
Chasing King's Killer
The Hunt for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Assassin
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
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $16.37
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Kim Staunton
-
By:
-
James L. Swanson
About this listen
An astonishing account of the assassination of America's most beloved and celebrated civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr., by New York Times best-selling author, James L. Swanson.
In his meteoric, 13-year rise to fame, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a mass movement for civil rights - with his relentless peaceful, non-violent protests, public demonstrations, and eloquent speeches. But as violent threats cast a dark shadow over Dr. King's life, Swanson hones in on James Earl Ray, a bizarre, racist prison escapee who tragically ends King's life.
As he did in his best-selling Scholastic MG/YA books Chasing Lincoln's Killer and "The President Has Been Shot!", Swanson transports listeners back to one of the most shocking, sad, and terrifying events in American history.
©2018 James L. Swanson (P)2018 Scholastic Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Chasing Lincoln's Killer
- By: James L. Swanson
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This fast-paced thriller tells the story of the pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth and gives a day-by-day account of the wild chase to find this killer and his accomplices. Based on James L. Swanson's best-selling adult book Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer, this version, written especially for young people, is a fascinating look at the assassination of the 16th president of the United States.
-
-
Superb in Every Way
- By Lanna S. Seuret on 11-26-13
By: James L. Swanson
-
The President Has Been Shot!
- The Assassination of John F. Kennedy
- By: James L. Swanson
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 3 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A breathtaking and dramatic account of the JFK assassination by the New York Times best-selling author. Swanson transports listeners back to one of the most shocking, sad, and terrifying events in American history. As he did in his best-selling Chasing Lincoln's Killer, he deploys his signature "you are there" style to tell the story of the JFK assassination as it has never been told before.
-
-
Poor and untrue account of events
- By J.R. on 08-21-19
By: James L. Swanson
-
Manhunt
- The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer
- By: James L. Swanson
- Narrated by: Richard Thomas
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The murder of Abraham Lincoln set off the greatest manhunt in American history, the pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth. From April 14 to April 26, 1865, the assassin led Union cavalry and detectives on a wild 12-day chase through the streets of Washington, D.C., across the swamps of Maryland, and into the forests of Virginia, while the nation, still reeling from the just-ended Civil War, watched in horror and sadness.
-
-
Fascinating!
- By F. Elizabeth Hauser on 12-14-08
By: James L. Swanson
-
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
- A Hunger Games Novel
- By: Suzanne Collins
- Narrated by: Santino Fontana
- Length: 16 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the 10th annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to out charm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute. The odds are against him. He’s been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low.
-
-
Bad part
- By Edgars Dumins on 05-19-20
By: Suzanne Collins
-
Grenade
- By: Alan Gratz
- Narrated by: Todd Haberkorn, Andrew Eiden
- Length: 5 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's 1944 and the world is at war. Hideki lives peacefully with his family on the island of Okinawa, near Japan. Until the day WWII reaches their door. Hideki is drafted into the "Blood and Iron Imperial Corps" to fight for the Japanese army. He is handed two grenades and a set of instructions: go off into the jungle, and don't come back until you've killed an American soldier. Meanwhile, young American soldier Ray Majors has just landed on the beach in Okinawa. He doesn't know what to expect, or if he'll make it out alive, but he knows he must keep moving forward.
-
-
Amazing!
- By Dana Fam on 10-08-24
By: Alan Gratz
-
Prisoner B-3087
- By: Alan Gratz, Ruth Gruener, Jack Gruener
- Narrated by: Steven Kaplan
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ten concentration camps. Ten different places where you are starved, tortured, and worked mercilessly. It's something no one could imagine surviving. But it is what Yanek Gruener has to face. As a Jewish boy in 1930s Poland, Yanek is at the mercy of the Nazis, who have taken over. Everything he has and everyone he loves have been snatched brutally from him. And then Yanek himself is taken prisoner - his arm tattooed with the words Prisoner B-3087.
-
-
Disturbing Good Story
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 01-08-17
By: Alan Gratz, and others
-
Chasing Lincoln's Killer
- By: James L. Swanson
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This fast-paced thriller tells the story of the pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth and gives a day-by-day account of the wild chase to find this killer and his accomplices. Based on James L. Swanson's best-selling adult book Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer, this version, written especially for young people, is a fascinating look at the assassination of the 16th president of the United States.
-
-
Superb in Every Way
- By Lanna S. Seuret on 11-26-13
By: James L. Swanson
-
The President Has Been Shot!
- The Assassination of John F. Kennedy
- By: James L. Swanson
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 3 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A breathtaking and dramatic account of the JFK assassination by the New York Times best-selling author. Swanson transports listeners back to one of the most shocking, sad, and terrifying events in American history. As he did in his best-selling Chasing Lincoln's Killer, he deploys his signature "you are there" style to tell the story of the JFK assassination as it has never been told before.
