The Double Life of DPR
Not sure if many on here know or care, but Ross Ulbricht, the supposed founder and/or owner of a Darknet website known as The Silk Road, was supposedly hiding under the online pseudonym of Dread Pirate Roberts. For hardcore Bitcoin enthusiast, the Silk Road is considered special because Bitcoin was the standard currency for buying and selling on the Silk Road, giving Bitcoin one of its first and biggest markets.
Ross with mom Lyn
Dread Pirate Roberts is a fictional character from the book called The Princess Bride by William Goldman. The book was turned into a movie of the same name in 1987. In the story, the main character, Westley goes off to seek his fortune in order to return and marry his Princess. Westley gets held captive by Dread Pirate Roberts, who takes no captives because he kills them all. Westley asks Dread Pirate Roberts not to kill him with a "Please." The "Please" intrigued Roberts enough to ask why he should spare Westley's life, to which Westley replied that he was on a fortune seeking adventure. That upon making his fortune he would return to marry his most beautiful Princess. Roberts was captivated by the supposed beauty of the Princess and the determination of Westley that he spares his life.
After several years, Roberts promotes Westley to his second in command. Eventually Dread Pirate Roberts reveals a secret to Westley. Roberts tells Westley that he is not the real Dread Pirate Roberts and that his real name is Ryan. Ryan explains that he inherited everything from Dread Pirate Roberts, and that Westley would also be inheriting the name and possessions of Dread Pirate Roberts just like he had.
In real life, Ross Ulbricht's defense attorneys claimed that there was another person who started the Silk Road project, and that Ross, much like Westley in the Princess Bride story, was not the original Dread Pirate Roberts. Ulbricht's attorneys even claim that after Ross Ulbricht was arrested, someone logged into the online Dread Pirate Roberts account. The defense claimed this was proof that another person had access to this account while Ulbricht was locked up in custody. Unfortunately for Ross Ulbricht, this is not a fairy tale, but rather one long and horrible nightmare. A nightmare filled with government tampering and stealing of evidence, ultimately leading to a real double life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Recently, Ross Ulbricht was allowed by the U.S. Government and Federal Prison officials to have a twitter account. Although he will not be allowed direct access himself, he will be able to mail in his short 140 character message to a third party that the government has chosen. This third party will then post the message on twitter under Ulbricht's legally allowed Twitter account.
If you feel he was unjustly prosecuted and/or sentenced, give him a follow and drop him a line....
I believe his mom, Lyn Ulbricht runs the @rossulbricht steemit account although it hasn't been used in a good while.
Full Steem Ahead!
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Pic 1- flickr
Pic 2