
The Trials of Walter Ogrod
The Shocking Murder, So-Called Confessions, and Notorious Snitch That Sent a Man to Death Row
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

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $19.74
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Chris Andrew Ciulla
About this listen
The horrific 1988 murder of four-year-old Barbara Jean Horn shocked the citizens of Philadelphia. Plucked from her own front yard, Barbara Jean was found dead less than two and a half hours later in a cardboard TV box dragged to a nearby street curb. After months of investigation with no strong leads, the case went cold. Four years later it was reopened, and Walter Ogrod, a young man with autism spectrum disorder who had lived across the street from the family at the time of the murder, was brought in as a suspect.
Ogrod bears no resemblance to the composite police sketch based on eyewitness accounts of the man carrying the box, and there is no physical evidence linking him to the crime. His conviction was based solely on a confession he signed after 36 hours without sleep. "They said I could go home if I signed it," Ogrod told his brother from the jailhouse. The case was so weak that the jury voted unanimously to acquit him, but at the last second - in a dramatic courtroom declaration - one juror changed his mind. As he waited for a retrial, Ogrod's fate was sealed when a notorious jailhouse snitch was planted in his cell block and supplied the prosecution with a second supposed confession. As a result, Walter Ogrod sits on death row for the murder today.
Informed by police records, court transcripts, interviews, letters, journals, and more, award-winning journalist Thomas Lowenstein leads listeners through the facts of the infamous Horn murder case in compelling, compassionate, and riveting fashion. He reveals explosive new evidence that points to a condemned man's innocence and exposes a larger underlying pattern of prosecutorial misconduct in Philadelphia.
©2017 Thomas Lowenstein (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Innocent Blood
- A True Story of Obsession and Serial Murder
- By: Terry Ganey
- Narrated by: Chris Andrew Ciulla
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Innocent Blood is the true story of Charles Hatcher and his life of crime - a powerful and blood-chilling glimpse into the darkness between sanity and madness. It also chronicles a justice system gone wrong. Throughout his criminal career, Hatcher was able to fool dozens of psychiatrists, who repeatedly failed to identify him as a multiple murderer. Hatcher's astonishing skill was not just in his ability to murder and escape imprisonment. He became an expert at manipulating the criminal justice system.
-
-
a real missed opportunity
- By MrsCeeDoubleAargh on 06-28-18
By: Terry Ganey
-
The Innocent Man
- Murder and Injustice in a Small Town
- By: John Grisham
- Narrated by: Craig Wasson
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the town of Ada, Oklahoma, Ron Williamson was going to be the next Mickey Mantle. But on his way to the Big Leagues, Ron stumbled, his dreams broken by drinking, drugs, and women. Then, on a winter night in 1982, not far from Ron’s home, a young cocktail waitress named Debra Sue Carter was savagely murdered. The investigation led nowhere. Until, on the flimsiest evidence, it led to Ron Williamson. The washed-up small-town hero was charged, tried, and sentenced to death - in a trial littered with lying witnesses and tainted evidence....
-
-
Wake up people...
- By Michael H. Wagner on 10-14-09
By: John Grisham
-
Just Mercy
- A Story of Justice and Redemption
- By: Bryan Stevenson
- Narrated by: Bryan Stevenson
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship—and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever.
-
-
Made me question justice, peers and myself.
- By Kristy VL on 04-17-15
By: Bryan Stevenson
-
Innocent Victims
- The True Story of the Eastburn Family Murders
- By: Scott Whisnant
- Narrated by: Chris Andrew Ciulla
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On Mother's Day, 1985, the bodies of Kathryn Eastburn and her two young daughters were found in their Fayetteville, North Carolina, home. Katie, an air force captain's wife, had been raped and stabbed to death. Kara and Erin's throats had been slit. Their toddler sister, Jana, was the only survivor. The Cumberland County Sheriff's Department soon focused its investigation on US Army soldier Tim Hennis. Detectives and local prosecutors built their case on circumstantial evidence and a jury convicted Hennis and sentenced him to death. But his defense team refused to give up.
