Showing results by narrator "Ted Brooks" in All Categories

In 2007, US Army Specialist Jorge G. Sandoval Jr. was charged with murder by the government he had sworn to serve. While deployed to the most dangerous area in Iraq, Sandoval, an airborne infantryman and elite sniper, was instructed to "take the shot" and kill an enemy insurgent wearing civilian clothes. Two weeks later, Army Criminal Investigation Command descended upon Sandoval's unit and began interrogating the soldiers, trying to link Sandoval and others to war crimes, including murder. Captain Craig W. Drummond was the JAG military defense attorney assigned to Sandoval's case.

Most California histories begin with the arrival of the Spanish missionaries in the late 18th century and conveniently skip to the Gold Rush of 1849. Noticeably absent from these stories are the perspectives and experiences of the people who lived on the land long before European settlers arrived. Historian William Bauer seeks to correct that oversight through an innovative approach that tells California history strictly through Native perspectives.

In the hills of Tennessee, Shane Carson, a gifted, nationally-recognized horseman, is living the good life. When a mysterious mustang shows up on his farm, Shane doesn't know how - or why - the horse appeared, but the horse's distinctive brand identifies her. She is one of the Spirit Horses, a rare, wild herd that runs free on the Shoshone reservation in Wyoming. Watched over for centuries in the tribe's ancestral valleys, these exquisite horses, according to belief, provide a link to the afterlife. When tragedy strikes in his life, Shane nearly loses his will to live - but for one promise he made to his young son: to return the mustang....

On a cold winter morning, Jeff Power was lighting a fire in his remote Arizona cabin when he heard a noise, grabbed his rifle, and walked out the front door. Someone in the dark shouted, “Throw up your hands!” Shots rang out from inside and outside the cabin, and when it was all over, Jeff’s sons, Tom and John, emerged to find the sheriff and his two deputies dead and their father mortally wounded. Arizona’s Deadliest Gunfight describes an impoverished family that wanted nothing to do with modern civilization.

Legends that endured for centuries, endure for a reason. In the wilderness of Southeastern Alaska, the Kushtaka is one such legend. Known as the Land-Otter Man among the Tlingit Indians, the Kushtaka are shape-shifting, time bending, mythical creatures capable of taking your deepest fears and turning them into a nightmarish reality.

Just as the first wave of flying saucer sightings ended in the summer of 1947, the military began a project to investigate those reports. For 22 years, the Air Force attempted to learn what it could about the phenomena they called UFOs. During those years, they investigated more than 12,000 sightings including landings, occupant reports, photographs, radar cases, and intercepts by military jet fighters. In many instances plausible explanations were advanced, but nearly 1,000 sightings were marked as unidentified.

Once, when young Nasruddin was acting up in class by distracting his classmates with endless antics, jests, and stories, his irate teacher uttered a curse: ''Whatever you do or say, wherever you go or stay, whether it's night or day - people will only laugh at you.'' Now, eight centuries later, people everywhere are still laughing at the immortal Mullah Nasruddin, one of the world's most beloved folk characters.

Inspired by August Derleth’s seminal book The Wisconsin, Richard D. Cornell traveled the Chippewa River from its two sources south of Ashland to where it joins the Mississippi. Over several decades he returned time and again in his red canoe to immerse himself in the stories of the Chippewa River and document its valley, from the Ojibwe and early fur traders and lumbermen to the varied and hopeful communities of today.

In The Northern Cheyenne Exodus in History and Memory, James N. Leiker and Ramon Powers explore how the event has been remembered, told, and retold. They examine the recollections of Indians and settlers and their descendants, and they consider local history, mass-media treatments, and literature to draw thought-provoking conclusions about how this story has changed over time.

"If I'm ever late for work, call the police!" That's what Albuquerque, New Mexico, bank teller Girly Chew, 36, told her boss. The Malaysian-born beauty lived in mortal fear of her pathologically deranged husband and had taken out a restraining order against him. She was late for work for the first - and last - time on September 10, 1999. Her bloodstained clothes were found near a lonely stretch of desert highway. Chew's estranged spouse was an unrepentant scam artist with a terrifying violent streak.

