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The Senator's Son
- The Shocking Disappearance, the Celebrated Trial, and the Mystery That Remains a Century Later
- Narrated by: John Witt
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
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Publisher's Summary
On Monday, February 13, 1905, eight- year-old Kenneth Beasley walked to the back of his school's playground and into the melting snow of the woods beyond. He never returned. A massive search was undertaken for the North Carolina state senator's son, and a reward was offered.
Despite clues, rumors, and even a ransom note, he was never found. A year and a half later, a political rival hurriedly was charged. Accused of the most bizarre and twisted of plots, he faced a courtroom overflowing with jurors, star lawyers, spectators, and newspaper reporters. The eventual verdict and stunning aftermath would rip apart two families and shock a state, yet leave a mystery unsolved.
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What listeners say about The Senator's Son
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Mary_Ellin Scarberry
- 01-29-20
Southern history in a Southern drawl
I don’t usually read much history or nonfiction, and confess I picked up the audiobook version of “The Senator’s Son” because my old friend John Witt is the narrator. John’s measured Southern drawl is perfect for this sort of book, set as it is deep in the heart of North Carolina and Virginia’s Hampton Roads area. While I enjoyed hearing John tell this story, like a night of yarn spinning in front of a cracking fire, I think I might have enjoyed it more in actual book form, so I could have flipped back and forth to reacquaint myself with old characters introduced earlier and perused photos and maps that I’m sure were included in the print version. For me, while the side discussions of old politics distracted me from the main storyline of Kenneth’s disappearance, it was fascinating to learn abut the wheeling and dealing of that era, not so different from our own. Recommended for history buffs and true crime lovers - and those who like to listen to a story well-told in smooth, Southern baritone.
2 people found this helpful
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- SBane
- 02-17-22
Narration is great but the story is tedious
This sounded like a very interesting book but the author went in so many different directions with the local history the story of the missing boy was lost.
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- Mary B
- 06-16-21
Amazing story
This was a terrific telling of a tragic story. I really appreciated the historical context the author gave. The reader had the perfect voice for the story and gave a sense of seriousness that seemed very respectful.
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- Lana Sherrard
- 01-24-20
Review by Lana Sherrard
This is a fantastic insight into a historical mystery. The tragedy of not only the families involved, but as a community as a whole is thoroughly examined. There are so many aspects of this story to explore that it seems like it was written by Agatha Christie herself. A great read for historical buffs and lovers of true crime. I could not stop listening. Both Mr. Oldham and Mr. Witt have done a fantastic job of bringing this mystery to life and it is well worth a listen. -Lana Sherrard
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Overall
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Philadelphia, 1825: Five young, free Black boys fall into the clutches of the most fearsome gang of kidnappers and slavers in the US. Lured onto a small ship with the promise of food and pay, they are instead met with blindfolds, ropes, and knives. Over four long months, their kidnappers drive them overland into the Cotton Kingdom to be sold as slaves. Determined to resist, the boys form a tight brotherhood as they struggle to free themselves and find their way home.
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Should have been a fact based novel
- By Cate F. on 01-11-21
By: Richard Bell
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Doc Holliday
- The Life and Legend
- By: Gary L. Roberts
- Narrated by: Arthur Flavell
- Length: 19 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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In Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend, the historian Gary Roberts takes aim at the most complex, perplexing, and paradoxical gunfighter of the Old West, drawing on more than 20 years of research - including new primary sources - in his quest to separate the life from the legend. Doc Holliday was a study in contrasts: the legendary gunslinger who made his living as a dentist; the emaciated consumptive whose very name struck fear in the hearts of his enemies
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“Watch Tombstone?” You are an idiot
- By Richard on 05-02-20
By: Gary L. Roberts
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The Blood of Emmett Till
- By: Timothy B. Tyson
- Narrated by: Rhett Samuel Price
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Mississippi, 1955: 14-year-old Emmett Till was murdered by a white mob after making flirtatious remarks to a white woman, Carolyn Bryant. Till's attackers were never convicted, but his lynching became one of the most notorious hate crimes in American history. It launched protests across the country, helped the NAACP gain thousands of members, and inspired famous activists like Rosa Parks to stand up and fight for equal rights for the first time.
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Tough read. Rest in Peace Emmit. We are so sorry!
