The dude behind this whole thing is a fucking genius. Imagine fabricating such an elaborate story and keeping track of it all. Dude should be a screen writer.
Imagine engaging in such activities and basically documenting it every step of the way. These guys literally did all the criminal investigators work for them.
The mafia had the same problem in some cases. People who grew up in the life who had a hard time remembering that it was illegal, and kept detailed records in case they needed to prove to their higher-ups that they were criminalling honestly.
Is not uncommon for top criminals to do this because they often have some connections to authorities by paying them which makes them feel secure, but alas they often forget that self preservation is a common human trait...
@@Nyathalieh Might be (that think have the authorities paid off), but almost by definition, criminals think they are smarter then the legal system and won’t be caught. No one plans a bank robbery thinking “then I will run out with the money, get pulled over on my way home, get arrested with the money returned and serve my 8 years.” You kind of have to think you will get away with it, or ignore the chances of getting caught…to start.
@@ehyzen It was due to the way the creator made the video - really obvious. Twist and story would have been better if the plot was plot was better delivered.
I was so shocked that this whole scam scheme was run by 1 person. The absolutely cognition and planning that guy executed was something I've heard in a very long time. God damn
He was a genius and a successful business man and the dirty tyrant state came down hard on him because they didn't get their cut. That's all the incompetent idiots cared about, getting their share. The mafia c0cksuckers
It was actually the dea though. Along with the real owner of silkroad at the time they framed ross and the real owner has become an informant. His bitcoin exhange was monitored by the government after that happened
*_"Grifters got an irresistibIe urge to beat a guy who's wise. There's nothing to whipping a fooI. HeII, fooIs are made to be whipped. But to take another pro, even your partner... who knows you and has his eye on you... that's a score. No matter what happens."_* - _The Grifters_ This video is witness to the art of the long-con grifter, a real pro. He scored on another "grifter" of a different type. It's not about the money. He would have done it for free.
The fact that DPR was basically told how he was going to get scammed -- the scammer would build reputation through previous smaller transactions (the 5 "hits"), leading up to one big transaction in which the scammer flakes on (the last $500k) -- is truly another level of poetic irony. This had all the foreshadowing, intrigue, and twists of a great drama. I'd be mortified, if I wasn't so impressed and entertained.
It's honestly mind-boggling that someone who made a website for the mass-distribution of illegal drugs would be that stupid when it comes to managing it. I've known regular small-time dealers who are more careful with concealing their identity
Not his fault the fascistic tyrannical state violate his human rights and force him underground. He should be free to sell whatever he wants to sell without harassment from the state
Hubris. He was a libertarian and truly believed he wasn't doing anything wrong selling drugs. He also believed it was completely anonymous and impossible to track him.
The fact that Ross missed the slip up from RLD name dropping friendlychemist is amazing. If he'd called RLD out on that the entire scam would have collapsed.
@Danny Dolan what u talking about people want drugs they will buy them either way what sort of wierdo wants dealers gone what about every1 addicted 2 benzo they wud die 🤔
There was no real slip up... RLD said that he talked to the friendlychemist over the phone and its possible that friendlychemist mentioned that he was already in touch with Ross... I found it weird that Kira said it was mistake, or am I missing something?
@@porkch0mp538 Our data on hits shows that sort of pricing is ridiculously high, the vast majority of hits are in the low 5 figures 10-20K. Which really does show how little DPR really knew about the business he was in.
@@porkch0mp538 I thought biker guy was real as well, but I was a bit shocked at how intelligent he was about all the stuff going on. When you think of "gangs" you don't expect someone writing like that, the guy operating the account sounded very educated and smart, so I guess that hunch was correct and it wasn't operated by a hell's angel member.
@@Pharomid You'd be surprised, the mob is/was a very business minded organization, even if they are a bunch of psychos. No reason to think you wouldn't get some people like that in a gang like the Hell's Angels
@@cericat But, it was going to take FOREVER to find someone to do the hit, and he had to get it framed, so, $3.50, and a stick of gum is the best he could do...
@@cericat it was genius because he had a very important deadline, sorry but I can't believe this is just one guy doing the scam, either video is fake or it was some organization behind those chats
How can he be such a genius to come up with Silk Road to make it work, and yet so stupid to not realize he was being scammed? He knows the whole point is you can’t verify who people are, yet he just started to talk to a no one.
@@zancudo1630 its hard to keep track of everything, slips do happen especially when you're still in the testing/learning phase of some field/area its a mix between lack of experience and awareness
Word of warning, if a plan in the criminal world goes to smoothly or the person you're interacting with is too accommodating then it's either a scam or a cop....
That's why redandwhite was so smart... He insisted on the full amount and never made it any easier on DPR than it would have been, were he who he claimed to be. It's normally pretty easy to spot a scammer, but this one was actually good!
jesus christ this documentary was perfect, the second i got the slightest bit confused you explained it and it was genuinely watchable, i love how the video makes perfect sense with audio alone and it’s supplemented by the video
@@hdruktenis I kept going back cause I'm watching while doing other things, and clearly a lot of other people had to to! Just look at that watch timeline! Also, when did youtube turn into pornhub and implement a watch timeline?
damn. this is a crazy ass story. i think i heard an interview of DPR's mom and she described how her son was a good boy but is now stuck in prison for life just for computer hacking. the thing is... even if the hits he paid for never actually happened and were DPR getting scammed... DPR was still paying for a hit. the intent is there. dude tried to erase 6 people. nuts.
No he didn't. It's been proven that the FBI tampered with user accounts and multiple people had access to the DPR account. They don't just dismiss murder charges WITH PREJUDICE over nothing. They had no concrete evidence. It was all a frame job.
That was the best Scam I've ever witnessed. And you can't even feel bad about it, because the guy who got scammed tried to have people murderized. This was also superb fiction, and believable all the way to the end.
@@Nyakomata He shared the account with multiple people is what I meant. So theres debate about whether or not he was the one who did the hired hits or whatever. The point of having multiple people acting as DPR is so that if anything happened to one of them that DPR would still exist and continue silkroad... hence why shortly after Silk Road shut down and Ulbricht arrested, Silk Road 2 came out and DPR was back at it again. The reason the name DPR was even used was because of how Dread Pirate Roberts in Princess Bride seemed to never die, because the last DPR always taught the next DPR and he would take the helm when he was gone. Thats why Dread Pirate Roberts name was used to begin with and I'm not sure why Kira left all this out of his video.
This was the first FBI report I read in its entirety. It was lengthy, since they have to explain chain of evidence at each step, but utterly fascinating to see the process in action.
@@JavierRamirez-lx4ev The FBI report is most certainly real and all aspects of it check out. That's the beauty of presenting real, verifiable evidence for each step.
@@soviut303 my evidence reenacts crime in augmented reality ai simulations which certainly aren't guesses but true scrying and divination into the orb of the past....Unless that's how linear algebra ai using calculus statistics for pattern recognition more effectively than humans 3trillion quantum neurons? I think our best super computers or quantum computers can't even...unless we have quantum agi singularity which we don't yet. We might barely have ai multiplicity
That’s crazyyy imagine sitting in court and realizing it was all a lie then shortly after hearing that you get 2 life sentences pretty much FOR being scammed and believing that lie.
@@9forMortalMen fake crimes? pretty sure this guy ran one of the largest online drug empires and was willing to have people killed in order to protect it
You can't get a punishment for not actually doing something, the life punishment is for selling drugs and other illegal items which costed a person his life.
What a surprise that when dealing in shady business no one was sure who was going to betray the others. As a general rule don't do stuff that could leave you constantly looking over your shoulder out of fear.
"Not long ago I had a clean hit done for 80k." It will never cease to amaze me how nonchalantly this kind of people can talk about murder, and how they can sleep well.
I knew something was wrong when Red and white was ready to pull off a hit so fast after being the one to contact him but I expected DEA agents and not a scammer LMAO
he really was rubbing elbows with cartels and crime lords but none of the real boys were that open with their info. its crazy to think about the amount of money and products that went through silkroad
It was the DEA! They suspected Ross!Was DPR they actually messaged him! On Silk Road! A said they knew who he was! His name was Ross! That’s why ye freak out and asked to get um whacked ! And they went along with it. So there was more to convict him on! They in-trapped him! & he fell for it. There’s a book it’s close to the truth!
This is by far the best narration of this story. It's been told by many but this is the first time I completely got it and never got lost with all names involved.
Wow! What a great story. Thanks Kira! I can't believe the FBI brought down a criminal empire with the old "Hey! What's that over there!?" trick. Did the agent say "yoink" when he took the laptop, too?
@@sweetfry False. There are five exceptions to the warrant clause of the fourth amendment. Destruction of Evidence [which would be more than likely] based on the circumstances, would most likely be argued. Source: I am a Law Student, my exam on this stuff is in two days from this post.
