They Call Me Little Willie
The Life Story of William L. Adams
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
They Call Me Little Willie
Buy for $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Drama Simpson
-
By:
-
Mark Cheshire
About this listen
Born months before the start of World War I, William L. Adams left the North Carolina cotton fields behind forever in 1929 and moved to Baltimore as part of the Great Migration. At the age of 15, he became a numbers runner to support himself. With a preternatural understanding of finance and business, he rapidly ascended, becoming the head of his own illegal gambling operation. His leadership of the racket led to an attempt on his life by the Mafia, repeated criminal prosecutions, testimony before a special investigative committee of the U.S. Senate, and a landmark Supreme Court case.
Unlike so many other kingpins, Adams emerged from the underworld and used his influence and resources for good, launching and financing scores of legal businesses, including the first Black-owned company to go public on Wall Street, and supporting numerous candidates for elected office, all with the goal of empowering Baltimore's Black community economically, politically, and socially.
©2016 mark cheshire (P)2023 Mark CheshireListeners also enjoyed...
-
Not in My Neighborhood
- How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City
- By: Antero Pietila
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 34
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 26
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 26
Baltimore is the setting for (and typifies) one of the most penetrating examinations of bigotry and residential segregation ever published in the United States. Antero Pietila shows how continued discrimination practices toward African Americans and Jews have shaped the cities in which we now live. Eugenics, racial thinking, and white supremacist attitudes influenced even the federal government's actions toward housing in the 20th century, dooming American cities to ghettoization.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Interesting view of my hometown but...
- By Talmidah on 03-20-21
By: Antero Pietila
-
Lucky Me
- A Memoir of Changing the Odds
- By: Rich Paul, Jesse Washington - contributor, LeBron James - foreword
- Narrated by: Rich Paul, Dennis Logan
- Length: 4 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 885
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 838
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 837
There’s a story about Rich Paul that everyone knows: A twenty-one-year-old kid from Cleveland who sells sports jerseys out of his car meets a high school basketball phenom named LeBron James at an airport—the two become friends and forge a decades-long partnership that reinvents the business of sports. That random meeting might seem like the lucky break that changed Paul’s life. But a moment of good fortune means nothing without the struggle that gets you there. And the truth is, Paul had always been lucky.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Bad choices made this man
- By Lynn Gibson on 10-18-23
By: Rich Paul, and others
-
Prequel
- An American Fight Against Fascism
- By: Rachel Maddow
- Narrated by: Rachel Maddow
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 2,983
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 2,704
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 2,701
Inspired by her research for the hit podcast Ultra, Rachel Maddow charts the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century. Before and even after our troops had begun fighting abroad in World War II, a clandestine network flooded the country with disinformation aimed at sapping the strength of the U.S. war effort and persuading Americans that our natural alliance was with the Axis, not against it.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The fight to keep democracy alive
- By Rex on 10-19-23
By: Rachel Maddow
-
Black Boy Smile
- A Memoir in Moments
- By: D. Watkins
- Narrated by: D. Watkins
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 28
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 24
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 24
At nine years old, D. Watkins has three concerns in life: picking his dad’s Lotto numbers, keeping his Nikes free of creases, and being a man. Directly in his periphery is east Baltimore, a poverty-stricken city battling the height of the crack epidemic just hours from the nation’s capital. For 30 years, Watkins is forced to safeguard every moment of joy he experiences or risk losing himself entirely. Now, for the first time, Watkins harnesses these moments to tell the story of how he matured into the D. Watkins we know today.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
transparency and authenticity
- By Anonymous User on 08-05-24
By: D. Watkins
-
Justice Corrupted
- How the Left Weaponized Our Legal System
- By: Ted Cruz
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 523
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 474
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 472
The left has corrupted the U.S. legal system. Wielding the law as a weapon, arrogant judges and lawless prosecutors are intimidating, silencing, and even imprisoning Americans who stand in the way of their radical agenda. Their "enemies list" even includes parents who dare to speak up for their children at school board meetings. In this shocking new book, Senator Ted Cruz takes listeners inside the justice system, showing how the wrong hands on the levers of power can strangle liberty, crush opposition, and wreck lives.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Very Informative
- By Michael Screws on 01-03-23
By: Ted Cruz
-
The Divide
- American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap
- By: Matt Taibbi
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,727
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,536
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,544
Over the last two decades, America has been falling deeper and deeper into a statistical mystery: Poverty goes up. Crime goes down. The prison population doubles. Fraud by the rich wipes out 40 percent of the world’s wealth. The rich get massively richer. No one goes to jail. In search of a solution, journalist Matt Taibbi discovered the Divide, the seam in American life where our two most troubling trends—growing wealth inequality and mass incarceration—come together, driven by a dramatic shift in American citizenship: Our basic rights are now determined by our wealth or poverty.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
But still it seems no-one will act
- By TM on 05-14-14
By: Matt Taibbi
-
Not in My Neighborhood
- How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City
- By: Antero Pietila
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 34
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 26
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 26
Baltimore is the setting for (and typifies) one of the most penetrating examinations of bigotry and residential segregation ever published in the United States. Antero Pietila shows how continued discrimination practices toward African Americans and Jews have shaped the cities in which we now live. Eugenics, racial thinking, and white supremacist attitudes influenced even the federal government's actions toward housing in the 20th century, dooming American cities to ghettoization.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Interesting view of my hometown but...