- By Melanie B on 09-16-18
By: Timothy B. Tyson
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Race Against Time
- By: Jerry Mitchell
- Narrated by: Jerry Mitchell
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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In Race Against Time, Mitchell takes listeners on the twisting, pulse-racing road that led to the reopening of four of the most infamous killings from the days of the Civil Rights Movement, decades after the fact. His work played a central role in bringing killers to justice for the assassination of Medgar Evers, the firebombing of Vernon Dahmer, the 16th Street Church bombing in Birmingham, and the Mississippi Burning case. Mitchell reveals how he unearthed secret documents and found long-lost suspects and witnesses, building up evidence strong enough to take on the Klan.
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Absolutely horrible reading
- By oc_artist on 03-14-20
By: Jerry Mitchell
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The Deadly Don
- Vito Genovese, Mafia Boss
- By: Anthony M. DeStefano
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anthony M. DeStefano presents the rise and fall of Vito Genovese in this first comprehensive biography of the legendary mafioso - from his childhood in Naples, Italy, and the beginnings of his bullet-ridden criminal career on lower Manhattan's mean streets, through his self-exile in the mid-1930s back to his homeland where he ran a black market operation under the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini, and his return to New York where Genovese made a fortune as the head of an illegal narcotics empire.
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Borderline fiction
- By Luke Murphy on 07-31-21
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Let the Lord Sort Them
- The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty
- By: Maurice Chammah
- Narrated by: Kevin R. Free
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1972, the United States Supreme Court made a surprising ruling: The country’s death penalty system violated the Constitution. The backlash was swift, especially in Texas, where executions were considered part of the cultural fabric, and a dark history of lynching was masked by gauzy visions of a tough-on-crime frontier. When executions resumed, Texas quickly became the nationwide leader in carrying out the punishment.
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Very Slanted
- By appreciative reader on 02-07-21
By: Maurice Chammah
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Buried in the Bitter Waters
- The Hidden History of Racial Cleansing in America
- By: Elliot Jaspin
- Narrated by: Don Leslie
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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"Leave now, or die!" From the heart of the Midwest to the Deep South, from the mountains of North Carolina to the Texas frontier, words like these have echoed through more than a century of American history. The call heralded not a tornado or a hurricane, but a very unnatural disaster: a manmade wave of racial cleansing that purged black populations from counties across the nation.
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a compelling read with a disappointing conclusion
- By Gregory on 12-16-07
By: Elliot Jaspin
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The Queen
- The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth
- By: Josh Levin
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 12 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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In this critically acclaimed true crime tale of "welfare queen" Linda Taylor, a Slate editor reveals a "wild, only-in-America story" of political manipulation and murder (Attica Locke, Edgar Award-winning author). Part social history, part true-crime investigation, Josh Levin's mesmerizing book, the product of six years of reporting and research, is a fascinating account of American racism, and an exposé of the "welfare queen" myth, one that fueled political debates that reverberate to this day.
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Very compelling story!
- By Marilyn on 06-24-19
By: Josh Levin
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Beneath a Ruthless Sun
- A True Story of Violence, Race, and Justice Lost and Found
- By: Gilbert King
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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In December 1957, the wife of a Florida citrus baron is raped in her home while her husband is away. She claims a "husky Negro" did it, and the sheriff, the infamous racist Willis McCall, does not hesitate to round up a herd of suspects. But within days, McCall turns his sights on Jesse Daniels, a gentle, mentally impaired white 19-year-old. Soon Jesse is railroaded up to the state hospital for the insane and locked away without trial. But crusading journalist Mabel Norris Reese cannot stop fretting over the case and its baffling outcome. Who was protecting whom, or what?
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As In The Beginning, So GoethThe Entire Book
- By Gillian on 04-26-18
By: Gilbert King
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Emmett Till
- The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement
- By: Devery S. Anderson
- Narrated by: Brandon Church
- Length: 21 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Emmett Till offers the first truly comprehensive account of the 1955 murder and its aftermath. It tells the story of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old African American boy from Chicago brutally lynched for a harmless flirtation at a country store in the Mississippi Delta. His death and the acquittal of his killers by an all-white jury set off a firestorm of protests that reverberated all over the world and spurred on the civil rights movement.
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An important story narrated with power and warmth
- By R. Nance on 10-04-16