Audiobooks by Dan Abrams

Alabama v. King: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Criminal Trial That Launched the Civil Rights Moveme

The forgotten story of a criminal trial that brought national attention to a young defendant named Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as told by Fred D. Gray, Dr. King's lawyer and friend, along with New York Times bestselling authors Dan Abrams and David Fisher. The audiobook concludes with an exclusive conversation between Fred Gray and Dan Abrams. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. After years of mistreatment on public buses, the African American community organized a bus boycott. Eighty-nine people were indicted for violating the city's anti-boycott statute. But rather than putting each of them on trial, the prosecutors chose to make an example of just one: twenty-seven-year-old minister Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This became the moment that transformed Dr. King into a national leader. Fred D. Gray, then twenty-four years old and one of only two Black lawyers in Montgomery, had prepared with Rosa Parks for the bus moment and now became Dr. King's first defense lawyer. The stakes were huge. This was not just a trial about a state statute; this was an attempt to launch a movement in the face of an often violent effort by a Southern city fighting to preserve segregation. And it would set Gray on a path that would lead him to making an impassioned argument to the Supreme Court against segregation in Montgomery's public transit. On the eve of the trial, Dr. King commented, "When the history books are written in the future generations, the historians will pause and say, 'There lived a great people-a Black people-who injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization.'" Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Dan Abrams, David Fisher (Author), Fred D. Gray, Korey Jackson (Narrator)

Audiobook

Kennedy's Avenger: Assassination, Conspiracy, and the Forgotten Trial of Jack Ruby

New York Times bestselling authors Dan Abrams and David Fisher bring to life the incredible story of one of America’s most publicized—and most surprising—criminal trials in history. No crime in history had more eyewitnesses. On November 24, 1963, two days after the killing of President Kennedy, a troubled nightclub owner named Jack Ruby quietly slipped into the Dallas police station and assassinated the assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. Millions of Americans witnessed the killing on live television, and yet the event would lead to questions for years to come. It also would help to spark the conspiracy theories that have continued to resonate today. Under the long shadow cast by the assassination of America’s beloved president, few would remember the bizarre trial that followed three months later in Dallas, Texas. How exactly does one defend a man who was seen pulling the trigger in front of millions? And, more important, how did Jack Ruby, who fired point-blank into Oswald live on television, die an innocent man? Featuring a colorful cast of characters, including the nation’s most flamboyant lawyer pitted against a tough-as-Texas prosecutor, award-winning authors Dan Abrams and David Fisher unveil the astonishing details behind the first major trial of the television century. While it was Jack Ruby who appeared before the jury, it was also the city of Dallas and the American legal system being judged by the world.

Dan Abrams, David Fisher (Author), Dan Abrams, Roger Wayne (Narrator)

Audiobook

John Adams Under Fire: The Founding Father's Fight for Justice in the Boston Massacre Murder Trial

*NOW A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER* “An expert, extremely detailed account of John Adams’ finest hour.”—Kirkus Reviews Honoring the 250th Anniversary of the Boston Massacre The New York Times bestselling author of Lincoln’s Last Trial and host of LivePD Dan Abrams and David Fisher tell the story of a trial that would change history.History remembers John Adams as a Founding Father and our country’s second president. But in the tense years before the American Revolution, he was still just a lawyer, fighting for justice in one of the most explosive murder trials of the era. On the night of March 5, 1770, shots were fired by British soldiers on the streets of Boston, killing five civilians. The Boston Massacre has often been called the first shots of the American Revolution. As John Adams would later remember, “On that night the formation of American independence was born.” Yet when the British soldiers faced trial, the young lawyer Adams was determined that they receive a fair one. He volunteered to represent them, keeping the peace in a powder keg of a colony, and in the process created some of the foundations of what would become United States law. In this book, New York Times bestselling authors Dan Abrams and David Fisher draw on the trial transcript, using Adams’s own words to transport readers to colonial Boston, a city roiling with rebellion, where British military forces and American colonists lived side by side, waiting for the spark that would start a war.