- By Talmidah on 03-20-21
By: Antero Pietila
-
Lucky Me
- A Memoir of Changing the Odds
- By: Rich Paul, Jesse Washington - contributor, LeBron James - foreword
- Narrated by: Rich Paul, Dennis Logan
- Length: 4 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 885
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 838
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 837
There’s a story about Rich Paul that everyone knows: A twenty-one-year-old kid from Cleveland who sells sports jerseys out of his car meets a high school basketball phenom named LeBron James at an airport—the two become friends and forge a decades-long partnership that reinvents the business of sports. That random meeting might seem like the lucky break that changed Paul’s life. But a moment of good fortune means nothing without the struggle that gets you there. And the truth is, Paul had always been lucky.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Bad choices made this man
- By Lynn Gibson on 10-18-23
By: Rich Paul, and others
-
Prequel
- An American Fight Against Fascism
- By: Rachel Maddow
- Narrated by: Rachel Maddow
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 2,983
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 2,704
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 2,701
Inspired by her research for the hit podcast Ultra, Rachel Maddow charts the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century. Before and even after our troops had begun fighting abroad in World War II, a clandestine network flooded the country with disinformation aimed at sapping the strength of the U.S. war effort and persuading Americans that our natural alliance was with the Axis, not against it.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The fight to keep democracy alive
- By Rex on 10-19-23
By: Rachel Maddow
-
Black Boy Smile
- A Memoir in Moments
- By: D. Watkins
- Narrated by: D. Watkins
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 28
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 24
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 24
At nine years old, D. Watkins has three concerns in life: picking his dad’s Lotto numbers, keeping his Nikes free of creases, and being a man. Directly in his periphery is east Baltimore, a poverty-stricken city battling the height of the crack epidemic just hours from the nation’s capital. For 30 years, Watkins is forced to safeguard every moment of joy he experiences or risk losing himself entirely. Now, for the first time, Watkins harnesses these moments to tell the story of how he matured into the D. Watkins we know today.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
transparency and authenticity
- By Anonymous User on 08-05-24
By: D. Watkins
-
Justice Corrupted
- How the Left Weaponized Our Legal System
- By: Ted Cruz
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 523
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 474
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 472
The left has corrupted the U.S. legal system. Wielding the law as a weapon, arrogant judges and lawless prosecutors are intimidating, silencing, and even imprisoning Americans who stand in the way of their radical agenda. Their "enemies list" even includes parents who dare to speak up for their children at school board meetings. In this shocking new book, Senator Ted Cruz takes listeners inside the justice system, showing how the wrong hands on the levers of power can strangle liberty, crush opposition, and wreck lives.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Very Informative
- By Michael Screws on 01-03-23
By: Ted Cruz
-
The Divide
- American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap
- By: Matt Taibbi
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,727
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,536
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,544
Over the last two decades, America has been falling deeper and deeper into a statistical mystery: Poverty goes up. Crime goes down. The prison population doubles. Fraud by the rich wipes out 40 percent of the world’s wealth. The rich get massively richer. No one goes to jail. In search of a solution, journalist Matt Taibbi discovered the Divide, the seam in American life where our two most troubling trends—growing wealth inequality and mass incarceration—come together, driven by a dramatic shift in American citizenship: Our basic rights are now determined by our wealth or poverty.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
But still it seems no-one will act
- By TM on 05-14-14
By: Matt Taibbi
-
Conviction
- The Murder Trial That Powered Thurgood Marshall's Fight for Civil Rights
- By: Denver Nicks, John Nicks
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 111
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 93
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 93
On New Year's Eve, 1939, a horrific triple murder occurred in rural Oklahoma. Within a matter of days, investigators identified several suspects: convicts who had been at a craps game with one of the victims the night before. Also at the craps game was a young black farmer named W. D. Lyons. Political pressure mounted to find a villain. The governor's representative settled on Lyons, who was arrested, tortured into signing a confession, and tried for the murder. The NAACP's new Legal Defense and Education Fund sent its young chief counsel, Thurgood Marshall, to take part in the trial.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
