Content Warning: This section includes discussions of anti-Black racism, drug addiction, murder, and violent hazing rituals.

Among the Bros describes two real and connected criminal cases that unfolded in Charleston, North Carolina. The book’s primary focus is a drug bust during which nine suspects were arrested and charged with various offenses, including trafficking and possession with intent to distribute marijuana, cocaine, and Xanax. The nine suspects were Christopher Sliker (22), Jake Poeschek (21), Daniel Katko (25), Jonathan Reams (19), Benjamin Nauss (23), Zackery Kligman (24), Samantha Hincks, Robert Liljeberg (22), and Michael Schmidt (21). Hincks, Poeschek’s girlfriend, had her charges dropped a year after the initial arrest.

Marshall, when listing the suspects, names Russell Sliker instead of Christopher. Sliker’s full name was Christopher Russell Sliker; he went by his middle name, and he died of complications from a respiratory virus in 2018. Police seized over $150,000 in pills and firearms, though Marshall notes that the true value of the pills was most likely in the millions. The quantity of Xanax seized in the bust was deliberately obscured by police.

Patrick Moffly (1992-2016) was born in Charleston, South Carolina. He, like so many young people in the area, lived with a benzodiazepine misuse disorder for several years.