American Kingpin: Catching the Billion-Dollar Baron of the Dark Web

by Nick Bilton

The unbelievable true story of the man who built a billion-dollar online drug empire from his bedroom – and almost got away with it.

In 2011, a twenty-six-year-old 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. While the federal government were undertaking an epic two-year manhunt for the site’s elusive proprietor, the Silk Road quickly ballooned into a $1.2 billion enterprise.

Ross embraced his new role as kingpin, taking 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, 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, decentralised 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.

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, Crime, Biography, Audiobook, History, Business

378 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 2, 2017

About the author

Nick Bilton is a Special Correspondent for Vanity Fair, where he writes about technology, politics, business and culture. He is also a contributor to CNBC, and a former columnist and reporter for The New York Times.

He has written three books, including The New York Times bestseller, “Hatching Twitter,” which chronicled the turmoil and chaos inside Twitter as it grew from a fledgling startup to a multi-billion dollar company.

Reviews

[Ryan Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't have the energy or will to write an actual review but I will say this: I started the book and then I finished the book. There may have been a bathroom break in there but this book had me from beginning to end.

[Olivier Schreiber · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ross's mother wrote the following:
A book called American Kingpin by Nick Bilton claims to be the “unbelievable true story” of my son, Ross Ulbricht. After reading an online adaptation, I agree: It’s unbelievable.
Just the headline and subhead demonstrate the hyperbole, sensationalism and inaccuracy of this coverage:
It calls the case a “murder mystery,” yet no murders occurred.
The Silk Road was not a “billion-dollar enterprise.” The government says the site’s total revenue was a fraction of that ($183,961,921, 82% less).
Ross is not “dangerous.” All his convictions were non-violent. He has no record of hurting anyone. No victims came forward at trial to claim that Ross had harmed them in any way. Rather, he is widely known as peaceful and compassionate. Read what 100 people who actually know him have to say.
And that’s just the headline!
Other points:
Bilton portrays Ross as having arranged murder-for-hire, yet this was never proven and Ross was not charged with this at trial.
Note: There is a 3-year-old, unprosecuted indictment in Maryland based on the word of ex-DEA agent Carl Mark Force. Force is now in prison for corruption along with ex-NSA/Secret Service agent Shaun Bridges. As computer experts, these two agents had unfettered access to the site and the ability to act as DPR, change evidence, steal money and more.
Bilton conflates Dread Pirate Roberts and Ross. Yet, as Ross’ appeal states on page six, the government did not produce a single witness to authenticate a connection between Ross and any of the communications attributable to DPR.
Note: The question of multiple DPRs was touched on (and blocked) at trial, yet recent evidence shows that someone using the DPR account logged into the Silk Road seven weeks after Ross was arrested. Who was that? In addition, evidence of tampering of the Silk Road forum database has been discovered. None of this is mentioned.
Ross is not a computer programmer or coder and never was.
Bilton extensively quotes Ross’ journal. Yet, as technical experts know, digital evidence is vulnerable to planting, deleting, altering. Incriminating content could have easily been planted when Ross was arrested (he was on an open source network), or at other times before or after. There are many issues with the laptop investigation, among them: the laptop crashed during investigation and one agent testified that he didn’t follow the guidelines when investigating it.
Ross is not violent. He is not a murderer. He is a danger to no one and should not be locked away, especially for life. I think Nick Bilton knows this, as he emailed me the following:
“I’ve spent a hundred hours talking to people who knew Ross over the years, and what I find truly remarkable is that there hasn’t been a single person who disliked him. People have told me he was kind, thoughtful, compassionate, and how he was helpful and caring to everyone, especially to those in society that most people judge and ignore.” – Nick Bilton
Yet, presumably for money, Bilton has used unproven allegations to produce a book that smears a man who is fighting for his life.
Ross cannot defend himself or his reputation against this media onslaught. He is helpless to stop the feeding frenzy, sensationalizing, fictionalizing and profiting from his life. He’s just trying to survive yet another day in a cage, trusting that the appellate court cares more about the truth than the media does.

[Regina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have you ever considered how your life would be different without the internet? Mine wouldn’t resemble anything similar to my current existence. I’ve found and acquired most of the stuff that makes me “me” through a few clicks of the mouse: My dog*. My home. My car. My HUSBAND. (Thanks for that last one, Match.com!)

But for diehard libertarian Ross Ulbricht, the internet of the 2010’s was still lacking. Where were the drugs? The guns? The human organs? To him, people should be able to get anything and everything on the worldwide web without government oversight or restrictions. And thus, this 20-something dude who seems like a walking version of a college freshman’s stale laundry pile created the Silk Road, essentially the Amazon of the dark web.

Nick Bilton’s 2017 expose of the clandestine site, its creator, and the team that brought them both down epitomizes the cliched line, “you can’t make this stuff up.” American Kingpin is page-turning nonfiction, from start to finish. At only 328 pages, there’s no boring fluff and filler. From the opening page when one tiny pink pill is intercepted by a US Customs and Border Protection officer inspecting the mail passing through Chicago O’Hare, to the nail-biting end that kept me up past my bedtime, this is one thrilling narrative that is truly crazier than fiction.

American Kingpin is an absolute must read for fans of true crime, reportage, and compelling stories. What a way to kick off my 2022 reading year! (Oh, and it probably goes without saying that I acquired my digital copy of it - legally - online. Thanks, internet!)

