Case 76
Silk Road
(Part 2)
[Part 2 of 3]
As The Silk Road continued to expand, problems started piling up for Ross Ulbricht, AKA The Dread Pirate Roberts. With business booming and concerns that law enforcement were lurking on the site, Ulbricht created an emergency ‘To Do List’ in case he ever came under real danger of getting caught. It read: ‘Encrypt and backup important files on laptop to memory stick; destroy laptop’s hard drive and hide/dispose; destroy phone and hide/dispose; find place to live on Craigslist for cash and create new identity.’
But that wasn’t all. Furious about a recent Bitcoin theft and increasingly paranoid about being caught, Ulbricht made an extreme decision with dire consequences.
CREDITS
EPISODE:
Research & writing – Victoria Dieffenbacher
Narration – Anonymous Host
MUSIC:
‘Flatline intro’ and ‘Come play with me’ intro and outro – www.dl-sounds.com
Audio production – Mike Migas
Scoring – Mike Migas and Andrew Joslyn
OTHER:
Logo and website design – Paulina Szymanska
RESOURCES
BOOKS:
American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt For The Criminal Mastermind Behind The Silk Road – by Nick Bilton
Silk Road – by Eileen Ormsby
DOCUMENTARY:
The Deep Web – a film by Alex Winter
PODCAST:
Episode number 633 with Alex Winter – The Joe Rogan Experience
ADRIAN CHEN’S GAWKER ARTICLE:
The Underground Website Where You Can Buy Any Drug Imaginable – Gawker
COURT TRANSCRIPTS:
United States of America v Ross William Ulbricht – January 13, 2015
United States of America v Ross William Ulbricht – January 20, 2015
Full archive of Ross’s court documents
WEBSITES:
Ross’s post as Altoid on the website www.shroomery.org
Hi, My Name is Ross Ulbricht – Reddit
Free Ross – Twitter
ARTICLES:
About this $1.2 billion crap… – All Things Vice