@@RuenUsque What. That has nothing to do with what I just said, first of all they had no idea that there was evidence on the laptop so that's a fishing expedition based on your assumption that there's any likelihood that the evidence would be destroyed. Also, if he was unaware of an investigation why would there be any assumption that the evidence would likely be destroyed? There wasn't even hard evidence for pretty much anything in this case until they stole the laptop, they weren't issued a warrant so they stole the laptop. It was highly contested and the judge didn't allow them to use this defense because it broke the entire case and they wanted to put someone behind bars for the silkroad, even though there were MULTIPLE people running the DPR account. Go watch the documentary on this whole case it'll help you understand what actually happened here.
DPR sure was gullible for someone running a drug empire. He was just a middle class nerd with computer skills. He needed someone with common sense to advise him and this would never have happened.
Probably because he wasn't running a drug empire. He had nothing to do with the product, all he did was set up a website for people to buy and sell things. Don't believe the media buzzwords.
No computer skills at all, imagine doing that kind of business with ppl who potentially have his damning blackmail.txt, and instructing them to install plugin on glowning, close-sourced WINDOWS (!!!) to be SECURE?!? Not to mention milion other ways this all could go wrong, like built-in minix hypervisor found on most modern machines, and probably its legacy counterpart on legacy machines. Gee, and ppl call him a "computer genius" because he knew PGP? My bet is CIA told him to do all of this shit to collect vendors info, and then just dumped him and the whole unacknowledged intel op called "Silk Road".
It is like the reporter in the opening said: "LSD, Cocaine and Ecstasy are now just a click of your mouse away". He just didn't think about our politicians, the congress or your local parliament building. Those substances are just some steps away, as swabs and samples have clearly shown ... Hehehehe
DPR tried to get people killed. stop making him out to be a good person. he is the kind of libertarian who would sell hard alcohol to 7 yearolds if he could because "iT iS ThEiR ChOiCe, THeY shoULD haVe KnOWWn whAt THeY werE bUYinG".
Geez, let you mind wander for 5 seconds and realize you have to rewind 10 minutes back because you can't figure out what is happening 😂. I can't believe you managed to put all this together!
@@tambaz2276 ya it did. But id argue the creator would've got more clicks if he titled it blackmailing a druglord gone right. But prob couldn't cause the deeper you dig the more it looks like cops just set him up and did all this
@@user-fv2bn2jf4f did you watch the whole video? Spoiler alert it was all a set up. None of the hits were real. They/he/she blackmailed the owner w all that BS and got all that $$$ out of him. Watch more it gets even more interesting. Like was it the cops who did everything and that's why the FAKE crime scene photos looked so real?
@@ste887watched a film about this last night. It had the guy who played John Connor in terminator genysis(apologies for the spelling) as the old cop who used the admin guy to help set him up.I think that kira told the story better than the film imo .
Dude spent money to kill people he never met, using the services of a hit man he never met, meaning he had no way of knowing if any of the killings actually happened. Damn. The breth of some people's supidity....
There's ways... So you can ask for today's paper on the body with a code word written on it. Only give the word straight before the hit, they get paid if they send u proof immediately... They could stream the hit, I could think of something many ways
Did you watch the video? For confirmation of the hit, they would write a random number next to the body (that was provided by Ross) to confirm it actually happened.
Yeah, but which is dumber… not meeting a hit man, or meeting them and having a bigger risk of being linked to them, or having them later blackmail you if they can ID you, etc. The only smart option is “do neither, and don’t try to hire a hit man.”
This story is so ridiculous. It's amazing how DPR seemed convinced he's that big criminal mastermind, commissioning hits on people, being the CEO of the drug selling company, but all the while he used his real name in his gmail adress, kept a freaking diary of his criminal activity, and then left the precious device containing all of it unattended in a public library. He was just asking to be scammed or jailed and he got all that was coming to him. What a freakin moron.
To be fair his device was not left unnatended, he was not that stupid. The FBI had a plan which included a distraction while another agent approached to take the PC. Pretty crazy story though.
@@Jchueire Was he not that stupid? He got roleplayed out of over a million dollars, I can totally believe he would simply get distracted by a penny glued to the floor.
100%. He was living in a fantasy world that he just wasn’t cut out for.He had so many chances to cash out with a hefty profit and invest into something legitimate but he was too addicted into believing he was the American Pablo Escobar.
@@henryfleischer404 Then why wasn't he charged with it? He got such a high sentence for his drugs trade and to scare off bitcoin users from thinking that Uncle Sam wasn't up to their shenanigans. Successfully because bitcoin never really went mainstream and the dollar is still king (it even beat out the euro recently while bitcoin's price tanked).
Bro, your editing, narrating, writing, and storytelling are on-point..kept me super engaged the whole time. Somebody needs to give you a legit TV show.
The fact that Red and White straight up told Ross the hitmen found USB drives in friendlychemist's home and Ross DIDN'T ask for those to be given to him or destroyed is absolutely an L on Ross' part. Yeah, the hit was never real, but Ross didn't know that. If it was real, and friendlychemist did have a list, the Hell's Angels would now have a list of all the users on Silk Road on a USB drive they could use to blackmail him. Red and White: Yeah we killed the guy who claimed to have a list of all the users on this site. He had some USB sticks. Do you want those? Ross: Nah. Red and White: You... you sure? Ross: He has nothing that I care about. Red and White: This guy that said he had a list of all the users on this website. You don't want *anything* he might have. Say... USB sticks? Ross: Nope. Red and White: Okay then. **Pockets the USB stick with malicious intent.**
@walnzell9328 "i guess this has worked out pretty well for you, hasn't it Ross? It'd be a real shame if some other criminal managed to get his hands on that vendor list, aye? Man what a disaster thatd be for you.." **licks lips, appearing visibly aroused as his profuse sweating continues to worsen**
Yeah that was an oversight but I think he just didn't want any physical evidence linking him to the murder. Also it wouldn't make sense to blackmail him with the amount in the long term to be made with him. Otherwise this is a funny comment : )
I mean, I doubt he would’ve sent all of the collected belongings to DPR regardless if it was real or not, so it’s not really a blunder on DPR’s end. If they did, or didn’t send it, it likely wouldn’t have been everything. That’s how it goes when living a shady life
You do know that you can copy information from a USB stick, right? At that point, them having had the stick in their possession at any point is the same as trusting them with it.
Regarding the photos of the "bodies" sent, I can imagine them laughing so hard as their mate played dead. Jumping around all giddy knowing they was going to make bank
@@elkie9300 Its been a while since i watched this but yeah probably. A bunch of guys taking a photo of their friend playing dead to scam money probably laughed about it
I read a book about this story called ‘American Kingpin’ I highly recommend anyone to read this book to get the full ins and out of the whole story. It’s a really interesting read.
I read this book and it is a lot of government/FBI propaganda to make them look like heroes when they were breaking the law at many steps to try and make and example of Ross. They also paint his character completely inaccurately. Ross' mother has been out there telling his side of the story and it's way more complex and plausible than this book but I'm sure the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
The guy who scammed him is an absolute mastermind, I would still like to know how the guy faked the proof photograph and if he actually did fake it (for this amount of money a random hit on some innocent guy wouldn't surprise me)
The guys that "scammed him" were fbi agents. I'm very surprised that he didn't mention that in the video. They orchestrated the hit, photographed the guy as a dead body. Also the agents were accused of stealing a tons of bitcoin for themselves. It's a wild story..
Sickening how casually they talk about ordering hits. I was under the impression Ross was technically a nonviolent drug offender. Ordering hits makes me think otherwise
Late to the party on this one but holy shit was this an amazing journey. I was vaguely aware of Silk Road and the fact that the creator was in prison but I never knew any of the details. Outstanding work Kira. This may in fact be your best video yet.
The video is great, except for one thing near the end of the video: Ross Ulbricht didn't receive 30 to life in prison, he was sentenced to two life sentences and 40 years to be served concurrently and without the possibility of parole. And as all his appeals failed, he will leave prison feet first.
@@tambaz2276 well, before the twist, the title makes perfect sense and correlates to the story well enough... or would you perfer "When blackmailing an Online Black Market admin goes wrong!" -- the former conveys essentially the same thing. You could title it "How the FBI scammed an Online Kingpin and subsequently arrested him." but then you would go into the whole story in a boring manner because you already know---- wait, who are you again and WHY am I explaining this to you?!
This is such a brilliant criminal nerd story. I thought the whole time how tacky all the conversations seemed. Like it was a 15 year old nerd writing dialogue for what they think criminals would speak like. Lmfao great video!