*My adopted RESCUE dog, obviously.

Blog: https://www.confettibookshelf.com/

[Moeen Sahraei · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unbelievably exciting. This book is the best real story I’ve ever read. The author had done heck of a research and collected every single piece of this amazing puzzle.

This book relates the story of The first online website for selling drugs and later it was even used for selling weapons.People called it
“the Amazon for drugs” because you could simply make an account on the site and buy a wide variety of drugs like heroin, cocaine , marijuana and more than ten thousand other miscellaneous drugs with bitcoin, and they sent it to your house by the United States postal service. For the first time in history you could buy any kind of drugs as easy as you buy books from Amazon without any danger.

The author wrote this book so proficiently. He explains Ross ulbricht’s incentives for building the Silk Road and each policeman’s incentives for catching him because this site is wasn’t just about money and it is drastically different from ordinary drug cartels. Silk Road was actually an idea and a philosophy.

This story emphasizes this important fact that the world has became so technological and consequently; if anyone wants to do something important, he or she must know a lot about computer science and mathematics. Drug wars are no longer dependent on guns and muscles, rather on computer knowledge. Chris Tarbell and Gary Alford were the most important people in arresting Ulbricht. Tarbell was a computer scientist who worked in FBI and Gary was an IRS accountant. these two technical people managed to triumph over a billion-dollar drug empire, not DEA or some other related groups.

[Jason Pettus]

DECLINED TO REVIEW. Generally speaking, it's a pretty typical phenomenon that when we get interested in a nonfiction book because of the subject it's covering, most of us are willing to put up with pretty lousy actual writing in order to read more about that subject, with me being no exception. But man, I just reached my limit when it came to Nick Bilton's American Kingpin, which takes on an utterly fascinating subject (it chronicles the rise and fall of "dark web" location Silk Road, one of the first-ever sites to take advantage of the anonymous and untraceable BitCoin in order to let people openly buy illegal drugs), but then presents the journalistic story in the prose of a narrative fiction novel, doing that hackneyed trick of making up dialogue that the author couldn't possibly know actually took place in order to "make the story feel more real." (So in other words, instead of simply telling us that Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht was a libertarian, like any decent journalist should've, Bilton decides to write out an entire made-up debate between Ulbricht and his stoner roommates about libertarianism, despite Bilton not knowing whether such a discussion ever actually took place, or what actual words might or might not have been said during this hypothetical conversation that may or may not have ever happened.)

Like I said, I've read journalistic books like this before, and have generally stuck in there because the subject being covered was just too interesting not to, despite this being literally the hackiest, most eye-rolling way humanly possible to tell a non-fiction story. The deal-breaking problem here, though, is that Bilton is an unbearably, unreadably shitty fucking prose writer; and I barely made it even 40 pages into this book before angrily throwing it in the trashcan and audibly cursing Bilton for taking such an interesting subject and turning it into such a heartbreakingly awful book. I no longer publish reviews at my arts center's blog, or give scores here at Goodreads, to books I didn't finish; but suffice to say that American Kingpin went way beyond me simply disliking it, and into the realm of becoming personally furious at the author, for his refusal to write a simple journalistic account of a subject I had been highly looking forward to learning more about. Unless you enjoy prose at the level of a 13-year-old taking a junior-high-school Creative Writing 101 class, avoid this book at all costs.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

It would be exaggerating to say that I found this book a struggle, but it didn’t hold my interest as much as I had expected. I seem to be in a minority on that, as other reviewers describe the book as a page turner. For my part, there was a particular element to it that reduced my overall enjoyment.

True crime isn’t a genre I turn to very often, but this did look like an interesting story. I was vaguely aware of the Silk Road website when it was active, but I’d never heard of Ross Ulbricht until reading the book. Initially the author portrays him quite sympathetically, as a libertarian who was genuinely outraged at the incarceration of hundreds of thousands of people in the US purely because of their involvement with drugs. The arguments around this issue are well-known and I don’t propose to go into them here. It seems that Ulbricht initially saw the Silk Road website as a place where he could make a bit of a profit hosting a platform where people could sell weed and magic mushrooms via mail order, which would also have the benefit of allowing buyers to avoid the dangers of dealing with street dealers. The site soon exploded into something far bigger than Ulbricht had ever imagined, where people traded all sorts of hard drugs as well as fake IDs, forged passports, computer hacking tools, counterfeit cash, and weapons, apparently up to and including rocket launchers. (That last reference did have me wondering how much delivery charge the U.S. postal service would put on a rocket launcher). The story gets even stranger with the involvement of a corrupt DEA official who sold information to Ulbricht, and another DEA official who straight out stole money from the Silk Road site. Ulbricht is portrayed as a man who allowed his libertarian philosophy to blind him to the harm the website was causing.

My main problem with the book was that all the way through it the author describes, in great detail, conversations and meetings where he wasn’t present. He even describes the internal feelings of those involved. This gives the book the feel of a novel, but it is badged as non-fiction and the obvious question is “How does he know these things?” In fairness, he did interview many of the participants, who might have told him of events, but at no point does the author provide any sources for the conversations he reports. In addition, he was unsuccessful in getting an interview with Ross Ulbricht, so I am puzzled, for example, by the following extract, describing Ulbricht’s reaction to being arrested:

“Ross sat staring at a concrete wall, frightened by where he found himself but unfazed by how long he might be in jail. He had played through this scenario a thousand times before.”

