-
Jackpot
- High Times, High Seas, and the Sting That Launched the War on Drugs
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
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
Buy for $15.56
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
In the late 1970s and early '80s, a cadre of freewheeling Southern pot smugglers lived at the crossroads of Miami Vice and a Jimmy Buffett song. These irrepressible adventurers unloaded nearly a billion dollars worth of marijuana and hashish through the Eastern Seaboard's marshes. Then came their undoing: Operation Jackpot, one of the largest drug investigations ever and an opening volley in Ronald Reagan's "War on Drugs".
In Jackpot, author Jason Ryan takes us back to the heady days before drug smuggling was synonymous with deadly gunplay. During this golden age of marijuana trafficking, the country's most prominent kingpins were a group of wayward and fun-loving Southern gentlemen who forsook college educations to sail drug-laden luxury sailboats across the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, and the Caribbean. Les Riley, Barry Foy, and their comrades eschewed violence as much as they loved pleasure, and it was greed, lust, and disaster at sea that ultimately caught up with them, along with the law.
In a cat-and-mouse game played out in exotic locations across the globe, the smugglers sailed through hurricanes, broke out of jail, and survived encounters with armed militants in Colombia, Grenada, and Lebanon. Based on years of research and interviews with imprisoned and recently released smugglers and the law enforcement agents who tracked them down, Jackpot is sure to become a classic story from America's controversial drug wars.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Only Plane in the Sky
- An Oral History of September 11, 2001
- By: Garrett M. Graff
- Narrated by: full cast
- Length: 15 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beginning in the predawn hours of airports in the Northeast, we meet the ticket agents who unknowingly usher terrorists onto their flights, and the flight attendants inside the hijacked planes. In New York City, first responders confront a scene of unimaginable horror at the Twin Towers. From a secret bunker underneath the White House, officials watch for incoming planes on radar. Aboard the small number of unarmed fighter jets in the air, pilots make a pact to fly into a hijacked airliner if necessary to bring it down.
-
-
This should be required listening
- By LManc on 09-13-19
By: Garrett M. Graff
-
Blood on Their Hands
- Murder, Corruption, and the Fall of the Murdaugh Dynasty
- By: Mandy Matney
- Narrated by: Mandy Matney
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Years before the name Alex Murdaugh was splashed across every major media outlet in America, local South Carolina journalist Mandy Matney had an instinct that something wasn’t right in the Lowcountry. The powerful Murdaugh dynasty had dominated rural South Carolina for generations. No one dared to cross them.
-
-
Disappointed and Very frustrating
- By Annie on 11-21-23
By: Mandy Matney
-
The Heart of Everything That Is
- The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend
- By: Bob Drury, Tom Clavin
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The great Oglala Sioux chief Red Cloud was the only Plains Indian to defeat the United States Army in a war, forcing the American government to sue for peace in a conflict named for him. At the peak of their chief’s powers, the Sioux could claim control of one-fifth of the contiguous United States. But unlike Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, or Geronimo, the fog of history has left Red Cloud strangely obscured. Now, thanks to painstaking research by two award-winning authors, his incredible story can finally be told.
-
-
The Irresistable Force Paradox: Manifest Destiny
- By Mel on 11-10-13
By: Bob Drury, and others
-
Smuggler
- By: Roger Reaves
- Narrated by: Roger Reaves
- Length: 24 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Roger Reaves grew up a poor farm boy in Georgia and went from making 'moonshine' to becoming one of the most prolific smugglers of the 20th century. He covered six continents, transporting 20 ton ship loads of hash, tons of cocaine, and completed more than 100 sorties across the US border with plane loads of marijuana. His friends and associates spanned the globe - from Medellin Cartel kingpins Jorge Ochoa and Pablo Escobar, to "Mr. Nice" Howard Marks and the infamous Barry Seal who was Roger's close friend and employee.
