Doctor Dealer: The Rise and Fall of an All-American Boy and His Multimillion-Dollar Cocaine Empire

by Mark Bowden

Doctor Dealer is the story of Larry Lavin, a bright, charismatic young man who rose from his working-class upbringing to win a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school, earn Ivy League college and dental degrees, and buy his family a house in one of Philadelphia's most exclusive suburbs. But behind the facade of his success was a dark secret -- at every step of the way he was building the foundation for a cocaine empire that would grow to generate over $60 million in annual sales. Award-winning journalist Mark Bowden tells the saga of Lavin's rise and fall with the gripping, novelistic narrative style that won him international acclaim as the author of the New York Times best-seller Black Hawk Down. "Immensely readable . . . eye-popping . . . a smoothly crafted, exciting, can't-put-it-down book." -- Louisville New Voice

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, Crime, History, Biography, Audiobook, Drugs

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Mark Bowden is an American journalist and writer. He is a former national correspondent and longtime contributor to The Atlantic. Bowden is best known for his book Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War (1999) about the 1993 U.S. military raid in Mogadishu, which was later adapted into a motion picture of the same name that received two Academy Awards.
Bowden is also known for the books Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw (2001), about the efforts to take down Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, and Hue 1968, an account of the Battle of Huế.

Reviews

[Drew Zagorski · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read several of Bowden's books - Black hawk Down, Killing Pablo and Guests of the Ayatollah, among them - and all have been riveting, and am planning to read his latest about the capture of Bin Laden. This book, however, fell short of the standards of those three in particular. Maybe it was because of the main character in this one, who from the beginning was of a criminal ilk, so to my mind, there was no fall from grace. He really wasn't the "all-American" boy, but a drug dealer and poser from the get go. It would have been a more compelling tale had he actually been a stand up guy who got onto a the slippery slope and couldn't control the descent. Or maybe it was that this was one of Bowden's earliest books so he hadn't quite honed the razor sharp story telling of the later books. Either way, I found myself counting the pages until the end of the book, and hoping to finish it quickly. Not his best - his other books are well worth reading, though.

[Julie Young Buckler · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Law Catches On, Even Eventually

This was an interesting story about drugs, money, sex and lots of greed. Sometimes things go so well for so long that one could feel impervious not just to the law, but life itself. The only problem is that with more, more, more, is unwanted attention. And that's how it did happen.

I give this book a 4.5. Definitely, I'll read other books by this author, Mark Bowden.

[Whistler's Mom · Rating 4 out of 5]

The angry sons of angry fathers.

When I read the news, I'm struck by how many young men who break the law are the sons of men who have grievances against society. Justin Lavin, Sr. was the son of a man who made a fortune and lost it in the Great Depression. Lavin returned from WWII to become a prosperous executive in the shoe industry. Then that industry moved overseas and the good times were over. He claimed he was unable to find a good job because of discrimination against Irish-American Catholics. He blamed liberal politicians, especially that Irish Catholic family who were never kept down - the Kennedys.

Out of his four children, Justin looked to his youngest son Larry to rebuild the family fortunes. Larry was smart, handsome, charming, and hard-working. A Boy Scout and an altar boy. He hustled jobs when he was a teen and talked his way into a scholarship at exclusive Phillips Exeter Academy. Both his contemporaries and adults marked him for success, but he had absorbed his father's belief that rules and laws are for losers. That brains, talent, and hard-work aren't enough. You must game the system to grab your share of the good stuff.

In his teens, Larry was caught in illegal activities, but let off with warnings. He was expelled from Exeter for drug use, but the University of Pennsylvania accepted him anyway. A plausible white kid from a "good family" can get away with a lot. Another lesson learned. Lavin started selling pot in college, then moved on to cocaine, which is less bulky and more profitable. By the time he was a dental student at Penn, he was dealing huge quantities.

He claims that he never believed he was doing anything wrong. The Vietnam War created a generation of rebels. Pot was no worse than beer. Cocaine sharpened your wits and made you feel invincible. The perfect drug for the professional class and it wasn't even addictive. Yeah, sure.

Meanwhile Larry had met a pretty girl and married her. To me, Marcia Lavin is a mystery. She was an old-fashioned girl who collected linens in a hope chest and wanted kids and a traditional marriage. Still, she lived with a drug dealer, believing that he'd quit the business as soon as he was out of school. He didn't, but she married him anyway, had one child and got pregnant with a second. When he was finally arrested, she agreed to run with him and ended up being arrested for harboring a wanted man. It wasn't until after his trial that she learned that he frequently took his buddies to Atlantic City for wild, drug-fueled parties that always included Larry's favorite hookers. The perfect family man wasn't.

