The hit in the complaint I read basically had the extortionist (FriendlyChemist) say he needed $500K to pay a dealer. DPR asks to talk to the dealer, and FC drops out of the picture and the dealer is happy to settle for $150K or so.
That makes zero sense, if $500K was actually owed. I doubt DPR was so naive to think that instantly a new contact would come online and trust him completely and be willing to negotiate a murder.
It looks FAR more likely that DPR and FC both "knew" the "dealer" was just FC on another account, and it was a way of negotiating that let DPR look "hard".
The complaint also makes it clear that police found no evidence of such a murder around the timeframe given.
First, you're missing the other hit story, the one he was actually charged with, where he paid an undercover cop to have a business associated murdered.
Second, the story you provide here is implausible. The "way of negotiating" you describe here doesn't make Ulbricht look hard; it makes him look guilty of an extremely serious felony. It would be well beyond incompetent to use "I'm ordering a hit on you" as a cover story.
Correct, in the complaint I only saw a mention of the second "hit" which looks a lot like negotiating the price down. After all, it did work; he didn't pay $500K. But perhaps I'm just wrong.
I'd be pretty sure his failure mode didn't take into account severity of his crimes. If you're gonna go operate on the scale he did, might as well go all out. Considering they can prosecute and probably give him life if they want, what's a few additional life sentences?
Ridiculous and slightly offensive comparison: It's not like Thomas Jefferson left an out clause for himself when starting the US revolution.