Paragraphs like the above definitely blur the line between fiction and non-fiction, and left me doubting the overall authenticity of the book.

Not a comment on the book itself, but I was astonished to read, near the end, that Ulbricht had been sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole. To a non-American this seems like a harsh sentence for a first-time offender. Where I live in Scotland, nobody, no matter how depraved their crime, would ever be sentenced to life without possibility of parole. It is possible to receive such a sentence in England and Wales, but they are only ever handed down to those found guilty of multiple killings or particularly vile crimes such as the rape and murder of children. Customs vary.

For me, 2.5 stars rounded up to three.

[Andrew Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ross Ulbricht, born in Texas in 1984, is a libertarian and one of his staple beliefs is that people should be able to put into their bodies whatever they wish, including any type of drug they choose. To this end, he believes that the sale of drugs should be decriminalised. So it’s probably not that surprising that this highly educated individual (bachelor’s degree in physics and masters degree in materials science and engineering) would be attracted to the idea of building an online site to provide a service supplying drugs to anyone willing to stump up the appropriate cost. This he did, with the site being situated on the darknet and accessible via a browser called Tor. Payments were to be made using the cryptocurrency bitcoin, as with due care transactions could thereby be conducted with relative anonymity. The drug suppliers who utilised this site (it was similar in set-up to eBay or Amazon) simply sent the product to customers via the standard mail system, with Ulbricht collecting a commission on all sales.

This book tells the story of Ulbricht’s ‘adventure’ as he progresses from Texas Boy Scout to becoming, effectively, the largest online supplier of drugs in the world – and in the process a multi-millionaire. There’s a great deal of research behind this real-life tale, the detail of which is documented at the end of the book. The story is told, however, in narrative form, and it therefore has the flow and feel of a fictional tale. I liked this way of taking in events as it kept the suspense element alive, even though it was ever evident that Ulbricht would not escape eventual capture.

The site (given the name Silk Road) was launched in 2011, and initially, because individual purchases tended to be for small amounts of the chosen drug, delivery was relatively problem free. Even when packages were considered suspicious and intercepted, the fact that they contained such a small amount of the drug (sometimes as little as a single tablet) ensured that authorities weren’t inclined to launch an investigation to track down the supplier – they were after bigger fish. Eventually, that would change as federal agencies learnt more about the aggregate volumes being shipped via this supply route.

For me, there were two key points of interest:

1. I enjoyed the story of Ross: how he developed this idea and, using admirable entrepreneurial drive, built a massive money spinning business. We’re introduced some really interesting characters and get a feel for how ruthless he’s forced to become to avoid capture and to protect his site from hackers and other undesirables.

2. The parallel effort of various agencies to track down the operators of the site and the drug traffickers who used the site to sell their wares is, at times, a Keystone Kops tale of mistakes, clashing egos, inter-agency rivalries and crooked agents. If it wasn’t true it’d be hilarious! Of course, they got their man in the end, but it was anything but a smooth operation.

It’s a fascinating story on a number of levels – certainly one to catch if the subject matter in any way floats your boat.

[Jess · Rating 1 out of 5]

It reads like it was written by a 16 year old who had to come up with something quickly for their English homework. So cliche and plays into so many stereotypes! I really wanted to get on with this book and had expectations due to the other reviews on here but ended up very disappointed.

[Ammar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book that reads like a thriller is pure joy and information. The author did a great job creating all the events based on primary documents and interviews with the people who took down The Silk Road.

An adventure into the dark web, Tor, drugs, murders, an all you can buy from illegal bazaar.

Ross Ulbricht the mastermind behind this massive network of drugs and other activities is hunted down by an array of government services and agents.

His libertarian ideas that nothing should be controlled by the government gave him the seed to start this project that ravelled anything ever seen in our time.

This book is so well written than anyone who dislikes nonfiction would like it and anyone who loves a good chase and a good thriller would eat the whole thing out.

Ross is a kingpin.. a mobster of the 21st century

[Blaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

1/22/2025 Update: Reposting my review of this book because I can’t believe this criminal got a full pardon from Trump on Trump’s first day back in office. That’ll bring down the cost of eggs.

You type lines of code into a computer, and out comes a world that didn’t exist before. There are no laws here except your laws. You decide who is given power and who is not. And then you wake up one morning and you’re not you anymore. You’re one of the most notorious drug dealers alive. And now you’re deciding if someone should live or die. You’re the judge in your own court. You’re god.

American Kingpin tells the fascinating true story of the rise and fall of Ross Ulbricht, aka the Dread Pirate Roberts (“DPR”), a 20-something who built the Silk Road, a website started in 2011 on the Dark Web that allowed the anonymous purchase of illegal drugs and other contraband. Motivated by a zealous belief in libertarianism, a longing to make a mark on the world, and a dash of inspiration from Breaking Bad’s Walter White, Ross/DPR is a fascinating character. Equally interesting are many of the government agents working on the task force to bring him down, including the ones who give in to temptation and undermine the investigation through theft and selling information back to DPR.

