Free Republic

Ross Ulbricht was a quiet nerd -- an Eagle Scout who never cursed. Then he became a libertarian, and he decided, "I want to use economic theory as a means to abolish the use of coercion." By coercion, Ulbricht meant force. He viewed laws against drugs as coercion -- government force that stops people from living the way they want. So he created a website called Silk Road. Silk Road let people buy and sell contraband -- mostly drugs -- using bitcoin. The site became successful quickly. It soon carried a billion dollars in transactions. Because Silk Road didn't use...

The feared Chicago Outfit hitman Gerald Scarpelli and the multimillionaire sex predator and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein had little in common.Except for the fact that both men reportedly committed suicide in the federal lockup, Scarpelli years ago, in 1989 in Chicago, and Epstein just the other day in New York. And in both cases, there were power players on the outside, worrying about what they'd say.Today, just as then, the conspiracy theories run wild. Sex, power, politics, and intrigue. And Epstein kills himself after his lawyers had him taken off suicide watch? How perfectly convenient.Who believes in coincidences?Scarpelli wasn't some weak...

Update: 7.25pm: Gardaí believe three men wearing balaclavas were involved in today's shooting in Coolock. They understand that the three left the scene in a silver Toyota Avensis with a registration number 04-D-71806, which was found burnt out in the Castletymon Gardens area of Coolock at around 3.45pm. The scene has been preserved for a forensic examination and a post mortem will take place tomorrow.

Julio Santana dropped to his left knee and propped his right elbow on his hip, holding firm his hunting rifle until he had the man known as Yellow in his sights. It was Aug. 6, 1971, and Santana was 17 years old. In his village, deep in the Amazon rainforest where he lived in a hut with his parents and two brothers, he was known as a good shot. But he had only ever hunted forest rodents and monkeys for food. The man he was about to kill, Antonio Martins, was a 38-year-old fisherman with blonde hair and fair skin....

Video shows a hitman trying to kill a woman with a high-powered crossbow hidden inside a box. The shocking surveillance video was released by Canadian police. It shows a man dressed as a delivery driver and holding a large package. But detectives say he was really a hitman and was ringing the home's doorbell to deliver a fatal attack. Moments after, a woman answered the door, the two exchanged words and the man fired the crossbow. Police say inside the cardboard box was a high-powered crossbow holding a razor-sharp big game arrow, designed to bring down and kill elk and...

Hitman Hamad Assaad's ambush murder captured on police cameras Authorities were about to raid tattooed underworld figure's Sydney house Police Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad was doing surveillance Assaad was gunned down on driveway in front of his 12-year-old nephew Executed hitman Hamad Assaad's gangland murder was captured on video by police as they prepared to raid his home. The 29-year-old underworld figure was repeatedly shot in front of his 12-year-old nephew in Sydney's south-west on Tuesday. Two gunmen ambushed him on his driveway, at Georges Hall, as the Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad conducted surveillance on his house,...

BILL O'Reilly's on-air showdown with lefty hero Michael Moore may have pro vided the biggest fireworks of the care fully crafted coronation known as the Democratic National Convention, so it's no surprise that the Fox News Channel star caused a stir at the Creative Coalition bash at Louis Boston the other night. PAGE SIX's Chris Wilson reports O'Reilly seemed like a skunk at the picnic in the VIP section, where diehard Dems Leon ardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck, Bianca Jagger, Richard Schiff, Billy Bal dwin, Alyssa Milano, Ellen Burstyn and Richard Kind passed through during a performance by the Red Hot...

Drudge would not post unless it's credible

A source within the NYPD has reported that an armed 62 year old man tried to sneak in to the Trump Tower late Tuesday night. Interestingly the suspect who was found with a semi-automatic handgun fitted with a silencer has been identified as Barry Lee Bush, a former Newark NJ FBI agent who has been dead since 2007. A Secret Service agent discovered Bush after he had circumvented a security partition on the bottom floor of the Trump Tower. Questioned by Secret Service at the scene, Bush who initially identified himself as Barry Franklyn, remained silent offering no explanation for...

Mob hitman who says he was the man on the grassy knoll and killed JFK to be released - and he still insists he did it A man who claims he assassinated President John F. Kennedy has been moved this week from a high security jail to a less secure one in Illinois in preparation for his release next spring after 36 years behind bars. James Files, 72, says that he was the man on the grassy knoll back on November 22, 1963, and that he fired the bullet into Kennedy's head that ultimately killed him. Now, the CIA and...