-
-
Not what I expected
- By Erica Seigneur on 12-18-19
By: Scott Whisnant
-
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
-
Adnan's Story
- The Search for Truth and Justice After Serial
- By: Rabia Chaudry
- Narrated by: Rabia Chaudry
- Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In early 2000, Adnan Syed was convicted and sentenced to life plus thirty years for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee, a high school senior in Baltimore, Maryland. Syed has maintained his innocence, and Rabia Chaudry, a family friend, has always believed him. By 2013, after almost all appeals had been exhausted, Rabia contacted Sarah Koenig, a producer at This American Life, in hopes of finding a journalist who could shed light on Adnan’s story. In 2014, Koenig's investigation turned into Serial, a Peabody Award-winning podcast with more than 500 million international listeners.
-
-
Fascinating. Heartbreaking. Informative.
- By Angela on 08-11-16
By: Rabia Chaudry
-
Innocent Blood
- A True Story of Obsession and Serial Murder
- By: Terry Ganey
- Narrated by: Chris Andrew Ciulla
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Innocent Blood is the true story of Charles Hatcher and his life of crime - a powerful and blood-chilling glimpse into the darkness between sanity and madness. It also chronicles a justice system gone wrong. Throughout his criminal career, Hatcher was able to fool dozens of psychiatrists, who repeatedly failed to identify him as a multiple murderer. Hatcher's astonishing skill was not just in his ability to murder and escape imprisonment. He became an expert at manipulating the criminal justice system.
-
-
a real missed opportunity
- By MrsCeeDoubleAargh on 06-28-18
By: Terry Ganey
-
The Innocent Man
- Murder and Injustice in a Small Town
- By: John Grisham
- Narrated by: Craig Wasson
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the town of Ada, Oklahoma, Ron Williamson was going to be the next Mickey Mantle. But on his way to the Big Leagues, Ron stumbled, his dreams broken by drinking, drugs, and women. Then, on a winter night in 1982, not far from Ron’s home, a young cocktail waitress named Debra Sue Carter was savagely murdered. The investigation led nowhere. Until, on the flimsiest evidence, it led to Ron Williamson. The washed-up small-town hero was charged, tried, and sentenced to death - in a trial littered with lying witnesses and tainted evidence....
-
-
Wake up people...
- By Michael H. Wagner on 10-14-09
By: John Grisham
-
Just Mercy
- A Story of Justice and Redemption
- By: Bryan Stevenson
- Narrated by: Bryan Stevenson
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship—and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever.
-
-
Made me question justice, peers and myself.
- By Kristy VL on 04-17-15
By: Bryan Stevenson
-
Innocent Victims
- The True Story of the Eastburn Family Murders
- By: Scott Whisnant
- Narrated by: Chris Andrew Ciulla
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On Mother's Day, 1985, the bodies of Kathryn Eastburn and her two young daughters were found in their Fayetteville, North Carolina, home. Katie, an air force captain's wife, had been raped and stabbed to death. Kara and Erin's throats had been slit. Their toddler sister, Jana, was the only survivor. The Cumberland County Sheriff's Department soon focused its investigation on US Army soldier Tim Hennis. Detectives and local prosecutors built their case on circumstantial evidence and a jury convicted Hennis and sentenced him to death. But his defense team refused to give up.
-
-
Not what I expected
- By Erica Seigneur on 12-18-19
By: Scott Whisnant
-
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
-
Adnan's Story
- The Search for Truth and Justice After Serial
- By: Rabia Chaudry
- Narrated by: Rabia Chaudry
- Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In early 2000, Adnan Syed was convicted and sentenced to life plus thirty years for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee, a high school senior in Baltimore, Maryland. Syed has maintained his innocence, and Rabia Chaudry, a family friend, has always believed him. By 2013, after almost all appeals had been exhausted, Rabia contacted Sarah Koenig, a producer at This American Life, in hopes of finding a journalist who could shed light on Adnan’s story. In 2014, Koenig's investigation turned into Serial, a Peabody Award-winning podcast with more than 500 million international listeners.
