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Great Australian Scams, Cons and Rorts
- A Book of Dodgy Schemes and Crazy Dreams from the Bush to the City
- Narrated by: Jim Haynes
- Length: 10 hrs
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Great Australian Scams, Cons and Rorts
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Publisher's summary
The ultimate collection of Australia's craziest cons and mad schemes from a master storyteller.
Australia is the birthplace and setting of some of the wildest, craziest and least-likely-to-succeed cons and rorts in history. From the cleverest double-crosses to the most unlikely and maddest schemes, master storyteller Jim Haynes reminds us that we've never been shy of pulling a trick or two.
So how did a clever bushman who 'couldn't lie straight in bed' steal 1,000 head of cattle and get away with it even though he was caught 'red handed'? And what about the disappearing work of art that suddenly dissolved only to reappear at an auction years later? Or how about the butcher from Wagga who passed himself off as a French-born English duke to inherit a small fortune? And then there was the small matter of a horse, a tin of paint and a million-dollar double-cross that became known as the Fine Cotton Affair.
In only the way he can, Jim Haynes has collected a veritable 'Gullible's Tales' of unexpected and surprising true stories that may seem hard to believe.
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-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 77
In 1919, Texas rancher J. Frank Norfleet lost everything he had in a stock market swindle. He did what many other marks did - he went home, borrowed more money from his family, and returned for another round of swindling. Only after he lost that second fortune did he reclaim control of his story. Instead of crawling back home in shame, he vowed to hunt down the five men who had conned him. Through Norfleet's ingenious reverse-swindle, Amy Reading reveals the mechanics behind the scenes of the big con.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Confusing Premise Makes for A Tough Read
- By Grumpy S. Monkey on 06-19-12
By: Amy Reading
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Girt
- The Unauthorised History of Australia, Volume 1
- By: David Hunt
- Narrated by: David Hunt
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 245
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 217
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 217
Girt. No word could better capture the essence of Australia.... In this hilarious history, David Hunt reveals the truth of Australia's past, from megafauna to Macquarie - the cock-ups and curiosities, the forgotten eccentrics and Eureka moments that have made us who we are. Girt introduces forgotten heroes like Mary McLoghlin, transported for the crime of "felony of sock", and Trim the cat, who beat a French monkey to become the first animal to circumnavigate Australia.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Typically irreverent.
- By patricia heffernan on 12-27-15
By: David Hunt
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Killers of the Flower Moon
- The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
- By: David Grann
- Narrated by: Will Patton, Ann Marie Lee, Danny Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 21,739
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 19,121
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 19,076
In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An outstanding story, highly recommended
- By S. Blakely on 06-22-17
By: David Grann
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The Last Outlaws
- The Lives and Legends of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
- By: Thom Hatch
- Narrated by: James C. Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 75
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 65
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 65
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - as leaders of the Wild Bunch, they planned and executed the most daring bank and train robberies of the day, with a professionalism never before seen by authorities. For several years at the end of the 1890s, the two friends, along with a revolving cast who made up their band of thieves, eluded local law enforcement and bounty hunters, all while stealing from the rich bankers and eastern railroad corporations who exploited western land. The close calls were many, but Butch and Sundance always managed to escape to rob again another day - that is, until they rode headlong into the 20th century.
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5 out of 5 stars
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EXELLENT LISTENING<br />
- By Warren Taylor on 08-13-17
By: Thom Hatch
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Billy the Kid
- The Endless Ride
- By: Michael Wallis
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 251
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 185
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 187
Award-winning historian Michael Wallis has spent several years re-creating the rich, anecdotal saga of Billy the Kid (1859-1881), a deeply mythologized young man who became a legend in his own time and yet remains an enigma to this day. With the Gilded Age in full swing and the Industrial Revolution reshaping the American landscape, "the Kid", who was gunned down by Sheriff Pat Garrett in the New Mexico Territory at the age of 21, became a new breed of celebrity outlaw.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Disappointing
- By MJTCPA on 07-30-11
By: Michael Wallis
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Prince of Darkness
- The Untold Story of Jeremiah G. Hamilton, Wall Street's First Black Millionaire
- By: Shane White
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 155
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 134
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 135
In Prince of Darkness, a groundbreaking and vivid account, eminent historian Shane White reveals the larger-than-life story of a man who defied every convention of his time. He wheeled and dealed in the lily-white business world, he married a White woman, he bought a mansion in rural New Jersey, he owned railroad stock on trains he was not legally allowed to ride, and generally he set his White contemporaries' teeth on edge when he wasn't just plain outsmarting them.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Not A Nice Man, But A Smart One!
- By AlTonya on 07-28-17
By: Shane White
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Queen of Thieves
- The True Story of "Marm" Mandelbaum and Her Gangs of New York
- By: J. North Conway
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 98
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 91
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Story4 out of 5 stars 91
Queen of Thieves is the gritty, fast-paced story of Fredericka "Marm" Mandelbaum, a poor Jewish woman who rose to the top of her profession in organized crime during the Gilded Age in New York City. During her more than twenty-five-year reign as the country’s top receiver of stolen goods, she accumulated great wealth and power inconceivable for women engaged in business, legitimate or otherwise.
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3 out of 5 stars
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a bit repetitive
- By Andy on 09-19-14
By: J. North Conway
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The First Family
- Terror, Extortion, Revenge, Murder, and the Birth of the American Mafia
- By: Mike Dash
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 137
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 90
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 93
Before the Five Families who so notoriously dominated U.S. organized crime for a bloody half-century, there was the one-fingered, surpassingly cunning Giuseppe Morello and his murderous coterie of brothers. Born into a life of poverty in rural Sicily, Morello became an American nightmare, pioneering the bizarre initiation rituals, imaginative protection rackets, influential underworld reigns, and Mafia wars later popularized by countless books, television shows, and movies.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The truth about the origins of the American mafia
- By J. Sovar on 01-09-13
By: Mike Dash
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The Story of America
- Essays on Origins
- By: Jill Lepore
- Narrated by: Colleen Devine
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 61
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 52
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 53
In The Story of America, Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore investigates American origin stories - from John Smith's account of the founding of Jamestown in 1607 to Barack Obama's 2009 inaugural address - to show how American democracy is bound up with the history of print. Over the centuries, Americans have read and written their way into a political culture of ink and type. Part civics primer, part cultural history, The Story of America excavates the origins of everything from the paper ballot and the Constitution to the I.O.U. and the dictionary.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Fun Read on Historical Subjects
- By Jim on 08-31-13
By: Jill Lepore
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Satan's Circus
- Murder, Vice, Police Corruption, and New York's Trial of the Century
- By: Mike Dash
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 12 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 132
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 60
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Story4 out of 5 stars 63
They called it Satan's Circus, a square mile of Midtown Manhattan where vice ruled, sin flourished, and depravity danced in every doorway. At the turn of the 20th century, murder was so common in the vice district that few people were surprised when the loudmouthed owner of a shabby casino was gunned down on the steps of its best hotel.
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4 out of 5 stars
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New York, N.Y
- By Robert on 07-11-07
By: Mike Dash
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One Summer
- America, 1927
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: Bill Bryson
- Length: 17 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,551
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,016
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,998
One of the most admired nonfiction writers of our time retells the story of one truly fabulous year in the life of his native country - a fascinating and gripping narrative featuring such outsized American heroes as Charles Lindbergh, Babe Ruth, and yes Herbert Hoover, and a gallery of criminals (Al Capone), eccentrics (Shipwreck Kelly), and close-mouthed politicians (Calvin Coolidge). It was the year Americans attempted and accomplished outsized things and came of age in a big, brawling manner. What a country. What a summer. And what a writer to bring it all so vividly alive.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Why 1927?
