
The Brick Slayer
Bloodlands collection
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Narrated by:
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Steven Weber
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By:
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Harold Schechter
A series of brutal home invasions terrified Los Angeles in 1937. They ended in Chicago a year later with the arrest of African American teenager Robert Nixon, igniting racial tensions in an already appallingly divided city.
Tortured in custody and portrayed by the press in the most lurid and flagrantly racist terms, Nixon faced an all-white jury. It would be the fastest conviction in the history of Cook County. Used as inspiration for Richard Wright’s classic social protest novel, Native Son, the case against Nixon is a still-relevant examination of bigotry, suppressed rage, and the making of a murderer.
The Brick Slayer is part of Bloodlands, a chilling collection of short addictive historical narratives from bestselling true-crime master Harold Schechter. Spanning a century in our nation’s murderous past, Schechter resurrects nearly forgotten tales of madmen and thrill-killers that dominated the most sensational headlines of their day.
©2018 Harold Schechter (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.Listeners also enjoyed...




















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Crime stories, whether in movies, TV or books always reflect the morality and mortality of humans – as cautionary tales to warn us…me especially. The bigger the human flaws or outsized characters; the villain(s) or defenseless victim(s), the press (broadsheet & tabloid), psychiatrists, police, and/or lawyers the more I gawk...
Note: all the ebooks were tricked out with Kindle in motion special effects. Bumped up the ante to the sensationalism...can’t tell if that’s a shot at the press or not…
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Brick Slayer – short story with racism and murder at its core. What makes it significant is the fact that author Richard Wright was greatly influenced by this killer trial & news fodder to create his epic novel, ‘Native Son’, which is on my to-read list and I’ll probably read it much sooner now.
Native Son reference
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Short and Troubling Topic, but Good
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Fans of Richard Wright/Native Son must read!
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Schechter is a gifted storyteller and he understands how to craft an individual narrative within a broader framework. His handling of the Nixon murder “spree” is amazing—great listen. This is part of a series that I would definitely recommend to fans of American history, social dynamics, psychology and horror.
American Darkside
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True crime must!
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Brick brain bludgeoning serial rapist
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Waste of time.
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Wow
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loving these stories
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As interesting as the crime details might be, the vastly more interesting component of this particular narrative is the focus on the trial and the socioeconomic elements that contributed to the conditions of Robert Nixon's life. It's fascinating to think that Richard Wright's Native Son was largely inspired by the circumstances surrounding Robert Nixon's admittedly reprehensible acts and the reaction of those in law enforcement and the media to such horrific crimes committed by a young African American man. The barely suppressed racism of 1930s America seemed to be on full display throughout the investigation and subsequent trial, but it's the more subtle and insidious racism of American culture that may very well have set Nixon down the path he ultimately found himself traveling.
Schechter's insightful case studies are always profoundly interesting, but this one perhaps more so than many others, simply because of the tangential aspects of the society and culture at large during the years when these things took place.
Steven Weber's narration is superb and well-suited to the Style of Schechter's writing.
Intriguing Case Study
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