-
-
5 stars
- By Kacy Smith on 01-09-22
By: Roger Reaves
-
The Wager
- A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
- By: David Grann
- Narrated by: Dion Graham, David Grann
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as “the prize of all the oceans,” it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia.
-
-
Gasping for Air
- By Jean Engle on 04-19-23
By: David Grann
-
Sentenced to War
- By: Jonathan Brazee, J. N. Chaney
- Narrated by: Jeffrey Kafer
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Convicted of a minor traffic violation, Rev Pelletier is conscripted into the Perseus Union Marine Corps...for up to a 30-year term of service. Anxious to get back to his civilian life and job, Rev opts for a shorter term as a Marine Raider taking the fight to the enemy. But with extremely high mortality rates, can he and his friends survive until their term of service is over?
-
-
Premise is horrible.
- By Kyriakos on 04-18-21
By: Jonathan Brazee, and others
-
The Only Plane in the Sky
- An Oral History of September 11, 2001
- By: Garrett M. Graff
- Narrated by: full cast
- Length: 15 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beginning in the predawn hours of airports in the Northeast, we meet the ticket agents who unknowingly usher terrorists onto their flights, and the flight attendants inside the hijacked planes. In New York City, first responders confront a scene of unimaginable horror at the Twin Towers. From a secret bunker underneath the White House, officials watch for incoming planes on radar. Aboard the small number of unarmed fighter jets in the air, pilots make a pact to fly into a hijacked airliner if necessary to bring it down.
-
-
This should be required listening
- By LManc on 09-13-19
By: Garrett M. Graff
-
Blood on Their Hands
- Murder, Corruption, and the Fall of the Murdaugh Dynasty
- By: Mandy Matney
- Narrated by: Mandy Matney
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Years before the name Alex Murdaugh was splashed across every major media outlet in America, local South Carolina journalist Mandy Matney had an instinct that something wasn’t right in the Lowcountry. The powerful Murdaugh dynasty had dominated rural South Carolina for generations. No one dared to cross them.
-
-
Disappointed and Very frustrating
- By Annie on 11-21-23
By: Mandy Matney
-
The Heart of Everything That Is
- The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend
- By: Bob Drury, Tom Clavin
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The great Oglala Sioux chief Red Cloud was the only Plains Indian to defeat the United States Army in a war, forcing the American government to sue for peace in a conflict named for him. At the peak of their chief’s powers, the Sioux could claim control of one-fifth of the contiguous United States. But unlike Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, or Geronimo, the fog of history has left Red Cloud strangely obscured. Now, thanks to painstaking research by two award-winning authors, his incredible story can finally be told.
-
-
The Irresistable Force Paradox: Manifest Destiny
- By Mel on 11-10-13
By: Bob Drury, and others
-
Smuggler
- By: Roger Reaves
- Narrated by: Roger Reaves
- Length: 24 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Roger Reaves grew up a poor farm boy in Georgia and went from making 'moonshine' to becoming one of the most prolific smugglers of the 20th century. He covered six continents, transporting 20 ton ship loads of hash, tons of cocaine, and completed more than 100 sorties across the US border with plane loads of marijuana. His friends and associates spanned the globe - from Medellin Cartel kingpins Jorge Ochoa and Pablo Escobar, to "Mr. Nice" Howard Marks and the infamous Barry Seal who was Roger's close friend and employee.
-
-
5 stars
- By Kacy Smith on 01-09-22
By: Roger Reaves
-
The Wager
- A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
- By: David Grann
- Narrated by: Dion Graham, David Grann
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as “the prize of all the oceans,” it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia.
-
-
Gasping for Air
- By Jean Engle on 04-19-23
By: David Grann
-
Sentenced to War
- By: Jonathan Brazee, J. N. Chaney
- Narrated by: Jeffrey Kafer
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Convicted of a minor traffic violation, Rev Pelletier is conscripted into the Perseus Union Marine Corps...for up to a 30-year term of service. Anxious to get back to his civilian life and job, Rev opts for a shorter term as a Marine Raider taking the fight to the enemy. But with extremely high mortality rates, can he and his friends survive until their term of service is over?
-
-
Premise is horrible.
- By Kyriakos on 04-18-21
By: Jonathan Brazee, and others
-
Wiseguy
- By: Nicholas Pileggi, Martin Scorsese - introduction
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos, Corey Brill, Hillary Huber, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the true crime best seller that was the basis for Martin Scorsese’s film masterpiece GoodFellas, which brought to life the violence, the excess, the families, the wives and girlfriends, the drugs, the payoffs, the paybacks, the jail time, and the Feds...with Henry Hill’s crackling narration drawn straight out of Wiseguy and overseeing all the unforgettable action.
-
-
Finally unabridged
- By Rodney on 12-16-19
By: Nicholas Pileggi, and others
-
The Guardians
- A Novel
- By: John Grisham
- Narrated by: Michael Beck
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the small Florida town of Seabrook, a young lawyer named Keith Russo was shot dead at his desk as he worked late one night. The killer left no clues. There were no witnesses, no one with a motive. But the police soon came to suspect Quincy Miller, a young Black man who was once a client of Russo’s.
-
-
Is Grisham getting serious about writing again?
- By Wayne on 10-17-19
By: John Grisham
-
The Boys from Biloxi
- A Legal Thriller
- By: John Grisham
- Narrated by: Michael Beck
- Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For most of the last hundred years, Biloxi was known for its beaches, resorts, and seafood industry. But it had a darker side. It was also notorious for corruption and vice, everything from gambling, prostitution, bootleg liquor, and drugs to contract killings. The vice was controlled by small cabal of mobsters, many of them rumored to be members of the Dixie Mafia.
-
-
Long and boring
- By ATM on 10-20-22
By: John Grisham
-
American Kingpin
- The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road
- By: Nick Bilton
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2011, a 26-year-old libertarian programmer named Ross Ulbricht launched the ultimate free market: the Silk Road, a clandestine website hosted on the Dark Web where anyone could trade anything - drugs, hacking software, forged passports, counterfeit cash, poisons - free of the government's watchful eye. It wasn't long before the media got wind of the new website where anyone - not just teenagers and weed dealers but terrorists and black hat hackers - could buy and sell contraband detection-free.
-
-
An honest portrait of DPR
- By Victor on 05-18-17
By: Nick Bilton
-
Blow
- How a Small-Town Boy Made $100 Million with the Medellín Cocaine Cartel and Lost It All
- By: Bruce Porter
- Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Blow is the unlikely story of George Jung's roller-coaster ride from middle-class high school football hero to the heart of Pablo Escobar's Medellín cartel - the largest importer of the United States cocaine supply in the 1980s. Jung's early business of flying marijuana into the United States from the mountains of Mexico took a dramatic turn when he met Carlos Lehder, a young Colombian car thief with connections to the then newly-born cocaine operation in his native land. Together they created a new model for selling cocaine.
-
-
Head shaking story!
- By Anonymous User on 09-06-18
By: Bruce Porter
-
The Snakehead
- An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream
- By: Patrick Radden Keefe
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A mesmerizing narrative about the rise and fall of an unlikely international crime boss. Based on hundreds of interviews, Patrick Radden Keefe's sweeping narrative tells the story not only of Sister Ping, but of the gangland gunslingers who worked for her, the immigration and law enforcement officials who pursued her, and the generation of penniless immigrants who risked death and braved a 17,000 mile odyssey so that they could realize their own version of the American dream.
-
-
But Is It a Crime?
- By Roy on 08-23-09
-
BMF
- The Rise and Fall of Big Meech and the Black Mafia Family
- By: Mara Shalhoup
- Narrated by: L. Steven Taylor
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the early 1990s, Demetrius "Big Meech" Flenory and his brother, Terry "Southwest T", rose up from the slums of Detroit to build one of the largest cocaine empires in American history: the Black Mafia Family. They socialized with music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs, did business with New York's king of bling Jacob "The Jeweler" Arabo, and built allegiances with rap superstars Young Jeezy and Fabolous. Yet even as BMF was attracting celebrity attention, its crew members struck fear in a city.