Kushtaka or Kooshdakhaa is a Tlingit word meaning “land otter man.” The Kushtaka is on one hand the nemeses of the Tlingit people, yet necessary to their Shamans who play a critical role in the survival of the Tlingits. The Tlingit people are as mysterious in their beliefs as the Kushtaka, making for strange bedfellows.

Someone's after Freddy Tango. After another wild night at his bar, Freddy's Lounge, he arrives home to find his front door riddled with bullet holes and his windows shattered. His live-in grandfather, Cecil Tango, drunk and angry, a pistol within reach, raves about being attacked by a long-dead outlaw named Percy Yates. Freddy discounts Cecil's accusations as alcohol-induced delusions. Following that fateful night, Freddy decides to seek justice with the assistance of a couple of friends.

It is 1953. The Anasazi are in extreme danger deep within the Restricted Area of Mesa Verde. The journal of a past Indian agent is found with entries about the Anasazi and a treasure. Now, treasure hunters threaten to discover and destroy their village. Nothing will get in their way. A spirit, befriended by the Anasazi, asks for Jack Trader's help. He joins forces with Ranger Samantha Baker to stop the threat before it's too late. As a last resort, the Anasazi will take matters into their own hands.

Halloween had finally arrived. It was Mary's 16th birthday. Her parent's had finally decided she was old enough to have a sleep-over at their house. But she was only allowed to have two of her best friends spend the night after the party. Mary's little sleep-over and the conjuring up an old urban legend called "Bloody Mary" would prove fatal for them all.

"I still remember the day as though it just happened today," said Bill Withers. "I was traveling down Old Hatchet Trail road after midnight when this beautiful woman with golden long blonde hair was standing all alone on the side of the road. It was starting to rain and I just couldn't leave her there in the black of night. I just couldn't, so I stopped my car beside her and rolled down the front passenger window and said 'Please get in out of the rain and I'll take you home.'"

These are the end times. We hear this sentiment in one way or another from various sources, from the fundamentalist preacher, to the scientist warning us of climate change. This is a time of economic uncertainty, political oppression, and cultural unraveling. Apocalypse, in the ancient world and today, is the experience of disconnection and of unraveling. It is when old gods are dying and the old stories no longer have meaning.

In 1690, a dramatic account of piracy was published in Mexico City. The Misfortunes of Alonso Ramírez described the incredible adventures of a poor Spanish-American carpenter who was taken captive by British pirates near the Philippines and forced to work for them for two years. After circumnavigating the world, he was freed and managed to return to Mexico, where the Spanish viceroy commissioned the well-known Mexican scholar Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora to write down Ramírez's account as part of an imperial propaganda campaign against pirates.

Henry Bates had a very reclusive life, until one day the constant nagging from his wife made him snap, and things started dying. All Henry wanted was to enjoy his retirement like any normal hard working man, but his wife had other plans and retirement wasn't one of those.

Big Bone Lick: The Cradle of American Paleontology recounts the rich history of the fossil site that gave the world the first evidence of the extinction of several mammalian species, including the American mastodon. Big Bone Lick has played many roles: nutrient source, hallowed ground, salt mine, health spa, and a rich trove of wonders. Stanley Hedeen presents a comprehensive narrative of Big Bone Lick from its geological formation forward, explaining why the site attracted animals, regional tribespeople, European explorers and scientists, and eventually American pioneers.

This meticulously researched book tells the story of Midwestern agriculture during a period of epochal change in farm technology, farm management, and farm life. The hard work, tight communities, and values that had characterized the family farm were replaced by large corporate enterprises with massive acreages, high-tech methods, and global outlooks. While many decry this change as loss, Nordin and Scott find a net gain. This is their richly detailed account of one of the great transformations in American life.