American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road
In 2011, a twenty-six-year-old libertarian programmer named Ross Ulbricht launched the ultimate free market: the Silk Road, a clandestine Web site hosted on the Dark Web where anyone could trade anything—drugs, hacking software, forged passports, counterfeit cash, poisons—free of the government’s watchful eye.
It wasn’t long before the media got wind of the new Web site where anyone—not just teenagers and weed dealers but terrorists and black hat hackers—could buy and sell contraband detection-free. Spurred by a public outcry, the federal government launched an epic two-year manhunt for the site’s elusive proprietor, with no leads, no witnesses, and no clear jurisdiction. All the investigators knew was that whoever was running the site called himself the Dread Pirate Roberts.
The Silk Road quickly ballooned into $1.2 billion enterprise, and Ross embraced his new role as kingpin. He enlisted a loyal crew of allies in high and low places, all as addicted to the danger and thrill of running an illegal marketplace as their customers were to the heroin they sold. Through his network he got wind of the target on his back and took drastic steps to protect himself—including ordering a hit on a former employee. As Ross made plans to disappear forever, the Feds raced against the clock to catch a man they weren’t sure even existed, searching for a needle in the haystack of the global Internet.
Drawing on exclusive access to key players and two billion digital words and images Ross left behind, Vanity Fair correspondent and New York Times bestselling author Nick Bilton offers a tale filled with twists and turns, lucky breaks and unbelievable close calls. It’s a story of the boy next door’s ambition gone criminal, spurred on by the clash between the new world of libertarian-leaning, anonymous, decentralized Web advocates and the old world of government control, order, and the rule of law. Filled with unforgettable characters and capped by an astonishing climax, American Kingpin might be dismissed as too outrageous for fiction. But it’s all too real.
Reviews (169)
All the little things
This book covers both the broad strokes of the Silk Road that you might have missed as the story was unfolding as well as the small nuances that you almost certainly didn’t know even if you were one of the participants. Bilton takes a balanced reporting perspective and describes both the highs and lows of the building and ultimate downfall of the Silk Road as well as the investigative efforts that brought it down. Probably the most striking element is the number of small mistakes that lead to setbacks and victories on both sides of this cat and mouse game. I would say one place some may disagree with the author is in what to include and what to leave out. In any writing that is the challenge the author faces. I am satisfied with his decisions but others may not be. This is a well written book that will fill in many of the holes left by other sources.
Good story, characterization of Texans is derailing
The story is great but the writing is clunky and is too often derailed by immature characterizations of Texans as “racists” whose dinner conversation can only possibly be about “football and F-150 trucks.”
Whatever happened to old schoolhouse road?
What if you could buy and sell drugs online like books or light bulbs? Welcome to Silk Road. The Silk Road website was a one-stop shop for illegal drugs. In just the first year's existence sales exceeded $500,000. But wait! A few months later it was $500,000 in weekly sales with commission sales into Ross's pocket averaging $10,000 daily, and rising. Ross became The Pirate in American Kingpin. Silk road even evolved into selling body parts where bone marrow would fetch $23,000 a gram, $150,000 for a good liver but the drug network was the vast force and the Drug Enforcement Administration would direct attention and resources into government focus. The FBI has Ross and the Silk Road under intense alert. The importance of Ross Ulbricht is perhaps exemplified during his arrest when nearly thirty FBI agents swarmed from every direction for the event. The FBI charged that the website of Ross Ulbricht had trafficked $1.2 billion in drugs, weapons and poisons. Silk Road reportedly had hundreds of million dollars in sales. In 2015 Ross was sentenced to life in prison. In that year the CDC reported that more people died from drug overdoses than from gun deaths and that on-line drug buying remains a prosperity unaffected by the destiny of Ross Ulbricht or Silk Road.
