The hitman scam: Dread Pirate Roberts’ bizarre murder-for-hire attempts

On the darkweb, no one is who they seem.

Read the whole story

 

[Oldmanalex]

Redandwhite certainly did not seem to be overly keen to do the hit at first, and told DPR that they had actually made an overall profit from the unfortunate Xin, thus conveniently removing their business reason for whacking friendlychemist. If this was entrapment rather than fraud, this certainly forces DPR to proactively ask for the hit, meaning that these transcripts screw him completely, (and for all but for our Teapartier, successfully differentiate him from Gandhi, the Buddha and Jesus Christ). However, I still tend towards fraud. By playing hard to get, redandwhite apparently ended up with $1.5MM of DPR's money, instead of $150K, which in my view is an excellent ROI for a little patience whilst performing a slow (virtual) striptease.

 

[Exit20]

Of course it's not entrapment because DPR was the one who suggested executing people in the beginning.
And it seems unlikely to have been a sting unless it was a failed sting as no one was arrested, it was another 6 months before DPR was nabbed and he still hasn't been charged with anything relating to this.

 

[dewke]

Xeric[/url]":xppmwt70]DPR sounds like a wimpy intelligent suburban rich kid playing a role or something.

Whoever DPR is/was, they need to be locked up.

You mean like...... Ross Ulbricht?

 

[Peevester]

Drakkenmensch[/url]":37e9ig5u]Anybody else read those logs and picture Breaking Bad characters delivering the lines?

I have to imagine Walt having a concussion before he fell for this crap. The other side of this conversation sounds like your classic internet Spanish Prisoner scam - ask the mark for money, arrange for someone else to take less money instead, crazy complications ensue, etc.

The chat log makes it totally clear why there were no deaths from these hit attempts - all of the people DPR were talking to were sockpuppets of a single scammer or a small crew of them, starting all the way at the beginning with FriendlyChemist.

Since FC did apparently have some names (though I wonder if they were real ones, DPR never says - he's pissed at the idea of anonymity breaking possibly more than the reality of it), it's likely that some of his story was true - he was a past seller on Silk Road, and used that experience to collect some names, but everything from the first panicked note to DPR was completely fake. It has to be, or he wouldn't have stopped when "redandwhite" claims he killed him - if the story was true, he'd still be out there panicking somewhere.

 

[Drakkenmensch]

Peevester[/url]":159t8p5r]

Drakkenmensch[/url]":159t8p5r]Anybody else read those logs and picture Breaking Bad characters delivering the lines?

I have to imagine Walt having a concussion before he fell for this crap. The other side of this conversation sounds like your classic internet Spanish Prisoner scam - ask the mark for money, arrange for someone else to take less money instead, crazy complications ensue, etc.

The chat log makes it totally clear why there were no deaths from these hit attempts - all of the people DPR were talking to were sockpuppets of a single scammer or a small group of them, starting all the way at the beginning with FriendlyChemist.

Since FC did apparently have some names (though I wonder if they were real ones, DPR never says - he's pissed at the idea of anonymity breaking possibly more than the reality of it), it's likely that some of his story was true - he was a past seller on Silk Road, and used that experience to collect some names, but everything from the first panicked note to DPR was completely fake. It has to be, or he wouldn't have stopped when "redandwhite" claims he killed him - if the story was true, he'd still be out there panicking somewhere.

I kept reading the Friendly Chemist posts as performed by a hyped up Jesse Pinkman.

 

[JabberwockyPHL]

thrlcekr[/url]":eyt28k3p]So really after reading everything this doesn't smell of "con" to me. This smells more of "sting". Occam's razor.

Here is the cast introduced in the order by which they were introduced/known:

DPR, LD, FC, RLD, RAW


Here's my take for what its worth.

Knowns/Verifiable:

DPR is aware of scams on his site.

LD is a substantial seller there of LSD apparently AND has/is gone/jailed/will be jailed for (1-?? months?)(this is important) because it is "verifiable" and is the wedge needed for insertion of sting op.