What a piece of history 💕
- By Private on 01-12-21
By: Denver Nicks, and others
-
Holding the Line
- Inside the Nation's Preeminent US Attorney's Office and Its Battle with the Trump Justice Department
- By: Geoffrey Berman
- Narrated by: Geoffrey Berman
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,003
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 902
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 897
Ascending to the leadership role of US Attorney for the Southern District, which includes Manhattan and several counties to the north, is a capstone to any legal career: it entails guiding a team of the best lawyers in America in selecting and winning cases that often have global import. Geoffrey Berman was honored to be tapped for the job by Donald Trump in 2018. The manner in which Trump had dispatched his predecessor Preet Bharara was troubling, but the institution was fabled for its independence. Surely he could manage.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent Story of SDNY JD during Trump Years
- By WLC on 09-14-22
By: Geoffrey Berman
-
The Kosher Capones
- A History of Chicago’s Jewish Gangsters
- By: Joe Kraus
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 130
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 117
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 116
The Kosher Capones tells the fascinating story of Chicago’s Jewish gangsters from Prohibition into the 1980s. Author Joe Kraus traces these gangsters through the lives, criminal careers, and conflicts of Benjamin “Zukie the Bookie” Zuckerman, last of the independent West Side Jewish bosses, and Lenny Patrick, eventual head of the Syndicate’s “Jewish wing.”
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Kind of scattered
- By joey carbo on 10-04-21
By: Joe Kraus
-
American Oligarchs
- The Kushners, the Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power
- By: Andrea Bernstein
- Narrated by: Andrea Bernstein
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 363
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 316
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 311
In American Oligarchs, award-winning investigative journalist Andrea Bernstein creates a vivid portrait of two emblematic American families. Their journey to the White House is a story of survival and loss, crime and betrayal, which stretches from the Gilded Age through Nazi-occupied Poland to the rising nationalism and inequality of the 21st century. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and over 100,000 pages of documents, many previously unseen or long forgotten, Bernstein traces how the families grew rich on federal programs that bolstered the middle class.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Informative, Interesting and Illuminating
- By Phyllis on 02-27-20
By: Andrea Bernstein
-
Black Titan
- A.G. Gaston and the Making of a Black American Millionaire
- By: Carol Jenkins
- Narrated by: Susan Spain
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 460
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 395
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 395
A.G. Gaston, the poor grandson of slaves, was born in the Deep South in 1892. Over the course of his extraordinary life, he amassed a fortune of over $130 million and a vast business empire. The story of his remarkable life is written with eloquence and grace by his niece, an Emmy¿ Award-winning journalist and her daughter, who holds degrees from Yale and Harvard.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Black Gold = Standing Ovation
- By 2Fresh on 01-20-16
By: Carol Jenkins
-
None of the Above
- The Untold Story of the Atlanta Public Schools Cheating Scandal, Corporate Greed, and the Criminalization of Educators
- By: Shani Robinson, Anna Simonton
- Narrated by: Lisa Renee Pitts
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 39
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 37
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 37
An insider’s account of the infamous Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal that scapegoated black employees for problems caused by an education reform movement that is increasingly a proxy for corporate greed.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A well constructed story
- By Sumo Steve on 03-21-19
By: Shani Robinson, and others
-
Garden State Gangland
- The Rise of the Mob in New Jersey
- By: Scott M. Deitche
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 82
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 73
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 73
The Mafia in the United States might be a shadow of its former self, but in the New York/New Jersey metro area, there are still wise guys and wannabes working scams, extorting businesses, running gambling, selling drugs, and branching out into white collar crimes. And they are continuing a tradition that's over 100 years old. Some of the most powerful mobsters on a national level were from New Jersey, and they spread their tentacles down to Florida, across the Atlantic, and out to California.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Cringeworthy mispronunciation of Italian names
- By Stef on 04-04-18
By: Scott M. Deitche
-
Wildland
- The Making of America's Fury
- By: Evan Osnos
- Narrated by: Evan Osnos
- Length: 17 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 380
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 333
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 332
In search of an explanation for the crisis that reached an unsettling crescendo in 2020 - a year of pandemic, civil unrest, and political turmoil - National Book Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Evan Osnos returned to three places he knew firsthand: Greenwich, Connecticut; Clarksburg, West Virginia; and Chicago, Illinois. Reported over the course of six years, Wildland follows ordinary individuals as they navigate the varied landscapes of 21st-century America. Through their powerful, often poignant stories, Osnos traces the sources of America’s political dissolution.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
More of a painting than analysis
- By Eric Taylor on 09-27-21
By: Evan Osnos
-
Soul City
- Race, Equality, and the Lost Dream of an American Utopia
- By: Thomas Healy
- Narrated by: Larry Herron
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 26
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 23
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 23
Author Thomas Healy resurrects a forgotten saga of race, capitalism, and the struggle for equality in this fascinating, forgotten story of the 1970s attempt to build a city dedicated to racial equality in the heart of “Klan Country”.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
awesome narrator
- By Arthur F. Jackson on 06-23-21
By: Thomas Healy
-
Boss Tweed
- The Corrupt Pol Who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York by Kenneth D. Ackerman
- By: Kenneth D. Ackerman
- Narrated by: Scott Ellis
- Length: 15 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 35
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
William Magear Tweed, America's most corrupt politician ever, ruled New York City in the 1860s and 1870s. He rigged the votes, bribed the legislature, and stole on a massive scale. But even in prison, even after escaping, being recaptured, and confessing it all, people still loved and admired him. Tweed's is a stunning tale of pride, fall, and redemption.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Well-detailed!
- By Susan Patterson on 07-22-20
-
Blood, Money, and Power
- How L.B.J. Killed J.F.K
- By: Barr McClellan
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 15 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 68
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 55
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 54
Blood, Money, & Power exposes the secret, high-level conspiracy in Texas that led to President John F. Kennedy’s death and the succession of Lyndon B. Johnson as president in 1963. Attorney Barr McClellan, a former member of L.B.J.’s legal team, uses hundreds of newly released documents, including insider interviews, court papers, and the Warren Commission, to illuminate the maneuvers, payoffs, and power plays that revolved around the assassination of Kennedy and to expose L.B.J.’s involvement in the murder plot.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The Closest We'll Get to a Texas Insider's Version
- By margot on 08-01-13
By: Barr McClellan
-
Tom Lake
- A Novel
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Meryl Streep
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 15,102
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 13,993
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 13,979
In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
So incredibly boring
- By Rhonda Morrison on 08-05-23
By: Ann Patchett
Related to this topic
-
Boardwalk Empire
- The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City
- By: Nelson Johnson
- Narrated by: Joe Mantegna, Terence Winter (foreword)
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 688
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 439
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 445
From its inception, Atlantic City has always been a town dedicated to the fast buck, and this wide-reachinghistory offers a riveting account of its past 100 year, from the city's heyday as a Prohibition-era mecca of lawlessness to its rebirth as a legitimate casino resort in the modern era.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
The Unmasked History of Atlantic City
- By Steven Schuster on 08-07-10
By: Nelson Johnson
-
Soul City
- Race, Equality, and the Lost Dream of an American Utopia
- By: Thomas Healy
- Narrated by: Larry Herron
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 26
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 23
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 23
Author Thomas Healy resurrects a forgotten saga of race, capitalism, and the struggle for equality in this fascinating, forgotten story of the 1970s attempt to build a city dedicated to racial equality in the heart of “Klan Country”.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
awesome narrator
- By Arthur F. Jackson on 06-23-21
By: Thomas Healy
-
The Kosher Capones
- A History of Chicago’s Jewish Gangsters
- By: Joe Kraus
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 130
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 117
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 116
The Kosher Capones tells the fascinating story of Chicago’s Jewish gangsters from Prohibition into the 1980s. Author Joe Kraus traces these gangsters through the lives, criminal careers, and conflicts of Benjamin “Zukie the Bookie” Zuckerman, last of the independent West Side Jewish bosses, and Lenny Patrick, eventual head of the Syndicate’s “Jewish wing.”
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Kind of scattered
- By joey carbo on 10-04-21
By: Joe Kraus
-
Black Detroit
- A People's History of Self-Determination
- By: Herb Boyd
- Narrated by: James Shippy
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 41
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 36
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 35
The author of Baldwin's Harlem looks at the evolving culture, politics, economics, and spiritual life of Detroit - a blend of memoir, love letter, history, and clear-eyed reportage that explores the city's past, present, and future and its significance to the African American legacy and the nation's fabric.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Selective Recall
- By Rick on 07-19-17
By: Herb Boyd
-
The Quiet Don
- The Untold Story of Mafia Kingpin Russell Bufalino
- By: Matt Birkbeck
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 195
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 172
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 172
Secretive - even reclusive - Russell Bufalino quietly built his organized crime empire in the decades between Prohibition and the Carter presidency. His reach extended far beyond the coal country of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and quaint Amish farms near Lancaster. Bufalino had a hand in global, national, and local politics of the largest American cities, many of its major industries, and controlled the powerful Teamsters Union. His influence also reached the highest levels of Pennsylvania government and halls of Congress, and his legacy left a culture of corruption that continues to this day.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Important But Edited By Lawyers?
- By Ted on 04-03-14
By: Matt Birkbeck
-
Black Titan
- A.G. Gaston and the Making of a Black American Millionaire
- By: Carol Jenkins
- Narrated by: Susan Spain
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 460
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 395
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 395
A.G. Gaston, the poor grandson of slaves, was born in the Deep South in 1892. Over the course of his extraordinary life, he amassed a fortune of over $130 million and a vast business empire. The story of his remarkable life is written with eloquence and grace by his niece, an Emmy¿ Award-winning journalist and her daughter, who holds degrees from Yale and Harvard.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Black Gold = Standing Ovation
- By 2Fresh on 01-20-16
By: Carol Jenkins
-
Boardwalk Empire
- The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City
- By: Nelson Johnson
- Narrated by: Joe Mantegna, Terence Winter (foreword)
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 688
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 439
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 445
From its inception, Atlantic City has always been a town dedicated to the fast buck, and this wide-reachinghistory offers a riveting account of its past 100 year, from the city's heyday as a Prohibition-era mecca of lawlessness to its rebirth as a legitimate casino resort in the modern era.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
The Unmasked History of Atlantic City
- By Steven Schuster on 08-07-10
By: Nelson Johnson
-
Soul City
- Race, Equality, and the Lost Dream of an American Utopia
- By: Thomas Healy
- Narrated by: Larry Herron
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 26
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 23
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 23
Author Thomas Healy resurrects a forgotten saga of race, capitalism, and the struggle for equality in this fascinating, forgotten story of the 1970s attempt to build a city dedicated to racial equality in the heart of “Klan Country”.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
awesome narrator
- By Arthur F. Jackson on 06-23-21
By: Thomas Healy
-
The Kosher Capones
- A History of Chicago’s Jewish Gangsters
- By: Joe Kraus
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 130
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 117
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 116
The Kosher Capones tells the fascinating story of Chicago’s Jewish gangsters from Prohibition into the 1980s. Author Joe Kraus traces these gangsters through the lives, criminal careers, and conflicts of Benjamin “Zukie the Bookie” Zuckerman, last of the independent West Side Jewish bosses, and Lenny Patrick, eventual head of the Syndicate’s “Jewish wing.”
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Kind of scattered
- By joey carbo on 10-04-21
By: Joe Kraus
-
Black Detroit
- A People's History of Self-Determination
- By: Herb Boyd
- Narrated by: James Shippy
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 41
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 36
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 35
The author of Baldwin's Harlem looks at the evolving culture, politics, economics, and spiritual life of Detroit - a blend of memoir, love letter, history, and clear-eyed reportage that explores the city's past, present, and future and its significance to the African American legacy and the nation's fabric.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Selective Recall
- By Rick on 07-19-17
By: Herb Boyd
-
The Quiet Don
- The Untold Story of Mafia Kingpin Russell Bufalino
- By: Matt Birkbeck
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 195
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 172
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 172
Secretive - even reclusive - Russell Bufalino quietly built his organized crime empire in the decades between Prohibition and the Carter presidency. His reach extended far beyond the coal country of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and quaint Amish farms near Lancaster. Bufalino had a hand in global, national, and local politics of the largest American cities, many of its major industries, and controlled the powerful Teamsters Union. His influence also reached the highest levels of Pennsylvania government and halls of Congress, and his legacy left a culture of corruption that continues to this day.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Important But Edited By Lawyers?
- By Ted on 04-03-14
By: Matt Birkbeck
-
Black Titan
- A.G. Gaston and the Making of a Black American Millionaire
- By: Carol Jenkins
- Narrated by: Susan Spain
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 460
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 395
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 395
A.G. Gaston, the poor grandson of slaves, was born in the Deep South in 1892. Over the course of his extraordinary life, he amassed a fortune of over $130 million and a vast business empire. The story of his remarkable life is written with eloquence and grace by his niece, an Emmy¿ Award-winning journalist and her daughter, who holds degrees from Yale and Harvard.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Black Gold = Standing Ovation
- By 2Fresh on 01-20-16
By: Carol Jenkins
-
L.A. Noir
- The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City
- By: John Buntin
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 17 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 200
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 180
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 179
Midcentury Los Angeles: A city sold to the world as "the white spot of America", a land of sunshine and orange groves, Midwestern values, and Hollywood stars, protected by the world's most famous police force, the Dragnet-era LAPD. Behind this public image lies a hidden world of "pleasure girls" and crooked cops, ruthless newspaper tycoons, corrupt politicians, and East Coast gangsters on the make. Into this underworld came two men - one L.A.'s most notorious gangster, the other its most famous police chief - each prepared to battle the other for the soul of the city.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
A good (but a little corny) history of LA
- By Jimmy on 10-23-12
By: John Buntin
-
Tulsa 1921
- Reporting a Massacre
- By: Randy Krehbiel
- Narrated by: Kevin Meyer
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 99
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 84
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 84
In 1921, Tulsa’s Greenwood District - known then as the nation’s “Black Wall Street” - was one of the most prosperous African American communities in the United States. But on May 31 of that year, a white mob, inflamed by rumors that a young black man had attempted to rape a white teenage girl, invaded Greenwood. By the end of the following day, thousands of homes and businesses lay in ashes, and perhaps, as many as 300 people were dead.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Exceptional and
- By Heath on 03-07-20
By: Randy Krehbiel
-
The Fall of the House of Zeus
- The Rise and Ruin of America's Most Powerful Trial Lawyer
- By: Curtis Wilkie
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 13 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 217
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 177
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 177
The Fall of the House of Zeus tells the story of Dickie Scruggs, arguably the most successful plaintiff's lawyer in America. A brother-in-law of Trent Lott, the former U.S. Senate majority leader, Scruggs made a fortune taking on mass tort lawsuits against "Big Tobacco" and the asbestos industries. He was hailed by Newsweek as a latter-day Robin Hood and portrayed in the movie The Insider as a dapper aviator-lawyer.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The title says it all - The fall of Scruggs
- By Placeholder on 03-11-12
By: Curtis Wilkie
-
The Mob and the City
- The Hidden History of How the Mafia Captured New York
- By: C. Alexander Hortis
- Narrated by: LJ Ganser
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 523
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 459
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 456
Forget what you think you know about the Mafia. After reading this book, even life-long mob aficionados will have a new perspective on organized crime. Informative, authoritative, and eye-opening, this is the first full-length book devoted exclusively to uncovering the hidden history of how the Mafia came to dominate organized crime in New York City during the 1930s through 1950s.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Hard one to rate....
- By Jeffery D. Giuliani on 09-24-20
-
People vs. Donald Trump
- An Inside Account
- By: Mark Pomerantz
- Narrated by: Mark Pomerantz
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 203
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 172
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 171
People vs. Donald Trump is a fascinating inside account of the attempt to prosecute former president Donald Trump, written by one of the lawyers who worked on the case and resigned in protest when Manhattan’s district attorney refused to act.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Bravo - Easy to Understand
- By Trisha on 02-09-23
By: Mark Pomerantz
-
Prince of Darkness
- The Untold Story of Jeremiah G. Hamilton, Wall Street's First Black Millionaire
- By: Shane White
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 157
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 136
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 137
In Prince of Darkness, a groundbreaking and vivid account, eminent historian Shane White reveals the larger-than-life story of a man who defied every convention of his time. He wheeled and dealed in the lily-white business world, he married a White woman, he bought a mansion in rural New Jersey, he owned railroad stock on trains he was not legally allowed to ride, and generally he set his White contemporaries' teeth on edge when he wasn't just plain outsmarting them.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Not A Nice Man, But A Smart One!
- By AlTonya on 07-28-17
By: Shane White
-
Conviction
- The Murder Trial That Powered Thurgood Marshall's Fight for Civil Rights
- By: Denver Nicks, John Nicks
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 111
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 93
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 93
On New Year's Eve, 1939, a horrific triple murder occurred in rural Oklahoma. Within a matter of days, investigators identified several suspects: convicts who had been at a craps game with one of the victims the night before. Also at the craps game was a young black farmer named W. D. Lyons. Political pressure mounted to find a villain. The governor's representative settled on Lyons, who was arrested, tortured into signing a confession, and tried for the murder. The NAACP's new Legal Defense and Education Fund sent its young chief counsel, Thurgood Marshall, to take part in the trial.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
What a piece of history 💕
- By Private on 01-12-21
By: Denver Nicks, and others
-
Justice Corrupted
- How the Left Weaponized Our Legal System
- By: Ted Cruz
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 523
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 474
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 472
The left has corrupted the U.S. legal system. Wielding the law as a weapon, arrogant judges and lawless prosecutors are intimidating, silencing, and even imprisoning Americans who stand in the way of their radical agenda. Their "enemies list" even includes parents who dare to speak up for their children at school board meetings. In this shocking new book, Senator Ted Cruz takes listeners inside the justice system, showing how the wrong hands on the levers of power can strangle liberty, crush opposition, and wreck lives.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Very Informative
- By Michael Screws on 01-03-23
By: Ted Cruz
-
Tokyo Underworld
- The Fast Times and Hard Life of an American Gangster in Japan
- By: Robert Whiting
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 77
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 64
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 64
In the ashes of postwar Japan lay a gold mine for certain opportunistic, expatriate Americans. Addicted to the volatile energy of Tokyo's freewheeling underworld, they formed ever-shifting but ever-profitable alliances with warring Japanese and Korean gangsters. At the center of this world was Nick Zappetti, an ex-marine from New York City who arrived in Tokyo in 1945 and whose restaurant soon became the rage throughout the city and the chief watering hole for celebrities, diplomats, sports figures, and mobsters.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Man with a fork in a world of soup
- By Kindle Customer on 09-01-20
By: Robert Whiting
-
American Mafia
- A History of Its Rise to Power
- By: Thomas Reppetto
- Narrated by: Paul Costanzo
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 32
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 29
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 29
Organized crime - the Italian American kind - has long been a source of popular entertainment and legend. Now Thomas Reppetto provides a balanced history of the Mafia's rise - from the 1880s to the post-World War II era - that is as exciting as it is authoritative. Structuring his narrative around a series of case histories featuring such infamous characters as Lucky Luciano and Al Capone, Reppetto draws on a lifetime of field experience and access to unseen documents to show us a locally grown Mafia.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Mob at its best
- By Thomas on 02-14-23
By: Thomas Reppetto
-
The Hellhound of Wall Street
- How Ferdinand Pecora's Investigation of the Great Crash Forever Changed American Finance
- By: Michael Perino
- Narrated by: George K. Wilson
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 44
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 35
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 35
In The Hellhound of Wall Street, Michael Perino recounts in riveting detail the 1933 hearings that put Wall Street on trial for the Great Crash. Never before in American history had so many financial titans been called to account before the public, and they had come within a few weeks of emerging unscathed. By the time Ferdinand Pecora, a Sicilian immigrant and former New York prosecutor, took over as chief counsel, the investigation had dragged on ineffectively for nearly a year and was universally written off as dead....
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great Story
- By Lynn on 03-22-11
By: Michael Perino
-
The Price of Justice
- A True Story of Greed and Corruption
- By: Laurence Leamer
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 13 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 97
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 87
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 86
This nonfiction legal thriller traces the 14-year struggle of two lawyers to bring the most powerful coal baron in American history to justice. Don Blankenship, head of Massey Energy since the early 1990s, ran an industry that provides nearly half of America’s electric power. But wealth and influence weren’t enough for Blankenship and his company, as they set about destroying corporate and personal rivals, challenging the Constitution, purchasing the West Virginia judiciary, and willfully disregarding safety standards in the company’s mines - mines in which scores died unnecessarily.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A good story
- By Mr. on 10-06-13
By: Laurence Leamer