The frat omertà: Whistleblower warns of ‘code of silence’ after Ole Miss deaths, alleged Penn State coke ring

"You need a code of omertà if you're trying to create an organization that's essentially like a criminal organization," Andrew Lohse said.

Lohse, a 36-year-old fraternity hazing survivor and the author of "Confessions of an Ivy League Frat Boy," was talking about fraternities.

As a Dartmouth student, the whistleblower exposed the stomach-turning indoctrination rituals he said he endured inside Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

Robert Strang, 20, an Ole Miss student, was found dead this week. (Strang Family)

When recent headlines came to light regarding the mysterious deaths of two students at Ole Miss — one of whom was in a fraternity — and the alleged frat cocaine distribution ring at Penn State, Lohse said he was immediately reminded of his time as a brother.

"For years and years, [the last] 10 years, it's like whenever someone dies in a frat, like that's when my phone rings," Lohse told Fox News Digital.

One of the Ole Miss students who was found dead this past week, Ryan Strang, was a Phi Delta Theta fraternity brother. He was found at an off-campus home. Authorities found packages of kratom, a commercially available drug that has been derided as "gas station heroin," at the sites of both deaths. However, its role in either death was not immediately clear.

Phi Delta Theta has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

The Phi Delta Theta fraternity house on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Miss., Sept. 24, 2026. Black ribbons are tied to the columns of the porch in memory of a fraternity member, 20-year-old Robert Strang from Atlanta. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)

"The loss of two young lives is a profound tragedy," the fraternity said in a statement, in part. "Phi Delta Theta joins the University of Mississippi and the broader Ole Miss community in mourning Robert and Aidan Hamilton and extending our deepest sympathies to their families, friends, chapter brothers, classmates, and all those who knew and loved them.

"These losses reinforce the importance of a collective commitment to health, safety, and well-being on college campuses today. We encourage the Phi Delta Theta community to keep the Strang family, the Mississippi Alpha Chapter, and everyone affected by these tragic losses in their thoughts."

Dangers like kratom did not exist when Lohse was in school, he said.

"There was no kratom, no tranq, no smoking bath salts, no fentanyl. Back then, the cocaine was more or less just cocaine. It wasn't like every time somebody did cocaine they could die."

At Penn State, prosecutors allege in court documents that pledges were coerced into cutting and packaging cocaine as part of an alleged organized drug ring led by former Sigma Chi member Agostino Abbatiello.

Agostino Abbatiello, 24, was one of 14 men charged with operating a massive cocaine ring near Penn State’s campus. (Getty Images: Grichka Beysson-Leandri; Kamil Krzaczynski for Fox News Digital)

"When I was reading that the pledges were in the background doing that, I thought that was sort of amazing, but in a bad way, but also extremely brazen," Lohse said.

Fraternity culture made more news this past week in Madison, Wisconsin, where police said they found roughly 30 partially clothed young men packed inside a sweltering basement, covered in food, condiments and other liquids and several pledges showing signs of being physically assaulted.

The Madison Police Department said officers were dispatched to the Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) house Wednesday night and are investigating the hazing incident, with two people arrested.

Partially clothed young men inside the basement of an Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity house in Madison, Wis., during an alleged hazing incident. (Madison Police Department)

"AEPi Headquarters takes the allegations involving our Pi Chapter in Madison, Wisconsin, extremely seriously," Jonathan Pierce, the fraternity's chief communications officer, said in a statement. "We will cooperate fully with the authorities investigating this matter.

"Hazing is a betrayal of everything our fraternity stands for. There is no place for it in AEPi," he added. "No exceptions. No excuses. We educate our members about their responsibility to ‘Be Your Brothers’ Keeper.’ This is not an optional value."

‘Sad moment’

"It's a sad moment, for society, civilization," Lohse said about some of the recent headlines involving fraternity behavior. "These organizations should be forces of good. Young men need it more than ever. Young men are more adrift than ever. There's no moral leadership.

"There's a vacuum in the center of higher education and American society that used to be filled by God, by religion, by the church," he said, adding that it's "totally vacant now."

During his time as a brother at Sigma Alpha Epsilon, he said, he was forced to "swim in a kiddie pool full of vomit while being urinated on," and "chug" vinegar or milk to the point that he and his fellow pledge brothers "would vomit" in a room covered with tarps.

Six men are among 14 facing charges in the alleged Penn State fraternity coke ring off campus. (Grichka Beysson-Leandri; Pennsylvania OAG)

He also said he was forced into a small basement crawl space for a period of time. This was all in addition to constant coerced binge drinking, he said.

"We're talking like 10, 15 plus drinks," he said.

He said the unwritten "code of silence" or "omertà" contributes to these repeated hazing or drug-related issues within frats.

"The original 19th-century concept of the American fraternity is not what exists today," Lohse said.

Agostino Abbatiello arrives at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa., Sept. 2, 2026. Abbatiello is accused of masterminding a cocaine ring at Penn State University. (Kamil Krzaczynski for Fox News Digital)

"Essentially, you can look at a modern fraternity like a criminal organization. In most states, the unique behavioral attributes of a fraternity cross into criminal statutes, whether misdemeanor hazing or serious felony drug trafficking. You need a code of silence to protect that.

"The organization forces the individual to compromise their own identity for the collective, taking something from its members to ensure the system perpetuates itself over time."

After hazing incidents during Lohse's time as a student, SAE was suspended from Dartmouth for the last 10 years and recognized again in August, The Darmouth student-run newspaper reported.

When asked what advice he would offer students considering Greek life at major universities, Lohse stopped short of telling students flatly to avoid fraternities. Instead, Lohse urges young men to calculate the "opportunity cost" before pledging.

"Consider that the upside benefit, while maybe not zero, pales in comparison to the downside risk," Lohse said, advising incoming students to reflect on what they truly want out of higher education.

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The College Green on the campus of Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., Oct. 17, 2021. (Bing Guan/Bloomberg)

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"Think about what you actually want out of college. Who do you really want to be around, and who is actually going to be there to help you? I think you'll find that a fraternity isn't going to provide that."

Judson Horras, president and CEO of the North American Interfraternity Conference, told Fox News Digital that "student safety is our members' highest priority. The NIC has adopted enhanced health and safety guidelines and co-led advocacy to pass tougher anti-hazing laws in more than a dozen states, as well as the federal Stop Campus Hazing Act."

Regarding the Ole Miss students' deaths, Horras said, "We are heartbroken by the loss of two University of Mississippi students, one of whom was a fraternity member. Our sympathies are with both families and the Ole Miss community. We will continue working with universities and families to keep every student safe."

Fox News Digital has reached out to Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Phi Delta Theta and Abbatiello's attorney for comment.