The Gun King
Southside collection
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Narrated by:
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Ron Butler
About this listen
When a middle-class kid from the suburbs was caught using Facebook to distribute firearms bought legally at Indiana gun shows to notorious gangsters across the border - was he a kingpin or a scapegoat?
David Lewisbey received perhaps the harshest sentence ever in a gun-trafficking trial. A college student from the suburban outskirts of Chicago, he allegedly embodied the enterprising swagger of his favorite rap lyrics, moving weapons for stacks of cash. John H. Richardson tours Chicago’s gun-soaked South Side with Lewisbey’s clientele and meets with the “Big Man” himself to unpack the truth.
John H. Richardson’s The Gun King is part of Southside, a collection of five true stories about racism and reform, crime and corruption, justice and injustice in Chicago - from the Pulitzer Prize-winning team at The Marshall Project. Each story can be listened to in a single sitting.
©2018 John H. Richardson. (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.Listeners also enjoyed...
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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.
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Garbage read
- By Ray on 09-02-15
By: George Anastasia
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The Black Hand
- The Bloody Rise and Redemption of "Boxer" Enriquez, a Mexican Mob Killer
- By: Chris Blatchford
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Rene "Boxer" Enriquez grew up on the violent streets of East L.A., where gang fights, robberies, and drive-by shootings were fueled by rage, drugs, and alcohol. When he finally landed in prison - at the age of 19 - Enriquez found an organization that brought him the respect he always wanted: the near-mythic and widely feared Mexican Mafia, La Eme. What the organization saw in Enriquez was a young man who knew no fear and would kill anyone - justifiably or not - in the blink of an eye.
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Intense, brutal, and informative
- By E on 07-08-15
By: Chris Blatchford
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Don't Shoot
- One Man, a Street Fellowship, and the End of Violence in Inner-City America
- By: David M. Kennedy
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Gang- and drug-related inner-city violence, with its attendant epidemic of incarceration, is the defining crime problem in our country. In some neighborhoods in America, one out of every 200 young black men is shot to death every year, and few initiatives of government and law enforcement have made much difference. But when David Kennedy, a self-taught and then-unknown criminologist, engineered the "Boston Miracle" in the mid-1990s, he pointed the way toward what few had imagined: a solution.
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Tragically Under-Appreciated
- By Nathan Witkin on 12-02-22
By: David M. Kennedy
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Good Kids, Bad City
- A Story of Race and Wrongful Conviction in America
- By: Kyle Swenson
- Narrated by: J. D. Jackson
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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In the early 1970s, three African American men - Wiley Bridgeman, Kwame Ajamu, and Rickey Jackson - were accused and convicted of the brutal robbery and murder of a man outside of a convenience store in Cleveland, Ohio. Almost four decades later, the men were exonerated. But while their exoneration may have ended one of American history’s most disgraceful miscarriages of justice, the corruption and decay of the city responsible for their imprisonment remain on trial.
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Life is not fair, but the hearts of these men!
- By Maureen Delaney on 03-24-19
By: Kyle Swenson
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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
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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.
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Riveting Listen!
- By ahippieadventure on 02-06-13
By: Frank Calabrese Jr., and others
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The Last Good Heist
- The Inside Story of the Biggest Single Payday in the Criminal History of the Northeast
- By: Wayne Worcester, Randall Richard, Tim White
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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On August 14, 1975, eight daring thieves ransacked 148 massive safe-deposit boxes at a secret bank used by organized crime, La Cosa Nostra, and its associates in Providence, Rhode Island. The crooks fled with duffel bags crammed full of cash, gold, silver, stamps, coins, jewels, and high-end jewelry. The true value of the loot has always been kept secret, partly because it was ill-gotten to begin with, and partly because there was plenty of incentive to keep its true worth out of the limelight.
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Interesting but not the greatest story.
- By Russell on 07-21-17
By: Wayne Worcester, and others
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Sex Money Murder
- A Story of Crack, Blood, and Betrayal
- By: Jonathan Green
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 14 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on years of research and extraordinary access to former gang members, reporter Jonthan Green creates an epic character-driven narrative, drawing on first-person interviews, police reports, and court transcripts to offer a unique and engrossing work of gritty urban reportage. Magisterial in its scope, Sex Money Murder offers an extraordinary perspective on modern-day America.
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Narrator using the N word was cringe worthy
- By Bmac on 09-07-18
By: Jonathan Green
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Gangsters of Harlem
- The Gritty Underworld of New York City's Most Famous Neighborhood
- By: Ron Chepesiuk
- Narrated by: J. D. Jackson
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Author Ron Chepesiuk chronicles the little known history of organized crime in Harlem.
African American organized crime has had as significant an impact on its constituent community as Italian, Jewish, and Irish organized crime has had on theirs. Gangsters are every bit as colorful, intriguing, and powerful as Al Capone and Lucky Luciano, and have a fascinating history in gambling, prostitution, and drug dealing. In the late 1800s, Harlem became a highly fashionable neighborhood.
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weak --reader is terrible!
- By Meyer Rosenbloom on 10-18-13
By: Ron Chepesiuk
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The Savage City
- By: T. J. English
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Abridged
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In the early 1960s, uncertainty and menace gripped New York, crystallizing in a poisonous divide between a deeply corrupt, cynical, and racist police force, and an African American community buffeted by economic distress, brutality, and narcotics. On August 28, 1963 - the day Martin Luther King Jr. declared "I have a dream" on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial - two young white women were murdered in their Manhattan apartment. Dubbed the Career Girls Murders case, the crime sent ripples of fear throughout the city, as police scrambled fruitlessly for months to find the killer.