HARTFORD, Conn. – A Connecticut man has been convicted of hiring a hit man to kill his pregnant girlfriend after she refused to have an abortion. A jury in Hartford Superior Court found 23-year-old Carlton "C.J." Bryan guilty Thursday of conspiracy to commit murder and being an accessory to murder. He faces a potential life prison sentence. Sentencing is set for July 30.

Eight years ago, one woman was confronted by a hit man who had been hired by her husband to murder her. She killed the hit man with her bare hands. Now, on the heels of her husband's release from prison, she is encouraging others who find themselves in similar situations to fight for their lives. Susan Walters of Portland, Oregon, was known as Susan Kuhnhausen back in 2006 when her then-husband Michael Kuhnhausen sent a hit man to murder her. Susan bravely fought back and wound up killing the hit man with her bare hands. "His last words on this...

In the second season of the BBC's hit show "Sherlock," shadowy snipers threaten the eponymous detective's friends by skulking around stairwells with high-powered rifles or infiltrating their homes and workplaces. In real life, targets of assassination in Britain are more likely to be killed while walking their dogs or going shopping, new research finds. The study of contract killings spanning from 1974 to 2013, published in The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, finds that assassinations are often rather mundane. "Hit men are familiar figures in films and video games, carrying out 'hits' in underworld bars or from the rooftops with...

Two men being held in jail while awaiting trial for cigarette trafficking are accused of plotting to kill witnesses against them. In an indictment unsealed in Brooklyn Supreme Court Thursday, Basel Ramadan and Yousseff Odeh are charged with conspiracy to murder witnesses and with soliciting a potential hit man. The murder-for-hire plot was hatched from New York City's Rikers Island jail where the two have been held since their May arrest on the initial cigarette-trafficking and money laundering charges. The Staten Island Advance reports that Odeh was a supporter of blind sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the spiritual guide for the...

MUSKEGON, MI – Today is judgment day for 21-year-old Julia Charlene Merfeld, who thought she was hiring a hit man to murder her husband but really was being video-recorded with an undercover police officer. Merfeld’s sentencing is set for 1:30 p.m. today, July 30. Chief Muskegon County Circuit Judge William C. Marietti earlier committed to cap her minimum sentence at six years in state prison, but he has the discretion to set her maximum sentence at anything up to life. Merfeld pleaded guilty June 27 to solicitation to murder. MLive and the Muskegon Chronicle will cover the sentencing live online...

Ex-IRS agent sentenced to prison in murder-for-hire plot A former IRS agent who opened a tax preparation business was sentenced Friday to nearly 24 years in prison for defrauding clients out of more than $11 million and then attempting to hire a hit man to kill four of them. Steven Martinez, 51, of Ramona was sentenced in San Diego federal court to 286 months in prison and five years of supervised release. He was also ordered by District Court Judge William Hayes to forfeit all the property, including a home in Mexico, and other possessions that he purchased with clients'...

The wife of a former Kaufman County Justice of the Peace was taken into custody early Wednesday morning and charged with capital murder in relation to the deaths of Mike and Cynthia McLelland and Mark Hasse. Kim Lene Williams was arrested just before 3:00 a.m. and is now being held on a $10 million bond. Her husband, Eric Williams, was arrested on Saturday morning for allegedly making terroristic threats against city officials. He is being held behind bars on a $3 million bond. Sources told CBS 11 News that Williams is also expected to be charged with capital murder in...

A suspected hitman from the Camorra or Neapolitan Mafia has been arrested after police obtained a security video which seemingly shows him gunning down a rival mobster last December in a cheese factory as reported by ANSA: "the 20-second security-camera footage allegedly shows Gianluca Troise pursuing a member of a rival Naples mafia clan, Luigi Felaco, bringing him down with a shot, racing after him after he gets up, and finishing him off with four shots to the head." [Video] A turf war for control over drug markets in Naples, Italy between the rival Scissionisti and Di Lauro clans has...

The son of Winter Hill Gang hit man John “The Executioner” Martorano is facing armed robbery, assault and domestic violence charges stemming from assaults on his wife and a random stranger, as well as car theft during a five-day period, police and prosecutors said. “I had taken several blows to the head and was choked repeatedly,” Vincent Martorano’s wife, Dina, told Saugus officers hours after the couple fought the night of May 9 in Room 24 of the Avalon Motel on Route 1, according to her statement. Investigators said in their report, “She stated that she was afraid of him...

Jorge Vazquez, 32, is facing charges of conspiracy to commit murder, after he attempted to hire a hitman to murder his wife as a 32nd birthday present for himself.