FC, known for his connection to LD (possibly, but only LD could verify this and he is/was missing/in jail

Unknowns/Not verifiable:
RLD? RAW?

I believe that LD and FC are real and plea bargained with the FBI to reduce their own sentences by helping to bring down DPR.

Premise: LD gets arrested for substantial dealing of LSD however that occurred. Chance occurrence.
Interrogated, he turns over his source, FC, who is now implicated and under pressure by the FBI to "play along" or do serious time.

Under direction of the FBI, FC contacts DPR with details of the, unknown and later to be revealed if needed, RAW threat to himself and his family. The name isn't disclosed early on because if its not required, it won't be used.

DPR is then put under pressure. RLD is brought in as a supposed partner to the LD who is in custody. FBI works with LD to flesh out RLD and give credence to his arguments and conversations with DPR. More pressure is put on DPR to force his hand. He can also be used as a device to possibly sway DPR in the direction intended.

DPR is new at what he's doing so he doesn't know how things work and I'm sure with all the bitcoins flying around that the FBI has been investigating the entire operation since shortly after its inception. They're not idiots. They force DPR's hand. The only means DPR has at his disposal to deal with such things isn't experience, its money. Lots of money.

I'm sure the FBI had planned to get the extortion amount up to 500k/1M because of legal issues surrounding smaller amounts of money/transactions and associated prison terms.

I bet when DPR started talking about removing people from the equation the FBI just let it run out as needed to get as much of a sentence as possible out of the sting.

So that's it. RLD is introduced to add validity to FC and the fact that everything DPR was facing was in fact, "real" when it wasn't. Asking for a job from DPR??? Laughable! This character probably got an additional FBI agent inserted in to the SR operation!

Then RAW inserts itself after they've let the issue "sit" for 3-4 days and the pressure is seriously on DPR. He elects to remove FC which is great for the FBI. Now they have him on attempted murder if they play their cards right but this is completely planned out beginning to end. All the players come up when they're needed and disappear after they're no longer key to the sting.

RAW sends faked photos and botches Pidgin login to stall for time in order to plan for the DPR take down. Few days pass and everything is in place, see you online at certain time and bam, he's nabbed.

The reason eVERYTHINg in this sting "seems off" is because it IS off. Everything offered by every persona involved save for the target, DPR, is leading DPR towards a single goal which at the end of the drama is resolved with his arrest and after the chats we've all read above, its air-tight.

LD and FC probably got reduced sentences an DPR is behind bars. Case closed.


As some others have mentioned it wOULd make a great movie. A cult classic!

The two problems right now with the law enforcement angle are that the sting implied here never happened (this was all months before he was actually captured), and no agency ever claimed responsibility. The prosecutor at the trial specifically painted this as a third party con job, and when this incident occurred, the DEA had already done a successful fake murder-for-hire transaction with DPR, which was disclosed up front with the initial papers.

I think the easiest way to consider this a sting based on what else we know is if we consider it to be a failed one - that this was set up to facilitate the arrest of another suspect (insert joke reference to Karpeles here) that was ultimately ruled out. That ruling-out may have even been by this very operation's timeline not matching the movements and actions of their suspect.

All well and good, but the questions we'd keep coming back to are 'why do another fake transaction', 'why hide involvement from the start' and, presuming we posit a good reason for that, 'why introduce this as trial evidence, where it would be subject to lots of scrutiny'? The whole reason this story is of interest is because the official line right now is that it wasn't law enforcement. This seems risky given how much of a slam dunk the laptop was otherwise, but admittedly I'm not exactly sure what's being risked here - if they had an 'acceptable' reason for concealing their involvement ('still pursuing someone involved' as opposed to 'illegal shenanigans'), what are the official consequences to having been dishonest during the trial? I can't imagine anybody liking the idea of the PR hit that might come with that being found out or admitted later.

If there is a hidden motive that eventually comes out, which I'm willing to believe if we see some evidence of it, it's probably going to lead to another fascinating story.

