It was the culmination of a two-year investigation into a vast online drug market called Silk Road. The authorities charged that Ulbricht, an idealistic 29-year-old Eagle Scout from Austin, Texas, was the kingpin of the operation. They said he'd reaped millions from the site, all transacted anonymously with Bitcoin. They said he'd devolved into a cold-blooded criminal, hiring hit men to take out those who crossed him. Writer Joshuah Bearman spent more than a year reporting and writing a definitive account of how Ulbricht founded Silk Road, how it grew into a $1.2 billion operation, and how federal law enforcement shut it down.