The story is full of near misses and human mistakes that nearly derailed the investigation. The scene with DPR’s arrest is as dramatic as any scene in fiction. My only knock on American Kingpin is that there is simply too much inner monologue from DPR, who refused to be interviewed, to truly believe that all of the conversations were factual and not somewhat fictionalized for dramatic purposes. Still, it’s a great read. Highly recommended.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shelve this in the category of truth is often stranger than fiction…

This is a fast-paced, well-researched and documented account of the man who built the Silk Road--the infamous marketplace for selling drugs and weapons on the dark web--and it reads like a suspense thriller. Written in a narrative nonfiction style, Bilton delivers one of the most compelling true crime books I’ve listened to replete with characters tailor made for a Quentin Tarantino movie.

Ross Ulrich, the self-titled Dread Pirate Roberts, is the consummate free thinker, but also incredibly naïve and ultimately a cunning criminal. The genesis of how he goes from Libertarian college dropout to becoming the mastermind of one of the most nefarious websites in the world is bone chilling. Mix in agents from the DEA, FBI, Homeland Security and even the IRS (remember that’s how Al Capone was eventually brought down) and you have all of the elements for a riveting read.

I’m not giving it the full five because in the author’s attempt to make this more of a narrative, he inserts dialogue that often comes off a bit corny and I felt there was a bit of padding in the middle. But those are minor quibbles for a book that is this gripping, all the more so because it is true. Highly recommended if you’re a fan of true crime nonfiction.

Side note and further adventures in the bizarre: The second most liked review of this book posts one star, is not actually a review but a comment purportedly made by Ulrich’s mother professing his innocence and posted by a person whose bookshelves include only this book. All seemingly part of the campaign to free Ulrich. And the comments section? Make sure you wear your tin foil hat, the conspiracy theorists are in full force.

[Joanna Okuniewska · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bardzo wciągająca! Czyta się jak kryminał, fajnie zbudowana postać i jej motywacje, super struktura i widać że doskonale zrobiony przez autora research

[Dino-Jess ✮ The Book Eating Dinosaur ✮ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a confession to make.....

I had never heard of the black market website Silk Road until sometime last year.

When an interpretation of the site was featured on Mr Robot's second season, my friend sent me a message that said "DPR!" with no other explanation. When I mentioned that I didn't know what he was referring to, he sent me to this wonderful article that helped bring me up to speed. And from then on, I was fascinated with this story.

When I found out that American Kingpin was yet to be released, I was so eager to read something by Nick Bilton, that I bought his other book, Hatching Twitter and loved it so much I immediately began worrying that this one wouldn't stack up.

And it didn't. Not quite.

I really think I did myself a disservice in reading extensively about the Silk Road and DPR before embarking on this book - as I knew all the twists and turns in this story ahead of time.

That is not to say that Nick Bilton doesn't deliver a fantastic, if a little overwhelming, narrative of events in this. He does such a superb job of delivering facts, figures and tidbits of information that at times you might actually scratch your head and wonder how on earth he got his hands on this type of information. Never fear - he explains the entire research process at the end of the book which I found incredibly enlightening and mildly astonishing.

But what I enjoyed the most was that even though Ross Ulbricht was not talked to for this book, I feel like I know and understand the so-called mastermind behind Silk Road for having read it. His beliefs, trials and tribulations were woven together with such coherency that even though I knew how this story played out, I wanted him to triumph. I wanted the ending of this story to be different.

Nick Bilton sure knows how to tell a story. His attention to detail is incredible and even when explaining complex and overwhelming computer systems, coding and all sorts of other technological jargon, his writing style is so readable that you will zoom through the pages faster than you thought possible.

At first I wasn't sure about how short some of the chapters were, and the ends of some of them didn't leave me NEEDING to continue reading right away. But with so much of the story to be set up, it's understandable why the story was written this way.

It's a fascinating story that I will likely read again, because it very subtly makes you question your beliefs, morals and integrity as it paints you a portrait of a small idea taken to the grandest of scales and turned awry as a result of its successes.

I guess the most important part of me reading this book is that even though the entire thing was a giant neon flashing sign of Ross's guilt - with his association to the sales of drugs, guns and anything else illegal that the Silk Road wanted to dabble in.... At the end of the day I am not entirely convinced that Ross Ulbricht is DPR. Because...

"There could be more than one Dread Pirate Roberts, like the old tale in The Princess Bride."

4 Stars

Nick Bilton, I will read your shopping lists. You are a unicorn.

[Paul Ataua · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was really looking forward to finding out more about the whole Silk Road story, but even after a few pages of this I knew I would have to look elsewhere to get a more informed picture. The telltale signs were there from the beginning when the author, telling of minor incidents five or ten years earlier, was able to add the exact moment in the sentence when someone batted her eyelids or when someone scratched his nose, and exactly what he was thinking in the quiet of his room some five years earlier. I realize that modern nonfiction likes to dramatize and bring events to life, to embellish for effect, but I was just unable to suspend my disbelief.

[SAM · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Silk Road, after all, was just the platform - no different from Facebook or Twitter or Ebay - on which users communicated and exchanged ideas and currency. So who was DPR to err on the side of anything but yes? It wasn't as if twitter dictated what kind of opinions people could and could not write in the little box at the top of the screen. If you wanted to spew brilliance or idiocy in 140 characters, then so be it. It was your God-given right to say what you wanted on the Internet, in the same way it was your God-given right to buy or sell whatever you wanted and put it into your body – if you chose.”