-
-
Fascinating. Heartbreaking. Informative.
- By Angela on 08-11-16
By: Rabia Chaudry
-
Helter Skelter
- The True Story of the Manson Murders
- By: Vincent Bugliosi, Curt Gentry
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 26 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Prosecuting attorney in the Manson trial Vincent Bugliosi held a unique insider's position in one of the most baffling and horrifying cases of the 20th century: the cold-blooded Tate-LaBianca murders carried out by Charles Manson and four of his followers. What motivated Manson in his seemingly mindless selection of victims, and what was his hold over the young women who obeyed his orders? Now available for the first time in unabridged audio, the gripping story of this famous and haunting crime is brought to life by acclaimed narrator Scott Brick.
-
-
Everything I remembered about the case was wrong..
- By karen on 06-22-12
By: Vincent Bugliosi, and others
-
Precious Victims
- Penguin True Crime
- By: Don W. Weber, Charles Bosworth Jr.
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The police in Jersey County, Illinois, accepted Paula Sims' story of a masked kidnapper who snatched her baby girl, Lorelei, from her bassinet. Three years later, her second newborn daughter suffered an identical fate - and this time the police were unable to stop searching until they had discovered the whole horrifying truth. This is the full terrifying story of twisted sexuality and hate seething below the surface of a seemingly normal family and of the massive investigation and nerve-shattering trial that made the unthinkable a reality.
-
-
Great listen
- By N on 12-28-15
By: Don W. Weber, and others
-
The Confession
- A Novel
- By: John Grisham
- Narrated by: Scott Sowers
- Length: 14 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An innocent man is about to be executed. Only a guilty man can save him. Travis Boyette is such a man. In 1998, in the small East Texas city of Sloan, he abducted, raped, and strangled a popular high-school cheerleader. He buried her body so that it would never be found, then watched in amazement as police and prosecutors arrested and convicted Donté Drumm, a local football star, and marched him off to death row.
-
-
Not Your Mother's Grisham
- By Pamela Harvey on 10-30-10
By: John Grisham
-
The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist
- A True Story of Injustice in the American South
- By: Radley Balko, Tucker Carrington, John Grisham - foreword
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 14 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist, Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington write a true story of Southern Gothic horror - of two innocent men wrongly convicted of vicious crimes and the legally condoned failures that allowed it to happen. Balko and Carrington will shine a light on the institutional and professional failures that allowed this tragic, astonishing story to happen, identify where it may have happened elsewhere, and show how to prevent it from happening again.
-
-
Gothic Horror-Show, With A Few Digressions
- By Gillian on 03-01-18
By: Radley Balko, and others
-
John Wayne Gacy: Defending a Monster
- By: Sam L. Amirante, Danny Broderick
- Narrated by: Robin Bloodworth
- Length: 14 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“Sam, could you do me a favor?” Thus begins a story that has now become part of America's true-crime hall of fame. It is a gory, grotesque tale befitting a Stephen King novel. It is also a David and Goliath saga - the story of a young lawyer fresh from the public defender's office whose first client in private practice turns out to be the worst serial killer in our nation's history. This is a gripping true crime narrative that reenacts the gruesome killings and the famous trial that shocked a nation.
-
-
Ultimately an excellent listen
- By A.R. on 03-03-13
By: Sam L. Amirante, and others
-
Presumed Guilty
- Casey Anthony: The Inside Story
- By: Peter Golenbock, Jose Baez
- Narrated by: Jim Frangione
- Length: 15 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Caylee Anthony was reported missing in Orlando, Florida, in July 2008, the public spent the next three years following the investigation and the eventual trial of her mother, Casey Anthony. On July 5, 2011, the case that captured headlines worldwide exploded when, against all odds, defense attorney Jose Baez delivered one of the biggest legal upsets in American history: a not-guilty verdict.
