"Dread Pirate Roberts", the man who operated the darknet website 'Silk Road', was Ross Ulbricht. He was jailed for running the infamous 'Silk Road' market. The 'Silk Road' was shut down by FBI and Europol in November 2013. It was an online black market and the first modern darknet market, best known as a platform for selling illegal drugs.

Ross Ulbricht was born in 1984 in Austin, Texas. He grew up in the state of Texas and attended Westlake High School, a public school in Austin. Penn State University (2009) and the University of Texas at Dallas (2006) provided his higher education.

Ulbricht is best known for creating and running the 'Silk Road' market from 2011 to 2013. He was arrested in 2013, and two years later a Manhattan federal jury found him guilty on seven charges including conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy to commit computer hacking, conspiracy to traffic narcotics by the means of the internet and continuing a criminal enterprise. Ulbricht, a first-time offender, was not convicted of actually selling illegal drugs and other items himself, but of creating and operating a site where others did. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Ulbricht liked using the pseudonym "Dread Pirate Roberts" online. This was the identity assumed by fictional characters in the novel "The Princess Bride" (1973) and its 1987 film adaptation.

Despite his crimes, Ulbricht has become a folk hero in libertarian and crypto circles. He is trying hard to appeal his sentence.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org