Book Review: American Kingpin

Nick Bilton, American Kingpin: the Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road Drugs Empire. New York: Portfolio Books, 2017. ISBN: 9781591848141.

 

Genre: true crime

Subgenre: technology, Internet

Format: hardcover

Source: Berea branch, Madison County (KY) Public Library 

 

This is the story of Ross Ullbricht, a graduate school physics graduate who decided that enabling crime and making it easier for others to commit crimes would be more lucrative. He went on to create the dark web site Silk Road as a virtual trading post for all sorts of illegal things from drugs to guns to human body parts. He used his libertarian ideals to justify his ultimate free market, but as libertarians are prone to do, he had little to no regard of the collateral damage and social costs of his actions. He was eventually arrested and convicted of various crimes, but it was quite the saga over two years to capture him and his associates as well as shut down the site. This book tells the story of that manhunt. 

Bright as Ross was, he was not a programmer. To be honest, he had serious gaps in his technical knowledge, a fact that amazed some in law enforcement trying to catch him. I was amazed by that little fact as well. He did have a very good mentor and advisor in Vanity Jones (online name), and Ross did get some good talent to help out. However, his lack of security expertise likely made it easier for some federal agents to infiltrate the site. That is another part of the story. 

The book goes back and forth between Ross' view, views from those close to him, and views from various law enforcement agents. The author takes these elements to present a coherent nonfiction narrative that reads a lot like a techno-thriller, but keep in mind this is all real. The author did his research, and he had a lot of access to materials including chat logs and message between Dread Pirate Roberts (Ross' online persona) and his employees. On these logs Bilton writes, 

"These logs were excruciatingly in-depth conversations about every moment and every decision that went into creating and managing the Silk Road. They showed startling details about decisions to sell drugs, guns, body organs, and poisons and showed how every aspect of the site was managed" (323). 

Additionally, the author had access to Ross' personal diary entries where he pretty much documented what he was doing and how. Often nonfiction writers take some liberties creatively to recreate dialogues and such, but given the massive amounts of evidence and documentation Ross left behind, and a lot of it poorly secured or not secured at all-- again showing his lack of knowledge in online security-- the author likely had little difficulty putting the narrative together and citing conversations. Ross left a lot of material behind, and that is not even counting all his normal social media activity. Social media activity makes for a lot of virtual fingerprints for any individual, a lesson all of us using social media need to heed. 

 

Then we have law enforcement. Given how chaotic their efforts were, frequent lack of cooperation between agencies, and even a couple of rogue agents that basically aided DPR, at times it seems like a miracle they were able to catch him at all. They got him because some very persistent and dedicated individuals, coming at the problem from different angles, eventually figured out how to work together albeit reluctantly. 

As I mentioned, this reads like a techno-thriller. Narrative is fast paced; it is arranged in short chapters, which makes the book very easy to read. It is a book that once you pick it up, it's hard to put down as the tension and pace pick up as you read. 

Overall, this is an interesting book with a thrilling crime tale. If you've heard the story, you might still enjoy it. If you have not heard the story, this is a good book to learn about the mastermind behind the infamous Silk Road. Sure, to this day Ross has plenty of fans, mostly libertarian types and other criminals, but as the story shows Ross himself was nothing more than a criminal kingpin, no better than mafiosi or heads of drug cartels. 

Readers who enjoy the true crime genre will likely enjoy this book. Readers who may enjoy reading about the Internet and technology will likely enjoy it too. I picked up the book in part because CNBC's American Greed did a segment on the Silk Road. Overall, this is a book I really liked, and it is one I recommend for true crime, tech, and I'd add business readers.

 

4 out of 5 stars. 

 

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Additional reading notes:  

Another reason it's a miracle the feds caught DPR is their often bureaucratic and territorial culture. Jared, a DHS agent, and his travails are an example of this problem: 

"To make matters worse, Jared's success made other agents look ineffective by comparison. Not getting credit on a bust meant you couldn't climb the bureaucratic ladder to increase your pay and vacation time" (26). 

And yes, his supervisor scolded him for "pissing off people all over the place" i.e. doing his job better than the others. 

The irony of criminals having certain "morals," which became an issue DPR and Variety Jones had to deal with: 

"Yet to some of the buyers and sellers on there, this freedom was a problem. The mellow people who bought and sold weed on the site didn't want to be associated with the speedy people who bought and sold cocaine. Some of the hard drug dealers didn't want to be in the company of the right-wing crazies who hawked guns. And some of the gun guys didn't want to be in the same shopping cart as the scummy heroin dealers. Round and round it went. 

Even though all these people were dealing in illicit activities, they each had a moral sense that their particular outlawed product was more just than another" (123). 

Agent Jared, as part of his research, read libertarian books that DPR/Ross recommended. He worried whether they made sense. Turns out he understood them perfectly: 

"To him, it appeared that the arguments made by the authors were a series of justifications for doing things in the world without taking responsibility for how those actions might affect other people" (152). 

In the end, the Silk Road lived on: 

"After Ross was arrested, the Silk Road Web site was promptly shut down. But it took only a few weeks before a new Silk Road 2.0 opened for business, with a new Dread Pirate Roberts at the helm of the ship. When that was subsequently shut down by the Feds, another Silk Road appeared, along with hundreds of other Web sites that anonymously sell drugs online" (314). 

 

 

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This book qualifies for the following 2021 Reading Challenges: