Silk Road's Dread Pirate Roberts vs. The Princess Bride's
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In the Princess Bride, the Dread Pirate Roberts is fearsome, ruthless, and unfailingly polite. Even when his true love tells him she doesn’t care if he dies, his response is, “as you wish.” (Spoiler alert: He doesn’t die, they end up kissing, and Fred Savage’s character learns to appreciate the mushy parts of love stories. It really is a great movie.)
The Dread Pirate Roberts of the online black market Silk Road, allegedly aka Ross William Ulbricht, bears some resemblance to his fictional namesake. The FBI complaint against him describes a man who is easy to please as he gives instructions how to seal drugs properly or offers a consumer support option through which the site’s employees “will take care of you personally.”