-
-
Ego Before Justice
- By Julia on 09-28-16
By: Peter Golenbock, and others
-
Bone Deep
- Untangling the Betsy Faria Case
- By: Charles Bosworth, Joel Schwartz
- Narrated by: Gary Bennett
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two days after Christmas, 2011, Russel Faria returned to his Troy, Missouri, home to find his wife, Betsy, dead, a knife still lodged in her neck. She had been stabbed 55 times in a brutal murder that would set off a chain of events leading to one man's wrongful conviction and imprisonment, another man's death, the revelation of a diabolical scheme, and an astounding miscarriage of justice left unresolved for another 10 years.
-
-
One of the Best
- By V. Orner on 03-01-22
By: Charles Bosworth, and others
-
Monster
- By: Steve Jackson
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 19 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a snowy winter evening in 1982, 21-year-old Mary Brown accepted a ride from a handsome stranger in the resort town of Breckenridge, Colorado. The trip ended with her brutally beaten and raped. Mary survived, but her predator's violence had only just begun. After 10 years in prison, Tom Luther was released a far more vicious criminal. Soon, from the Rockies to West Virginia, like Ted Bundy, Luther enticed a chain of women into his murderous trap.
-
-
Riveting....harrowingly so.
- By Klh23 on 07-24-20
By: Steve Jackson
-
Killing Time
- An 18-year Odyssey from Death Row to Freedom
- By: John Hollway, Ronald M. Gauthier
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 17 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1984, John Thompson was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of a prominent white man in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was sent to Angola Prison and confined to his cell for 23 hours a day. However, Thompson adamantly proclaimed his innocence and just needed lawyers who believed that his trial had been mishandled and would step up to the plate against the powerful DA’s office. But who would fight for Thompson’s innocence when he didn’t have an alibi for the night of the murder and there were two key witnesses to confirm his guilt?
-
-
This book was amazing!
- By Tpederson11 on 05-03-21
By: John Hollway, and others
-
Waiting to Be Heard
- A Memoir
- By: Amanda Knox
- Narrated by: Amanda Knox
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Amanda Knox spent four years in a foreign prison for a crime she did not commit. In the fall of 2007, the 20-year-old college coed left Seattle to study abroad in Italy, but her life was shattered when her roommate was murdered in their apartment. After a controversial trial, Amanda was convicted and imprisoned. But in 2011, an appeals court overturned the decision and vacated the murder charge. Free at last, she returned home to the U.S., where she has remained silent, until now.
-
-
A Fascinating Story- Buy it now!
- By Brock on 05-03-13
By: Amanda Knox
-
Law and Disorder
- The Legendary FBI Profiler’s Relentless Pursuit of Justice
- By: Mark Olshaker, John Douglas
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For 25 years, John E. Douglas worked for the FBI, where had a brilliant and terrifying career getting inside the minds of notorious killers. Written with Mark Olshaker, Law and Disorder is Douglas’ most provocative and personal book yet. In it, he addresses every law enforcement professional’s worst nightmare: those cases where, for one reason or another, justice was delayed - or denied.
-
-
Informative...And a Miscarriage of Justice!!!
- By Andrea on 03-22-13
By: Mark Olshaker, and others
-
Without a Doubt
- By: Marcia Clark, Teresa Carpenter - contributor
- Narrated by: Marcia Clark
- Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the outside, the prosecution's case looked bulletproof, but Marcia Clark knew better. Mountains of physical evidence connected O. J. Simpson to the murders of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman, but that didn't mean it would be easy. For the woman charged with prosecuting the "Trial of the Century", the light of fame would glow white hot, as the media scrutinized her strategy, her family, even her hair. As the case spun out of control, Marcia Clark stood tall.
-
-
Marcia On Point!
- By DAUGHTRY74 on 04-29-16
By: Marcia Clark, and others
Very sad and happens too often
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It’s shocking and eye opening.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
will make you feel many emotions
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Incredible book that will inspire incredible anger
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
needs update
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It's a book that definitely requires an epilogue. I would recommend listening to the book, then researching the story on one's own. In fact, since the book's release there are been significant developments which provide welcome closure to the story.
Listen, then research developments afterwards
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Emotional Miscarriage of Justice
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Amazing!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Can't wait to see this on Netflix
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Must Read For CJ and Law Majors
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.