Absorbing Read - Fascinating Subject
I sort of stumbled upon this book while searching true crime, and boy am I glad I did. The dark web is something I've heard exists, but know nothing about it. The concept of The Silk Road is so simple, yet so completely illicit. The "Amazon of illegal drugs." That no one thought about it earlier than Ross Ulbricht is almost a bigger crime than what he did. This was an engrossing read. It is so well-written that I didn't want to put it down. It reminded me of the old Batman TV show from the '60s - how are they going to get out of this one?!? Ross dodged bullets in the form of investigations by no less than four different government agencies. On the other hand, I wondered how on Earth the likes of the FBI (the 'feebs') could possibly catch him since the TOR browser and Bitcoin are completely anonymous. The individual stories are fascinating also; from Ross himself (The Dread Pirate Roberts) to interesting profiles of a handful of the government agents trying to catch him. Sometimes you would start to feel bad for Ross, but then he'd do something awful like order a hit. I can't recommend this book highly enough. It is thorough, easy to read, and suspenseful. Too often, non-fiction writers forget that even non-fiction can be suspenseful and engaging. Not this time.
The Dark Web is the perfect operation platform for the dark dark side of mankind.
This is a great book. Well researched and well written. It’s the tale about a bright Texas college kid, let astray by an ideology that sees all things government as a the enemy of private freedom and initiative. He is particularly against government regulation of drug consumption, which he believes should be everybody’s individual right to decide. In this pretext he builds an online drug market on the Dark Web right at a time where bitcoins get established. The web site grows like crazy and bitcoins worth million of dollars start to roll in. And so does the moral decline of the young Texan. The Dark Web is the perfect operation platform for the dark dark side of mankind.
Who said the Internet was boring?
Great read about the guy who created the Silk Road dark net site and those in his life. Goes to show that no matter what, extreme views lead to extreme situations and outcomes and how greed can turn good intentions bad. While we once believed in the anonymity of the Internet, this story shows that you leave a trail wherever you go and that no matter how careful you think you are, there is really no erasing that trail. The story is well told. It grabs you, draws you in and you just can't set it down.
Great story, well written, fast read
A fascinating story many will remember from live news coverage and follow-up reading is succinctly told by Nick in a witty summarized version of events. The detail is colorful and the sequencing of the story cannot be better. A fifth star would be earned by including the rest of the story. It seems like the last third is rushed, lacking the fullness of the first two. I'm left feeling unsatisfied but not disappointed.
Fantastical. Fascinating. NON Fiction!
The story of Silk Road’s evolvement, the elusive DPR, the investigators pieces together this intangible puzzle of the Dark Web, bad actors... the entire story is enthralling and what you would want in a fiction thriller, except this is a fantastical true story. The writing is succinct, offering enough details for context but not causing the reader to hang up away from the charging developments of this story. Aside the factual story being sensational, there can be a whole other book on the physiological component of Libertarianism and how there is something about human nature that takes over even in the most idealistic attempt to create self regulation. The fact this space was seeded from the roots of idealism on the black web, free from government intervention (for a while) but even the founding father comes to terms with his power and the liberties to exercise it at his discretions rooted in his idealism... I could read another book!!!
Great read
Wow. Almost didn't buy this based on the few negative reviews, most of which claimed it was poorly written. That would have been a mistake. Guess I could say if you're looking for a book with all the minutiae and footnotes of many non-fiction crime books this probably isn't for you. If, however, you're looking for an exciting tale, written in crisp, clear prose that races along with no wasted words you really should pick this up. It's an American dream story that chronicles Ross Ulbricht's modest beginnings, his meteoric rise to drug kingpin and his inevitable seduction by his own power. An amazing read.
Fantastic!
Reading this during all the Covid-19 upset didn't seem like a really smart thing to do, but I'm VERY glad I did. Excellent for taking your mind off current "current events" and into a real-world investigation that seemed almost like a work of fiction. While I vaguely remember some of the news reports about the Silk Road and the Bitcoin payment business (and it all started ABOUT that 10 yrs ago!), until reading this book I really wasn't aware of the overall impact - AND SIZE! - of the whole event. I seem to have developed a bit of a queasy feeling about Bitcoin, tho, from the little I remembered. Read this and you may never again feel "ho-hum" about logging onto a computer site, not even THIS one! It's a fantastic, true story and one you won't want to put down once you start.
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