-
-
Good listen
- By Lamont on 04-20-20
By: Mara Shalhoup
-
The Mastermind
- Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal.
- By: Evan Ratliff
- Narrated by: Evan Ratliff
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The incredible true story of the decade-long quest to bring down Paul Le Roux - the creator of a frighteningly powerful internet-enabled cartel who merged the ruthlessness of a drug lord with the technological savvy of a Silicon Valley entrepreneur.
-
-
Being too reliant on consensus backfires occasiona
- By El Alamein on 07-17-19
By: Evan Ratliff
-
The Unknown Mongol
- By: Scott Junior Ereckson
- Narrated by: Jeff Hays
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the true story of ex-Mongols M.C. National President Scott Junior Ereckson. From a young teen, peering from behind a bush at an unknown Mongol, Scott fulfills his childhood dreams. In later years, after many experiences, he becomes one of the most respected and feared Mongols to this day.
-
-
Superb book ruined by muppet voices
- By Skinny Pete on 05-29-15
-
Confessions of a Cartel Hit Man
- By: Martin Corona, Tony Rafael
- Narrated by: Jacob Vargas
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Martin Corona, a US citizen, fell into the outlaw life at 12 and worked for a crew run by the Arellano brothers, founders of the Tijuana drug cartel that dominated the Southern California drug trade and much bloody gang warfare for decades. Corona's crew would cross into the United States from their luxurious hideout in Mexico, kill whomever needed to be killed north of the border, and return home in the afternoon. Martin Corona played a key role in the downfall of the cartel when he turned state's evidence.
-
-
Rather Disappointing
- By Betty Von Schnuuglestein on 08-03-17
By: Martin Corona, and others
-
Down Range
- A Garrett Kohl Novel
- By: Taylor Moore
- Narrated by: Jeremy Arthur
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a decorated undercover DEA special agent, Garrett Kohl has traveled the world - and fought in most of it - but it’s the High Plains of northwest Texas he calls home and dreams of returning to one day. Kohl is in the middle of an assignment in Afghanistan when his commander orders him back to Texas on a short mission expected to take a week at most. But Kohl is unsettled to discover that he’s moving from one kind of war to another.
-
-
Another politicized "thriller"
- By Mark L on 06-29-22
By: Taylor Moore
-
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
Related to this topic
-
The Snakehead
- An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream
- By: Patrick Radden Keefe
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A mesmerizing narrative about the rise and fall of an unlikely international crime boss. Based on hundreds of interviews, Patrick Radden Keefe's sweeping narrative tells the story not only of Sister Ping, but of the gangland gunslingers who worked for her, the immigration and law enforcement officials who pursued her, and the generation of penniless immigrants who risked death and braved a 17,000 mile odyssey so that they could realize their own version of the American dream.
-
-
But Is It a Crime?
- By Roy on 08-23-09
-
Kings of Cocaine
- Inside the Medellin Cartel - An Astonishing True Story of Murder Money and International Corruption
- By: Guy Gugliotta, Jeff Leen
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 14 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the story of the most successful cocaine dealers in the world: Pablo Escobar Gaviria, Jorge Luis Ochoa Vasquez, Carlos Lehder Rivas, and Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha. In the 1980s, they controlled more than 50 percent of the cocaine flowing into the United States. The cocaine trade is capitalism on overdrive - supply meeting demand on exponential levels. Here you'll find the story of how the modern cocaine business started and how it turned a ragtag group of hippies and sociopaths into regal kings.
-
-
Almost Perfect.
