The murder charges appeared to be a bullshit charade that both DPR and the "victim" knew. The transcripts are available online somewhere.
Some guy anonymously messages DPR, telling DPR that he found an exploit in the Silk Road, stole some information on a lot of big-time sellers, and was going to release it if DPR didn't pay him some large amount of money. DPR flat-out rejects the other. The guy then said he owed money to a dealer that he re-sold drugs to, explains that if DPR could settle his debts with the dealer then he'd be happy, and then he gave DPR that dealer's (anonymous) contact info.
If you're anonymously trying to blackmail someone, why on earth would you tell your target the contact information of a third party who knows where you live AND who shares a motive against you? The story as-is is barely believable.
The "dealer" then offers to solve the problem of the blackmailer for DPR, and asks for an amount of money, suspiciously a little lower than the amount the blackmailer wanted. DPR pays him, and no longer worries about his customer data seller being leaked.
There's no evidence that the "dealer"/assassin was a real person, or that any murder ever occurred. The dealer and the blackmailer only ever anonymously communicated with DPR, and no one else. The blackmailer introduced the dealer/assassin to DPR unprompted. No one besides each other knew who they were. It seems likely they're the same person. The whole thing appears to be a weird charade for the blackmailer to barter with DPR down a price to not leak the data.
I'm going to go flat-out conspiracy theorist and say that DPR/alleged dealer/blackmailer are all the same person and he concocted this story and leaked it to let everyone know how seriously he takes privacy.
Unfortunately, the prosecution will probably say it had to do with intent and use that as a reason for why the public should be protected from DPR.
Either way I agree with the points you made. Also very bad opsec for DPR to not smell something fishy with the story if it is in fact a different person and even worse to act on it if that is in fact what happened.
> I'm going to go flat-out conspiracy theorist and say that DPR/alleged dealer/blackmailer are all the same person and he concocted this story and leaked it to let everyone know how seriously he takes privacy.
That incident was not known publicly before Ulbricht was arrested and the complaints released.
Some guy anonymously messages DPR, telling DPR that he found an exploit in the Silk Road, stole some information on a lot of big-time sellers, and was going to release it if DPR didn't pay him some large amount of money. DPR flat-out rejects the other. The guy then said he owed money to a dealer that he re-sold drugs to, explains that if DPR could settle his debts with the dealer then he'd be happy, and then he gave DPR that dealer's (anonymous) contact info.
If you're anonymously trying to blackmail someone, why on earth would you tell your target the contact information of a third party who knows where you live AND who shares a motive against you? The story as-is is barely believable.
The "dealer" then offers to solve the problem of the blackmailer for DPR, and asks for an amount of money, suspiciously a little lower than the amount the blackmailer wanted. DPR pays him, and no longer worries about his customer data seller being leaked.
There's no evidence that the "dealer"/assassin was a real person, or that any murder ever occurred. The dealer and the blackmailer only ever anonymously communicated with DPR, and no one else. The blackmailer introduced the dealer/assassin to DPR unprompted. No one besides each other knew who they were. It seems likely they're the same person. The whole thing appears to be a weird charade for the blackmailer to barter with DPR down a price to not leak the data.