I guess we get to fall back on the old 'which is less believable' game: That someone went to a ton of trouble to scam DPR, who we know was not entirely up to the rigors of the job, or that a TLA set up an elaborate sting and allowed it to be introduced as evidence in the trial, but consistently hid their involvement from the beginning?

 

[kakti]

My guess is that LucyDrops had made a good deal of money legit selling on SR, and decided it was time to create a new identity. He already had multiple accounts and a good reputation.

He was looking for a nice payoff on his way out so he created the friendlychemist identity and tried to extort some cash as a parting gift. Not pennies but also not 1m (and all in bitcoins which Ross had millions of $ worth of). LD had kept his customer list, which is transparently why FC had the same list.

After FC got rebuffed, he created the RealLD account to really push the "my life is in danger, send me money" angle. However because that still wasn't working, LD had to then watch a few gangster movies and created red&white.

It's honestly pretty hilarious how Ross got played so bad, over such a long period of time with so many red (and white) flags.

I like the idea of SR, but Ross was obviously off his rocker by the end. Whether just in over his head, ego, taking too many drugs himself, who knows but sending a million bucks to murder at least six people? What the efff

 

[Peevester]

kakti[/url]":2oly03ng]My guess is that LucyDrops had made a good deal of money legit selling on SR, and decided it was time to create a new identity. He already had multiple accounts and a good reputation.

He was looking for a nice payoff on his way out so he created the friendlychemist identity and tried to extort 150k. Not pennies but also not 1m (and all in bitcoins which Ross had millions of $ worth of, with little real work involved). LD had kept his customer list, which is transparently why FC had the same list.

After FC got rebuffed, he created the RealLD account to really push the "my life is in danger, send me money" angle. However because that still wasn't working, LD had to then watch a few gangster movies and created red&white.

It's honestly pretty hilarious how Ross got played so bad, over such a long period of time with so many red (and white) flags.

I like the idea of SR, but Ross was obviously off his rocker by the end. Whether just in over his head, ego, taking too many drugs himself, who knows but sending a million bucks to murder at least six people? What the efff

LucyDrops as the scammer makes a lot of sense! If that's the case, FriendlyChemist doesn't need to exist in real life at all with LD manufacturing his persona (since the only credibility FC had were some names that LD would have had too, and the claim that he was LD's supplier). I was leaning towards FC being the scammer, but LD fits a lot better. Good thinking! Of course, redandwhite doesn't exist at all, or he would have eventually dominated Silk Road with being able to supply from much higher in the distribution chain.

 

[Porter Doran]

ITT: a lot of wishful thinking about what constitutes "entrapment" and "prosecutorial misconduct."

 

[Peevester]

Porter Doran[/url]":2n9lzki6]ITT: a lot of wishful thinking about what constitutes "entrapment" and "prosecutorial misconduct."

Yeah. I don't see any reason to believe that law enforcement was involved with this at all. Occam's razor says to eliminate unnecessary entities, and since LD was apparently a huge seller on the site with a high reputation, LD is unlikely to be law enforcement, unless they stupidly became a top drug distributor on Silk Road. THAT would be a story! If LD exists, there's no need for law enforcement too.

Is it possible that this really was a police sting? Maybe, but it would involve some wildly unethical behavior that makes "fast and furious" look like penny candy. Things like that always come out eventually. Not buying it.

 

[JabberwockyPHL]

It's believable that they arrested LD, took over the account and used it as the basis for establishing trust in a sting - they did something similar with an admin to eventually arrest Ulbricht.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

sbol[/url]":sep5a4tt]What proof-of-assassination picture (with the random numbers) did DPR see?

Well, he WAS instructed to delete it after viewing. So it probably was never recovered...
Kind of sucks for us; he kept a whole criminal diary, tons of notes, tons of accounting spreadsheets, we even have Facebook holiday photo's, and then the *one* cool picture he deletes!

It would be cool in that we *could* have figured out if it was;
A) Some real, existing picture of a crime scene (stolen from Police inventory)
B) Photoshopped
C) Made with a real -living- person wearing some sweet looking TV make-up.

