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57. Onward to Federal Plaza 58. Julia Comes to San Francisco 59. I Am God 60. The Phone Call 61. The Good-bye Party PART V 62. The Pink Sunset 63. Carla Sophia 64. FeLiNa 65. Arrested 66. The Laptop 67. Ross Locked Up 68. United States of America v. Ross William Ulbricht 69. To Catch a Pirate 70. Sentencing 71. The Plural of Mongoose 72. The Museum 73. The Others Photographs Notes on Reporting Acknowledgments Bibliography About the Author
Author’s Note My mother, who passed away in 2015 and who was a voracious reader, had a strange quirk when it came to books. She began every book by reading the last page first, then returning to the beginning. Every novel, for her, began at the end. I tell this story because, for this book, I have decided to place the beginning—traditionally the preface, in which the author explains how the book was made—at the end. In the “Notes on Reporting” I explain how I reported and wrote the pages you are about to read, detailing the millions of words and research, photos and videos, thousands of hours of reporting (including research from the incredible reporters Josh Bearman and Joshua Davis) that went into the creation of this book, and in doing so, I give away how the story ends. I hope reading about the reportage won’t ruin this epic tale for you, but it seems unnecessary to explain how a structure was built before you’ve had a chance to wander through its halls. In the book, you will see quoted conversations between the Silk Road leader and employees of the site. These are verbatim chats. With the exception of illegible typos, any spelling errors or peculiarities in the text have been left as is to preserve the authenticity of the conversations. With that, I promise all will be revealed at the end. It always is.
Page 3 and 4: Portfolio/Penguin An imprint of Pen
Page 5 and 6: No man, for any considerable period
Page 7: 20. The Dread Pirate Roberts 21. Ca
Page 11 and 12: PART I
Page 13 and 14: look for anything out of the ordina
Page 15 and 16: pills that had been arriving, week
Page 17 and 18: Five Years Earlier
Page 19 and 20: hand in marriage (Say yes, please s
Page 21 and 22: Chapter 3 JULIA VIE Julia Vie’s f
Page 23 and 24: “Oh, no, no, no,” Julia said as
Page 25 and 26: American drug laws. “Take your se
Page 27 and 28: His hope was that this gig would le
Page 29 and 30: Chapter 6 THE BONFIRE Ross swerved
Page 31 and 32: As they joined the group around the
Page 33 and 34: Chapter 7 THE SILK ROAD Stuff, to R
Page 35 and 36: computer screen, he daydreamed that
Page 37 and 38: to push Ross’s intelligence, with
Page 39 and 40: “We should go,” he said to Juli
Page 41 and 42: at the University of Texas, and ask
Page 43 and 44: Chapter 10 WHAT GOES UP MUST COME D
Page 45 and 46: Now, rather than split his time amo
Page 47 and 48: enough, someone was. You could buy
Page 49 and 50: Chapter 12 A BULL’S-EYE ON MY BAC
Page 51 and 52: transaction. This would require rew
Page 53 and 54: libertarian theory. When the tête-
Page 55 and 56: Chapter 14 WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! Tea
Page 57 and 58: Chapter 15 JARED AND THE FIFTY-TON
Page 59 and 60:
themselves. The issue, Jared reiter
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A few days before he left for Austr
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Chapter 17 CARL FORCE’S TOMORROW
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Carl thought about it for a moment.
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Ross interacted with dozens of diff
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caught up in the conversation to se
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Then there was the challenge of buy
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Chapter 20 THE DREAD PIRATE ROBERTS
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What a brilliant idea. Ross loved i
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He soon realized that this site cou
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people, the risk was worth the rewa
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Ross’s cut from the commission fe
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Chapter 24 CARL, ELADIO, AND NOB Fo
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Chapter 25 JARED’S CHICAGO VERSUS
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The Baltimore attorney then explain
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commission,” Ross wrote in a lett
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world businesses when a CEO is oust
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Nope. Not going to happen. Carl had
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This place was special to Ross for
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Chapter 29 VARIETY JONES GOES TO SC
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him break a drug dependency, and en
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But if Ross wanted to keep growing
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Chapter 31 ROSS SILENCES JULIA Ross
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away. Heading into the darkness, al
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Chapter 32 CHRIS TARBELL, FBI A que
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took his SATs in high school he did
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After breakfast each morning, while
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other start-up in the city would ha
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There were two main aspects of the
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Chapter 35 BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES!