- By Nick on 10-31-18
By: Guy Gugliotta, and others
-
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
-
Animal
- The Bloody Rise and Fall of the Mob's Most Feared Assassin
- By: Casey Sherman
- Narrated by: Jim Goad
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Joe Barboza knew that there were two requirements for getting inducted into the Mafia. You had to be Sicilian. And you had to commit a contract killing. The New Bedford-born mobster was a proud Portuguese, not Sicilian, but his dream to be part of La Cosa Nostra proved so strong that he thought he could create a loophole. Barboza’s legacy, buried for years thanks to the murders or deaths of its participants, is finally coming to light and being told in its unvarnished brutality by one of America’s most respected true crime writers.
-
-
Well done. 5 stars.
- By robert price on 03-03-19
By: Casey Sherman
-
The Tangled Web
- The Life and Death of Richard Cain—Chicago Cop and Mafia Hitman
- By: Michael Cain
- Narrated by: Clinton Wade
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Tangled Web tells the dramatic story of detective Richard Cain's criminal career as revealed by his half-brother, Michael. Cain led a double-life—one as a well-known cop who led raids that landed on the front pages, and the other as a "made man" in one of Chicago's most notorious mob families.
-
-
Reviews
- By G. D. Hoppe on 11-19-20
By: Michael Cain
-
BMF
- The Rise and Fall of Big Meech and the Black Mafia Family
- By: Mara Shalhoup
- Narrated by: L. Steven Taylor
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the early 1990s, Demetrius "Big Meech" Flenory and his brother, Terry "Southwest T", rose up from the slums of Detroit to build one of the largest cocaine empires in American history: the Black Mafia Family. They socialized with music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs, did business with New York's king of bling Jacob "The Jeweler" Arabo, and built allegiances with rap superstars Young Jeezy and Fabolous. Yet even as BMF was attracting celebrity attention, its crew members struck fear in a city.
-
-
Good listen
- By Lamont on 04-20-20
By: Mara Shalhoup
-
The Snakehead
- An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream
- By: Patrick Radden Keefe
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A mesmerizing narrative about the rise and fall of an unlikely international crime boss. Based on hundreds of interviews, Patrick Radden Keefe's sweeping narrative tells the story not only of Sister Ping, but of the gangland gunslingers who worked for her, the immigration and law enforcement officials who pursued her, and the generation of penniless immigrants who risked death and braved a 17,000 mile odyssey so that they could realize their own version of the American dream.
-
-
But Is It a Crime?
- By Roy on 08-23-09
-
Kings of Cocaine
- Inside the Medellin Cartel - An Astonishing True Story of Murder Money and International Corruption
- By: Guy Gugliotta, Jeff Leen
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 14 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the story of the most successful cocaine dealers in the world: Pablo Escobar Gaviria, Jorge Luis Ochoa Vasquez, Carlos Lehder Rivas, and Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha. In the 1980s, they controlled more than 50 percent of the cocaine flowing into the United States. The cocaine trade is capitalism on overdrive - supply meeting demand on exponential levels. Here you'll find the story of how the modern cocaine business started and how it turned a ragtag group of hippies and sociopaths into regal kings.
-
-
Almost Perfect.
- By Nick on 10-31-18
By: Guy Gugliotta, and others
-
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
-
Animal
- The Bloody Rise and Fall of the Mob's Most Feared Assassin
- By: Casey Sherman
- Narrated by: Jim Goad
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Joe Barboza knew that there were two requirements for getting inducted into the Mafia. You had to be Sicilian. And you had to commit a contract killing. The New Bedford-born mobster was a proud Portuguese, not Sicilian, but his dream to be part of La Cosa Nostra proved so strong that he thought he could create a loophole. Barboza’s legacy, buried for years thanks to the murders or deaths of its participants, is finally coming to light and being told in its unvarnished brutality by one of America’s most respected true crime writers.
-
-
Well done. 5 stars.
- By robert price on 03-03-19
By: Casey Sherman
-
The Tangled Web
- The Life and Death of Richard Cain—Chicago Cop and Mafia Hitman
- By: Michael Cain
- Narrated by: Clinton Wade
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Tangled Web tells the dramatic story of detective Richard Cain's criminal career as revealed by his half-brother, Michael. Cain led a double-life—one as a well-known cop who led raids that landed on the front pages, and the other as a "made man" in one of Chicago's most notorious mob families.