Seriously... never pay for a hit until you see the death reported on TV and in newspapers first?
The FBI might even fake a little of that, but they can't push it *too* far.
At least the chance your 'hitter' isn't a scammer or a Fed goes way down that way, I'd imagine.

 

[s73v3r]

Waynerro[/url]":1ecbes7v]This is so going to be a movie or a miniseries. It's basically Breaking Bad Online.

This is also another good case supporting why drugs should be legal.

Why? Because entitled children will act like spoiled brats?

 

[Peevester]

JabberwockyPHL[/url]":2dwb7xe3]It's believable that they arrested LD, took over the account and used it as the basis for establishing trust in a sting - they did something similar with an admin to eventually arrest Ulbricht.

Believable, but it's unlikely that they wouldn't have used it at trial in that case. I'm going to need a lot more than "believeable" before I buy that.

 

[JabberwockyPHL]

Peevester[/url]":2vcjkwxc]

JabberwockyPHL[/url]":2vcjkwxc]It's believable that they arrested LD, took over the account and used it as the basis for establishing trust in a sting - they did something similar with an admin to eventually arrest Ulbricht.

Believable, but it's unlikely that they wouldn't have used it at trial in that case. I'm going to need a lot more than "believeable" before I buy that.

Agreed, overall. If we want to imagine a 'bad' reason for not revealing involvement, the one you posited is a depressingly apt one - that they participated as LD enough to be partially responsible for the account's good reputation.

 

[s73v3r]

Evolution[/url]":288mjwsn]Where is this redandwhite now afterall he had killed three guys and attempted of three more. If there really such person involved don‘t you think he is being hunted by the FBI by now? But there is no mentioning about hunting him down or tried to make a deal with Ross to testify against this hells angel. Basically, this is an entrapment the defense attorney shoud have bought it out to the jury to save Ross but he didn‘t. Why?

It's not entrapment if you go up to someone and ask how much to have someone killed.

 

[s73v3r]

ImmoralMrTeas[/url]":1v27o0xj]

radzero[/url]":1v27o0xj]Roberts was not practicing proper tradecraft. He got busted by the shit on his own computer. Keeping records, notes, a fuckin' diary?

Really? Mofo for what, and for who? The NSA, DEA, FBI?

It's a criminal enterprise, nothing should have been written down. Nothing! Assume SOMEBODY is looking over your shoulder.

You could watch The Wire and Casino and learn how to be a be a smart bad ass.

Dread Pirate Roberts, you get an F.

If he were a criminal, yeah, you are right, but the whole point of DPR is that is that he wasn't a criminal.

Yes he was.

He didn't create Silk Road to make money

Horseshit. If he cared about legalizing drugs, he would have spent his time lobbying for changes in the law.

he created it to fulfill the Utopian dream of a free and open market unfettered by government or corporate censorship or discrimination.

One where he happened to take a cut of every sale on the site.

A criminal keeping a diary is stupid and bizarre.

Most criminals are stupid. If they weren't, they wouldn't be into crime in the first place.

DPR is more Martin Luther King or Henry David Thoreau than he is Carlo Gambino.

This is the dumbest fucking thing I have read on the subject. He was a wannabe Scarface, and that's it. He was not any kind of philosopher.

 

[mmiller7]

RRob[/url]":2v944xts]

JPan[/url]":2v944xts]
The mobile arstechnica page was cutting of the article at the right side . How about just letting me zoom in and out like God intended? These anti zoom mobile sites just suck.

Seconded. Don't mess with my browser.

Agreed. Just as bad as the mobile sites that you can't zoom in and put 5px high text you can't see on a ultra-HD phone size screen.

Let users who want to zoom in do so, let users who want to zoom out do so, and quick messing with browser views...

 

[crashworks]

pythagoreanmetronome[/url]":3h8cs8cu]From following the ars stories about the arrest over the last year I think the FBI probably had a number of fake accounts on the Silk Road and probably broke quite a few rules that apply to evidence gathering but then avoided the whole discussion of that at trial by capturing the laptop and lucking out and getting full transcripts of the logs on the DPR laptop itself rather than having to provide any evidence gathered any other way.

Which specific rule of evidence did they break? Like, which chapter and section of the FRE, or which case citation?

 

[CppThis]

Peevester[/url]":1bj1erjj]LucyDrops as the scammer makes a lot of sense! If that's the case, FriendlyChemist doesn't need to exist in real life at all with LD manufacturing his persona (since the only credibility FC had were some names that LD would have had too, and the claim that he was LD's supplier). I was leaning towards FC being the scammer, but LD fits a lot better. Good thinking! Of course, redandwhite doesn't exist at all, or he would have eventually dominated Silk Road with being able to supply from much higher in the distribution chain.

This does make the most sense. One possibility, if LucyDrops really was a 'true believer' as claimed, is that this was revenge for past misdeeds or a way to validate rumors that DPR wasn't a very good hero after all. To paraphrase Eddie Murphy, the best way to deal with a rich brat is to point his greed and/or paranoia toward a cliff and see what happens.

 

[DerHabbo]

I think R&W may have been affiliated with HA. It seems likely that he decided to string DPR along when he figured he wasn't looking for repeat business (but got it anyway). After all, DPR wasn't in much position to retaliate, and R&W was holding all the cards. Never trust Americans (or in this case, Canadians affiliated with American gangs) for morbidity work. That's what Russians are there for.

 

[HungryBadger]

Peevester[/url]":1l0b606i]
LucyDrops as the scammer makes a lot of sense! If that's the case, FriendlyChemist doesn't need to exist in real life at all with LD manufacturing his persona (since the only credibility FC had were some names that LD would have had too, and the claim that he was LD's supplier). I was leaning towards FC being the scammer, but LD fits a lot better. Good thinking! Of course, redandwhite doesn't exist at all, or he would have eventually dominated Silk Road with being able to supply from much higher in the distribution chain.

Indeed. That was pretty much my take on it having read through the transcript. For whatever reason LD decided they needed an out, maybe their supplier had been busted or whatever. From that point on, every character is a complete fraud, each one carefully constructed to progress the scam a little further.

 

[Deleted member 1]

crashworks[/url]":3brhpbck]

pythagoreanmetronome[/url]":3brhpbck]From following the ars stories about the arrest over the last year I think the FBI probably had a number of fake accounts on the Silk Road and probably broke quite a few rules that apply to evidence gathering but then avoided the whole discussion of that at trial by capturing the laptop and lucking out and getting full transcripts of the logs on the DPR laptop itself rather than having to provide any evidence gathered any other way.

Which specific rule of evidence did they break? Like, which chapter and section of the FRE, or which case citation?

That's not really a fair question. I am pretty sure they broke the laws about riding unicorns on saturdays in the parking lots of public libraries. Since I can't actually point to the offending unicorn though I guess they weren't doing it. Case closed. There is no unicorn.

I don't think I am the only person on earth who expects that there is some kind of "parallel construction" type of story going on here and that, for example, the ip address of the server was really obtained by the NSA and then passed along to the FBI etc and so forth and since the NSA isn't supposed to be spying on Americans blah blah blah.

No really it makes a lot more sense that the FBI just happened to figure out that it was Ross by googling it.

 

[Porter Doran]

crashworks[/url]":r1c68h1x]

pythagoreanmetronome[/url]":r1c68h1x]From following the ars stories about the arrest over the last year I think the FBI probably had a number of fake accounts on the Silk Road and probably broke quite a few rules that apply to evidence gathering but then avoided the whole discussion of that at trial by capturing the laptop and lucking out and getting full transcripts of the logs on the DPR laptop itself rather than having to provide any evidence gathered any other way.

Which specific rule of evidence did they break? Like, which chapter and section of the FRE, or which case citation?

They broke the Constitution!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[TheGame21x]

The sheer callousness of DPR is what disturbs me most. He asks Redandwhite to end a man's life with the same nonchalant attitude one would use when asking someone to pick something up from the store while they're going out "if it's not too much trouble for you".