Dan Abrams, David Fisher (Author), Dan Abrams, Roger Wayne (Narrator)

Audiobook

Theodore Roosevelt for the Defense: The Courtroom Battle to Save His Legacy

“This beautifully-wrought story of Theodore Roosevelt’s defense of his claims of corruption in New York State politics has intense echoes today. Abrams and Fisher do a superb job of clearly presenting the issues in this remarkable and intensely dramatic trial.” —SCOTT TUROW “This trial and Roosevelt’s defense of his reputation on the stand, often under fierce questioning, is truly mesmerizing.” —BRIAN KILMEADE The New York Times bestselling authors of Lincoln’s Last Trial take readers inside the courtroom to witness the epic 1915 case in which Theodore Roosevelt, weighing one last presidential run, defended his integrity and challenged the political system. “No more dramatic courtroom scene has ever been enacted,” reported the Syracuse Herald on May 22, 1915 as it covered “the greatest libel suit in history,” a battle fought between former President Theodore Roosevelt and the leader of the Republican party. Roosevelt , the boisterous and mostly beloved legendary American hero, had accused his former friend and ally, now turned rival, William Barnes of political corruption. The furious Barnes responded by suing Roosevelt for an enormous sum that could have financially devastated him. The spectacle of Roosevelt defending himself in a lawsuit captured the imagination of the nation, and more than fifty newspapers sent reporters to cover the trial. Accounts from inside and outside the courtroom combined with excerpts from the trial transcript give us Roosevelt in his own words and serve as the heart of Theodore Roosevelt for the Defense. This was Roosevelt’s final fight to defend his political legacy, and perhaps regain his fading stature. He spent more than a week on the witness stand, revealing hidden secrets of the American political system, and then endured a merciless cross-examination. Witnesses including a young Franklin D. Roosevelt and a host of well-known political leaders were questioned by two of the most brilliant attorneys in the country. Following the case through court transcripts, news reports, and other primary sources, Dan Abrams and David Fisher present a high-definition picture of the American legal system in a nation standing on the precipice of the Great War, with its former president fighting for the ideals he held dear.

Dan Abrams, David Fisher (Author), Dan Abrams, Dan Abrams Dan Abrams, Roger Wayne (Narrator)

Audiobook

Lincoln's Last Trial: The Murder Case That Propelled Him to the Presidency

"Makes you feel as if you are watching a live camera riveted on a courtroom more than 150 years ago." -Diane Sawyer The true story of Abraham Lincoln's last murder trial, a case in which he had a deep personal involvement-and which played out in the nation's newspapers as he began his presidential campaign At the end of the summer of 1859, twenty-two-year-old Peachy Quinn Harrison went on trial for murder in Springfield, Illinois. Abraham Lincoln, who had been involved in more than three thousand cases-including more than twenty-five murder trials-during his two-decades-long career, was hired to defend him. This was to be his last great case as a lawyer. What normally would have been a local case took on momentous meaning. Lincoln's debates with Senator Stephen Douglas the previous fall had gained him a national following, transforming the little-known, self-taught lawyer into a respected politician. He was being urged to make a dark-horse run for the presidency in 1860. Taking this case involved great risk. His reputation was untarnished, but should he lose this trial, should Harrison be convicted of murder, the spotlight now focused so brightly on him might be dimmed. He had won his most recent murder trial with a daring and dramatic maneuver that had become a local legend, but another had ended with his client dangling from the end of a rope. The case posed painful personal challenges for Lincoln. The murder victim had trained for the law in his office, and Lincoln had been his friend and his mentor. His accused killer, the young man Lincoln would defend, was the son of a close friend and loyal supporter. And to win this trial he would have to form an unholy allegiance with a longtime enemy, a revivalist preacher he had twice run against for political office-and who had bitterly slandered Lincoln as an "infidel... too lacking in faith" to be elected. Lincoln's Last Trial captures the presidential hopeful's dramatic courtroom confrontations in vivid detail as he fights for his client-but also for his own blossoming political future. It is a moment in history that shines a light on our legal system, as in this case Lincoln fought a legal battle that remains incredibly relevant today.

Dan Abrams, David Fisher (Author), Adam Verner, Dan Abrams (Narrator)

Audiobook

Man Down

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, everyone is familiar with the tired cliches: women are bad drivers and are not good with money; only guys play video games and they give bad directions. Dan Abrams tackles the toughest case of his career in Man Down. Drawing on years of legal experience and research studies, Abrams explains step-by-step why women are better than men in just about every way imaginable, from managing money to flying planes to living longer. Abrams uses his trademark charm to get his point across without opining on the issue himself. Chock-full of fun facts and conversation starters, this book may not end the debate of men versus women, but it will definitely make it more interesting.

Dan Abrams (Author), Dan Abrams (Narrator)

Audiobook