The author does a fine job of telling this bizarre story. He doesn't demonize Lavin, but neither does he portray him as an innocent, well-meaning guy who fell afoul of the law through no fault of his own. He never uses the word "hubris", but we know he's writing about a man consumed and destroyed by blind, overwhelming pride. Some entertainers believe they're too big to fail. Larry Lavin thought he was too smart to fail.

Lavin and his preppy friends saw cops as dumb, unimaginative, uneducated, and poorly paid. OK for dealing with street crime, but not smart enough to catch sophisticated criminals like themselves. Famous last words. It's true that Reagan's war on drugs had done little to slow the trade. But anti-drug agencies were getting stronger and smarter and Lavin was a dream come true for them. Cops LOVE to nab high-profile criminals who will attract publicity. "The Yuppie Drug Lord" was guaranteed to get headlines.

But not all of Lavin's cohorts were college boys. Some were street-smart drop-outs. Some were drug-addled losers. Working with a wide variety of people isn't easy. Middle-class guys from Philly don't play by the same rules as South American suppliers. Some don't play by ANY rules. How do you collect your money from clients who refuse to pay? What do you do when your employees steal from you? How do you launder the money and make it look legit?

The Mafia has experience in these delicate matters, but Larry Lavin was an amateur. One of the most fascinating scenes in the book was Lavin making friends with Paco the Latin American supplier. No two men could have been more different, but they bonded over a common problem. How do you find good people to work in a risky, illegal business?

Lavin's huge ego helped him build a massive, profitable drug business. He was hooked on the adrenaline surge of the business and couldn't leave. Even after he was arrested, he believed he could escape punishment. His capture inevitable because he failed to walk away completely. All the FBI had to do was tap the phone lines of Marcia's mother and of the men who were running Larry's business. Once they knew what pay phones they were calling from, it was an easy process to find them. Lavin served over 20 years in federal prison and his wife finally divorced him.

This story is as fascinating as when the book was published in 1987. Even more fascinating is considering how little has changed. The Larry Lavins are still dealing and Americans are still buying. Different drugs, same old story. God help us.

[Amy Vien · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I could, I’d give it 3 1/2 stars. I felt like sometimes the story had too much detail that made the book go longer than necessary. And one annoying recurrence in the book was the author describing almost every woman in the book as “chubby”. (Except the “whores”. I guess they were thin.) He did it a few times with men too. No idea why the weight of these people were significant. The only time he had a point to describing a group of female students as chubby it was to then point out how desperate Larry was because he was having sex with them. Because only desperation could possibly lead a guy to have sex with a woman who wasn’t thin?! Anyway, I’m getting too worked up here. It WAS an interesting story. I’m glad I read it. It was surprising though, it was really difficult to find anything online about other “characters” in the book. I wanted updates since this story is so old. It’s like everyone mentioned in this book had the internet scrubbed. Oh well. A good story nonetheless!

[Koren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doctor Dealer by Mark Bowden
4 stars

This guy was a going to school to be a dentist and got involved with dealing marijuana, which eventually led to cocaine. He was into it big time and lots of people were involved. This is an intricate story that for me at times was kind of hard to keep all the people straight. It started to drag a bit in the middle but otherwise a well-written, interesting crime. This took place in the 80's so I think this guy must be out of prison by now. Will have to google to see.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is fairly well written and very easy to read. However, I take exception to very poor word choices on the author’s part. Referring throughout the entire book to sex workers as “whores“ is misogynistic and distasteful. Granted, this book was written in the late 1980s but it would not hurt to revisit the text and edit so as not appear so very sympathetic towards privileged drug dealers and antagonistic toward populations who have far fewer choices. I had no sympathy for Larry and his cohorts despite the author’s best efforts. Almost all of them were privileged and had opportunities available to them most people only dream of. The greed amongst these people was nauseating. These men and women came from stable backgrounds, had Ivy League educations, and could have used their talents to benefit thousands of others. They could have studied, opened dental practices, and used their spare time to travel to developing countries and help those in need like many dentists I know. Instead they were driven by greed and spurred on by their own selfish dreams. The world is not a better place because they lived in it. The only lesson I took from this book is whatever you do, don’t be like these people. 🤮 🗑

[Alysa · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/3. An interesting story but the narrative of the book was boring. It was a recitation of facts and nothing more—no emotion, etc. making the story far less compelling than it otherwise should have been. For such a juicy story, the book was mostly boring.