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For the backup plan to the backup p
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the site had grown, DPR’s message
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This wasn’t a vacation. It was hi
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When his new friends asked Ross wha
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Chapter 38 CARL LIKES DPR On paper
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are safe from the laws of your nati
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Chapter 39 KIDNEY FOR SALE! Ross st
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On the black market a person’s ki
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Chapter 40 THE WHITE HOUSE IN UTAH
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pup, tried to bite another agent’
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Chihuahuas. Green went on like a sc
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Chapter 42 THE FIRST MURDER Ross ha
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started to wonder if he might not h
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usts with physical drugs, not digit
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Portland, looked like she was going
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into the hospital room as they wept
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Chapter 45 GARY ALFORD, IRS The sid
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He started with the Gawker article,
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It was, after all, his legacy, the
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Chapter 47 GARY’S BIG CHANGE Ever
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to go and feed a parking meter. So
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you were only giving them half of y
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“Let me tell you a little parable
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your side” capacity—tried to wa
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Chapter 50 A PARKING TICKET ON THE
Page 169 and 170:
Another search showed that Ross Ulb
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unclear what, if anything, was on t
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Chapter 52
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take a few breaks to watch Louis C.
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The agent asked again. “Andrew Fo
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Chris Tarbell had decided he wouldn
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By the end of Jared’s presentatio
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Chapter 54 JARED BECOMES CIRRUS Whe
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plastic. When the woman from Texas
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Chapter 55 JULIA IS SAVED! HALLELUJ
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Chapter 56
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Dylan waited for Ross to respond, b
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Chapter 57 ONWARD TO FEDERAL PLAZA
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Angels to have people killed, and h
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Chapter 58 JULIA COMES TO SAN FRANC
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She nonchalantly came up the stairs
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“We’re going to read from the T
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Chapter 60 THE PHONE CALL Gary sat
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She turned back to her computer and
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Dread Pirate Roberts was a twenty-n
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caught in a tree in the park and ha
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Chapter 62 THE PINK SUNSET Pink. Th
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was logged in to the site and arres
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even stop crossing the line, Carl d
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Even if anyone had noticed the SUV
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laptop and find a spot in a cafe wh
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“Sure,” DPR wrote. “Let me lo
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“I am Special Agent Chris Tarbell
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Thom and the other agent started ch
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And then there was Julia, who had p
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Chapter 68 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
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The defense knew an insurmountable
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He continued walking through the sp
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man. Gravity doesn’t care if you
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Chapter 71 THE PLURAL OF MONGOOSE I
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Chapter 72 THE MUSEUM Along Pennsyl
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high school, René, about their fut
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the perils lovingly and yet resolut
Page 245 and 246:
For over a year after the Silk Road
Page 247 and 248:
Young Ross in elementary school in
Page 249 and 250:
Ross with his parents, Lyn and Kirk
Page 251 and 252:
The NOMMO Club at Penn State Univer
Page 253 and 254:
The Silk Road Web site, which offer
Page 255 and 256:
Jared Der-Yeghiayan of the Departme
Page 257 and 258:
Force disguised as Nob, his online
Page 259 and 260:
Chris Tarbell of the Federal Bureau
Page 261 and 262:
Curtis Green, known on the Silk Roa
Page 263 and 264:
Curtis Green’s staged murder, an
Page 265 and 266:
Notes on Reporting Each and every d
Page 267 and 268:
Acknowledgments I’d like to start
Page 269 and 270:
Bibliography Bauer, Alex. “My Roo
Page 271:
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