My
newest guide, LETHAL DOSES: The Story Behind the Godfather of Fentanyl was launched Tuesday, August 27, 2024. It’s the true story of the person DEA referred to as “the perfect and most harmful clandestine chemist” the company ever encountered. George Erik “Squeak” Marquardt, a highschool dropout and self-taught “chemistry genius,” grew to become knowledgeable legal at age twelve and, within the sixty years after that, had “no occupation aside from being a drug producer.” He spent greater than half of these years in state or federal prisons, however even there, he adopted his commerce, establishing unlawful drug labs whereas in correctional services in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Indiana. He manufactured LSD for Timothy Leary, Janis Joplin, and the Grateful Useless, methamphetamine for outlaw motorbike gangs, nerve fuel for Idaho Nazis, and even lifesaving AZT for AIDS sufferers who couldn’t afford it.
Most of what Individuals find out about clandestine chemistry comes from the hit tv sequence Breaking Dangerous, and Squeak has been referred to as “the actual Walter White” within the media. A Every day Mail article right here, for instance. However how does the fictional Walter White measure up in opposition to the real-life clandestine chemist from Deadly Doses?
On these pages, we’ll take an in depth have a look at probably the most well-known fictional clandestine chemist in historical past, Walter “Heisenberg” White, from the best present in tv historical past, Breaking Dangerous. We’ll pit Heisenberg in opposition to the “most harmful” clandestine chemist DEA has ever encountered, George Erik “Squeak” Marquardt. We’ll do that within the type of a face-offin a world championship prize combat the place just one man can emerge with the win.
And this is not an effort to glorify Erik Marquardt, who admitted his actions had been “evil.” What I wish to do and hope I succeed, is to teach everybody concerning the realities of underground drug manufacturing within the age of fentanyl, and to provide followers of Breaking Dangerous a brand new perspective and higher understanding of the clandestine chemistry that’s the coronary heart of the present’s premise.
If you have not watched Breaking Dangerous, you should cease studying this web page and positively do not go on to Spherical Considered one of our matchup between fictional Walter White and real-life George Erik Marquardt. It is nothing however spoilers from right here on out as we study clandestine chemistry, crime, drug trafficking, and drug enforcement by means of the lens of those two fascinating characters.
Breaking Dangerous, the AMC sequence that lasted 5 seasons between 2008 and 2013 is extensively considered considered one of, if not THE greatest tv present in historical past. IMDB has it at Quantity One, and in 2013, Guinness World Information named it probably the most critically acclaimed TV present of all time. Rotten Tomatoes polled critics in 2023 they usually ranked it as the perfect TV sequence of the previous 25 years and rated it the #1 present that outlined the 2000s.
The present received quite a few awards, together with 16 Prime Time Emmys, two Golden Globe Awards, two Peabody Awards, and two Critics Alternative Awards. Lead actor Bryan Cranston, starring as Walter White, was chosen 4 occasions because the Excellent Lead Actor in a Drama Collection.
It was nice stuff, and it launched America and the world to clandestine chemistry, however how does fiction arise in opposition to actuality?
If you have not watched Breaking Dangerous, go do it, then come again right here and study extra concerning the present, underground chemistry, drug trafficking, and drug enforcement as Walt faces off in opposition to the person DEA referred to as “the perfect and most harmful clandestine chemist” the company ever encountered.
When you’ve got watched the present, keep right here and go on to Spherical One to see how “Heisenberg” Walter White fares in opposition to his real-life opponent from Deadly Doses: The Story Behind the Godfather of Fentanyl.
