Preview
  • The Pirate

  • Bloodlands collection
  • By: Harold Schechter
  • Narrated by: Steven Weber
  • Length: 1 hr and 28 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (1,292 ratings)

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The Pirate

By: Harold Schechter
Narrated by: Steven Weber
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Publisher's summary

In 1860, a sloop drifted into New York Harbor. Not a soul on board - just blood from cabin to deck. Looted coins led to Bowery thug Albert Hicks, the ax slayer who turned his shipmates into chum.

His crimes were absolutely fiendish. His execution was pure ballyhoo. It drew nearly ten thousand bloodthirsty sightseers to the city - including the enterprising showman P. T. Barnum. Refreshments were served as the most notorious and unrepentant mass murderer of the era made history as one of America’s first celebrity killers.

The Pirate 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.
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What listeners say about The Pirate

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
    236
  • 2 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Sew K.

Fell asleep towards the end, again & again...
Well, it was free now that's a change, Amazon...

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Good

A nice, interesting and quick read that gets right down to brass tacks but in a captivating way.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great short story to be listened on a comute

There should be more short stories available for commuters to listen back and forth trips

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

it was a great listen.

I liked the narrator, it was an I testing story. I'll listen to it again I'm sure.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

The last pirate

Bloodlands collection – 6 books The Pirate, Little Slaughterhouse on the Prairie, Brick Slayer, Panic, Pied Piper, Rampage

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…

***The Pirate – 1860’s murder by Albert Hicks who has been swallowed up by the passage of time, tho was a media circus at the time. Noteworthy was an odd tie-in with PT Barnum (which really isn’t that odd today) & the fact Hicks was the last American hung for piracy.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

CSI NY - A century ago

Historical and very graphic story about an American serial killer, which at times is a bit confusing with numerous other historical accounts intersecting. Crime scene investigation on a boat and great investigating brings the lowlife to justice, despite loopholes in the system. Great performance!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Not too bad but slower than I thought it would be.

If they can take something as entertaining and exhilarating as murder and pirates and make it sound clinical and detached, that’s what they’ve done here. That said, this is a very good story and I completely plan to listen to all of the others. I wouldn’t waste a credit on it but as it’s free with kindle unlimited it was totally worth the time. Story’s great, narrator is dull.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Easy listening good story

I enjoyed the story line and the narrator was good also fun to listen to I kept my interest

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

short and sweet

A short, informative, well narrated story about Pure Evil. it seems that twisted Psychopaths I've been with us all throughout history.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

dark history

nice inside look into some of Americas darkest murders and the people that committed them!

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