[bob walenski · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Mark Bowden as a writer/journalist, but this story was my least Fav of the half dozen of his books I've read. What I found 'wrong' with it was simply way, way too much detail into the drug dealings of Larry Lavin. For me it was a bit like listening to stories at a party about 'how drunk' or 'how hammered' someone else got once a long time ago. I mean seriously, kilo by kilo, trip after trip, breakdown after breakdown...my eyes were crossing! At one point when Bowden described Larry and his wife looking to move to a new apartment, he wrote an entire paragraph about an apartment they did not rent.

Don't get me wrong, one of the thigs I like about Bowden is his attention to detail and research models. But here in the name of building the legal case and describing the "Drug Empire" Lavin created, I just found it to be too much. That and the drug dealing world are not my favorite thing. It's a tough sell how nice Larry was... ...how likeable, how dynamic, how personable. To a lot of people he was a monster. His 'Empire' killed or hurt a lot of people forever.

What I liked best about the book was the way Mark Bowden put all that evil into perspective. It was a fair assessment of Larry, who stumbled into the drug world as the absolutely best person to be there at the best time. The pot culture of the 60's and early 70's morphed into the coke culture at a time when we as a world were quite naive about the dangers and harm of recreational drug use. Larry was a victim of his own success at being really really good at what he did and who he was. He could have been almost any one of us. Perhaps a bad choice here, or a bad decision there might have also allowed us to disappear down a different rabbit hole. Once he got into it, Larry was as addicted as any of his users, but he was addicted to the DEAL itself. How could he walk away from such easy wealth, on scales that boggle the mind and erase any principles or pangs of conscience.

So I guess this was a good book that i partially hated because of the detail and subject matter. It was well written, well presented at the end, and fair and balanced in the reporting. I just didn't enjoy slogging through the first 3/4 of it......perhaps if you give it a try you'll see it differently. It was jaw dropping in what it revealed and how it all happened.

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cocaine as a recreational drug. One of my key takeaways was the notion that in the late 70s and early 80s, cocaine was viewed similar to marijuana, and viewed with limited side effects or downsides. This changed, per the author, with the high-profile deaths associated with crack cocaine. The story certainly highlighted that it was possible to be highly productive while on cocaine (which is of course a highly addictive drug).

Momentum of crime. The self-declared motivation of a criminal should be taken with a grain of salt, however, Larry’s claim to just want comfortable money doesn’t seem to hold much weight. He also claims to only want enough money to pay for dental school which also seems confusing. I think the simple truth is that he enjoyed getting away with things. He enjoyed driving 100mph, enjoyed running stop signs, enjoyed the idea of being a criminal and that finally caught up with him.

Ultimate Sentence. I understand the author seemed to paint the picture that the sentencing was very harsh and was a surprise. But Larry dealt a rather substantial amount of cocaine, he falsified tax records and then he ran from the law and became a fugitive. It’s silly to think Larry’s sentencing was unfair given all of his transgressions.

Prologue. It was disappointing to me that the author chose to give away the ending in the prologue. I would have much preferred to wonder if Larry was going to get away with it instead of having that spoiled in the first chapter. Curious story telling device that I don’t think was a good one.

[Patti · Rating 2 out of 5]

Larry Lavin was a smart and charming guy who came to be a massive cocaine dealer while attending the University of Pennsylvania. After college he indulged in a hedonistic lifestyle, full of wild parties and trashed hotel rooms, but his kingpin status never seemed to interfere with his dental practice. However, good help in the cocaine business was always hard to find, especially when the employees were dipping into the product a little too much. Plus, the ineptitude of Larry’s guys who did not partake is almost unfathomable as is Larry’s trust in patently untrustworthy characters. His long-suffering wife pleaded with him for years to get out of the drug business, to no avail. There was always one more reason to stick it out a little longer. This story is immersive in a weird way, but the writing is atrocious. I get that this book was written in the 1980s, but “ahold” was not a word then, either. At times, the breezy writing style is tolerable, but the level of detail is ridiculous. The author describes what types of fish were in Larry’s home aquarium and the layout of homes Larry didn’t even buy. Who cares? And this unnecessary trivia makes me wonder about the accuracy of other minutiae, such as what Larry was wearing on any given day. Spare me.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good true crime

Larry Lavin comes across as genuinely likable. He's probably somewhere on the sociopath scale. In the book, his love of risk is a constant. He's self-absorbed and arrogant, and he repeatedly shoots himself in the foot. He couldn't see how much danger he was putting his family and himself in. He definitely never saw the awful effects of cocaine on the people who bought the stuff from the dealers he supplied.

