Among the Bros: A Fraternity Crime Story

Mikey Schmidt is the central figure in Among the Bros. He is a short young man with the nickname “Little Mikey.” He starts dealing weed in high school, and he chooses his college based primarily on its fraternity and party culture.

He attends C of C for a year, during which he befriends Rob Liljeberg and joins KA. He goes through a rough hazing process and starts dealing weed, Xanax, and eventually cocaine to the other students. Studying does not interest him; he uses his time at C of C to party and to take and deal drugs, dropping out after one year. He maintains his connections to KA after his departure, and his friendship with Rob allows him to establish a massive drug operation selling to college students at C of C and beyond. Mikey is outgoing and ambitious, which allows him to make many connections in the music industry and also puts him in touch with suppliers who give him a good price for cocaine. At the height of his success, Mikey manages to make over a million dollars.

As a young wealthy white man, Mikey generally assumes that he is immune to any legal consequences for his actions; indeed, the first few times he gets arrested, he manages to avoid charges. However, Mikey is actually taking on much more risk than most of the other people involved in the drug ring because he interacts directly with cartel-linked suppliers. That means he cannot become a police informant without risking being murdered. Of the people arrested for the drug ring, Mikey gets by far the harshest sentence, serving 10 years in prison. He agrees to speak directly with Max Marshall on a contraband cell phone. He is deeply resentful of Rob, who informed on him and then got a comparatively light prison sentence.

Rob Liljeberg III, or Rob, is Mikey’s best friend and fellow Kappa Alpha member. He grew up in a wealthy family in North Carolina. Before attending C of C, he attended Elmhurst College in Connecticut. He started at C of C in 2012 and met Mikey the following year.

Rob convinces Mikey to join KA over SAE, and the two form a close bond during Mikey’s only year at C of C. Unlike Mikey, Rob carefully hides his wealth, operating from a behind-the-scenes drug dealing position that generates less suspicion. In addition to being a successful college drug dealer, Rob is also a successful student and a member of student government. He takes on a leadership role at KA, improving the frat’s finances and using the KA books to launder money. Rob is the link between Zack and Mikey: Mikey sells him cocaine, Zack sells him Xanax, and he operates as a middle man to trade the drugs between Mikey, Zack, and other dealers. 

When Rob sells Mikey out to the police, he reveals that the loyalty and brotherhood that fraternities are supposedly built on have limits: He is willing to betray Mikey if it means limiting his own jail time. Marshall admits that although this betrayal initially shocked him, it does ultimately make sense. Mikey, on the other hand, is completely unwilling to forgive Rob and finds the betrayal very painful to talk about. For Rob, informing on Mikey does pay off. Despite being 26 at the time of his sentencing, Rob serves 24 months in a youth correctional facility for 18-to-25-year-olds.

Upon his release, he is able to get a job working for a medical supply company, in an ironic twist. The consequences of his involvement in trafficking alprazolam and cocaine do not ruin his life, as they do to Charles and Mikey.

Zackery Kligman is one of the few young men involved in the drugs bust who was not a college student. He was arrested at the ages of 19 and 21 for drug possession, but he was not convicted. Zack begins dealing drugs like weed and Xanax to college students and, following the arrests of two local Xanax suppliers, becomes the biggest alprazolam dealer in Charleston.

Despite his youth, Zack is known as the “Kingpin of Charleston.” He presses his own alprazolam pills, which is cheaper than buying Pfizer Xanax on the black market. Zack never meets Mikey, but he ends up selling Mikey’s cocaine in Charleston through Rob. Of all the young men arrested for drug trafficking, Zack is arrested for possession of the largest quantity of Xanax pills: 6,947.62 grams. He is never charged for possession of these pills, and police do not reveal their existence during the press conference they give about the bust. Zack gets certain privileges because, like Rob, he becomes a police informant. Zack leads the police to Rob, who leads them to Mikey.

Like Rob, Zack faces relatively light consequences for his role in the trafficking ring. He is sentenced to two years of probation for possession of Xanax and cocaine, and he serves no jail time. Mikey tells Marshall that Zack is “very special” and has clearly “learned the perfect formula for the system” (270). Even when Mikey’s lawyer, Tim Kulp, suggests that Zack may have had something to do with Patrick Moffly’s death, police refuse to investigate him further. He seems untouchable, even though he does not come from a wealthy family like Mikey and Rob do. Marshall never really discovers how Zack has managed to avoid consequences for his actions, as Zack refuses to be interviewed for the book.

Patrick Moffly is from Charleston, South Carolina. He comes from a wealthy family, and he throws raucous parties on his family’s property during his high school years. He is a gregarious, enthusiastic young man with lots of big plans that he does not always follow through on.

According to his family and friends, Patrick experienced anxiety and depression when he was growing up, sometimes going through weeks-long depressive episodes and self-medicating with Xanax. As he gets older, he tries several times to quit using Xanax, but the withdrawal is extremely challenging. Eventually, Patrick starts dealing Xanax at C of C as part of the same drug ring that Mikey, Rob, and Zack take part in. His own substance misuse becomes harder for him to manage in the final months of his life.

On March 4th, 2016, Patrick is shot and killed in connection to his Xanax dealing. The exact circumstances surrounding his murder remain unclear at the end of Among the Bros; Charles Mungin is convicted of killing him, but Marshall raises some questions about Zack Kligman’s involvement in the crime. Patrick is not a major character in Among the Bros, even though his murder is the catalyst for the downfall of the entire drug ring. He knew Zack Kligman, but he never met Rob or Mikey. Like the young KA members who died, Patrick’s death does not immediately change anything; people keep partying, and his own roommates leave for spring break immediately after he dies.