That long con was genius, but to be honest I saw something off with the conversation right away. They were way too willing to commit capital felonies and way too willing to discuss it on record. Even if it's encrypted it's still a record. I'm sure that was one of the aspects that made DPR trust them, but it's glaringly obvious that while DPR might be a technical genius he had very little experience dealing with the real world.
💯💯 I can't believe DPR fell 4 that so easily. U can tell he was never involved in criminal activity whatsoever b4 SR. Once the "hitman" started it was beyond obvious.
There’s another one on TH-cam documentary style that’s over an hour that is extremely detailed he reads every single message, plus there’s just more details here and there, it’s amazing, go watch it. It’s called « The dark side of the Silk Road »
I think it has to do with the evolution of anonymity as a "cybercrime lord". Compared to the previous methods of a business based on a reputation of some kind and real world actions.
Barely Sociable has a deep dive documentary on this topic, i highly recommend it! It's very nice to see you take on subjects like this. Really good job~
@@SomeMortyDude Its no different from reccomending a documentary on a topic covered in a video. Barely Sociable did a very deep dive that anyone who finds this interesting should also watch.
It's fucked up to me how casually this guy ordered a hit on another human being's life. He did it as casually as I commissioned art from an artist for my friend's birthday. He even offered to pay him extra if the market tanked. What a psycho.
Well it was not just anyone, it was some giys who threatened him and thousands of customers. Also, you never heard him speak, you just saw what he wrote. Much easier to appear calm in writing than in person.
this was one of the best documentary / video essays I've ever seen. When I first started watching it I thought the only hitmen on silk road were scammers but I was quickly convinced I was wrong. The ending was an amazing twist.
@@GaliosUA on that video as we speak, both are informative maybe he just wanted to try make a shorter video but cover the main points to the story.. both great watches so far
"Also note that blackmail is an inherently dangerous activity. Informing someone that you know too much is quite rarely the best course of action, especially if Agatha Christie is holding the pen or you haven't told anyone else (but don't tell too many people, as that would, of course, defeat the purpose of blackmail). The danger (along with the potential stupidity) is compounded if the intended victim of the blackmail is already a murderer. After all, if they've already had sufficient reason to kill at least one person, is it very likely that they'll baulk at murdering another - especially if that other person is trying to squeeze them for money?" ~ TV Tropes Blackmail Page
@@Marci124 yeah, I wrote the comment before finishing the video and still didn't know the other guy was a poser Still... The other one was dead serious... Jesus
It's much less sickening once you remember RedandWhite is just roleplaying as a gangster and is probably having a blast in their basement. But yeah, DPR is cold. If he wasn't such a moron I might have been afraid of him.
@ラテちゃん This was 2013 at the latest. The price of btc dipped to 66 right around Aug-Oct of that year. Smart phones had been out; it was 7 years since the first iPhone. You could stream Netflix over cell and only some companies had data caps. You were like 8 tho lol
@ラテちゃん Uh, most people were definitely using the internet in 2010, even the "normies". Hell, Facebook had half a billion users in July 2010, at that point I think it's safe to say "normies" had discovered the internet.
This should put to rest any argument by those that argue that Ross was simply someone who got caught up in things. This is documented proof that he psychopathically wanted to have people killed with absolutely no remorse,
I think one of the reasons is people see what he was charged with, which I believe were all drug convictions, and none of this stuff where he was literally implicated in attempting to set up a hit (in the most incompetent way possible...). Dude deserves to be in prison.
Once you're in that deep to a criminal industry and then somebody comes along who you've done nothing to and threatens to blackmail you, probably the remorse is somewhat lessened.
@@goodlookinouthomie1757 he ran a fucking website. Man was worried someone was going to blackmail his drug website. So he wanted him dead. Dude didn’t have the remorse to begin with, he was behind a computer the entire time.
Woah, that was brilliant - I know nothing about this case or related, so the twist at the end wasn't expected and was somewhat comforting... I think? The different styles of writing and personalities between the characters was quite impressive.
I was binging through your older content and you upload even more quality gold. You are an absolute legend and thank you for making such informative and interesting videos time and time again
LOL I saw the twist coming after a few minutes. The idea that red and white made an account just to talk to dread was the big give away. No crime lord would spontaneously risk exposing themselves like that. Then red and white was just way too casual with what they were up to. Admitting to murders in a damn chat. No one does that!
Well he is never portrayed as a crime lord but just as another member of this gang, surely one of the lower guys who do negotiate on the behalf of others. People who get busted and take the blame for all of it to protect the higher ups. However yes I don't believe any Hells Angels guy would have looked up how to get on SR and installed Tor and started chatting to this guy. The story seems fishy from an outside perspective. But this guy was making tons of moneys through his market place and he thought at that point he had someone killed for 80k $. So he probably started to feel like a powerful crimelord and in his mind it made sense that Gangs wanted in on this and he wanted in on the Gangs Profits. Dollar signs before his eyes and everything. I can totally see why he fell for it but as an outsider watching a youtube video that has already spun a narrative for you it is easy to see the conclusion.
this is great content man, i never heard of this story and always thought that DPRs long sentence was a bit unfair given the fact he just ran a marketplace but this story puts that all in a new context.
Watched this video before but I was watching it again with some friends last night while we were hanging out. You can tell this video is very well put together because when the reveal came about the true nature of all these "hits", my friends audibly reacted. Great video
Although I had already watched Barely Sociable's video on this situation/topic, I really appreciated the way that YOU designed this video and presented the content. It was far less mysterious and winding and I found it really succinct and informative. Subscribed :)
Can I just say that the story telling in this video is absolutely phenomenal? The way that you left everything out until the end had me so shook and this is the best YT documentary I’ve seen in a while.
I bought a my PhD & transcripts off the silk road. I've been a successful neurosurgeon for over 10 years now & I'm really learning a lot while low-key training on the job. I really have high hopes of actually curing or saving one of my patients lives one day! Thank you DPR! 🙌🏻
holy crap, great work my man. I watched a video on him by Count Dankula. I don't think he mentioned any of this bloody business, so I was under the impression that Roberts was just a libertarian entrepreneur with clean hands, and felt sorry he was caught. I'm now glad he was arrested.
if u actually read the chats its hella sus n Ross definitely glanced over a lot of mistakes. The other guy mentioned FriendlyChemist before Ross did n he didn’t notice he had been talking to the same person!
I had great sadness nearly 10 years ago trying to log onto SR to see “This hidden service has been seized by law enforcement “. Also 2 FBI agents where jailed when they stole millions from Ross ulbrichts BTC wallet during the investigation.
Just passing on thanks to this kind of coverage shift with your channel Kira - great stuff. Thanks for sharing the background to many of these tech stories. :) This Silk Road one is notorious.
Wow Kira this is A grade video material. the best and most coherent recount of this story while also simultaneously being the most entertaining! Also, I don’t know why but the footage playing over and over of that pharmacist scanning a prescription made me LOL
i went to school back in 2010 with a kid who used to use it. now he is in prison for killing someone with oxys pressed with fent and he got 15 years no parole.
Oh man, what a story. I thought I saw it coming from a mile away, then all the twists and turns had me dizzy and confused. Then that ending hits and it's like damn, well played!
Damn, being paranoid would truly help in these circumstances. Also, I was always of the believe that you need to be quite knowledgeable about security to do stuff like this, but each and every time I'm being proved wrong.
I love that every 1-3 years a new video talking the way through this comes out and every time it hides the twist at the end but it plays out so well it still gives the same effect
This red and white dude sounded so confident, it was hard to doubt him. But I still questioned the validity of his claims, and was wondering how DPR could verify them. So I was not surprised to find out it was all a scam. The speed at which the job was done, is quite suspicious. And how come both times, they never had any issue with being caught or something going wrong. It just seemed too perfect.
Keep in mind that it was honestly *very* believable- “RedandWhite” would have known who “FriendlyChemist” was and had allegedly taken out their partner already. He knew that FC had to be legit on some level since they did have evidence that they had info, and was an active threat- also keep in mind all of this happened over the span of a few days. The photo “evidence” with the numbers and the list of other socks they used likely cemented his belief.
Ohhhh boy- if u think that is all really THAT unbelievable… you’re not ready to hear about what’s actually going on in your own city. Damn you’re so pure, stay that way buddy.
Absolutely amazing storytelling! I started watching you because of the Earth 2 scams, and now I am glad your are diversifying your content but still keeping it scam related!
You and I watched the video the same way, it took me almost an hour to watch this, and 30 mins of reading comments to find this one. Have a good day, psychonauts live
On my first watch, I got half way through the video and was mega confused. I started from the beginning again and once it clicked with me, this was the most gripping story I had ever heard.