It's interesting that i write this review the day after 'AlphaBay' and 'Hansa', two more Silk Road-esque websites, were closed down. It's like the mythical monster Hydra 'cut off one head, two more shall grow back' (yes, i stole this from Captain America! Whatever!). I wonder if Ross Ulbricht is sitting in his jail cell now smiling at this mornings news and the drug-revolution he started.

A few years ago one of my work colleagues says to me 'i see they closed The Silk Road down', to which my response was 'what are you talking about?'. Although i briefly looked, i wasn't really interested, as back then i'd rather spend my time looking at conspiracies such as Nibiru and other pointless shit. Thankfully I've grown out of all that and concentrate my time on the truth, as it makes for much more interesting reading. In 2016 i saw the documentary 'Deep Web', which looks at Silk Road, Tor and the darker side of the internet; a fascinating film. I'm one of those people who will happily read about the seedy, dark, grim, dirty, tainted underworld side of the internet but would never take that step into downloading software like Tor. To me it's a step too far.

My only concern with American Kingpin was if the author would be biased toward the American Authorities, making them out to be superheroes but this wasn't the case. The author tells both sides of the story from a neutral standpoint and doesn't judge Ross Ulbricht for his choices. He tells the story from the beginning to end and lets the reader decide if he's a Visionary or a Criminal. I personally think his heart was in the right place. He wanted to stop the endless war on drugs by legalising them, which in his mind would stop the violent drug deals, gang turf wars, smuggling and mass murder and maybe his philosophy was right but no current government is going to legalise hardcore drugs. It's complete fantasy. Whether they should or not is a different matter and frankly an issue i'm not going to dwell on.

Anyway, i'm diverting from the review. The book is awesome, easily the best thing i've read this year. The author tells the story without adding any filler so all we get is the action. I would have liked more on the trial as the author only give's it about twenty or so pages but that aside i can't fault it. It's an important book that details an important event in our history. Enjoy.

[Hossein · Rating 4 out of 5]

واقعا نمیدونم چی بگم.
فقط میتونم این شخصیت رو تحسین کنم.
کار ندارم که استعدادش رو در راه غیر قانونی خرج کرده در هر حال قابل تحسینه.
داستان واقعی زندگی راس اولبریکت خالق سایت سیلک رود بزرگترین سایت خرید و فروش مواد مخدر و البته تمام کالاهای ممنوعه که بدون این که حتی یک کلمه برنامه نویسی بلد باشه دست تنها چنین امپراطوری عظیمی رو رقم زده که تخمین زده میشه آخرای کارش قبل از دستگیری روزی 500 میلیون دلار درآمد داشته.
توصیه میکنم بخوانید حتما.

[Lisa O · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a story! I remember reading a long-form article in Rolling Stone a number of years ago about Ross Ulbricht, the mastermind behind the Deep Web site Silk Road, and I was fascinated. I expected this book to be a fun ride, and I was not disappointed!

The story has it all - ambition, fear, ego, moral conundrums, government bureaucracy, deception, rogue agents, murder for hire…everything you need for a solid page-turner. The author starts with painting a well-rounded picture of Ross Ulbricht and follows his evolution from awkward suburban kid to the Dread Pirate Roberts. Once the Silk Road gets the attention of law enforcement, the author pulls in a whole cast of characters across multiple law enforcement agencies who are aiming to be the heroes of the incredible two-year manhunt. The close calls are shocking, and it's fascinating how much of the case was solved by a couple of obsessive individuals with brilliant problem-solving skills.

I loved how the author shared Ulbricht's thought process on the daily decisions he made about the Silk Road, which was driven by his hardcore libertarian philosophy. I've definitely never thought about trying to apply a political philosophy to something like selling human organs. Regardless of whether I agreed with his arguments, Ulbricht's musings sparked my curiosity and led me on more than one internet rabbit hole of researching libertarian views.

The book is well-written, gripping, and filled with suspense. Highly recommended for fans of true crime or anyone who enjoys crazy real-life stories.

[Joy D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Narrative non-fiction that reads like a cybercrime thriller, this book tells the true story of Ross Ulbricht (aka Dread Pirate Roberts), creator of the Silk Road website (now defunct) on the dark net where drugs, weapons, body parts, and other contraband were offered for sale using Bitcoin virtual currency. It is a story of the rise and fall of the Silk Road, the transformation of mild-mannered college-educated Ulbricht into the head of a global criminal enterprise, and the government agents and agencies that brought him down.

The author pieces together a vast array of data from Ulbricht’s electronic trail, chat logs, photos, social media, courtroom transcripts, and interviews with family, friends, and participants (excluding Ulbricht) to assemble this riveting story. He does not use footnotes or specifics in documenting sources but provides a summary of all resources in the Appendix and does not identify where the quoted conversations originate.

The reader does not need detailed technical knowledge to appreciate this book. In fact, techies will probably want more detail than is provided. It is a fast-paced engrossing story that I found hard to put down.

[Tooter · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 Stars. Loved it!

[Matthew Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is another reason why I don't read fiction anymore. Crazy story.

[Chip Huyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a book! The story itself is incredible, but the research work that went into it is phenomenal.

