Among the Bros: A Fraternity Crime Story

Marshall, researching for this book, gets Mikey’s contraband prison phone number, and the two start talking. They discuss who Mikey believes killed Patrick Moffly, and Mikey tells Marshall to cast a wide net as he investigates.

They talk about the KA members who died in 2011 and 2012: Hawkins had dependency issues with Xanax and Oxycodone, though his cause of death is not mentioned in his obituary; Spencer fell off a roof; Ryan died in his apartment. KA members at C of C threw parties to commemorate them, but the college administrators did not investigate any of the deaths because the boys who died were either no longer KA members or C of C students when they died. They also all died off campus. Hawkins’s Xanax dependency made some KAs reconsider the culture of Xanax use, but no formal changes were made. 

Xanax, or alprazolam, is typically used to treat panic attacks. It usually comes in a 2mg rectangle, or “bar,” that can be divided into 0.5mg quarter bars, colloquially called “QBs.” Marshall's friends used it in college as a hangover cure. Xanax lowers anxiety, breathing rate, blood pressure, and heart rate. C of C alumni describe taking Xanax “on nights before tests when they couldn’t sleep, on mornings after breakups with their high school girlfriends, and before parties when they wanted to feel chill” (85). Students access Xanax by getting a prescription or through a black-market dealer.

The first time Mikey takes Xanax, he is unaware that he has taken it. He blacks out and does not remember the rest of the night. For the rest of his first year of college, he does not take it again. He continues to deal weed and party with other KA members. He loses interest in school and, when his GPA drops below 2.4, he quits college and moves back to Atlanta with his mother. 

Marshall loses touch with Mikey after their first phone conversation in 2020. He checks South Carolina’s Incarcerated Inmate Search database and learns that Mikey has received disciplinary sanctions for “two counts of marijuana use and one count of cell phone possession” (88).

Rob starts his third year at C of C while Mikey is at home in Georgia. Mikey starts dating Alexis, a high school senior. His mom and stepdad insist that he get a job if he wants to continue living with them. He starts working as a valet at a local nightclub called Tongue and Groove. Mikey resents being treated like a servant and has a hard time being away from his best friend, Rob. Rob is doing well socially as a KA, and he is also thriving in his academics and in student government. C of C becomes more progressive, but frats remain very conservative. KAs often fly Confederate flags and recite chants like “One, two, three, Robert E. Lee! Three, two, one, South shoulda won!” (95). 

While Rob continues to deal weed, wealthier SAE fraternity members begin selling black-market Xanax, which they buy from pharmaceutical portals on the dark web. Many get their Xanax supply from Zack Kligman, who is not a C of C student. Rob realizes that Xanax is lightweight and has no smell, making it easier to smuggle than weed. There is also no trafficking-level charge for alprazolam in South Carolina.

Xanax skyrockets in popularity at C of C because it can enhance the effects of alcohol, marijuana, and drugs like cocaine. Different combinations yield different results. Friends even slip Xanax into each other’s drinks, a maneuver called a “QB Sneak.” In 2014, Rob becomes the president of the C of C KA chapter, giving him power over many aspects of KA life, including the responsibility to stop hazing. Mikey starts making connections at Tongue and Grove; he befriends Biscuit, a regular with ties to the music industry.

Mikey begins working with Biscuit. They coordinate rap shows at college fraternities, and Mikey befriends rapper Waka Flocka Flame. Johnny Drama, the foremost Xanax dealer in Charleston, is busted by police and stops selling Xanax for good. Zack Kligman steps up to fill the vacuum left behind. He earns the nickname “Charleston Kingpin.” He was arrested once in 2011 at the age of 19 with “a jar of weed, five bags of molly powder, a book of drug ledgers, and a pack of LSD gummies” (112) in his car, but the charges were dismissed. Despite some subsequent arrests, when he starts dealing Xanax in 2013, he has “never been convicted of a crime” (112). Though Zack deals all kinds of drugs, Xanax becomes his specialty. Ben Nauss, Russell Sliker, and Rob all deal for him. 

As president of the C of C KA chapter, Rob improves the fraternity’s finances, allowing them to throw better parties. He also buys bulk orders of Xanax from Zack and sells them to smaller dealers on campus. He begins working with Mikey in Atlanta. In addition to dealing Xanax at C of C, Rob sends Xanax to Atlanta for Mikey to sell, and Mikey sells the pills to other college campuses in the South. Between the two of them, Rob and Mikey sell 10,000 bars of Xanax per week. They make a huge amount of money, and Mikey quits his job at Tongue and Groove. On campuses, more and more students develop a dependency on alprazolam. Many black out on Xanax rather than risk the social ostracization of refusing to party.

Marshall asks KA alumni if they ever spiked alcoholic punch with Xanax at parties, or if they used Xanax as a date rape drug. Everyone insists they would not “do that with women” and “didn’t want to waste the Xanax” (119). However, many women who attended C of C confirm that KA boys did spike the punch at parties. Strangely, KA members willingly drank their own spiked punch; they “roofied their victims and themselves” (120), giving them plausible deniability when confronted.