Historical
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Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • A grand, devastating portrait of three generations of the Sackler family, famed for their philanthropy, whose fortune was built by Valium and whose reputation was destroyed by OxyContin. From the prize-winning and bestselling author of Say Nothing, as featured in the HBO documentary Crime of the Century.
The Sackler name adorns the walls of many storied institutions-Harvard, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oxford, the Louvre. They are one of the richest families in the world, known for their lavish donations to the arts and the sciences. The source of the family fortune was vague, however, until it emerged that the Sacklers were responsible for making and marketing a blockbuster painkiller that was the catalyst for the opioid crisis.
Empire of Pain begins with the story of three doctor brothers, Raymond, Mortimer and the incalculably energetic Arthur, who weathered the poverty of the Great Depression and appalling anti-Semitism. Working at a barbaric mental institution, Arthur saw a better way and conducted groundbreaking research into drug treatments. He also had a genius for marketing, especially for pharmaceuticals, and bought a small ad firm.
Arthur devised the marketing for Valium, and built the first great Sackler fortune. He purchased a drug manufacturer, Purdue Frederick, which would be run by Raymond and Mortimer. The brothers began collecting art, and wives, and grand residences in exotic locales. Their children and grandchildren grew up in luxury.
Forty years later, Raymond's son Richard ran the family-owned Purdue. The template Arthur Sackler created to sell Valium-co-opting doctors, influencing the FDA, downplaying the drug's addictiveness-was employed to launch a far more potent product: OxyContin. The drug went on to generate some thirty-five billion dollars in revenue, and to launch a public health crisis in which hundreds of thousands would die.
This is the saga of three generations of a single family and the mark they would leave on the world, a tale that moves from the bustling streets of early twentieth-century Brooklyn to the seaside palaces of Greenwich, Connecticut, and Cap d'Antibes to the corridors of power in Washington, D.C. Empire of Pain chronicles the multiple investigations of the Sacklers and their company, and the scorched-earth legal tactics that the family has used to evade accountability. The history of the Sackler dynasty is rife with drama-baroque personal lives; bitter disputes over estates; fistfights in boardrooms; glittering art collections; Machiavellian courtroom maneuvers; and the calculated use of money to burnish reputations and crush the less powerful.
Empire of Pain is a masterpiece of narrative reporting and writing, exhaustively documented and ferociously compelling. It is a portrait of the excesses of America's second Gilded Age, a study of impunity among the super elite and a relentless investigation of the naked greed and indifference to human suffering that built one of the world's great fortunes.
The Sackler name adorns the walls of many storied institutions-Harvard, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oxford, the Louvre. They are one of the richest families in the world, known for their lavish donations to the arts and the sciences. The source of the family fortune was vague, however, until it emerged that the Sacklers were responsible for making and marketing a blockbuster painkiller that was the catalyst for the opioid crisis.
Empire of Pain begins with the story of three doctor brothers, Raymond, Mortimer and the incalculably energetic Arthur, who weathered the poverty of the Great Depression and appalling anti-Semitism. Working at a barbaric mental institution, Arthur saw a better way and conducted groundbreaking research into drug treatments. He also had a genius for marketing, especially for pharmaceuticals, and bought a small ad firm.
Arthur devised the marketing for Valium, and built the first great Sackler fortune. He purchased a drug manufacturer, Purdue Frederick, which would be run by Raymond and Mortimer. The brothers began collecting art, and wives, and grand residences in exotic locales. Their children and grandchildren grew up in luxury.
Forty years later, Raymond's son Richard ran the family-owned Purdue. The template Arthur Sackler created to sell Valium-co-opting doctors, influencing the FDA, downplaying the drug's addictiveness-was employed to launch a far more potent product: OxyContin. The drug went on to generate some thirty-five billion dollars in revenue, and to launch a public health crisis in which hundreds of thousands would die.
This is the saga of three generations of a single family and the mark they would leave on the world, a tale that moves from the bustling streets of early twentieth-century Brooklyn to the seaside palaces of Greenwich, Connecticut, and Cap d'Antibes to the corridors of power in Washington, D.C. Empire of Pain chronicles the multiple investigations of the Sacklers and their company, and the scorched-earth legal tactics that the family has used to evade accountability. The history of the Sackler dynasty is rife with drama-baroque personal lives; bitter disputes over estates; fistfights in boardrooms; glittering art collections; Machiavellian courtroom maneuvers; and the calculated use of money to burnish reputations and crush the less powerful.