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I Highly Recommend This Book!
- By R on 05-15-13
By: T. J. English
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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
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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.
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uncle joey approved
- By Anonymous User on 04-14-18
By: T. J. English
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Making Jack Falcone
- An Undercover FBI Agent Takes Down a Mafia Family
- By: Joaquin "Jack" Garcia, Michael Levin
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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At six-foot-four-inches and 375 pounds, Jack Garcia looked the part of a mobster, and he played his part so perfectly that his Mafia bosses never suspected he was an undercover agent for the FBI. "Big Jack Falcone," as he was known inside La Cosa Nostra, learned all the inside dirt about the Gambino organized crime syndicate and its illegal activities---from extortion and loan-sharking to assault and murder.
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interesting story--offensive narration
- By Mark on 03-17-12
By: Joaquin "Jack" Garcia, and others
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The Murder of Sonny Liston
- Las Vegas, Heroin, and Heavyweights
- By: Shaun Assael
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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On January 5, 1971, Sonny Liston was found dead in his home - of an apparent heroin overdose. But no one close to Liston believed that his death was accidental. Digging deep into a life that Liston tried hard to hide, Shaun Assael treats the boxer's death as a cold case. The result is a riveting whodunit that evokes a glorious and grimy era of Las Vegas.
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Great read
- By Diane Dodge on 09-14-19
By: Shaun Assael
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Let It Bang
- A Young Black Man’s Reluctant Odyssey into Guns
- By: RJ Young
- Narrated by: RJ Young
- Length: 4 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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The most RJ Young knew about guns was that they could get him killed. Until, recently married to a white woman and in desperate need of a way to relate to his gun-loving father-in-law, Young does the unimaginable: He accepts Charles's gift of a Glock. Let It Bang is the compelling story of the author's unexpected obsession - he eventually becomes an NRA-certified pistol instructor - and of his deep dive into the heart of America's gun culture: what he sees as the domino effect of White fear, White violence, Black fear, rinse, repeat.
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A personal story
- By Country Pete on 11-05-18
By: RJ Young
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Being Oscar
- From Mob Lawyer to Mayor of Las Vegas
- By: Oscar Goodman, George Anastasia
- Narrated by: Oscar Goodman
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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In Being Oscar,one of America’s most celebrated criminal defense attorneys recounts the stories and cases of his epic life. The Mafia’s go-to defender, he has tried an estimated 300 criminal cases, and won most of them. His roster of clients reads like a history of organized crime: Meyer Lansky, Nicky Scarfo, and "Lefty" Rosenthal, as well as Mike Tyson and boxing promoter Don King, along with a midget, a dentist, and a federal judge. After 35 years as a defender, he ran for mayor of Las Vegas, and America’s greatest Mob lawyer became the mayor of its sexiest city.
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Not as good as I expected
- By Eric Schurr on 11-16-14
By: Oscar Goodman, and others
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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
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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....
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Nothing Like the movie
- By KEITH on 02-21-13
By: Paul Lieberman
What listeners say about The Gun King
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Rainey4short
- 11-15-18
Great
Loved it. Clear and conscise. A bird's eye view that was not boring. I reccomend.
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- Jordan T. Brantley
- 08-08-20
Bookworm Speaks! - The Gun King
Bookworm Speaks!
The Gun King (The Marshall Project)
****
The reason that the social ills that plaque our world seem so intractable and difficult to solve can, at least partially, be explained by one word:
Oversimplification.
The issues such as racism, criminal justice reform, and gun control are such large, complicated issues back by multiple powerful interests and ideologies that are either in conflict with each other or completely ignorant of each other. It is truly mind-boggling how far these problems go and what they are connected to. Even though this book is short, it showcases the dangers of oversimplification. The issue of guns on the streets of Chicago is so complicated, people are willing to scapegoat someone just to make it look like something is getting done, when in reality. It is almost less than nothing.
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- Steve H
- 01-15-21
The Arc of Justice Bends the Wrong Way
A compelling illustration of how complex attempts at addressing gun violence have to be to even begin to be effective
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- Rellim
- 03-07-23
Thought provoking
This is part of The Southside, a collection of shorts (around an hour in length) by The Marshall Project.
Obviously, as a short, Richardson isn’t able to fully examine the prosecution of David Lewisbey or the policies that lead to a first time offender receiving one of the harshest sentence for gun trafficking ever. One of the main points he makes, and well, is that there is a confluence of attitudes that make this a lucrative practice and that those who face the penalties are not actually the people who end lives with these weapons.
Juxtaposed with a “day in the life” ride along, we’re able to glimpse a great deal about the circumstances faced by Chicago residents in some of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the country. The statistics shared and critical examination of laws, police focus, prosecution, and sentencing are invaluable in offering a perspective seldom shared in news soundbites and political posturing.
Narration:
I enjoyed Ron Butler’s narration. It’s non-fiction, but he still brought life to the story with unique voices and emotions for the quotes in addition to a smooth delivery of the main text.
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- LEE
- 09-04-18
Captivating
I couldn't stop listening until the book's ending. With journalistic rigor, the author described why so many guns make it onto Chicago streets. And he developed the timeless question of whether a particular convict, in this case, David Lewisbey, was a criminal kingpin or a scapegoat. During my listen, my convictions went back and forth in response to this issue.
The systemic problems are so extreme that if David Lewisbey didn't do it, somebody else surely would have. And plenty of others probably did but either didn't get caught or were not prosecuted as gun running kingpins. The gun situation in Chicago is scary.
The narrator was excellent, the right one for this book.
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- Open Ears
- 12-10-18
Great
Great story... I wish it was longe
Non stop listening I would recommend to anyonw
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