What I find most interesting, however, isn't the site itself, but the process (or the lack thereof) that allowed different government agencies to work together to take down the site. The Silk Road didn't squarely fall into any jurisdiction. It was drugs (DEA), but also online (cybercrime), shipping (postal service), crypto (IRS), etc., so no one really knew how to collaborate.

At some point, the postal inspector figured out an important hint that could have helped the FBI, but he went to the meeting and didn't feel like it was his case, so he didn't even share Ulbricht's name with the FBI.

I hope that if the book ever has a new edition, there'll be a part about Ulbricht's life post-conviction too, like he met a woman and married her while serving double life sentences? And then got pardoned.

[John Devlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book.
Walter White IRL.

The story is too strange to believe and the moral questions could fill a college class.

Ross Ulbricht was an Eagle Scout, a good kid, a very smart kid, who developed a strong libertarian ethos.

He hit upon an idea to sell drugs anonymously on the internet.
Brilliantly and resourcefully he taught himself how to code.

His project became a $1.2 billion dollar success.
He was arrested by the Feds and is serving a life term in prison.

This is a Netflix series waiting to happen.

So where did Ross go wrong or did he?

First, his libertarian notions about leaving people to use their bodies their own way is certainly correct.
Even if someone wants to advocate for prohibiting certain drugs, the hypocrisy and the futility should be apparent after decades and decades of failed govt action.

Or put simply, inmates manage to get drugs in prison. How then is any force going to stop people not incarcerated, who live freely, to stop?


Where Ross slipped over the line was when he started allowing, not just drugs, but guns and poison. No one can spray heroin on a group of bystanders like a gun(though regardless his gun sales were never much bc it turns out it’s way easier to send a few tabs of ecstasy through the mail than an AK 47)
And poison has only the purpose of hurting someone else.
Last, Ross ordered the murders of five people who had crossed him. That deserves the appropriate penal sentence.

Other issues that arise: the federal govt is a behemoth that is markedly useless in many of the functions it’s been designed to combat. DEA, FBI, DHS, have to hold regular “deconfliction” meetings bc of all the bureaucratic infighting. These sessions rarely result in ameliorating the pissing contests. Also, two feds ended up doing time for stealing Bitcoin from the Dreadpirate operation.

Finally, to my earlier point of futility, just a week after the Feds shut down the silkroad imitators popped up. The Feds shut down a few of those but you can see where the story goes.

You can’t protect people from themselves. Drug enforcement is a Sisyphean task at best and at worst the attempt to interdict drugs is a colossal waste of all kinds of resources in the vain attempt to stop people from short term pleasure against longer term pain.

The Soviet state was the greatest binding tyranny the world had ever seen, but even Stalin didn’t try to take away the people’s vodka.

[Ellen Gail · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

Quick side note: if you haven't finished Breaking Bad, this spoils the ending. American Kingpin does I mean, my review doesn't. My review will encourage you to watch Breaking Bad however.



If I can quote another fantastic reviewer for a quick sec, Dino-Jess said, "I really think I did myself a disservice in reading extensively about the Silk Road and DPR before embarking on this book - as I knew all the twists and turns in this story ahead of time." And that was 100% true for me as well. I had already listened to Casefile's three part series on the Silk Road back in February, which actually used this book as one of it's sources.

The story remains fascinating, but doesn't tread any new ground if you already know the DPR deets. Do kids still say deets? Apparently yeet is a thing and I still have no clue what that means. Only that my 20 year old coworkers say it and it makes me feel super old.



I guess I could google it, but if I had to google every single bit of new slang I don't understand, I would have no time to make pointless rants in the midst of my reviews.

So if you're going to read this, go in blind. That's the gist of that ramble.

The writing is okay. It's a bit dramatic at times, but I usually didn't mind it too much. It's a very quick read (or listen, as I went the audiobook route. For a 12 hour book, it went by in a snap.) I would have finished it sooner, but generally restrict myself to audiobooks when I'm driving or deep cleaning. It's like a reward to myself for vacuuming the cobwebs on the ceiling!

I don't have much else to say about this one. It's a really fascinating case, especially if you don't know much about it. There's murder for hire, magic mushrooms, The Princess Bride, libertarian ideals, multiple government agencies, and a silver Samsung laptop that contains a whole dark world inside.

It's not my favorite nonfiction I've ever read but it's entertaining for sure.

[Virginia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thrilling tale of the modern crime world that is so insane you couldn't make any of it up!
Following the steps of Ross Ulbricht, the mastermind behind The Silk Road, and the law enforcement agents out to stop him, you get an incredible insight into the cyber criminal world and how it's evolving. You also get to see how law enforcement departments both help and hinder each other as well as how easy it is to blur the line between what is legal or not. Good guys become bad guys and bad guys become human. It's a very cool story that I still can't believe is non-fiction.
I recommend this to anyone who enjoy thriller novels, those interested in modern crime, and anyone who's ever thought about their impact in the world.

[britt_brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damn, it’s hard to beat good narrative nonfiction! This is the rise and fall of Ross Ulbricht, a staunch libertarian, who believed people should be able to buy and sell whatever they wish without government regulation. It’s your body, put what you want into it. He created the Silk Road, a darknet marketplace where patrons could buy and/or sell illicit items, primarily drugs, anonymously. This shit is crazy. I couldn’t stop listening.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review of the audiobook narrated by Will Damron.