And at the same time, he was generous, helpful and caring. Finishing dental studies at Penn was a big accomplishment. This guy was smart in so may ways. And just downright stupid in others. I did some research and was happy to find out he got paroled in 2004.

It's a well written book that kept my attention from beginning to end.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Larry Lavin is a complex drug dealer to say the least. Educated at Phillips Andover and Penn he also has a criminal side that is tempered with a congenial personality.

[john thomas donovan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bowden Always Wins in the Details

Working my way backwards through Bowden on breaks. His non-fiction is successful because of the detail. I understand Lavin better than ever.

[James S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting situation, sound writing, but way too much detail for a narrative of this scope. Here is a sampling:

She decorated the apartment cozily, painting the rooms with soothing colors, a pale blue for the living room, pale green for Larry’s office and study. There was a lot more room to work with in this apartment than there had been on Baltimore Avenue. Larry bought a much larger aquarium and filled it with tropical fish: nervous silver danios that hid in the rocks at the bottom, flat square tetras and brown-and-white clown loaches, half-inch-long rasporans of neon red and blue, and a sinister black knight fish that despite its size and martial name was soon eaten by its tank companions. Illuminated against the pale yellow kitchen wall, the blue tank water assumed a glowing aqua hue. Marcia bought a white-plumed cockatoo she named Max, and twin parrots she named Chip and Dale. The plush blue rug fit on the living room floor. They picked out and framed a piece of stretched cotton fabric that was dyed in such a way that it looked like clouds against a blue sky. That was hung behind the couch in the blue living room. On other walls she hung framed needlework of her own and art prints from art shops that she and Larry liked. To make a coffee table, Larry bought an oversized baccarat board with a glass top and set it on top of a heavy wood lobster trap he had picked up one summer in Boston for five dollars. He brought home a mirror overlaid with a reprint of an old Coca-Cola poster—from the days when Coke really had a touch of cocaine in it—that read “Relieves Fatigue, Most Refreshing Drink In The World!” Just beyond the living room was a small kitchen, and then off the kitchen a hallway led back to their bedroom and a sunny back room where Larry put a big wooden desk his older brother Paul had given him, and where Marcia put her sewing machine.

[Bea · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you like lots of detail and all the day to day conversations between coke dealers, this could be for you. I didn't hate it, but I thought there was too much detail and I had trouble keeping all the dealers, new and old, straight. This is one of those books that is interesting if you are interested in that topic. I thought Larry Lavin sounded extremely naïve, greedy and morally and ethically lacking all at the same time.
This book illustrated that people who make themselves into millionaire drug dealers are not geniuses, just nervy and smart about money. Larry seemed to be a real creep who just thought he would always get away with it and didn't think about the consequences of his actions for himself or others.
I thought the book could have been shorter. I think they covered the same time frames more than once but with different people, and sometimes that confused me. I think the book was supposed to be sympathetic to Larry Lavin, but I just don't feel a bit sorry for him. He was a jerk from start to finish.

[Kerry beerz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Zero stars. This book is so so so bad. It took me over a year to finish. This story is wild, has a lot of twists and turns, and takes place over years. Lavine develops a huge drug market in Philadelphia by the time he’s 25. The 80s, drugs, partying, rock and roll, sports, and the grandeur of being young wealthy and carefree. I’m in awe of how poorly written and boring this was.

Maybe find a better version of the story, but don’t waste your time with Bowden’s. AND he used to work for the inquire? Did anyone edit this book before it was published?

An absurd waste of time reading this.

The only thing I liked was the font.

I imagine Bowden as Charlie Day in front of his Pepe Silvia board.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed. Mark Bowden really does his research and provides a lot of detail (sometimes a little too much) and, in this case, there were a lot of details of interest. Presented as a true picture of a multi-faceted, complex man I was fascinated. Seeing the world through Larry Lavin’s eyes was quite eye opening. This was one of those books that I wanted to continue learning more after it was finished. In addition to trying to understand the drug dealer/dentist’s perspective, I was most curious about his wife. Knowing what she knew and not wanting any part of it, what not only compelled her to stay with him, but to go on the run with him as well. The psychology of this couple is mind boggling! I will definitely read more Bowman books.

[Brian Walter · Rating 1 out of 5]

Though this book is well written, and story somewhat interesting,my biggest issue with this book was that I thought the main character - the center of focus - was a complete an utter jerk. From the first story of the prank he played on a fellow roommate, I just didn't like Larry Lavigne... And not in a love to hate him sense, just in a he's a total jerk sense.