This guy is a pure sociopath, no doubt.

 

[thekaj]

pythagoreanmetronome[/url]":vusmgqud]That's not really a fair question. I am pretty sure they broke the laws about riding unicorns on saturdays in the parking lots of public libraries. Since I can't actually point to the offending unicorn though I guess they weren't doing it. Case closed. There is no unicorn.

Translation: I just pulled the "broke several rules" comment out of my ass, and have no actual knowledge of the law regarding setting up fake accounts.

It's actually completely legal to set up accounts like that to monitor and attempt to shut down drug transactions. Just like it's legal for the cops to set up accounts pretending to be underage kids.

I don't think I am the only person on earth who expects that there is some kind of "parallel construction" type of story

I'd recommend a drinking game based on every time someone saying "parallel construction" in these threads, but I'd most likely be contributing to a bunch of alcohol poisoning cases. I'm curious as to who first claimed there was an issue of parallel construction in this case. I'm impressed with how readily people have been willing to parrot that phrase, without really knowing the nuances of the term. But hey, someone said that it was a major point that could have gotten Ulbricht off, so everyone talk about parallel construction!!!

 

[cripes]

JabberwockyPHL[/url]":2jxdlyk9]

thrlcekr[/url]":2jxdlyk9]So really after reading everything this doesn't smell of "con" to me. This smells more of "sting". Occam's razor.

I'm strongly sympathetic to this being a sting op too. For one, faked hit photos are apparently a pretty common law enforcement tactic.

thrlcekr[/url]":2jxdlyk9]
Under direction of the FBI, FC contacts DPR with details of the, unknown and later to be revealed if needed, RAW threat to himself and his family. The name isn't disclosed early on because if its not required, it won't be used.

I'm struggling to see why they set it up this way. Was it so obvious that FC threatening SR users would lead DPR(Ulbricht) to try to kill him? Maybe if they'd already got him on an earlier hit attempt? Otherwise, wouldn't law enforcement worry that putting on too much pressure might make DPR shut things down and go underground? Seems very high risk.

JabberwockyPHL[/url]":2jxdlyk9]
The two problems right now with the law enforcement angle are that the sting implied here never happened (this was all months before he was actually captured), and no agency ever claimed responsibility. The prosecutor at the trial specifically painted this as a third party con job, and when this incident occurred, the DEA had already done a successful fake murder-for-hire transaction with DPR, which was disclosed up front with the initial papers.

Maybe it was Canadians. But it was just as likely the US LE just working a number of angles. I think the reason to bring it out (but leave the details murky) is because it speaks to character, which will be very important for setencing.

 

[dewke]

pythagoreanmetronome[/url]":uxgfnquq]

crashworks[/url]":uxgfnquq]

pythagoreanmetronome[/url]":uxgfnquq]From following the ars stories about the arrest over the last year I think the FBI probably had a number of fake accounts on the Silk Road and probably broke quite a few rules that apply to evidence gathering but then avoided the whole discussion of that at trial by capturing the laptop and lucking out and getting full transcripts of the logs on the DPR laptop itself rather than having to provide any evidence gathered any other way.

Which specific rule of evidence did they break? Like, which chapter and section of the FRE, or which case citation?

That's not really a fair question. I am pretty sure they broke the laws about riding unicorns on saturdays in the parking lots of public libraries. Since I can't actually point to the offending unicorn though I guess they weren't doing it. Case closed. There is no unicorn.

I don't think I am the only person on earth who expects that there is some kind of "parallel construction" type of story going on here and that, for example, the ip address of the server was really obtained by the NSA and then passed along to the FBI etc and so forth and since the NSA isn't supposed to be spying on Americans blah blah blah.

No really it makes a lot more sense that the FBI just happened to figure out that it was Ross by googling it.

Seriously dude, did you READ what an idiot he was? All conspiracy theories aside this guy was almost asking to be caught.