Empire of Pain is a masterpiece of narrative reporting and writing, exhaustively documented and ferociously compelling. It is a portrait of the excesses of America's second Gilded Age, a study of impunity among the super elite and a relentless investigation of the naked greed and indifference to human suffering that built one of the world's great fortunes.
Editorial Reviews
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • ON PRESIDENT OBAMA'S 2021 READING LIST
"I read everything he writes. Every time he writes a book, I read it. Every time he writes an article, I read it … he's a national treasure." - Rachel Maddow, host of MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show" and author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Blowout
"An engrossing (and frequently enraging) tale of striving, secrecy and self-delusion….Keefe nimbly guides us through the thicket of family intrigues and betrayals… Even when detailing the most sordid episodes, Keefe's narrative voice is calm and admirably restrained, allowing his prodigious reporting to speak for itself. His portrait of the family is all the more damning for its stark lucidity." - Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times
"A true tragedy in multiple acts. It is the story of a family that lost its moorings and its morals… Written with novelistic family-dynasty and family-dynamic sweep, EMPIRE OF PAIN is a pharmaceutical FORSYTHE SAGA, a book that in its way is addictive, with a page-turning forward momentum." - David M. Shribman, The Boston Globe
"A brutal, multigenerational treatment of the Sackler family… Keefe deepens the narrative by tracing the family's ambitions and ruthless methods back to the founding patriarch, Arthur Sackler…His life might be a model for the American dream, if it hadn't arguably laid the foundations for a still-unfolding national tragedy." - Brian Mann, NPR.org
"The opioid epidemic has killed nearly half a million Americans over the past two decades. Many of their loved ones, along with public health advocates and experts, believe that one very rich, very famous family has never fully faced the consequences for its role in those deaths. EMPIRE OF PAIN, the explosive new book by journalist Patrick Radden Keefe, is an attempt to change that - to hold the family accountable in a way that nobody has quite done before, by telling its story as the saga of a dynasty driven by arrogance, avarice and indifference to mass suffering…. Keefe marshals a large pile of evidence and deploys it with prosecutorial precision. Keefe is a gifted storyteller who excels at capturing personalities." - Jonathan Cohn, The Washington Post
"Empire of Pain reads like a real-life thriller, a page-turner, a deeply shocking dissection of avarice and calculated callousness… It is the measure of great and fearless investigative writing that it achieves retribution where the law could not….Exhaustively researched and written with grace and gravity, Empire of Pain unpeels a most terrible American scandal. You feel almost guilty for enjoying it so much." - The Times (London)
"...
"I read everything he writes. Every time he writes a book, I read it. Every time he writes an article, I read it … he's a national treasure." - Rachel Maddow, host of MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show" and author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Blowout
"An engrossing (and frequently enraging) tale of striving, secrecy and self-delusion….Keefe nimbly guides us through the thicket of family intrigues and betrayals… Even when detailing the most sordid episodes, Keefe's narrative voice is calm and admirably restrained, allowing his prodigious reporting to speak for itself. His portrait of the family is all the more damning for its stark lucidity." - Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times
"A true tragedy in multiple acts. It is the story of a family that lost its moorings and its morals… Written with novelistic family-dynasty and family-dynamic sweep, EMPIRE OF PAIN is a pharmaceutical FORSYTHE SAGA, a book that in its way is addictive, with a page-turning forward momentum." - David M. Shribman, The Boston Globe
"A brutal, multigenerational treatment of the Sackler family… Keefe deepens the narrative by tracing the family's ambitions and ruthless methods back to the founding patriarch, Arthur Sackler…His life might be a model for the American dream, if it hadn't arguably laid the foundations for a still-unfolding national tragedy." - Brian Mann, NPR.org
"The opioid epidemic has killed nearly half a million Americans over the past two decades. Many of their loved ones, along with public health advocates and experts, believe that one very rich, very famous family has never fully faced the consequences for its role in those deaths. EMPIRE OF PAIN, the explosive new book by journalist Patrick Radden Keefe, is an attempt to change that - to hold the family accountable in a way that nobody has quite done before, by telling its story as the saga of a dynasty driven by arrogance, avarice and indifference to mass suffering…. Keefe marshals a large pile of evidence and deploys it with prosecutorial precision. Keefe is a gifted storyteller who excels at capturing personalities." - Jonathan Cohn, The Washington Post
"Empire of Pain reads like a real-life thriller, a page-turner, a deeply shocking dissection of avarice and calculated callousness… It is the measure of great and fearless investigative writing that it achieves retribution where the law could not….Exhaustively researched and written with grace and gravity, Empire of Pain unpeels a most terrible American scandal. You feel almost guilty for enjoying it so much." - The Times (London)
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Readers Top Reviews
Leah DicksteinKennet
Yes it will make your blood boil and yes it’s still worth reading. I’ll definitely be looking into PAIN after this.