Adding to that, the story was really nothing special or nothing I hadn't heard before. I originally grabbed this due to the description of a kingpin who went on the run. Had I know that was less that a third of the book, I wouldn't have bothered.

[Paulette Illmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well-written, detailed narrative of the rise from small time college pot dealer to the fall of large-scale cocaine dealer, Larry Lavin. It is easy to see how someone would be sucked into the easy money and lavish lifestyle, especially in an age where pot smoking was considered the social norm, and how this evolved into the way cocaine use was looked upon as a status symbol of the 80's. Was justice served? I'm not so sure. It seems to me that Larry Lavin would have been better off in a rehabilitation program, where he could have eventually become a working member of society in a successful, legitimate business, rather than receiving such a lengthy prison sentence.

[Robert P. Hoffman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well written account of how Larry became a major cocaine dealer. What it shows is how inept he was, how many blunders he made, how early he was under surveillance, and how he make elementary mistakes that resulted in his being arrested after he fled.

Bowden does a great job of showing the decisions people made that caused them to beocme invovled in activities that resulted in their downfall.

Is there a larger point to all of this? No, but there shouldn't be. It is a strength of the book that Bowden is not trying to draw grand conclusions or make statements about society.

[Jon Moeller · Rating 3 out of 5]

During the summers of 1987 & 1988, I read two books that shaped my future employment. One was "Wiseguy"- the FBI story of Henry Hill & Italian mob prosecutions in NYC. The other was "Dr. Snow"- the FBI story of Dr. Larry Lavin DDS & the Philly cocaine prosecutions of the early 1980s.
Doctor Dealer is the Mark Bowden/Larry Lavin version of Dr. Snow. This book really paints Lavin and cocaine prosecutions as victims. Stick with the Dr. Snow version of the Lavin story.

[Bryan Crossley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doctor dealer is a fast paced story which follows a young guy through his undergrad journey all the through dental school to the point where he has two practices. The main problem is as the guy progresses through school and becomes a better professional he also becomes a world class coke dealer. The story starts small with dealing a few bags of weed into making deals with tons of coke worth millions of dollars!

[JoAnne Jaggers · Rating 5 out of 5]

fascinating opened my eyes to drug extent

Very interesting. I have never been exposed to drugs and I thought all drug dealers were filthy, unkempt men selling drugs for the mafia. Here was a man with extreme potential who threw his life away. Not only his life but his family’s. I soon had no sympathy for him or his wife who blindly went along with him, because she liked the excitement and wealth more than her children

[Jim Richmond · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lipstick on the pig

Interesting. Rather typical B-plus newspaper or rag reporter copywriting by Mr. Bowden. Knows a lot And obviously spent a lot of time with Larry The Pusher. Fails in his attempt to at the same time make Larry seem like a swell fellow - generous, forgiving, family man. I grew tired of the apologia about the same time with the confusing story line.

[Anne M. Kelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing story!

I could not stop reading this story. It is unfathomable to me the ends to which this guy went to manage a multi million drug business all the while he was in dental school. I found Larry Lavins FB profile while I was reading this story. It gave a bit away but honestly, this guy could not help himself.

[G · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insider's look at the drug distribution world

I would have given 5 stars except for the author's Afterword. He seemed to be making excuses for Larry, just as Larry did for himself. I have no sympathy for Larry or his gaggle of druggie friends. It is astounding how supposedly intelligent people can allow their greed to override common sense. They got what they deserved.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wanted and expected this to be something like American Kingpin but wasn’t anywhere close. Certainly a fascinating and depressing story of someone so talented and capable who chose to use that to hurt so many people starting with his own family. Wasn’t told in the same exciting way as Kingpin nor was it as captivating of a story.

[David Shallenberger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This really reads almost like a novel, much like The Last Stone. I truly enjoy Bowden’s books, but these two are probably my favorites.

With this tale being told from the perspective of the criminal as opposed to the investigators, it changes the emotional response to the tale. A change that frankly I enjoyed, it was like rooting for the underdog in a way.

[John Lyman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super interesting story of Larry Lavin's rise and fall. Much better read than Bowden's Killing Pablo, more straightforward and smooth. A great read for anyone who ever purchased marijuana or cocaine illegally and an even better read for those who dipped their toes into sales.

[Charlene McGrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very facinating

Mark Bowden did a great job of putting all the pieces of the story together. It was a different time in the 80s. Larry seemed to be a very likable guy just trying to make money for school & life.