Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty

Arthur Sackler created a family culture of secrecy, obscuring business ties and tactics—a culture that lasted for generations. Secrecy led inevitably to corruption; cutting ethical corners became a way to earn profit and avoid accountability. Early in his career, Arthur became a “silent partner” in his rival’s ad agency (49-50) and also hid his ownership of a medical newspaper that ran his agency’s ads, maximizing his client list and personal wealth while ignoring the obvious conflicts of interest. This led to other ethical lapses: Arthur’s advertising clients had close ties with the FDA, effectively neutering its regulatory control powers. Arthur’s brother Raymond and his nephew Richard later used similarly close relationships with the FDA to launch products more quickly and with less oversight: Raymond sold MS Contin before full FDA approval without repercussions, and Richard participated in creating the “package insert” for OxyContin (194-95), which made false claims about the drug’s harmlessness and duration.

The Sacklers also used secrecy to advance their personal brand as socially conscious philanthropists, loath to be fully open about their ties to Purdue. Arthur Sackler rarely publicly claimed his role in the launch of Valium, and Mortimer Sackler’s obituary “made no mention of OxyContin” (304), focusing instead on his artistic and educational giving. Madeleine Sackler made similar efforts to deny any relationship between Purdue’s role in the drug use disorder epidemic and the prisons she made documentary films about. Radden Keefe’s 2017 New Yorker profile of the family was among the first to connect the Sacklers explicitly with OxyContin and Purdue, showing just how long this habit of secrecy endured.

From the early partnership of Arthur, Raymond, and Mortimer Sackler to later generations, the Sacklers displayed a notable tendency to be a united front advocating for the family’s prosperity and survival. In early years, this sense of family loyalty was protective and part of a commitment to public service. Arthur, Raymond, and Mortimer entered into a “musketeer’s agreement” with Bill Frolich so that they would be stewards of each other’s wealth and charitable goals, so that they would not “hoard” their good fortune (51). The original purchase of Purdue was meant to help Raymond and Mortimer maintain stable careers after the Red Scare forced them out of psychiatric practice at Creedmoor.

However, this cohesion was undimmed even when it meant engaging in legally or morally suspect behavior, taking on a more complex note as Radden Keefe’s narrative turns to Richard and Kathe Sackler and their children, nieces, and nephews. Family politics often closely intersected with agency and electoral politics: Just as Arthur Sackler depended on close relationships with the FDA to cut corners, so his nephew Richard took care to reward Curtis Wright, the former official who fast-tracked the approval of OxyContin. The family lavishly rewarded personal loyalty—for instance, paying Howard Udell and his co-defendants for not testifying against the family on the witness stand.

The later generation felt that their wealth should transcend conventional civic obligations. The Sacklers wanted to be known as philanthropists, but that “the gifts be on their own terms—to the arts and sciences, with naming rights—rather than be left to the discretion of the state” (328). They avoided taxes and sought to shelter their fortune, all the while actively courting political patrons, like ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and threatening unfriendly politicians with the withholding of campaign contributions, as in the case of attorney general Richard Blumenthal. Radden Keefe strongly implies that both the Bush and Trump Justice Departments gave in to pressure to shield the family from the more serious consequences of the legal actions against them.

Testifying to Congress in 2021, David Sackler felt his family’s diminished influence after decades of public scrutiny. David encountered the open contempt of members of Congress—voices of “collective indignation” (432). Though the family successfully utilized bankruptcy court to minimize its liability, and the Department of Justice was convinced not to pursue charges, Radden Keefe argues that the dynasty’s political power is now on the wane—a good thing.

In private life, the Sacklers avoided unpleasant truths. Arthur Sackler, for example, ignored that his relationship with Marietta Lutze might not be compatible with remaining married to his first wife, until Marietta “was pregnant [and] forced a decision” (33). Decades later, Arthur refused Marietta’s requests for a divorce, planning to carry on his newest relationship while remaining married. None of the family ever mentioned Bobby Sackler after his death via drug overdose, until Kathe spoke about him briefly in 2021.

This personal preference for denial spilled over into Purdue’s corporate governance and handling of any legal or moral responsibility for the opioid use disorder epidemic. Arthur discounted the prevalence of Valium overdoses, insisting people “must have mixed it with alcohol or cocaine” (65). Later, though not all members of the family got along, they all shared in a “collective denial” of culpability for the opioid crisis: After the 2008 guilty plea in federal court, when some “revisionist voices” counseled new tactics, including a statement to show a “modicum of compassion” for those who had suffered (342-43), the family refused.

However, a long line of attorneys and journalists have tried to force accountability. Among the first was Barry Meier of the New York Times, whose investigative journalism was so effective that the Sacklers did their best to undermine his credibility. Nan Goldin’s activism, featuring art-installation protests like the pill bottle in the Sackler Wing of the Met reading, “OxyContin, prescribed for you by the Sacklers” (362), was another tangible effort to insure that the family became associated with Purdue Pharma. Maura Healey insisted on a full legal reckoning for Purdue and the Sackler family, though the results were less far-reaching than she might have hoped. Radden Keefe also faces the family’s stonewalling, as the Sacklers and their attorney, Tom Clare, insist that his journalism is fundamentally flawed and should not be published. In a way, Empire of Pain functions as a witness to other witnesses, as Radden Keefe foregrounds those who were concerned about the Sackler family’s tactics, from Senator Kefauver to present-day actors like New York Attorney General Leticia James.