Goes to show he was really just an extremely naïve kid, who got caught up in his own "My dad knew the Krays" line of bull crap. How anyone would believe they were talking to real "naughty" people over some instant messenger program is proof. It even reads like someone who's watched too many CSI Miami type cop shows. I have a feeling that anyone who really was the type he thought he was talking to, would have made it a lot harder to talk about and arrange what he intended to do. You'd think he'd have learnt the oldest trick in the book..."9 times out of 10 the person you're talking to on the internet ain't who they say they are."
@@Iheartdog666 say that to the hells angels here in Germany you will get gangbanged by some heavy guys... They really dangerous... But gladly they remain most of the time for them self and just gang up against other gangs like the banditos.
@@Iheartdog666 there isn't really such a thing as professional hitters that cost that much. South American cartels have people they use and train, but the cartels churn them out at a rapid pace. Hells Angel's have some serious criminals that would happily kill a random person for money. But 150k for a hit? That is some Hollywood shit right there.
Maaan this makes me miss my favourite teacher at the alternative school I graduated from, he had a projector running everyday and would let students tell him about current events for us to look up and discuss together, and once we spent a whole class talking about Silk Road lol. I also got him into Geo guesser back when it was free to use, and we would play as a class at lunch. What a cool lad
Jesus Christ. He got absolutely outplayed.
Man though he was playing, but his controller was unplugged all along.
He played himself lol
More like it was plugged into a keylogger the whole time
He played, he just didn't realize he was someone else's controller.
the government has the experience and resources. he was out of his depth, naive, and clearly autistic
@@BLUEBOYISLEDGE damn, missed that t
The dude behind this whole thing is a fucking genius. Imagine fabricating such an elaborate story and keeping track of it all. Dude should be a screen writer.
That dude is the authorities. Nobody is messing with the government selling drugs, this is their corner. 😂😂😂
he happened to go to my college; his picture was on the dean honor roll list for a while before they realized who the picture was of LMAO
@@123rockstar2010 never heard of canadamushrooma have you lol
@@thanksyoutubefortakingmyhandle Nope, should I? Silk Road then. 😂😂😂
Imagine using your real name in the email you post all this shit about.. Yeah what a genius... it's not hard to scam druggies.
Imagine engaging in such activities and basically documenting it every step of the way. These guys literally did all the criminal investigators work for them.
The mafia had the same problem in some cases. People who grew up in the life who had a hard time remembering that it was illegal, and kept detailed records in case they needed to prove to their higher-ups that they were criminalling honestly.
@@grayaj23 The Nazis did the same thing. Recorded and kept track of everything they did. It's why we know so much about what happened.
Is not uncommon for top criminals to do this because they often have some connections to authorities by paying them which makes them feel secure, but alas they often forget that self preservation is a common human trait...
@@Nyathalieh Might be (that think have the authorities paid off), but almost by definition, criminals think they are smarter then the legal system and won’t be caught. No one plans a bank robbery thinking “then I will run out with the money, get pulled over on my way home, get arrested with the money returned and serve my 8 years.” You kind of have to think you will get away with it, or ignore the chances of getting caught…to start.
@@krambarger9908 Nah , you can hide your tracks if you are smart about it.
That man earned every penny of the 1.5Million. Bravo to him for writing a brilliant story
it was obvious from the very begining to me it was a lie
@@terrorsquadlith ok mr sherlock holmes
@@ehyzen It was due to the way the creator made the video - really obvious. Twist and story would have been better if the plot was plot was better delivered.
@@terrorsquadlith wow have a medal
@@ehyzenwhat are you being rude about? You believed any of it? Clearly it was all a blackmail attempt lol. Dork
I was so shocked that this whole scam scheme was run by 1 person. The absolutely cognition and planning that guy executed was something I've heard in a very long time. God damn
He was a genius and a successful business man and the dirty tyrant state came down hard on him because they didn't get their cut. That's all the incompetent idiots cared about, getting their share. The mafia c0cksuckers
It was actually the dea though. Along with the real owner of silkroad at the time they framed ross and the real owner has become an informant. His bitcoin exhange was monitored by the government after that happened
*_"Grifters got an irresistibIe urge to beat a guy who's wise. There's nothing to whipping a fooI. HeII, fooIs are made to be whipped. But to take another pro, even your partner... who knows you and has his eye on you... that's a score. No matter what happens."_* - _The Grifters_
This video is witness to the art of the long-con grifter, a real pro. He scored on another "grifter" of a different type. It's not about the money. He would have done it for free.
I wasn’t. since you ruined the surprise
Scam scheme
Imagine being in court qnd finding out all that money you sent was for nothing to happen. Dude was probably sick af when he found out.
BUT BETTER THAN FINDING OUT IT HAPPENED & YOU GOT CAUGHT ONLY TO SERVE LIFE FOR EACH VICTIM
@@THEBIGGESTSCUMBAG alright dude no need to type in caps goddamn 😭
@@THEBIGGESTSCUMBAG he is still serving life tho
He’d lost everything at that point, I doubt he cared
@@THEBIGGESTSCUMBAG life.....is death penalty legal in the region? id assume that would be the sentence if its allowed.
Ross is the type of guy who when he breaks up with his virtual girlfriend hears his uncle start crying in the other room.
lmao actually my uncle found my female cousin online and pretended to be another guy lmao that creepy af they found each other on old chats rooms >.>
@@kurrwa*mentally lays out family tree* hold up...
@@kurrwa w . . . t . . f . . . just to be sure, what do you imply ?
I don't know why but I got a good laugh out of this.
@@EmmanuelIstace that my uncle is some pervert lol
The fact that DPR was basically told how he was going to get scammed -- the scammer would build reputation through previous smaller transactions (the 5 "hits"), leading up to one big transaction in which the scammer flakes on (the last $500k) -- is truly another level of poetic irony. This had all the foreshadowing, intrigue, and twists of a great drama. I'd be mortified, if I wasn't so impressed and entertained.
It's honestly mind-boggling that someone who made a website for the mass-distribution of illegal drugs would be that stupid when it comes to managing it. I've known regular small-time dealers who are more careful with concealing their identity
Not his fault the fascistic tyrannical state violate his human rights and force him underground. He should be free to sell whatever he wants to sell without harassment from the state
Mmm but you know them tho? Isn't that a liability?
He was riding that high of feeling like a rich supervillain. Clouded his judgement
Because he didn't. The FBI completely screwed him and lied and fabricated evidence.
Hubris. He was a libertarian and truly believed he wasn't doing anything wrong selling drugs. He also believed it was completely anonymous and impossible to track him.
The fact that Ross missed the slip up from RLD name dropping friendlychemist is amazing. If he'd called RLD out on that the entire scam would have collapsed.
Except they still could have doxxed a ton of people anyway
Fortunately for RLD, Ross is limited to a double digit IQ
@Danny Dolan how would it have been good ¿¿ u mean coz he wouldn't have carried on with hits 🤔
@Danny Dolan what u talking about people want drugs they will buy them either way what sort of wierdo wants dealers gone what about every1 addicted 2 benzo they wud die 🤔
There was no real slip up... RLD said that he talked to the friendlychemist over the phone and its possible that friendlychemist mentioned that he was already in touch with Ross... I found it weird that Kira said it was mistake, or am I missing something?
“This isn’t my first rodeo” said DPR confidently, even though it was, in fact, the first time he’d heard about rodeos at all.
@@porkch0mp538 Our data on hits shows that sort of pricing is ridiculously high, the vast majority of hits are in the low 5 figures 10-20K. Which really does show how little DPR really knew about the business he was in.
@@porkch0mp538 I thought biker guy was real as well, but I was a bit shocked at how intelligent he was about all the stuff going on. When you think of "gangs" you don't expect someone writing like that, the guy operating the account sounded very educated and smart, so I guess that hunch was correct and it wasn't operated by a hell's angel member.
@@Pharomid You'd be surprised, the mob is/was a very business minded organization, even if they are a bunch of psychos. No reason to think you wouldn't get some people like that in a gang like the Hell's Angels
@@cericat But, it was going to take FOREVER to find someone to do the hit, and he had to get it framed, so, $3.50, and a stick of gum is the best he could do...
@@cericat it was genius because he had a very important deadline, sorry but I can't believe this is just one guy doing the scam, either video is fake or it was some organization behind those chats
How can he be such a genius to come up with Silk Road to make it work, and yet so stupid to not realize he was being scammed? He knows the whole point is you can’t verify who people are, yet he just started to talk to a no one.
what part of him promoting his illegal website with an email with his REAL NAME leads you to believe he's a genius?
@@zancudo1630 He's a lot smarter than you clown girl!
@@zancudo1630 its hard to keep track of everything, slips do happen especially when you're still in the testing/learning phase of some field/area its a mix between lack of experience and awareness
What's funny is that he did realize that friendlychemist was trying to scam him, except it was a scam in a scam. Just ingenious
@@Apodeipnon yeah high iq stuff its like watching grand masters at chess
The fact that lucydrop used different writing styles to impersonate different people.😂 He must've had real fun playing this game.