-
-
Reviews
- By G. D. Hoppe on 11-19-20
By: Michael Cain
-
BMF
- The Rise and Fall of Big Meech and the Black Mafia Family
- By: Mara Shalhoup
- Narrated by: L. Steven Taylor
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the early 1990s, Demetrius "Big Meech" Flenory and his brother, Terry "Southwest T", rose up from the slums of Detroit to build one of the largest cocaine empires in American history: the Black Mafia Family. They socialized with music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs, did business with New York's king of bling Jacob "The Jeweler" Arabo, and built allegiances with rap superstars Young Jeezy and Fabolous. Yet even as BMF was attracting celebrity attention, its crew members struck fear in a city.
-
-
Good listen
- By Lamont on 04-20-20
By: Mara Shalhoup
-
The Last Gangster
- From Cop to Wiseguy to FBI Informant: Big Ron Previte and the Fall of the American Mob
- By: George Anastasia
- Narrated by: Chris Monteiro
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a cop, Ron Previte was corrupt. As a mobster, he was brutal. And in his final role, as a confidential informant to the FBI, Previte was deadly. The Last Gangster is his story—the story of the last days of the Philadelphia Mob, and of the clash of generations that brought it down once and for all. Convinced that the honor of the "business" was gone, he became the FBI's secret weapon in an intense and highly personalized war on the Philadelphia mob, operating with the same guile, wit, and stone-cold bravado that had made him a force in the underworld.
-
-
Beautifully done! Exceptional.
- By none on 12-15-23
By: George Anastasia
-
The Corporation
- An Epic Story of the Cuban American Underworld
- By: T. J. English
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 19 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By the mid 1980s, the criminal underworld in the United States had become an ethnic polyglot; one of the most powerful illicit organizations was none other than the Cuban mob. Known on both sides of the law as "the Corporation", the Cuban mob's power stemmed from a criminal culture embedded in south Florida's exile community - those who had been chased from the island by Castro's revolution and planned to overthrow the Marxist dictator and reclaim their nation.
-
-
uncle joey approved
- By Anonymous User on 04-14-18
By: T. J. English
-
Tulia
- Race, Cocaine, and Corruption in a Small Texas Town
- By: Nate Blakeslee
- Narrated by: James Boles
- Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Early one morning in the summer of 1999, authorities in the tiny West Texas town of Tulia began a roundup of suspected drug dealers. By the time the sweep was done, over 40 people had been arrested and one of every five black adults in town was behind bars, all accused of dealing cocaine to the same undercover officer, Tom Coleman.
-
-
A Must Read
- By JOHN on 03-23-08
By: Nate Blakeslee
-
Get Capone
- The Secret Plot That Captured America's Most Wanted Gangster
- By: Jonathan Eig
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 17 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Acclaimed journalist and bestselling author Jonathan Eig blows the lid off the Al Capone story. Based on never-before-seen government documents and newly discovered letters written by Al Capone himself, Get Capone presents America's greatest gangster as you’ve never seen him before.
-
-
Get this book
- By Jonathan on 05-13-10
By: Jonathan Eig
-
Operation Family Secrets
- How a Mobster's Son and the FBI Brought Down Chicago's Murderous Crime Family
- By: Frank Calabrese Jr., Keith Zimmerman, Kent Zimmerman, and others
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Calabrese family of Chicago is a close-knit, middle-class, multi-generational Italian-Irish-American clan. They operate family businesses. They work day and night striving for the American Dream. All three sons forge a bond with their controlling father, Frank Sr., and their soft-spoken favorite uncle, Nick. As a boy, the oldest son, Frank Jr., realizes that his father and uncle are also "made" members of another close-knit family: the outfit.
-
-
Riveting Listen!