HR
I have been eagerly waiting for Mr. Radden Keefe's book the moment I finished his last novel, Say Nothing. If I could give this book and all of his books ten stars I would. The Washington Post said it best in their recent book review: "Keefe is a gifted storyteller who excels at capturing personalities, which is no small thing given that the Sacklers didn’t provide access." He is a beautiful story teller and in every page you feel as if you are in the room living the moments he is recreating. You will not be disappointed by this book (or any of his books). He is a brilliant and talented writer and devoured this book the moment it was delivered. You will not be disappointed in reading anything Mr. Radden Keefe writes! His books are simply outstanding.
Shadysix78
This book gives a glimpse into the underworld of the pharmaceutical industry. But more than that I believe it truly explains how the world really works. Its focus is the Sackler family and the shady dealings of Big Pharma. But if you step back and look at the big picture it explains how these billionaires run everything. Anything that needs big money backing. Politics and politicians are bought and paid for just like this book lays out. Hell these companies write their own laws for Christ sakes. Great read that gives you a rare glimpse into how the World not just the pharmaceutical world truly operates. Just read this book fantastic journalism that is rare these days.
Michele Bair
This is the story of 4 generations of one American family, the Sacklers, it's not meant to document the Opiod Epidemic that has cost our country 500 thousand lives and 2 trillion dollars, as such it reads like a novel in some places, especially the opening chapter, and a morality play througout. Though I am grateful to Keefe for writing this book and attempting to hold this "pure evil" family to account I am devastated that they clearly seem to have gotten away with it all. Sackler Family sold 40 billion dollars worth of highly addictive poison, cleared about 12 billion of that in cash, funneled billions offshore stripping Purdue Pharma of most of its meaningful assets, then declared bankruptcy leaving less than a billion or so to cover damages from Maine to California. I share the author's hope that this book will inspire others to read the archive and tell this story someday. We can't bring back the lives of so many who were so cruelly taken. We can't hold those to account who profited so cruelly from the lies they told us so expertly. But we can still tell this story in the hope that the next Sackler family won't be able to get away with all of it - next time. And we need to tell this story for the half a million Americans who seemed to have paid for the Sackler Family Trust Funds with their lives.
gammyjill
The overdoses and deaths came early. Having been introduced to medical doctors in the mid to late 1990’s, the super strong pain medicine, OxyContin, quickly became the drug of choice to give those dying in great pain from cancer. But OxyContin soon led to chronic abuse among those seeking the highs of street drugs. What was OxyContin and who was behind the mounting death toll? In his new book, “Empire of Pain”, author Patrick Radden Keefe, takes the reader behind the scenes to the ultra-secretive Sackler family. When (and if) you to the Smithsonian Museum, you’ll see huge Sackler Gallery, dedicated to Asian Art. There are similar rooms filled with donations at prestigious colleges and museums, mostly in the northeast. They were gifts given by members of the Sackler family. The three brothers, Arthur, Mortimer, and Raymond, were sons of a Jewish immigrant family. The brothers all became doctors and were primarily interested in psychiatry. But they ended up leaving the treatment of patients for the more lucrative business of...business. The three - but in particular, Arthur - founded drug advertising agencies, and then drug companies. They produced some good sellers, like Senokot, but hit the big time with the development of the incredibly strong pain killer, OxyContin. It was sold as specifically “non addictive”. But, it was addictive and large swathes of the United States were soon hotspots in the distribution and use of the drug. Patrick Radden Keefe looks at both the family and company behind the OxyContin debacle. He’s an excellent writer and makes the medical and business details easy to understand. There have been books about the drug, but mainly on how it’s introduction to the steel towns of Pennsylvania and the “hollers” of West Virginia and Kentucky and how it’s use has affected millions of people who became addicted to the supposedly “non addictive” drug. Keefe’s book puts it all together.