This book is nonfiction written like fiction, which means the author has to make up dialog and even scenes in many places throughout. This is both the best and worst thing about the book, as there are many gripping sequences, but many times the dialog between characters sounds fake. However, the eventual police takedown of DPR (Dread Pirate Roberts, the moniker taken on by Ross Ulbricht) by itself justifies the fiction-like storytelling. It has a great buildup and was one of the most memorable scenes I've read in a long time.

As a web developer I love all of specific details on the encryption, security, servers, etc. I'd have loved to have more of that then there was, but it did seem like the right amount (and explained well enough) for readers who aren't as interested in technology.

This is the second book I've listened to narrated by Will Damron. He's a good fit in that his voice sounds like he's around the same age as DPR. Other than that he gets the job done.

Final verdict: 4 star story, 4 star narration, 4 stars overall

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bilton is a Special Correspondent for Vanity Fair where he often writes about technology, and is the author of Hatching Twitter. His experience in being able to present complicated internet technology concepts in a form understandable to the average reader proved to be invaluable in writing about the Silk Road and its founder, Ross Ulbricht. Ulbricht lived on the Dark Web, using the browser Tor that provides anonymity for its users, and the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. All he needed to build his $1.2 billion business over two years was his laptop computer and an anti-authoritarian libertarian obsession. He felt that he could force the government to legalize drugs if he made them available to anyone who wanted them. Of course, he got greedy and soon was selling guns, poisons, forged identity documents and more on his Silk Road website. Not that he wanted to spend a lot of money. He actually lived pretty frugally for a billionaire. He just wanted to HAVE a lot of money. He was also a control freak and found himself warming to murder contracts to keep employees ‘in line’.
Bilton helps the reader understand how the Government hunted down this elusive criminal. It wasn’t easy, and there were a lot of jurisdictional squabbles as different agencies grabbed pieces of the evidence that would eventually bring down Ross Ulbricht (aka, Dread Pirate Roberts). It wasn’t until the Department of Justice forced the agencies to collaborate that significant progress was made. The individuals who made up this formidable team were amazing.
Unfortunately, the lure of untraceable bitcoin money proved too tempting for two Government employees. One stole directly from the Silk Road when the FBI nabbed one of Ulbricht’s employees and he learned how he could do it after interrogating the employee; and the other provided Government investigative progress to Ulbricht for a fee.
This is a fascinating story about a quirky guy who viewed himself as a Libertarian warrior. All be it, one without any moral compass. Highly recommend.

[Helie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was in desperate need of an editor. It was overly detailed, repeated itself incessantly, and full of clunky prose.

There was no clear thesis, and it was impossible to tell to what extent the author agreed with DPR's libertarianism or his more ruthless decisions.

I was hoping it would cover the tech in a bit more detail than I had seen in other places, but it was just a super simplified explanation that left a lot to be desired.

I did finish the book, but just barely. Definitely do not recommend lol.

[GeneralTHC · Rating 5 out of 5]

5-stars

Wow! This one really pisses me off, but it’s a marvelous read. What a shame that more nonfiction isn’t written in this style. This is the can't-miss book of the year, for sure. Guaranteed.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

*ROSS ULBRICHT IS NOW A FREE MAN*

I was simply looking for the exact dates The Silk Road operated (beyond just 2011-2013) - and instead found out that Donald Trump gave Ross Ulbricht a full and unconditional pardon in January 2025. I’ve looked through quite a few reviews and their comments and haven’t seen this mentioned yet. Perhaps I just didn’t look thoroughly enough. But I agree with the pardon: after serving 12 years in a federal penitentiary, I don’t think Ross is a danger to the American public.

Nor did I ever.

While he was clearly a brilliant guy with many great ideas, with the skill set to implement them, I really feel like he just bit off more than he could chew with the entire Silk Road situation. As others have mentioned, he wasn’t the best criminal, and it was clear in this book that he wasn’t comfortable with violence.

Having been raised with extremely libertarian views, Ross only further solidified his convictions as he began college at Penn State, where he’d meet many likeminded individuals who shared the same beliefs, and partake in debates about individual freedoms - namely, victimless crimes and the right for individuals to do as they please, regardless if this behavior is deemed detrimental to one’s health (so long as they are not physically harming others or stealing their property - only then is violence and possible government interference acceptable).

It’s no surprise he’d want to create a legacy, something he’d be remembered for long after he was gone. After all, the only thing more powerful than money (which Ross demonstrated little concern for) is immortality. And given we have yet to develop anything that would give an individual true immortality, the only surefire way to achieve this is to make a difference in history so profound that your name is forever remembered throughout decades, even centuries.

Most people crave this, but most people don’t have the ability to actually make it happen. I think I read somewhere that the number of individuals on this earth at any time who have this ability is incredibly low. Like, maybe ten people out of over eight billion have the ability to make history, and actually make it for over a century, not just a few decades.

With Ross’s libertarian views that people should be able to use drugs as they please, without the government locking them up, along with his computer science abilities and his desire to change the world, it was a perfect storm.

I just can’t understand how people still believe that a “war on drugs” is actually feasible. Endless amounts of money, arrests, imprisonment, and overdose deaths have done absolutely nothing to help the government’s argument that any of this is actually the solution.

