My
latest book, LETHAL DOSES: The Story Behind the Godfather of Fentanyl was released Tuesday, August 27, 2024. It’s the true story of the man DEA called “the best and most dangerous clandestine chemist” the agency ever encountered. George Erik “Squeak” Marquardt, a high school dropout and self-taught “chemistry genius,” became a professional criminal at age twelve and, in the sixty years after that, had “no occupation other than being a drug manufacturer.” He spent more than half of those years in state or federal prisons, but even there, he followed his trade, setting up illegal drug labs while in correctional facilities in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Indiana. He manufactured LSD for Timothy Leary, Janis Joplin, and the Grateful Dead, methamphetamine for outlaw motorcycle gangs, nerve gas for Idaho Nazis, and even lifesaving AZT for AIDS patients who couldn’t afford it.
Most of what Americans know about clandestine chemistry comes from the hit television series Breaking Bad, and Squeak has been called “the real Walter White” in the media. A Daily Mail article here, for example. But how does the fictional Walter White measure up against the real-life clandestine chemist from Lethal Doses?
On these pages, we’ll take a close look at the most famous fictional clandestine chemist in history, Walter “Heisenberg” White, from the greatest show in television history, Breaking Bad. We’re going to pit Heisenberg against the “most dangerous” clandestine chemist DEA has ever encountered, George Erik “Squeak” Marquardt. We’ll do this in the form of a face-offin a world championship prize fight where only one man can emerge with the win.
And this isn’t an effort to glorify Erik Marquardt, who admitted his actions were “evil.” What I want to do and hope I succeed, is to educate everyone about the realities of underground drug manufacturing in the age of fentanyl, and to give fans of Breaking Bad a new perspective and better understanding of the clandestine chemistry that is the heart of the show’s premise.
If you haven’t watched Breaking Bad, you need to stop reading this page and definitely don’t go on to Round One of our matchup between fictional Walter White and real-life George Erik Marquardt. It’s nothing but spoilers from here on out as we examine clandestine chemistry, crime, drug trafficking, and drug enforcement through the lens of these two fascinating characters.
Breaking Bad, the AMC series that lasted five seasons between 2008 and 2013 is widely regarded as one of, if not THE best television show in history. IMDB has it at Number One, and in 2013, Guinness World Records named it the most critically acclaimed TV show of all time. Rotten Tomatoes polled critics in 2023 and they ranked it as the best TV series of the past 25 years and rated it the #1 show that defined the 2000s.
The show won numerous awards, including 16 Prime Time Emmys, two Golden Globe Awards, two Peabody Awards, and two Critics Choice Awards. Lead actor Bryan Cranston, starring as Walter White, was selected four times as the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.
It was great stuff, and it introduced America and the world to clandestine chemistry, but how does fiction stand up against reality?
If you haven’t watched Breaking Bad, go do it, then come back here and learn more about the show, underground chemistry, drug trafficking, and drug enforcement as Walt faces off against the man DEA called “the best and most dangerous clandestine chemist” the agency ever encountered.
If you have watched the show, stay here and go on to Round One to see how “Heisenberg” Walter White fares against his real-life opponent from Lethal Doses: The Story Behind the Godfather of Fentanyl.