- By ahippieadventure on 02-06-13
By: Frank Calabrese Jr., and others
-
The Brothers Bulger
- How They Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century
- By: Howie Carr
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This fresh account of Massachusetts' infamous Bulger brothers unveils a stunning criminal alliance, and with its dual biography format, goes deeper than the New York Times best-selling Black Mass. For the first time, journalist Howie Carr reveals the real story behind the infamous Bulgers, two brothers from South Boston who grew up to control a state.
-
-
ZZZZZZzzzzzzzz
- By Tory on 11-18-06
By: Howie Carr
-
Boston Mob
- The Rise and Fall of the New England Mob and Its Most Notorious Killer
- By: Marc Songini
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The New England Mafia was a hugely powerful organization that survived by using violence to ruthlessly crush anyone that threatened it, or its lucrative gambling, loansharking, bootlegging, and other enterprises. From information based on newly declassified documents and the use of underworld sources, Boston Mob spans the gutters and alleyways of East Boston, Providence, and Charlestown to the halls of Congress in Washington, D.C., and Boston's Beacon Hill. Its players include governors and mayors, and the Mafia Commission of New York City.
-
-
Entertaining
- By joeyg1963 on 12-07-19
By: Marc Songini
-
Gotti's Rules
- The Story of John Alite, Junior Gotti, and the Demise of the American Mafia
- By: George Anastasia
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The notorious Gotti family is the stuff of mob legend. The "Dapper Don", John Gotti Sr., and his son John A. "Junior" Gotti ran New York's powerful Gambino crime family and were well known for their flamboyant style and brutal ways, an image perpetuated in popular Mafia mythology. John Alite, a mob hit man, associate, and close friend of the Gottis, has a very different story to tell.
-
-
Garbage read
- By Ray on 09-02-15
By: George Anastasia
-
Cullotta
- By: Dennis N. Griffin, Frank Cullotta
- Narrated by: Michael Taylor
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From burglary to armed robbery and murder, infamous bad guy Frank Cullotta not only did it all, in Cullotta he admits to it - and in graphic detail. This no-holds-barred biography chronicles the life of a career criminal who started out as a thug on the streets of Chicago and became a trusted lieutenant in Tony Spilotro's gang of organized lawbreakers in Las Vegas. Cullotta's was a world of high-profile heists, street muscle, and information - lots of it - about many of the FBI's most wanted.
-
-
Great story, silly narrator
- By Tom Mainella II on 04-20-15
By: Dennis N. Griffin, and others
-
Oklahoma City
- What the Investigation Missed - and Why It Still Matters
- By: Andrew Gumbel, Roger G. Charles
- Narrated by: Todd Waring
- Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Oklahoma City, veteran investigative journalists Andrew Gumbel and Roger G. Charles puncture the myth about what happened on that day - one that has persisted in the minds of the American public for nearly two decades. Working with unprecedented access to government documents, a voluminous correspondence with Terry Nichols, and more than 150 interviews with those immediately involved, Gumbel and Charles demonstrate how much was missed in the official investigation.
-
-
A Catalog
- By Lynn on 07-31-12
By: Andrew Gumbel, and others
-
Mafia Summit
- J. Edgar Hoover, the Kennedy Brothers, and the Meeting That Unmasked the Mob
- By: Gil Reavill
- Narrated by: Keith Szarabajka
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a small village in New York, mob bosses from all over the country - Vito Genovese, Carlo Gambino, Joe Bonanno, Joe Profaci, Cuba boss Santo Trafficante, Jr., and Paul Castellano - were nabbed by Sergeant Edgar D. Croswell as they gathered to sort out a bloody war of succession. For years FBI director J. Edgar Hoover had adamantly denied the existence of the Mafia, but Robert Kennedy immediately recognized the shattering importance of the Apalachin summit....