I almost thought the one guys typing was too bad. Comically poor grammar and misspelling words for a person who seems very smart
@@rob-307 maybe because he tried to be a drug kingpin instead of a high school grammar teacher but yeah idk.
RIP
Took a fat hit mid vid n ending had me like 🤯
Reminds me of that whole thing with Msscribe (who made elaborate drama in the world of Harry Potter fanfiction) a match made in Heaven I must say
Word of warning, if a plan in the criminal world goes to smoothly
or the person you're interacting with is too accommodating
then it's either a scam or a cop....
Thanks for the advice ;)
That's why redandwhite was so smart... He insisted on the full amount and never made it any easier on DPR than it would have been, were he who he claimed to be. It's normally pretty easy to spot a scammer, but this one was actually good!
How did RedAndWhite managed to convinced DPR of a picture of a dead person with custom number DPR come up with next to FriendlyChemist body?
@@monsesh1316 if you just got paid $150k, I'm sure you can hire a professional artist to fake it.
@@mcbrite r&w wrote like a 12yr old would write a crime novel lol
jesus christ this documentary was perfect, the second i got the slightest bit confused you explained it and it was genuinely watchable, i love how the video makes perfect sense with audio alone and it’s supplemented by the video
I agree. Very well done.
@@hdruktenis I kept going back cause I'm watching while doing other things, and clearly a lot of other people had to to! Just look at that watch timeline! Also, when did youtube turn into pornhub and implement a watch timeline?
dunno, I lost it several minutes in, dont event know whats he talking about anymore
There’s also another documentary called ‘Deep Web’ that’s worth watching imho.
same documentary as barely sociable.
damn. this is a crazy ass story. i think i heard an interview of DPR's mom and she described how her son was a good boy but is now stuck in prison for life just for computer hacking. the thing is... even if the hits he paid for never actually happened and were DPR getting scammed... DPR was still paying for a hit. the intent is there. dude tried to erase 6 people. nuts.
No he didn't. It's been proven that the FBI tampered with user accounts and multiple people had access to the DPR account. They don't just dismiss murder charges WITH PREJUDICE over nothing. They had no concrete evidence. It was all a frame job.
But but, he was a good European-American boy 😢
And is still a drug dealer
@@Sweet-Rat-Milk 😂😂
DPR said his FIRST HIT was for 80k with someone else .... so he did have someone murdered, unless that was a lie.
That was the best Scam I've ever witnessed. And you can't even feel bad about it, because the guy who got scammed tried to have people murderized.
This was also superb fiction, and believable all the way to the end.
Its not fiction. But there's contention about whether or not DPR was Ulbricht.
I read about this as it unfolded back in the day on Zero Hedge.
Murderized
@@sweetfry Is that from some flat earthers or something? The guy literally had a journal with these details.
@@Nyakomata He shared the account with multiple people is what I meant. So theres debate about whether or not he was the one who did the hired hits or whatever. The point of having multiple people acting as DPR is so that if anything happened to one of them that DPR would still exist and continue silkroad... hence why shortly after Silk Road shut down and Ulbricht arrested, Silk Road 2 came out and DPR was back at it again. The reason the name DPR was even used was because of how Dread Pirate Roberts in Princess Bride seemed to never die, because the last DPR always taught the next DPR and he would take the helm when he was gone.
Thats why Dread Pirate Roberts name was used to begin with and I'm not sure why Kira left all this out of his video.
This was the first FBI report I read in its entirety. It was lengthy, since they have to explain chain of evidence at each step, but utterly fascinating to see the process in action.
No way man, it’s a myth and a legend, it’s not even true.
@@JavierRamirez-lx4ev The FBI report is most certainly real and all aspects of it check out. That's the beauty of presenting real, verifiable evidence for each step.
this video is eye opening i always thought the fbi made up the story about the hit, but it looks like this russ guy really was an absolute amoral pos
@@soviut303 my evidence reenacts crime in augmented reality ai simulations which certainly aren't guesses but true scrying and divination into the orb of the past....Unless that's how linear algebra ai using calculus statistics for pattern recognition more effectively than humans 3trillion quantum neurons? I think our best super computers or quantum computers can't even...unless we have quantum agi singularity which we don't yet. We might barely have ai multiplicity
Darpa disagrees
That’s crazyyy imagine sitting in court and realizing it was all a lie then shortly after hearing that you get 2 life sentences pretty much FOR being scammed and believing that lie.
The FBI does this literally all the time. Create fake crimes in order to put people behind bars and thus continue their careers.
@@9forMortalMen fake crimes? pretty sure this guy ran one of the largest online drug empires and was willing to have people killed in order to protect it
He really thought he was getting those people killed, so i don't feel sorry for him at all.
It's beautiful justice.
You can't get a punishment for not actually doing something, the life punishment is for selling drugs and other illegal items which costed a person his life.
What a surprise that when dealing in shady business no one was sure who was going to betray the others. As a general rule don't do stuff that could leave you constantly looking over your shoulder out of fear.
Yes I know I shouldn't work in Amazon
@@chesterfieldthe3rd929 be good, not harmless
No honor among thieves
"Not long ago I had a clean hit done for 80k."
It will never cease to amaze me how nonchalantly this kind of people can talk about murder, and how they can sleep well.
imagine having aomeone in your life that is more profitable than $80k for them to be deceased
@@Stopinvadingmyhardware people in my area can disappear for 10k
@@TheSMR1969 people in my area can disappear for $5.59, 6 Piece Chicken McNuggets Happy Meal.
@@chlorine5795 I know you're being sarcastic but in some parts of the world that's not far from the truth lol
It's easy if you're not the one carrying it out. Just dehumanize whoever you're after, and that's it. The dirty work's not for you.
I keep finding myself like “oh are they gonna betray each other?” as if this isn’t literal crime and these people are doing terrible things
well it turns out they weren’t doing anything
I mean selling and taking drugs shouldnt be a crime really, its not like they are harming others
@@UncannyLiving that is one of the most idiotic and un thought out things anyone has ever said
What terrible things were they doing
@@voyage8772 No, prohibition is idiotic and very clearly doesn't work
I knew something was wrong when Red and white was ready to pull off a hit so fast after being the one to contact him but I expected DEA agents and not a scammer LMAO
Yeah the whole time I thought it'd be the glowies concocting the elaborate story, but turned out to be a Chad ripping off a scummy drug facilitator.
he really was rubbing elbows with cartels and crime lords but none of the real boys were that open with their info. its crazy to think about the amount of money and products that went through silkroad
It was the DEA! They suspected Ross!Was DPR they actually messaged him! On Silk Road! A said they knew who he was! His name was Ross! That’s why ye freak out and asked to get um whacked ! And they went along with it. So there was more to convict him on! They in-trapped him! & he fell for it. There’s a book it’s close to the truth!
@@Still_walk_the_scheems the reason why I think he's not convicted is because its technically entrapment BUT it did give the feds some good coin
This is by far the best narration of this story. It's been told by many but this is the first time I completely got it and never got lost with all names involved.
Wow! What a great story. Thanks Kira!
I can't believe the FBI brought down a criminal empire with the old "Hey! What's that over there!?" trick. Did the agent say "yoink" when he took the laptop, too?
only if they told the yoinker there was CP on the computer.
What they did was actually illegal because they didn't have a warrant to take and search the laptop.
@@sweetfry False. There are five exceptions to the warrant clause of the fourth amendment. Destruction of Evidence [which would be more than likely] based on the circumstances, would most likely be argued.
Source: I am a Law Student, my exam on this stuff is in two days from this post.
@@RuenUsque What. That has nothing to do with what I just said, first of all they had no idea that there was evidence on the laptop so that's a fishing expedition based on your assumption that there's any likelihood that the evidence would be destroyed. Also, if he was unaware of an investigation why would there be any assumption that the evidence would likely be destroyed? There wasn't even hard evidence for pretty much anything in this case until they stole the laptop, they weren't issued a warrant so they stole the laptop. It was highly contested and the judge didn't allow them to use this defense because it broke the entire case and they wanted to put someone behind bars for the silkroad, even though there were MULTIPLE people running the DPR account. Go watch the documentary on this whole case it'll help you understand what actually happened here.
It Broke the entire case and that’s why DPR is a free ma.... wait a second. Hold on no he’s in jail forever. OOPS
Happy you're diversifying your content. Your determination to quality content and honesty is why I keep coming back.
I second this, this isn’t really a vid I would’ve expected from Kira but damn am I happy it’s here. Good stuff.
Facts
That's what GZA said
agreed
Straight copied another video from 2 years ago th-cam.com/video/GpMP6Nh3FvU/w-d-xo.html
DPR sure was gullible for someone running a drug empire. He was just a middle class nerd with computer skills. He needed someone with common sense to advise him and this would never have happened.
A forth through the video and I started thinking it was just one guy account hopping
Probably because he wasn't running a drug empire. He had nothing to do with the product, all he did was set up a website for people to buy and sell things. Don't believe the media buzzwords.
No computer skills at all, imagine doing that kind of business with ppl who potentially have his damning blackmail.txt, and instructing them to install plugin on glowning, close-sourced WINDOWS (!!!) to be SECURE?!? Not to mention milion other ways this all could go wrong, like built-in minix hypervisor found on most modern machines, and probably its legacy counterpart on legacy machines. Gee, and ppl call him a "computer genius" because he knew PGP? My bet is CIA told him to do all of this shit to collect vendors info, and then just dumped him and the whole unacknowledged intel op called "Silk Road".
It is like the reporter in the opening said: "LSD, Cocaine and Ecstasy are now just a click of your mouse away".
He just didn't think about our politicians, the congress or your local parliament building.
Those substances are just some steps away, as swabs and samples have clearly shown ... Hehehehe
DPR tried to get people killed. stop making him out to be a good person. he is the kind of libertarian who would sell hard alcohol to 7 yearolds if he could because "iT iS ThEiR ChOiCe, THeY shoULD haVe KnOWWn whAt THeY werE bUYinG".
Geez, let you mind wander for 5 seconds and realize you have to rewind 10 minutes back because you can't figure out what is happening 😂. I can't believe you managed to put all this together!
Honestly when did blackmailing a drug lord ever go right for someone
this one went right didnt it? in the end the threat of blackmail is what opened the door to scamming DPR out of all that BTC
@@billymo7108 yeah, fucking clickbait lol. It worked perfectly
@@tambaz2276 ya it did. But id argue the creator would've got more clicks if he titled it blackmailing a druglord gone right. But prob couldn't cause the deeper you dig the more it looks like cops just set him up and did all this
@@billymo7108 maybe the title was referring to friendly chemist blackmailing dpr which resulting in fc having a hit put on him
@@user-fv2bn2jf4f did you watch the whole video? Spoiler alert it was all a set up. None of the hits were real. They/he/she blackmailed the owner w all that BS and got all that $$$ out of him. Watch more it gets even more interesting. Like was it the cops who did everything and that's why the FAKE crime scene photos looked so real?
Absolutely film worthy. This story blew me away by the end twist. Wow.
i agree
there's a couple films about the silk road, though they're more focussed on chronicpain (the 80k hit) rather than redandwhite
@@ste887watched a film about this last night. It had the guy who played John Connor in terminator genysis(apologies for the spelling) as the old cop who used the admin guy to help set him up.I think that kira told the story better than the film imo .
It is rad. Great story.
Didn’t see it coming. I totally agree this would have made an amazing movie. Still great video and twist ending was so e brilliantly
He really thought some biker boss was chatting with him writing these lenghty messages lol
Bikers can barely send a text message
Dude spent money to kill people he never met, using the services of a hit man he never met, meaning he had no way of knowing if any of the killings actually happened. Damn. The breth of some people's supidity....
breadth
Supidity.
There's ways... So you can ask for today's paper on the body with a code word written on it. Only give the word straight before the hit, they get paid if they send u proof immediately... They could stream the hit, I could think of something many ways
Did you watch the video? For confirmation of the hit, they would write a random number next to the body (that was provided by Ross) to confirm it actually happened.
Yeah, but which is dumber… not meeting a hit man, or meeting them and having a bigger risk of being linked to them, or having them later blackmail you if they can ID you, etc.
The only smart option is “do neither, and don’t try to hire a hit man.”
This story is so ridiculous. It's amazing how DPR seemed convinced he's that big criminal mastermind, commissioning hits on people, being the CEO of the drug selling company, but all the while he used his real name in his gmail adress, kept a freaking diary of his criminal activity, and then left the precious device containing all of it unattended in a public library. He was just asking to be scammed or jailed and he got all that was coming to him. What a freakin moron.
To be fair his device was not left unnatended, he was not that stupid. The FBI had a plan which included a distraction while another agent approached to take the PC. Pretty crazy story though.
@@Jchueire Was he not that stupid? He got roleplayed out of over a million dollars, I can totally believe he would simply get distracted by a penny glued to the floor.
His idea of a big break was posing as a casually interested user saying "Woah guys, check this thing out, I am totally legit intrigued by it"
100%. He was living in a fantasy world that he just wasn’t cut out for.He had so many chances to cash out with a hefty profit and invest into something legitimate but he was too addicted into believing he was the American Pablo Escobar.
@@BrooklynBalla last time prominent owners tried to cash out, they got tortured and killed.
Great idea mate.
"He didn't actually kill anyone!" - people who defend him
"Not for a lack of trying." - Department of Justice
Imagine trusting the DOJ LOL
That's what makes it attempted murder.
@@iwannabethekid34xc excactly, the ross hitman story is completely untrue lol
@@henryfleischer404 Then why wasn't he charged with it? He got such a high sentence for his drugs trade and to scare off bitcoin users from thinking that Uncle Sam wasn't up to their shenanigans. Successfully because bitcoin never really went mainstream and the dollar is still king (it even beat out the euro recently while bitcoin's price tanked).
@@iwannabethekid34xc This kind of thinking is exactly the reason why America is pretty fucked.
Bro, your editing, narrating, writing, and storytelling are on-point..kept me super engaged the whole time. Somebody needs to give you a legit TV show.
Thanks dude :)
Beige frequency had a better one lol
@@xancypillosi9497 someone asked??
@@WhatsAJ yea - me
@@xancypillosi9497 cap
The fact that Red and White straight up told Ross the hitmen found USB drives in friendlychemist's home and Ross DIDN'T ask for those to be given to him or destroyed is absolutely an L on Ross' part.
Yeah, the hit was never real, but Ross didn't know that. If it was real, and friendlychemist did have a list, the Hell's Angels would now have a list of all the users on Silk Road on a USB drive they could use to blackmail him.
Red and White: Yeah we killed the guy who claimed to have a list of all the users on this site. He had some USB sticks. Do you want those?
Ross: Nah.
Red and White: You... you sure?
Ross: He has nothing that I care about.
Red and White: This guy that said he had a list of all the users on this website. You don't want *anything* he might have. Say... USB sticks?
Ross: Nope.
Red and White: Okay then. **Pockets the USB stick with malicious intent.**
@walnzell9328 "i guess this has worked out pretty well for you, hasn't it Ross? It'd be a real shame if some other criminal managed to get his hands on that vendor list, aye? Man what a disaster thatd be for you.." **licks lips, appearing visibly aroused as his profuse sweating continues to worsen**
Yeah that was an oversight but I think he just didn't want any physical evidence linking him to the murder. Also it wouldn't make sense to blackmail him with the amount in the long term to be made with him. Otherwise this is a funny comment : )
I mean, I doubt he would’ve sent all of the collected belongings to DPR regardless if it was real or not, so it’s not really a blunder on DPR’s end.
If they did, or didn’t send it, it likely wouldn’t have been everything. That’s how it goes when living a shady life
Where would he have sent them to?
You do know that you can copy information from a USB stick, right? At that point, them having had the stick in their possession at any point is the same as trusting them with it.
Regarding the photos of the "bodies" sent, I can imagine them laughing so hard as their mate played dead. Jumping around all giddy knowing they was going to make bank
i’ve been thinking abt that, is that what they did ??
@@elkie9300 Its been a while since i watched this but yeah probably. A bunch of guys taking a photo of their friend playing dead to scam money probably laughed about it
I read a book about this story called ‘American Kingpin’ I highly recommend anyone to read this book to get the full ins and out of the whole story. It’s a really interesting read.
I read this book and it is a lot of government/FBI propaganda to make them look like heroes when they were breaking the law at many steps to try and make and example of Ross. They also paint his character completely inaccurately. Ross' mother has been out there telling his side of the story and it's way more complex and plausible than this book but I'm sure the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
Definitely a good book.
The guy who scammed him is an absolute mastermind, I would still like to know how the guy faked the proof photograph and if he actually did fake it (for this amount of money a random hit on some innocent guy wouldn't surprise me)
The guys that "scammed him" were fbi agents. I'm very surprised that he didn't mention that in the video. They orchestrated the hit, photographed the guy as a dead body. Also the agents were accused of stealing a tons of bitcoin for themselves. It's a wild story..
Yes, just how did he fake the picture ?
you think it's so hard to fake a murder like that? not at all.
@@ancaro8771 teach me
“You want a toe? I can get you a toe”
Red and white sounded incredibly suspicious, I thought they seemed like a scammer! This is awesome, hope to see more in the future
Sickening how casually they talk about ordering hits. I was under the impression Ross was technically a nonviolent drug offender. Ordering hits makes me think otherwise
Wait what!