I think people place FAR too much belief in the anonymity of the Internet and think they're smarter than everyone else. It's pretty clear that Ross did and is going to spend a very long time, in a very small cell, regretting it.

 

[Drakkenmensch]

dewke[/url]":1pdq6de8]

pythagoreanmetronome[/url]":1pdq6de8]

crashworks[/url]":1pdq6de8]

pythagoreanmetronome[/url]":1pdq6de8]From following the ars stories about the arrest over the last year I think the FBI probably had a number of fake accounts on the Silk Road and probably broke quite a few rules that apply to evidence gathering but then avoided the whole discussion of that at trial by capturing the laptop and lucking out and getting full transcripts of the logs on the DPR laptop itself rather than having to provide any evidence gathered any other way.

Which specific rule of evidence did they break? Like, which chapter and section of the FRE, or which case citation?

That's not really a fair question. I am pretty sure they broke the laws about riding unicorns on saturdays in the parking lots of public libraries. Since I can't actually point to the offending unicorn though I guess they weren't doing it. Case closed. There is no unicorn.

I don't think I am the only person on earth who expects that there is some kind of "parallel construction" type of story going on here and that, for example, the ip address of the server was really obtained by the NSA and then passed along to the FBI etc and so forth and since the NSA isn't supposed to be spying on Americans blah blah blah.

No really it makes a lot more sense that the FBI just happened to figure out that it was Ross by googling it.

Seriously dude, did you READ what an idiot he was? All conspiracy theories aside this guy was almost asking to be caught.

I think people place FAR too much belief in the anonymity of the Internet and think they're smarter than everyone else. It's pretty clear that Ross did and is going to spend a very long time, in a very small cell, regretting it.

The guy deserves a cell in the same prison where they lock up idiots who log on to their Facebook account from the computer inside the house they're currently robbing.

 

[operagost]

sbol[/url]":1i1jkutx]What proof-of-assassination picture (with the random numbers) did DPR see?

Probably a screen shot from Goodfellas.

 

[maulkye]

Oldmanalex[/url]":e8v7boc3]Redandwhite certainly did not seem to be overly keen to do the hit at first, and told DPR that they had actually made an overall profit from the unfortunate Xin, thus conveniently removing their business reason for whacking friendlychemist. If this was entrapment rather than fraud, this certainly forces DPR to proactively ask for the hit, meaning that these transcripts screw him completely, (and for all but for our Teapartier, successfully differentiate him from Gandhi, the Buddha and Jesus Christ). However, I still tend towards fraud. By playing hard to get, redandwhite apparently ended up with $1.5MM of DPR's money, instead of $150K, which in my view is an excellent ROI for a little patience whilst performing a slow (virtual) striptease.

Interesting point that R&W said that.

Makes me think this was initially just a way to get an FBI player deep in and close to DPR. The hits may have been an unexpected path initiated by DPR that the FBI hadn't genuinely expected; a path that proved serendipitous to their ability to stack more and more time on to an eventual sentence.

Did anyone else find it odd that R&W referred to a gambler as a "degenerate"?

 

[mogbert]

I wonder if that sounded better in his head:

I need his real world identity so I can threaten him... with violence."

Which I guess is more effective then threatening him with a comfy chair and soft cushions.

 

[Bleeprz]

Did anyone else cringe trying to read what FC wrote?

 

[thekaj]

operagost[/url]":22spze6w]

sbol[/url]":22spze6w]What proof-of-assassination picture (with the random numbers) did DPR see?

Probably a screen shot from Goodfellas.

Seems legit.
<sends bitcoins>

Something that I've been mulling over is the statement that this all happened because of the war on drugs, and them being illegal. In fact, NONE of the desired hits were necessary and could have been handled completely differently. Ulbricht wasn't in any physical danger. It wasn't "kill or be killed". At worst, people were either trying to blackmail him or otherwise cheat him (which was done anyway). HE decided he wanted those people dead. There wasn't some kingpin over him telling him that he had to whack those guys. This isn't some indictment on how making drugs illegal forces people into violence. This is an indictment of some white suburban web designer who watched one too many crime dramas.