-
-
Something I Didn't Know
- By Kevin on 03-29-13
By: Gil Reavill
-
Gangster Squad
- Covert Cops, the Mob, and the Battle for Los Angeles
- By: Paul Lieberman
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gangster Squad chronicles the true story of the secretive police unit that waged an anything-goes war to drive Mickey Cohen and other hoodlums from Los Angeles after WWII. In 1946, the LAPD launched the Gangster Squad with eight men who met covertly on street corners and slept with Tommy guns under their beds. But for two cops, all that mattered was nailing the strutting gangster Mickey Cohen. Sgt. Jack O’Mara was a square-jawed church usher, Sgt. Jerry Wooters a cynical maverick....
-
-
Nothing Like the movie
- By KEITH on 02-21-13
By: Paul Lieberman
What listeners say about Jackpot
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tyler
- 07-15-21
Intriguing and adventurous
Very interesting story all the way through. It covers both sides of the coin from the smuggler to the investigators. you wont be disappointed.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jones John
- 12-28-23
Living in Charleston could relate to a lot of the people
Enjoyed from start to finish a lot of local places and people and how the war on drugs began
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 09-03-20
An epic tale of the southern drug smuggler
The thoroughly informative story of the southern gentlemen who masterminded the lucrative drug smuggling operations in SC in the early days of the post-1960's counterculture movements that liberated a generation of anti-establiment youths. This is the story of the extraordinary lives behind the exciting entrepreneurly spirits who built an underground network of trade for supplying America's drug craze and the political establishment set to try to stop them.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- On the ridge
- 03-03-19
Great listen
I started listening and could not stop. The details in the story meticulously presented in a way that makes the story jump out of the speakers and has you engulfed in it. I feel like I was there. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who grew up in the 60's to the 90's
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gregory Frye
- 10-25-22
The Gentlemen Smugglers are back!!
I picked up this book after interviewing Barry Foy about his new, legal Gentlemen Smugglers cannabis brand in Massachusetts.
Foy is less Scarface and more Matthew McConaughey, and it's hard not to root for him.
The criminalization of drugs is one of the greatest mistakes of the 20th century.
This book provides an interesting piece to the puzzle around the so-called war on drugs.
If you're interested in cannabis, the cannabis industry, etc. definitely check this book out.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- M. Cramer
- 12-24-21
Thanks Shep Rose for this recommendation!!
I listened to Shep Rose’s Average Expectations and this title was recommended in his book. Since I recently moved to SC, I thought it would be interested to learn more about the area and local stories. I thought this book was great and very engaging. I can’t believe some of this stuff happened here. It also brings to light some of the “good ol’ boys” clubs that you see now in SC politics and crime (Alex Murdaugh). Highly recommend the Murdaugh Murders podcast on apple podcasts for true crime SC.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Benjamin Soto
- 02-20-24
A piece of unknown American history
Who knew this is how the war on drugs started?!? Very interesting piece of American history.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- tim
- 12-19-20
fun and exciting
if you enjoy stories about drug smuggling you will love this book. laid back mellow guys, fun wild exciting adventures, exotic locations and huge loads of pot and hashish. as well as the consequences of those adventures. every time i think i've found my favorite book and favorite story about smuggling i find another even better and this is just one more example of that. though this one is going to be extremly hard to beat. the huge loads of pot and hash and the stories of picking them up and getting them back here and unloading them are crazy and so much fun to hear. you won't be dissapointed.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kathryn E. Parks
- 07-13-23
I loved it
I found this intriguing and amazing to listen to, especially after the Murdagh trial. The Lowcountry is interesting. I’ve lived here a long time but not long enough to have know about this story. And McMasters is our governor!!!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Laura
- 01-14-21
If You Enjoy Injustice
I kept thinking the story would get better so I continued to listen. Eventually I had an hour left & the story just kept getting more depressing. It’s sad that these men ever went to jail over marijuana. I know the times were different but the American justice system is depressing. No real rehabilitation & people in prisoned over a plant that we now know has healing benefits. As a medical patient who has been able to function better in my daily life as a result of cannabis products, this book was just depressing & reminded me that america has a very long way to go before eliminating criminal charges for these harmless entrepreneurs.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful