Preview

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

BAD: The Autobiography of James Carr

By: James Carr, Isaac Cronin
Narrated by: JD Jackson
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $24.95

Buy for $24.95

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

"When I was nine years old I burned down my school."

James Carr started fighting when he was very young, and never gave up. A child prodigy of crime in the streets of the L.A. ghettos and scourge of half a dozen boys’ homes, his career in armed robbery was quickly cut short by arrest. In prison he fought harder than ever, and became one of the most notorious rebels in the seething California Penal System. Linking up with George Jackson in Folsom, they led the notorious Wolf Pack, which quickly fought its way to a position of strength in the prison race war. Separated from George, Jimmy transformed himself from an openly rebellious con into a cunning thinker who manipulated the authorities and ultimately engineered his own release. Carr relates the story of his life with a cold passion, powerfully illuminating the horrors of daily life on the streets and in prison - race riots, murders, rape, and corruption - from the standpoint of one who has overcome them.

"I’ve been struggling all my life to get beyond the choice of living on my knees or dying on my feet. It’s time we lived on our feet."
—from the text.
"Jimmy was the baddest motherf----r!"
—George Jackson

While initially having close ties with the Black Panthers (at one point as Huey Newton’s bodyguard), James Carr, influenced by the Situationists, broke with them. Just after this book was completed in 1972, Carr was gunned down in a "gangland style" murder.

©2002 James Carr (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"It’s dynamite." (Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about

Average customer ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.