 

[Dermoplasm]

JPan[/url]":2kndpero]It really looks like redandwhite scammed dpr out of the money. Kudos. It's surprising how stupid these master criminals can be.

Oh and on a related note. The mobile arstechnica page was cutting of the article at the right side . How about just letting me zoom in and out like God intended? These anti zoom mobile sites just suck.

Makes me wonder if FriedlyChemist was also in cahoots with R&W. Seems like it would work better for him to suggest a fake hit on himself, split the 150K with R&W, and stay silent on SR.

Maybe Im missing something though

 

[junrbarnes]

maulkye[/url]":19az1nh7]

Oldmanalex[/url]":19az1nh7]Redandwhite certainly did not seem to be overly keen to do the hit at first, and told DPR that they had actually made an overall profit from the unfortunate Xin, thus conveniently removing their business reason for whacking friendlychemist. If this was entrapment rather than fraud, this certainly forces DPR to proactively ask for the hit, meaning that these transcripts screw him completely, (and for all but for our Teapartier, successfully differentiate him from Gandhi, the Buddha and Jesus Christ). However, I still tend towards fraud. By playing hard to get, redandwhite apparently ended up with $1.5MM of DPR's money, instead of $150K, which in my view is an excellent ROI for a little patience whilst performing a slow (virtual) striptease.

Interesting point that R&W said that.

Makes me think this was initially just a way to get an FBI player deep in and close to DPR. The hits may have been an unexpected path initiated by DPR that the FBI hadn't genuinely expected; a path that proved serendipitous to their ability to stack more and more time on to an eventual sentence.

Did anyone else find it odd that R&W referred to a gambler as a "degenerate"?

Yes! It's straight out of the Sopranos. This whole scam seems to be constructed using pieces of movies and TV shows involving the mob. Maybe that's why DPR fell for it, it's the only experience he has with these types of people. My vote is for LE behind the thing.

 

[MouseTheLuckyDog]

Kenjitsuka[/url]":1ftaohs4]

sbol[/url]":1ftaohs4]What proof-of-assassination picture (with the random numbers) did DPR see?

Well, he WAS instructed to delete it after viewing. So it probably was never recovered...
Kind of sucks for us; he kept a whole criminal diary, tons of notes, tons of accounting spreadsheets, we even have Facebook holiday photo's, and then the *one* cool picture he deletes!

I have trouble he deleted it just because they told him to. In fact I see DPR as a guy keeping the photo precisely for that reason.

 

[mausium]

maulkye[/url]":h4na72ld]
Did anyone else find it odd that R&W referred to a gambler as a "degenerate"?

The phrase "degenerate gambler" is actually pretty commonly used among people who pay attention to Bitcoin-related matters.

 

[Wheels Of Confusion]

mogbert[/url]":2cmwkvl4]I wonder if that sounded better in his head:

I need his real world identity so I can threaten him... with violence."

Which I guess is more effective then threatening him with a comfy chair and soft cushions.

Not... the comfy chair!

 

[Oldmanalex]

MouseTheLuckyDog[/url]":2uuy0v1b]

Kenjitsuka[/url]":2uuy0v1b]

sbol[/url]":2uuy0v1b]What proof-of-assassination picture (with the random numbers) did DPR see?

Well, he WAS instructed to delete it after viewing. So it probably was never recovered...
Kind of sucks for us; he kept a whole criminal diary, tons of notes, tons of accounting spreadsheets, we even have Facebook holiday photo's, and then the *one* cool picture he deletes!

I have trouble he deleted it just because they told him to. In fact I see DPR as a guy keeping the photo precisely for that reason.

Ross may not have been quite the brainiac he saw in the mirror, but I am sure he figured out keeping incontrovertible (to his mind) evidence of a murder he initiated could end up with a gurney ride. If you have just had one person killed, and are in negotiations for a discount for the next passel of victims, you probably also respect the wishes of assassin, as the gurney ride might be a lot more distant, and a lot more pleasant than the price of disobedience.