@@Frank-pp9iy lmfao why did you get so surprised of your own comment
@@blueshorts8820 I finished watching the video lmao
@@Frank-pp9iy it's hilarious to imagine you type out the first comment, post it, read it and then post the the second comment
Where is the proof that Ross was DPR? Kira doesn’t even touch on it
Bro if all of this is true this is definently worth being a Netflix banger! Jez someone needs to jump on this story and make it into a series ASAP!
It already is, where have you been?
there’s already a few documentaries out there about this, it was big deal at the tims
movie on hulu called silk road that is pretty good
that would be boring
I'd sure love to see 90 minutes of two guys typing in front of their screen with sweaty fingers.
Late to the party on this one but holy shit was this an amazing journey. I was vaguely aware of Silk Road and the fact that the creator was in prison but I never knew any of the details. Outstanding work Kira. This may in fact be your best video yet.
There's a book about it that is a good read.
The video is great, except for one thing near the end of the video: Ross Ulbricht didn't receive 30 to life in prison, he was sentenced to two life sentences and 40 years to be served concurrently and without the possibility of parole. And as all his appeals failed, he will leave prison feet first.
Copy and paste work
@@donefinished what's it called?
Thanks!That was freaking awesome
This is a master class in story telling. Perfect title too, it doesn't give the game away too early.
The title is a clickbait lie tho, blackmailing him went completely right and also he wasn't really a drug lord
@@tambaz2276 well, before the twist, the title makes perfect sense and correlates to the story well enough... or would you perfer "When blackmailing an Online Black Market admin goes wrong!" -- the former conveys essentially the same thing.
You could title it "How the FBI scammed an Online Kingpin and subsequently arrested him." but then you would go into the whole story in a boring manner because you already know---- wait, who are you again and WHY am I explaining this to you?!
@@tambaz2276 Apparently not having a spoiler in the title is clickbait now lol
he copied another youtuber
@@notamilkdud every youtuber copies content from somewhere, welcome to the world wide web.
This is such a brilliant criminal nerd story. I thought the whole time how tacky all the conversations seemed. Like it was a 15 year old nerd writing dialogue for what they think criminals would speak like. Lmfao great video!
Lol
That long con was genius, but to be honest I saw something off with the conversation right away. They were way too willing to commit capital felonies and way too willing to discuss it on record. Even if it's encrypted it's still a record. I'm sure that was one of the aspects that made DPR trust them, but it's glaringly obvious that while DPR might be a technical genius he had very little experience dealing with the real world.
DPR is too gullible
Man really thought the boss of a biker gang would write properly and with impeccable grammar, much less know how to use Tor
I also suspected it was a scammer at first but eventually started to believe it.
💯💯 I can't believe DPR fell 4 that so easily. U can tell he was never involved in criminal activity whatsoever b4 SR. Once the "hitman" started it was beyond obvious.
@@CrisReed2 tor is just a browser. u go click download, then open it up and type in the address. if u can use the internet, u can use tor.
I know this sounds weird but I seriously wanted this video to last 10 hours longer. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time
There’s another one on TH-cam documentary style that’s over an hour that is extremely detailed he reads every single message, plus there’s just more details here and there, it’s amazing, go watch it. It’s called « The dark side of the Silk Road »
Same
I love the way darknet vendors somehow manage to LARP as crime lords despite, technically, very much being actual ones.
I think it has to do with the evolution of anonymity as a "cybercrime lord". Compared to the previous methods of a business based on a reputation of some kind and real world actions.
i think it's mostly because they're just like skinny dudes with actual lives who on the side make pills to sell
Barely Sociable has a deep dive documentary on this topic, i highly recommend it! It's very nice to see you take on subjects like this. Really good job~
Why would you advertise someone else's channel on kiras?
@@SomeMortyDude Its no different from reccomending a documentary on a topic covered in a video. Barely Sociable did a very deep dive that anyone who finds this interesting should also watch.
They both did a good job, if you like one you'll like the other.
@@SomeMortyDude No one watches just one channel. I also watch Barely Social and Blame it to Jorge which cover similar topics.
Barely's video is brilliant!
It's fucked up to me how casually this guy ordered a hit on another human being's life. He did it as casually as I commissioned art from an artist for my friend's birthday. He even offered to pay him extra if the market tanked. What a psycho.
@Ops Blac For some. Definitely not all.
@@PropaneWP We found the drug dealer
@@pinkteacrotchdweller6869 Not me personally, but I've met a few. Everything from murderers to very nice guys.
Well it was not just anyone, it was some giys who threatened him and thousands of customers.
Also, you never heard him speak, you just saw what he wrote. Much easier to appear calm in writing than in person.
To be fair, how else would someone order a hit?
this was one of the best documentary / video essays I've ever seen. When I first started watching it I thought the only hitmen on silk road were scammers but I was quickly convinced I was wrong. The ending was an amazing twist.
For anybody who’s just clicked this video, WATCH IT!! Really good and well done, love stories like this I don’t know why
Barely Sociable covered this story much better. Kira pretty much just watched his video and half-assed his own version.
@@GaliosUA on that video as we speak, both are informative maybe he just wanted to try make a shorter video but cover the main points to the story.. both great watches so far
I hope that the scammer got an Academy Award for his performance during all this💀
"Also note that blackmail is an inherently dangerous activity. Informing someone that you know too much is quite rarely the best course of action, especially if Agatha Christie is holding the pen or you haven't told anyone else (but don't tell too many people, as that would, of course, defeat the purpose of blackmail). The danger (along with the potential stupidity) is compounded if the intended victim of the blackmail is already a murderer. After all, if they've already had sufficient reason to kill at least one person, is it very likely that they'll baulk at murdering another - especially if that other person is trying to squeeze them for money?" ~ TV Tropes Blackmail Page
how can he not realize in the first few chats we’re RealLucyDrops said „How do you know FriendlyChemist?“ that it’s a scam
The ease with which they talk about just "accidenting" people is honestly sickening, holy...
Great video!
Yea it's.. cold..
Well, to be frank, only one party thought the murders were real.
@@Marci124 yeah, I wrote the comment before finishing the video and still didn't know the other guy was a poser
Still... The other one was dead serious... Jesus
It's much less sickening once you remember RedandWhite is just roleplaying as a gangster and is probably having a blast in their basement. But yeah, DPR is cold. If he wasn't such a moron I might have been afraid of him.
This is really an interesting story, it got me hooked from the very begining. truly good quality content. thanks kira for making this
Togepi needs HUGS
I feel like he could've easily gotten away with this if he was just more careful on the clear web.
to get away with killing people for money? nice
Or be patient and wait for few days
@ラテちゃん This was 2013 at the latest. The price of btc dipped to 66 right around Aug-Oct of that year. Smart phones had been out; it was 7 years since the first iPhone. You could stream Netflix over cell and only some companies had data caps. You were like 8 tho lol
@@DrCash7 lmfao
@ラテちゃん Uh, most people were definitely using the internet in 2010, even the "normies". Hell, Facebook had half a billion users in July 2010, at that point I think it's safe to say "normies" had discovered the internet.
*Focusutensil* you’re so incredible in resolving my nightmares . They world needs more of you.
This was absolutely fantastic to listen to, I havent been this intrigued for a very long time.
This should put to rest any argument by those that argue that Ross was simply someone who got caught up in things. This is documented proof that he psychopathically wanted to have people killed with absolutely no remorse,
people get killed every day ...for less reasons
Exactly
I think one of the reasons is people see what he was charged with, which I believe were all drug convictions, and none of this stuff where he was literally implicated in attempting to set up a hit (in the most incompetent way possible...). Dude deserves to be in prison.
Once you're in that deep to a criminal industry and then somebody comes along who you've done nothing to and threatens to blackmail you, probably the remorse is somewhat lessened.
@@goodlookinouthomie1757 he ran a fucking website. Man was worried someone was going to blackmail his drug website. So he wanted him dead. Dude didn’t have the remorse to begin with, he was behind a computer the entire time.
"When Blackmailing A Drug Lord Goes Wrong" bruh when has it ever gone right?
If it goes right you wouldn't be hearing about it
Woah, that was brilliant - I know nothing about this case or related, so the twist at the end wasn't expected and was somewhat comforting... I think? The different styles of writing and personalities between the characters was quite impressive.
I was binging through your older content and you upload even more quality gold. You are an absolute legend and thank you for making such informative and interesting videos time and time again
LOL I saw the twist coming after a few minutes. The idea that red and white made an account just to talk to dread was the big give away. No crime lord would spontaneously risk exposing themselves like that. Then red and white was just way too casual with what they were up to. Admitting to murders in a damn chat. No one does that!
