Report Portal, for reporting cargo crime and fraud anonymously: https://www.nmftathreatportal.com/
▪ Freight fraud and identity verification companies on CargoRex: https://cargorex.io/services/freight-fraud-identity-verification/
▪ More Source to Porch stories: https://everythingislogistics.com/source-to-porch/
Companies mentioned on CargoRex
▪ SPI Logistics on CargoRex: https://cargorex.io/business/spi-logistics/
▪ Orderful on CargoRex: https://cargorex.io/business/orderful/
▪ NMFTA on CargoRex: https://cargorex.io/business/national-motor-freight-traffic-association/
▪ GateIn AI on CargoRex: https://cargorex.io/business/gatein-ai/
▪ EPIC Insurance Brokers & Consultants on CargoRex: https://cargorex.io/business/epic-insurance-brokers-consultants/
▪ Knichel Logistics on CargoRex: https://cargorex.io/business/knichel-logistics/
Watch next
▪ Freight Friends: State of Cargo Crime, South American Logistics, and Wicked Dolls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33f_GmVaXO0
▪ Freight Friends: Halloween, Conferences, Rare Earths, Logistics Podcasts, and Le Creuset: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xN_5wzHTPY
▪ EDI and AI in Freight: Hype vs. Realty with Grace Sharkey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ATXb50-FcA
Sources for the stories
▪ At Legal Crossroads: Tang Law and Foreigners in Seventh-Century Turfan, China Hands: https://chinahandsmagazine.org/2022/11/02/at-legal-crossroads-tang-law-and-foreigners-in-seventh-century-turfan/
▪ Chicago Tylenol murders, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tylenol_murders
▪ Henry Every, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Every
▪ Ganj-i-Sawai, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganj-i-Sawai
▪ RMS Empress of Ireland, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Empress_of_Ireland
▪ Lost Villages, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Villages
▪ Reno Gang, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reno_Gang
▪ China-Europe freight train trips up 10.8-fold in a decade, CGTN: https://news.cgtn.com/news/2026-06-19/China-Europe-freight-train-trips-up-10-8-fold-in-a-decade-1O6lmqO1Ka4/p.html
▪ Maritime piracy in 2026 fell to 1992 levels despite Somalia, Yemen surge, The Maritime Executive: https://maritime-executive.com/article/maritime-piracy-in-2026-fell-to-1992-levels-despite-somalia-yemen-surge
▪ Freight train robberies cost millions, Fortune: https://fortune.com/2026/08/17/freight-train-robberies-millions/
Everything is Logistics is presented by SPI Logistics. If you’re a freight agent thinking about a change, here’s our guide to the SPI freight agent program: https://everythingislogistics.com/spi-logistics-freight-agent-program/
CargoRex is my sister site.