- By Mark on 10-18-13
By: Bill Bryson
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The Curse of Beauty
- The Scandalous & Tragic Life of Audrey Munson, America's First Supermodel
- By: James Bone
- Narrated by: Marianne Fraulo
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 88
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 83
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Story4 out of 5 stars 82
As America was stepping into the modern era, one great beauty became the artist's model of choice. Her perfect form became the emblem of the Gilded Age and appears on the greatest monuments of New York and the nation. Supermodel, actress, icon - her beauty paved the way for a life of glamour, passion, and ultimately tragedy. Her name is Audrey Munson.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating
- By Аmazon Customer on 04-06-17
By: James Bone
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Hell's Princess
- The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men
- By: Harold Schechter
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,463
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,274
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1,275
In the pantheon of serial killers, Belle Gunness stands alone. She was the rarest of female psychopaths, a woman who engaged in wholesale slaughter, partly out of greed but mostly for the sheer joy of it. Between 1902 and 1908, she lured a succession of unsuspecting victims to her Indiana “murder farm". Some were hired hands. Others were well-to-do bachelors. All of them vanished without a trace.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Can a book about a serial killer be entertaining?
- By Lori Hanson on 05-08-18
By: Harold Schechter
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American Brutus
- John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies
- By: Michael Kauffman
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 21 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 102
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 88
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 90
In American Brutus, popular historian Michael W. Kauffman delivers a history that reads more like a best-selling novel. This definitive masterwork dispels commonly held myths and reveals the truth about John Wilkes Booth. Luring Southern sympathizers into a “noble” presidential kidnapping, Booth stunned his puzzled pawns by murdering Lincoln. From Booth’s early life and acting career to his escape and death, this meticulously researched book re-examines it all using a wealth of primary sources.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Good content ruined by bad narrator
- By Gioacchino on 06-25-13
By: Michael Kauffman
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The Sun and the Moon
- Hoaxers, Showmen, and Lunar Man-Bats in 19th-Century New York
- By: Matthew Goodman
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 70
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 39
The Sun and the Moon tells the delightful and surprisingly true story of how a series of articles in the Sun newspaper in 1835 convinced the citizens of New York that the moon was inhabited. Purporting to reveal discoveries of a famous British astronomer, the series described such moon life as unicorns, beavers that walked upright, and four-foot-tall flying man-bats. It quickly became the most widely circulated newspaper story of the era.
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3 out of 5 stars
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some very good some very bad
- By peter on 10-30-10
By: Matthew Goodman
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The Battered Body Beneath the Flagstones, and Other Victorian Scandals
- By: Michelle Morgan
- Narrated by: Anne Dover
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 224
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 201
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Story4 out of 5 stars 202
A grisly book dedicated to the crimes, perversions and outrages of Victorian England, covering high-profile offences - such as the murder of actor William Terriss, whose stabbing at the stage door of the Adelphi Theatre in 1897 filled the front pages for many weeks - as well as lesser-known transgressions that scandalised the Victorian era. The tales include murders and violent crimes but also feature scandals that merely amused the Victorians.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Doesn’t question it’s sources enough
- By Emily Stoneking on 11-27-18
By: Michelle Morgan
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The Art of the English Murder
- From Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes to Agatha Christie and Alfred Hitchcock
- By: Lucy Worsley
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 198
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 176
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 175
In The Art of the English Murder, Lucy Worsley explores this phenomenon in forensic detail, revisiting notorious crimes like the Ratcliff Highway Murders, which caused a nationwide panic in the early 19th century, and the case of Frederick and Maria Manning, the suburban couple who were hanged after killing Maria's lover and burying him under their kitchen floor. Our fascination with crimes like these became a form of national entertainment, inspiring novels and plays, prose and paintings, poetry and true-crime journalism.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Should Come With a Spoiler Alert
- By Jessica on 04-15-16
By: Lucy Worsley