
The California Kid
From USC Golden Boy to International Drug Kingpin
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Narrated by:
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Kyle Tait
About this listen
You've read the shocking one-sided tale of international drug kingpin Owen Hanson in Rolling Stone, VICE, and the LA Times—but now he's ready to tell his side of the story.
A surfer kid from Redondo Beach, California, Owen Hanson was still in his twenties when he found himself the leader of a multi-million-dollar criminal empire. What began as an attempt to fit in with the rich kids at the University of Southern California soon grew into gambling and loan sharking, which then opened the door to drug trafficking and money laundering. Hanson wasn't just involved in this stuff—he excelled at it. Living the fast-paced lifestyle of the rich and famous, Hanson felt he was finally making his father proud, never mind the questionable ethics and obvious danger of it all. But with the cartel, a serious drug-abuse problem, and the pursuit of the FBI all threatening to overtake him, it wouldn't be long before his lifestyle caught up with him.
The California Kid follows Owen from his roots as a USC star athlete from a broken home, where his idolization of the rich and famous began, to his descent down a dangerous path where he would stop at nothing to earn the love and acceptance of his absent mother and the respect of his father. The story that follows is almost too wild to believe—but Owen bears the twenty-one-year sentence to prove it.
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i enjoy anything Murdaugh Murders
- By Douglas McDaniel on 04-01-25
By: Amie Williams, and others
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Red Hook
- Brooklyn Mafia, Ground Zero
- By: Frank Dimatteo, Michael Benson
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Packed with jaw-dropping stories of public violence and personal vengeance, vivid insights into the Mafia's way of life, and shocking portraits of America's most wanted crime families, Red Hook is a must-listen for anyone fascinated by the history of organized crime in America.
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Great History of Red Hook
- By A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. on 02-18-25
By: Frank Dimatteo, and others
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Obsessed
- A Survivor's Quest to Find the Lost Boys of New England
- By: David McGrath
- Narrated by: Dean Michaels
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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In the tranquil towns of New England during the 1970s, a sinister mystery unfolded when several boys vanished without a trace, and the community’s peace was shattered. One boy’s body was found years later, but what happened to the others remained a mystery. In 2013, author David McGrath, a former host on the Law Enforcement Today Network and an investigator with a relentless drive for justice, watched a documentary about the missing boys.
By: David McGrath
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Slaves in the Family
- By: Edward Ball
- Narrated by: Edward Ball
- Length: 20 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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The Ball family hails from South Carolina - Charleston and thereabouts. Their plantations were among the oldest and longest-standing plantations in the South. Between 1698 and 1865, close to 4,000 Black people were born into slavery under the Balls or were bought by them. In Slaves in the Family, Edward Ball recounts his efforts to track down and meet the descendants of his family's slaves.
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Gives a good insight for moving forward today
- By Wendy Wood on 05-05-19
By: Edward Ball
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Breaking Midnight
- A True Story
- By: Lynn Walker
- Narrated by: Linda Jones, Gary Tiedemann
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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John Walker was a Miami undercover narcotics agent in the 1970s. Ten years later, he was in prison for smuggling 12,000 pounds of marijuana. In prison, he connected with a South American drug lord who was still running the family operation from inside the federal pen. Within months of being paroled, John began smuggling again—this time uncut Colombian cocaine. And this time, he put everything on the line: his freedom, his family and, ultimately, his life.
By: Lynn Walker
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Mental Health & Murder
- Understanding the Darkness That Consumed My Sister
- By: Joe Hastings
- Narrated by: Patrick Shannon
- Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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With those chilling words, the author’s world was shattered. What began as an unimaginable tragedy unraveled into a devastating story of mental illness, family bonds, and the fragile line between love and fear. In this gripping true crime memoir, the author takes listeners inside the courtroom where shocking revelations exposed the depth of his sister’s mental unraveling. Through raw and unflinching honesty, he reflects on the haunting events that led to that fateful day and the lasting impact on those left behind.
