Contents

Author’s Note

Cast of Characters

1. The Pink Pill

2. Ross Ulbricht

5. Jared’s Khat

7. The Silk Road

8. Ross the Farmer

9. Opening Day of the Silk Road

10. What Goes Up Must Come Down

11. The Gawker Article

12. A Bull’s-eye on My Back

13. Julia Tells Erica

14. What Have You Done?!

15. Jared and the Fifty-Ton Flamingo

16. From Austin to Australia

17. Carl Force’s Tomorrow

18. Variety Jones and the Serpent

19. Jared Goes Shopping

20. The Dread Pirate Roberts

21. Carl Force Is Born Again

22. “O Captain, My Captain”

23. Ross, Hanged or Home

24. Carl, Eladio, and Nob

25. Jared’s Chicago Versus Carl’s Baltimore

27. A Billion Dollars?!

28. The Aspiring Billionaire in Costa Rica

29. Variety Jones Goes to Scotland

30. The Armory Opens

31. Ross Silences Julia

32. Chris Tarbell, FBI

33. Ross Arrives in San Francisco

34. Chris in the Pit

35. Batten Down the Hatches!

36. Jared’s Dead Ends

37. A Pirate in Dominica

38. Carl Likes DPR

39. Kidney for Sale!

40. The White House in Utah

41. Curtis Is Tortured

42. The First Murder

43. The FBI Joins the Hunt

44. Camping and the Ball

45. Gary Alford, IRS

46. Life and Death on the Road

47. Gary’s Big Change

48. Ross Goes Underground

49. Carl Switches Teams

50. A Parking Ticket on the Internet

51. Tarbell Finds a Mistake

52. The Fake IDs, Part One

53. The Deconfliction Meeting

54. Jared Becomes Cirrus

55. Julia Is Saved! Hallelujah!

56. The Fake IDs, Part Two

57. Onward to Federal Plaza

58. Julia Comes to San Francisco

60. The Phone Call

61. The Good-bye Party

62. The Pink Sunset

63. Carla Sophia

67. Ross Locked Up

68. United States of America v. Ross William Ulbricht

69. To Catch a Pirate

71. The Plural of Mongoose

Notes on Reporting

Acknowledgments

About the Author