Of course drug use harms others. It harms the people who love the person addicted to the drug. Yet, if we arrested people for something similar (like cheating, because you hurt the person’s feelings who you were supposed to be loyal to) - it would be insane. And I agree that if people are going to do something anyway, then they may as well be able to access it as safely as possible.

No, nothing is foolproof. But by having ratings systems for the different sellers on the site, it made it less likely for people to get anything other than what they’d ordered, and less likely to be ripped off, which generally leads to real world violence. I don’t think Preston Bridges’s mother would necessarily still have her son if the Silk Road never existed. She lost her child abruptly at only 16 years of age, and that’s pain no mother should ever experience.

(Preston was the 16 year old who took acid with a group of friends on Prom Night. He himself didn’t purchase the acid from the Silk Road, but rather, a kid who seemed to want to be accepted by him and his friends. Out of all the kids who took it, Preston was the only one who had an adverse reaction. He thought he was losing his mind, and in response, he jumped over their hotel room balcony to his death.)

I understand her anger and her sense of helplessness all too well. But I suppose the real question that should be asked is if Ross Ulbricht was responsible for her son’s death. And I’m sorry, but that’s just inconceivable to me. We don’t know anything about the kid who brought it to Preston and his friends, so it’s likely that had he failed to get acid - or another potentially lethal drug - from the Silk Road, he would have gone elsewhere in search of it. The fact remains that he likely still would have obtained drugs at some point, and Preston made the decision to take them.

That doesn’t make Preston a bad kid. It also doesn’t make Ross Ulbricht liable for his death. Both statements can be true. He was just a kid who made a mistake, as all teenagers do… but one that tragically ended up being fatal.

I feel that in a lot of cases like this, prosecutors will intentionally try to anger the parents of children. Even in cases where parents initially haven’t wanted to press charges, they’ve often been convinced by law enforcement or the prosecutor. After all, nothing makes for a more compelling emotional case against a defendant than parents testifying in front of a jury, pointing their finger at that defendant and stating had it not been for them, their child would still be here. And who wants to tell a grieving parent how they should feel? It’s not the fault of the parents, but those who talk them into this decision, knowing that they’re vulnerable.

Not to say that’s necessarily what happened, but just that it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if they pushed her a little bit (or a lot).

As for the five deaths he supposedly ordered, the evidence was too flimsy, no bodies were ever discovered (so we’re really going with the fact that five murders were all committed so brilliantly that no bodies were ever found?). It wasn’t even in the charges against him. So I’m not really sure why that necessitates it being brought up any more than once.

Besides, the first time it happened, it was the result of dirty undercover FBI agents gone rogue - stealing Bitcoins, then blaming a forum moderator - then suggesting to Ross that they “take out” this (completely innocent) moderator. Is that not coercion? A dirty FBI agent plants the idea in Ross’s head that a trusted moderator of his is stealing over $300,000 in Bitcoin, then tells him if he doesn’t deal with it appropriately (meaning have him murdered) - everyone else will start doing the same thing, ensuing in chaos? After all, if one person could get away with blatantly stealing so much, then why wouldn’t others try it?

The fact that the FBI agents who made the suggestion that Curtis Green be tortured and killed for stealing Bitcoin that they themselves stole, then went on to actually torture the guy (“to make it look real”) - isn’t this far more reprehensible behavior than Ross setting up a website for people to sell drugs as safely as possible?

Yet they each only received six, six and a half year sentences, vs. Ross’s two lifetime sentences. What kind of bullshit is that? They both took pledges to uphold the law and not to abuse their power. Ross didn’t take this pledge. He never would have, given his completely different views on government interference with citizens’ private lives.

They deserved far more serious sentences. It’s pretty obvious they both would have run the Silk Road themselves if they knew no repercussions would result from it. Why else steal close to a million dollars in Bitcoin from a site you’re supposed to be actively working to shut down, or befriend the man who you’re supposed to be hunting down? If you’d call it that. Carl Force was actively taking on multiple identities to supply Ross with “inside information” on the FBI’s internal investigations - for a very hefty price, at that.

All in all though, the book was a pretty quick read and a very interesting one. It drove me crazy that there were 73 chapters in a 336 page book. Come on. I don’t care for 48 page chapters, but surely there’s some middle ground?

I’d recommend it, though.

And for the record - I didn’t feel any “safer” when Ross was behind bars. I don’t feel any “less safe” knowing he’s out. All of the sites popping up to take the Silk Road’s place after it was shut down was a given. Just how it goes on the street: lock up one dealer, another takes his place.

Maybe it’s finally time for us to admit that this has all been a colossal waste of time, and that a different approach - such as harm reduction - should be considered.

If only.

A fun fact: my friend (who shall remain nameless) told me about the Silk Road in 2012. I was looking for the dates because I could have sworn it wasn’t long after TSR opened. It could have been 2011, actually. But I saw it a few times at his house. I never bought anything (lol, seriously) but I’m pretty sure he did. I believe he may have even moderated a bit. He knows far too much about Bitcoin, NFTs, cybersecurity - and has long before these terms entered the mainstream consciousness and lexicon. If you asked him IRL, he’d likely claim he was best buddies with Ross (or DPR, rather) - but that’s definitely not true. I’ve never understood why people exaggerate to such an extent, especially when their stories are interesting just how they are.