Well he is never portrayed as a crime lord but just as another member of this gang, surely one of the lower guys who do negotiate on the behalf of others. People who get busted and take the blame for all of it to protect the higher ups. However yes I don't believe any Hells Angels guy would have looked up how to get on SR and installed Tor and started chatting to this guy. The story seems fishy from an outside perspective. But this guy was making tons of moneys through his market place and he thought at that point he had someone killed for 80k $. So he probably started to feel like a powerful crimelord and in his mind it made sense that Gangs wanted in on this and he wanted in on the Gangs Profits. Dollar signs before his eyes and everything. I can totally see why he fell for it but as an outsider watching a youtube video that has already spun a narrative for you it is easy to see the conclusion.
@@Jartran72lol to YOU. I wouldn't have believed it for a second.
Bro your story telling skills are waytoo goodddd
this is great content man, i never heard of this story and always thought that DPRs long sentence was a bit unfair given the fact he just ran a marketplace but this story puts that all in a new context.
Watched this video before but I was watching it again with some friends last night while we were hanging out.
You can tell this video is very well put together because when the reveal came about the true nature of all these "hits", my friends audibly reacted.
Great video
Although I had already watched Barely Sociable's video on this situation/topic, I really appreciated the way that YOU designed this video and presented the content. It was far less mysterious and winding and I found it really succinct and informative. Subscribed :)
P
Pp
It’s literally just the movie 😂
It only depended on DPR guy's greed, lack of common sense and morality. That's quite enough to work with apparently.
He knew it was coming too. He might’ve been a genius in many aspects of life, but everyone has a weakness and his was his trusting nature.
Holy wow, that was absolutely incredible. Could turn this whole thing into a movie
Can I just say that the story telling in this video is absolutely phenomenal? The way that you left everything out until the end had me so shook and this is the best YT documentary I’ve seen in a while.
Thanks!
I bought a my PhD & transcripts off the silk road. I've been a successful neurosurgeon for over 10 years now & I'm really learning a lot while low-key training on the job. I really have high hopes of actually curing or saving one of my patients lives one day! Thank you DPR! 🙌🏻
am sure you saved many lives!
holy crap, great work my man.
I watched a video on him by Count Dankula.
I don't think he mentioned any of this bloody business, so I was under the impression that Roberts was just a libertarian entrepreneur with clean hands, and felt sorry he was caught. I'm now glad he was arrested.
Nobody on the deep web has clean hands.
Same
Just goes to show that you should always look up numerous sources
Count dankula is a hack.
Did you honestly believe running what was essentially a drug empire on the black market would be..clean?
Of course it wasn't clean, duh. But the feds are not the people to root for either. As long as they're both occupied and far away from us we're good.
Honestly I can't even blame the dude. The scammer was really smart. I could have believed it myself.
if u actually read the chats its hella sus n Ross definitely glanced over a lot of mistakes. The other guy mentioned FriendlyChemist before Ross did n he didn’t notice he had been talking to the same person!
I had great sadness nearly 10 years ago trying to log onto SR to see “This hidden service has been seized by law enforcement “.
Also 2 FBI agents where jailed when they stole millions from Ross ulbrichts BTC wallet during the investigation.
Your life must so sad if your forced to use hard druga to feel good.
Yeah. It was indeed a shame.
@@vyros.3234 you’re life must be sad to comment something with malice and have no idea what you’re talking about. Ding dong
@@jakeboehm5267 your
@@vyros.3234 Some people like to make easy money and get fucked up for the fun of it sometimes. Doesn't mean anything
Just passing on thanks to this kind of coverage shift with your channel Kira - great stuff. Thanks for sharing the background to many of these tech stories. :) This Silk Road one is notorious.
Wow Kira this is A grade video material. the best and most coherent recount of this story while also simultaneously being the most entertaining! Also, I don’t know why but the footage playing over and over of that pharmacist scanning a prescription made me LOL
I mean, you see this shit in movies and you can't help but think, "this is so far out there that only Hollywood could make this shit up."
Probably where he got it from. Which came first the chicken or the egg
I love how these people are just blithely chatting about their crimes
"Tell me his real identity, that i might threaten him with violence!" lmfao
sounds like a good set up for prosecutors too lmfao
@@BLaCkKsHeEp didnt the prosecutors like ignore all evidence to this case?
i went to school back in 2010 with a kid who used to use it. now he is in prison for killing someone with oxys pressed with fent and he got 15 years no parole.
Roberts is proof that in life like D&D wisdom and intelligence are not the same thing.
Wow really ? How EVER did you guess that ??
@@PerfectionInMotion69 I heard it from someone with a negative charisma modifier.
Oh man, what a story. I thought I saw it coming from a mile away, then all the twists and turns had me dizzy and confused. Then that ending hits and it's like damn, well played!
imagine trusting anonymous people on the innernette to this level
Damn, being paranoid would truly help in these circumstances.
Also, I was always of the believe that you need to be quite knowledgeable about security to do stuff like this, but each and every time I'm being proved wrong.
I love that every 1-3 years a new video talking the way through this comes out and every time it hides the twist at the end but it plays out so well it still gives the same effect
The whole story is a rolercoster that never stoped going up
Holy fucking shit bro I did not expect this whole thing to be fake, I was so engaged the whole time.. Good job bro
This red and white dude sounded so confident, it was hard to doubt him. But I still questioned the validity of his claims, and was wondering how DPR could verify them. So I was not surprised to find out it was all a scam. The speed at which the job was done, is quite suspicious. And how come both times, they never had any issue with being caught or something going wrong. It just seemed too perfect.
Keep in mind that it was honestly *very* believable- “RedandWhite” would have known who “FriendlyChemist” was and had allegedly taken out their partner already.
He knew that FC had to be legit on some level since they did have evidence that they had info, and was an active threat- also keep in mind all of this happened over the span of a few days.
The photo “evidence” with the numbers and the list of other socks they used likely cemented his belief.
Ohhhh boy- if u think that is all really THAT unbelievable… you’re not ready to hear about what’s actually going on in your own city. Damn you’re so pure, stay that way buddy.
@@laynedoe3455you are such a 4chan user (or redditor)
@@laynedoe3455 nothing personnel kid
@@laynedoe3455 srs thought. Nothing goes so quickly and so easily as it did here. Its unrealistic.
Absolutely amazing storytelling!
I started watching you because of the Earth 2 scams, and now I am glad your are diversifying your content but still keeping it scam related!
Not often does a video get me hooked for over an hour! I was pausing to read all of the texts, and loved every minute of it.
You and I watched the video the same way, it took me almost an hour to watch this, and 30 mins of reading comments to find this one. Have a good day, psychonauts live
On my first watch, I got half way through the video and was mega confused. I started from the beginning again and once it clicked with me, this was the most gripping story I had ever heard.
I had a feeling it was all fake and a scam
Goes to show he was really just an extremely naïve kid, who got caught up in his own "My dad knew the Krays" line of bull crap. How anyone would believe they were talking to real "naughty" people over some instant messenger program is proof.
It even reads like someone who's watched too many CSI Miami type cop shows. I have a feeling that anyone who really was the type he thought he was talking to, would have made it a lot harder to talk about and arrange what he intended to do.
You'd think he'd have learnt the oldest trick in the book..."9 times out of 10 the person you're talking to on the internet ain't who they say they are."
Dudes never met a hells angel either. They’re mostly a bunch of old grimey dudes.
@@Iheartdog666 say that to the hells angels here in Germany you will get gangbanged by some heavy guys...
They really dangerous...
But gladly they remain most of the time for them self and just gang up against other gangs like the banditos.
@@mconfuddle4028 lol yeah but they’re not professional hitmen for hire is my point.
@@Iheartdog666 there isn't really such a thing as professional hitters that cost that much. South American cartels have people they use and train, but the cartels churn them out at a rapid pace.
Hells Angel's have some serious criminals that would happily kill a random person for money. But 150k for a hit? That is some Hollywood shit right there.
Hmm, that would explain why there are so many "independently wealthy" Don Juans on the Internet.
This was honestly one of my favorite videos you've made, never heard about this case before and the end really blew my mind
snek
@@Margen67 yeah, her name is Nadia. She's my little sweetheart
Maaan this makes me miss my favourite teacher at the alternative school I graduated from, he had a projector running everyday and would let students tell him about current events for us to look up and discuss together, and once we spent a whole class talking about Silk Road lol. I also got him into Geo guesser back when it was free to use, and we would play as a class at lunch. What a cool lad
The lesson here is that there is always someone smarter, so being overconfident about your intelligence will make you lose !!!!!
That was an elaborate scam...
Well done...
And the way Kira presented it was also very nicely done.
Even out of the dark web, I don't imagine a drug dealer of any kind being good at holding on to their money.
U b surprised