By: Joe Hastings
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Borgata: Rise of Empire: A History of the American Mafia
- Borgata Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Louis Ferrante
- Narrated by: Louis Ferrante
- Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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In this first volume, Ferrante traces the mafia's phenomenal "rise of empire" through larger-than-life characters and legendary mobsters as they provide alcohol to the American public during Prohibition, penetrate industrial labor unions, practically take over the island of Cuba and, with extraordinary vision, create the gambling mecca of Las Vegas.
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Ferrante hits the trifecta
- By Richard P Paczynski on 04-12-25
By: Louis Ferrante
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The Holocaust
- An Unfinished History
- By: Dan Stone
- Narrated by: John Sackville
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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The Holocaust is much discussed, much memorialized, and much portrayed. But there are major aspects of its history that have been overlooked. Spanning the entirety of the Holocaust, this sweeping history deepens our understanding. Dan Stone—Director of the Holocaust Research Institute at Royal Holloway, University of London—reveals how the idea of “industrial murder” is incomplete: many were killed where they lived in the most brutal of ways.
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One of the best NF books I've ever listened to
- By Aaron.Johnson on 02-23-24
By: Dan Stone
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You're Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger
- By: Roger Hall
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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With a sharp eye and wry wit, Roger Hall recounts his experiences as an American Army officer assigned to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. In his droll storytelling style, Hall describes his first parachute jump in support of the French resistance as a comedy of errors that terminated prematurely. Called one of the funniest and most perceptive works ever written about life in the OSS, the book includes a wealth of unforgettable personalities that Hall encountered over the years.
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Clipped every chapter
- By Ammon K. on 01-05-25
By: Roger Hall
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Crossing the Borders of Time
- A True Story of War, Exile, and Love Reclaimed
- By: Leslie Maitland
- Narrated by: Leslie Maitland
- Length: 18 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Leslie Maitland is an award-winning former New York Times investigative reporter whose mother and grandparents fled Germany in 1938 for France, where, as Jews, they spent four years as refugees—the last two under risk of Nazi deportation. In 1942 they made it onto the last boat to escape France before the Germans sealed the harbors. Then, barred from entering the United States, they lived in Cuba for almost two years before immigrating to New York.
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I didn't want it to end..absolutely wonderful!
- By Ellen on 05-07-12
By: Leslie Maitland
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The Other Olympians
- Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports
- By: Michael Waters
- Narrated by: Jennifer Pickens
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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In December 1935, Zdeněk Koubek, one of the most famous sprinters in European women’s sports, declared he was now living as a man. Around the same time, the celebrated British field athlete Mark Weston, also assigned female at birth, announced that he, too, was a man. Periodicals and radio programs across the world carried the news; both became global celebrities. A few decades later, they were all but forgotten. In The Other Olympians, Michael Waters uncovers, for the first time, the gripping true stories of Koubek, Weston, and other pioneering trans and intersex athletes from their era.
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How women athletes have been treated by the world
- By JAMES W GOODWIN on 11-19-24
By: Michael Waters
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Burning Boy
- The Life and Work of Stephen Crane
- By: Paul Auster
- Narrated by: Paul Auster
- Length: 35 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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With Burning Boy, celebrated novelist Paul Auster tells the extraordinary story of Stephen Crane, best known as the author of The Red Badge of Courage, who transformed American literature through an avalanche of original short stories, novellas, poems, journalism, and war reportage before his life was cut short by tuberculosis at age 28.
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Brilliant and enjoyable
- By Alvin Marcetti on 01-08-23
By: Paul Auster
What listeners say about The California Kid
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Lee A Barnes
- 02-02-25
Kind of rough
Owen gave a great oral history on the SWU interview. Either his ghost writer or this narrator kind of set this arrogant tone of revelry rather than atonement and insight, the latter of which I felt Owen really truthfully delivered on his interview. Worth a listen. On 1.5x.
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- Anonymous User
- 01-21-25
Fantastic book
Listened to it in one day it was so captivating. Gives you a good luck into the criminal underworld. I watched Hanson’s interview on fresh out and immediately went to get this book. He’s a captivating story teller. Wish it would get more into life in prison but maybe we just need a book two.
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- Gian Johl
- 02-19-25
He’s clearly fabricating lots of detail
He’s trying to be a knock off wolf of Wall Street, and a story just doesn’t add up
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