-
-
Poor and untrue account of events
- By J.R. on 08-21-19
By: James L. Swanson
-
Manhunt
- The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer
- By: James L. Swanson
- Narrated by: Richard Thomas
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The murder of Abraham Lincoln set off the greatest manhunt in American history, the pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth. From April 14 to April 26, 1865, the assassin led Union cavalry and detectives on a wild 12-day chase through the streets of Washington, D.C., across the swamps of Maryland, and into the forests of Virginia, while the nation, still reeling from the just-ended Civil War, watched in horror and sadness.
-
-
Fascinating!
- By F. Elizabeth Hauser on 12-14-08
By: James L. Swanson
-
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
- A Hunger Games Novel
- By: Suzanne Collins
- Narrated by: Santino Fontana
- Length: 16 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the 10th annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to out charm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute. The odds are against him. He’s been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low.
-
-
Bad part
- By Edgars Dumins on 05-19-20
By: Suzanne Collins
-
Grenade
- By: Alan Gratz
- Narrated by: Todd Haberkorn, Andrew Eiden
- Length: 5 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's 1944 and the world is at war. Hideki lives peacefully with his family on the island of Okinawa, near Japan. Until the day WWII reaches their door. Hideki is drafted into the "Blood and Iron Imperial Corps" to fight for the Japanese army. He is handed two grenades and a set of instructions: go off into the jungle, and don't come back until you've killed an American soldier. Meanwhile, young American soldier Ray Majors has just landed on the beach in Okinawa. He doesn't know what to expect, or if he'll make it out alive, but he knows he must keep moving forward.
-
-
Amazing!
- By Dana Fam on 10-08-24
By: Alan Gratz
-
Prisoner B-3087
- By: Alan Gratz, Ruth Gruener, Jack Gruener
- Narrated by: Steven Kaplan
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ten concentration camps. Ten different places where you are starved, tortured, and worked mercilessly. It's something no one could imagine surviving. But it is what Yanek Gruener has to face. As a Jewish boy in 1930s Poland, Yanek is at the mercy of the Nazis, who have taken over. Everything he has and everyone he loves have been snatched brutally from him. And then Yanek himself is taken prisoner - his arm tattooed with the words Prisoner B-3087.
-
-
Disturbing Good Story
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 01-08-17
By: Alan Gratz, and others
-
Code Talker
- A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two
- By: Joseph Bruchac
- Narrated by: Derrick Henry
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Although the mission school bans all that is Navajo, Ned secretly clings to his native language and culture. Proudly joining the U.S. Marines in 1943, he becomes a top-secret Navajo Code Talker. During bloody battles for Japanese islands, Ned and his brave band of code-talking brothers save thousands of lives using Navajo encryption the enemy never cracks.
-
-
Terrible audio
- By Amazon Customer on 02-13-18
By: Joseph Bruchac
-
Malcolm X
- A Life of Reinvention
- By: Manning Marable
- Narrated by: G. Valmont Thomas
- Length: 22 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Of the great figure in 20th-century American history perhaps none is more complex and controversial than Malcolm X. Constantly rewriting his own story, he became a criminal, a minister, a leader, and an icon, all before being felled by assassins' bullets at age 39. Through his tireless work and countless speeches he empowered hundreds of thousands of black Americans to create better lives and stronger communities while establishing the template for the self-actualized, independent African American man.
-
-
invites further reading on Malcolm X
- By connie on 05-14-11
By: Manning Marable
-
Getting Away with Murder
- The True Story of the Emmett Till Case
- By: Chris Crowe
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 2 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Revised and updated with new information, this Jane Addams Award-winner is an in-depth examination of the Emmett Till murder case, a catalyst of the civil rights movement.
-
-
For some Getting Away with Murder is Easy
- By valerie on 05-01-19
By: Chris Crowe
-
White Lies
- The Double Life of Walter F. White and America's Darkest Secret
- By: A.J. Baime
- Narrated by: Wayne Carr
- Length: 12 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Walter F. White led two lives: one as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance and the NAACP in the early twentieth century; the other as a white newspaperman who covered lynching crimes in the Deep South at the blazing height of racial violence. Born mixed race and with very fair skin and straight hair, White was able to “pass” for white. He leveraged this ambiguity as a reporter, bringing to light the darkest crimes in America and helping to plant the seeds of the civil rights movement.
-
-
A difficult but essential read
- By Heather Wellington on 05-21-22
By: A.J. Baime
-
Pillar of Fire
- America in the King Years, 1963-65
- By: Taylor Branch
- Narrated by: Joe Morton, C.C.H. Pounder
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the second volume of his three-part history, a monumental trilogy that began with Parting the Waters, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, Taylor Branch portrays the Civil Rights Movement at its zenith, recounting the climactic struggles as they commanded the national stage. Beginning with the Nation of Islam and conflict over racial separatism, Pillar of Fire takes the listener to Mississippi and Alabama: Birmingham, the murder of Medgar Evers, the "March on Washington," the Civil Rights Act, and more.
-
-
the audio does not match with the book
- By Katie on 10-09-14
By: Taylor Branch
-
Killing the Dream
- James Earl Ray and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
- By: Gerald Posner
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the three decades since April 4, 1968, when Martin Luther King, Jr., was shot to death in Memphis, scores of books and articles have questioned whether James Earl Ray, King's killer, acted alone or was part of a larger conspiracy. Now, based on explosive new interviews, confidential files, and previously undisclosed evidence, best-selling author Gerald Posner finally resolves the simple truth of the last great political murder mystery of the 1960s, definitively proving that Ray acted alone.
-
-
Enlightening
- By Thornton Mellon on 05-19-19
By: Gerald Posner
-
You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train
- A Personal History of Our Times
- By: Howard Zinn
- Narrated by: David Strathairn
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States, tells his personal stories about more than 30 years of fighting for social change, from teaching at Spelman College to recent protests against war. A former bombardier in World War II, Zinn emerged in the civil rights movement as a powerful voice for justice. Although he's a fierce critic, he gives us reason to hope that by learning from history and engaging politically, we can make a difference in the world.
-
-
mind blowing
- By WILLIAM on 11-27-19
By: Howard Zinn
-
Emmett Till
- The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement
- By: Devery S. Anderson
- Narrated by: Brandon Church
- Length: 21 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Emmett Till offers the first truly comprehensive account of the 1955 murder and its aftermath. It tells the story of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old African American boy from Chicago brutally lynched for a harmless flirtation at a country store in the Mississippi Delta. His death and the acquittal of his killers by an all-white jury set off a firestorm of protests that reverberated all over the world and spurred on the civil rights movement.
-
-
An important story narrated with power and warmth
- By R. Nance on 10-04-16
-
Parting the Waters
- America in the King Years 1954-63
- By: Taylor Branch
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi, Janina Edwards
- Length: 45 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hailed as the most masterful story ever told of the American civil rights movement, Parting the Waters is destined to endure for generations. Moving from the fiery political baptism of Martin Luther King, Jr., to the corridors of Camelot where the Kennedy brothers weighed demands for justice against the deceptions of J. Edgar Hoover, here is a vivid tapestry of America, torn and finally transformed by a revolutionary struggle unequaled since the Civil War.
-
-
Excellent
- By Judith Princz on 05-15-19
By: Taylor Branch
-
The Plot to Kill King
- The Truth Behind the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
- By: Dr. William F. Pepper Esq.
- Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
William Pepper was James Earl Ray's lawyer in the trial for the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr., and even after Ray's conviction and death, Pepper continues to adamantly argue Ray's innocence. This myth-shattering expose is a revised, updated, and heavily expanded volume of Pepper's original best-selling and critically-acclaimed book of the same name, with 26 years of additional research included. The result reveals dramatic new details of the night of the murder, the trial, and why Ray was chosen to take the fall for an evil conspiracy.
-
-
Required listening
- By MJ in LA on 07-20-17
-
Hellhound on His Trail
- The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin
- By: Hampton Sides
- Narrated by: Hampton Sides
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On April 23, 1967, Prisoner #416J, an inmate at the notorious Missouri State Penitentiary, escaped in a breadbox. Fashioning himself Eric Galt, this nondescript thief and con man - whose real name was James Earl Ray -drifted through the South, into Mexico, and then Los Angeles, where he was galvanized by George Wallace's racist presidential campaign. With relentless storytelling drive, Sides follows Galt and King as they crisscross the country, one stalking the other, until the crushing moment at the Lorraine Motel.
-
-
History Comes Alive
- By L. Lyter on 06-29-10
By: Hampton Sides
-
The Wednesday Wars
- By: Gary D. Schmidt
- Narrated by: Joel Johnstone
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet Holling Hoodhood, a seventh-grader at Camillo Junior High who must spend Wednesday afternoons with his teacher, Mrs. Baker, while the rest of the class has religious instruction. Mrs. Baker doesn’t like Holling - he’s sure of it. Why else would she make him read the plays of William Shakespeare outside class? But everyone has bigger things to worry about, like Vietnam.
-
-
A Happy Book
- By David Tousey on 11-01-20
By: Gary D. Schmidt