Had things gone a different way, Robert Jenkins might be living a plush life of retirement these days. He was, after all, the "King of X"—as in the drug MDMA, or ecstasy—back in the 1980s in Dallas, as an entertaining profile in Texas Monthly explains. Instead, the 65-year-old lives in a converted bus, though one parked at a lovely spot in central Texas with a view of the San Marcus River. Jenkins recounts his story with an "impish grin" and no regrets. "To a visitor sitting with him in this bucolic setting that doubles as his backyard, the world he describes can be disorienting," writes Tom Foster. "This affable guy, who does odd jobs to supplement his Social Security checks and lives quietly on the fringe of society, did what?"
What he did centers on the legendary and long-gone Starck Club of Dallas, where MDMA was in heavy use—those in the know could even get it from bartenders. Jenkins took note of ecstasy's booming popularity, especially when the DEA made it illegal in 1985. Knowing that move would make the drug even more profitable, he teamed with others and scaled-up production. He built an "empire of ecstasy," per the story, which observes that his "life is an all-American story of entrepreneurship, moral flexibility, and the heedless pursuit of happiness."
For Jenkins, though, the high life came crashing to a halt when he served nearly two years in prison and turned away from crime upon his release. He's OK with how things have turned out, even if his current life as an ex-con living in a bus by a river doesn't look like much to others. After all, "he's always lived on his terms, and he's the one sitting there with the million-dollar view."
(Read the full story, which details the colorful crew Jenkins ran with.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
