
Once Upon a Time in Compton
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Narrated by:
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Lolita Files
About this listen
From gangsta rap to gang wars and everything in between....
Former Compton police officers Tim Brennan and Robert Ladd have seen it all....
And now, they're telling all....
For 20 years, gang unit detectives Tim Brennan and Robert Ladd patrolled the streets of Compton. They witnessed the birth and rise of gangsta rap with acts they knew personally, such as N.W.A and D.J. Quik; dealt firsthand with the chaos of the L.A. riots, its aftermath, and the gang truce that followed; were involved in the investigations of the murders of hip-hop stars Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G., and were major players in an all-out tug-of-war with City Hall that ultimately resulted in the permanent shut-down of the Compton Police Department.
Through it all, they developed an intricate knowledge of gangs and the streets and a methodology that has been implemented by local law enforcement agencies across the country. Their compassionate and fair approach to community policing earned them the respect of citizens and gangbangers alike.
This story - told with best-selling author Lolita Files, whose research with Brennan and Ladd has spanned over four years - is a firsthand glimpse into a world during an era many have heard about in song and legend, but have rarely had the opportunity to witness at ground level, from the inside out, through the eyes of two men who witnessed and experienced it all.
©2018 Robert Ladd, Tim Brennan, Lolita Files (P)2018 Robert Ladd, Tim Brennan, Lolita FilesListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
By age 12, Luis Rodriguez was a veteran of East L.A. gang warfare. Lured by a seemingly invincible gang culture, he witnessed countless shootings, beatings, and arrests, then watched with increasing fear as that culture claimed friends and family members. Before long, Rodriguez saw a way out of the barrio through education and successfully broke free from years of violence and desperation.
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Book for all educators
- By Heather M. Vitz on 03-15-15
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Life Sentence
- The Brief and Tragic Career of Baltimore’s Deadliest Gang Leader
- By: Mark Bowden
- Narrated by: L.J. Ganser
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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In this unprecedented deep dive into inner-city gang life, Mark Bowden takes listeners inside a Baltimore gang, offers an in-depth portrait of its notorious leader, and chronicles the 2016 FBI investigation that landed eight gang members in prison.
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Good book, but needs to be re-cast.
- By Carey Chiaia on 06-08-23
By: Mark Bowden
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Ese to Master Jefe
- From Street Gang Life in South Central Los Angeles to US Navy Master Chief
- By: Raul R. Ramos
- Narrated by: Bill Andersen
- Length: 4 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Raul Ramos brings you his emotional, raw, and inspiring autobiography. Follow along on his uplifting journey from street gang life in South Central Los Angeles to earning the rank of Master Chief in the United States Navy. His one-of-a-kind story is certain to motivate and remind you that you control your destiny – no matter what hand you were dealt.
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You can rewrite your life story, he just showed us.
- By Felice on 03-16-24
By: Raul R. Ramos
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The Shot Caller
- A Latino Gangbanger’s Miraculous Escape from a Life of Violence to a New Life in Christ
- By: Casey Diaz, Mike Yorkey - contributor, Nicky Cruz - foreword
- Narrated by: Bob Borquez
- Length: 6 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The Shot Caller is both a never-to-be-forgotten insider’s look at the violent world of gangs and prison life and a powerful, modern demonstration of how God will go to the most miraculous extremes to reach even the worst sinners. Casey Diaz came to this country when he was just two years old, the oldest son of El Salvadorian immigrants who settled in the barrios near downtown Los Angeles in the 1970s. An abusive family life propelled Casey into street gangs at the age of eleven and he rose quickly within the ranks of the Rockwood Street Locos to become their leader.
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Compelling and Inspiring!
- By Brent Yezefski on 04-07-19
By: Casey Diaz, and others
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Vagos, Mongols, and Outlaws
- My Infiltration of America's Deadliest Biker Gangs
- By: Kerrie Droban, Charles Falco
- Narrated by: Jeffrey Kafer
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Despite lacking any experience with motorcycle gangs, Charles Falco infiltrated three of America's deadliest biker gangs: the Vagos, Mongols, and Outlaws. In separate investigations that spanned years and coasts, Falco risked his life, suffering a fractured neck and a severely torn shoulder, working deep under cover to bring violent sociopaths to justice.
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no good.
- By Raymond on 03-20-16
By: Kerrie Droban, and others
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Ghost
- My Thirty Years as an FBI Undercover Agent
- By: Michael R. McGowan, Ralph Pezzullo
- Narrated by: Mike Dawson
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Within FBI field operative circles, groups of people known as “Special” by their titles alone, Michael R. McGowan is an outlier. Over the course of his career, McGowan has worked more than 50 undercover cases. In this extraordinary and unprecedented book, McGowan will take listeners through some of his biggest cases, from international drug busts to the Russian and Italian mobs to biker gangs and contract killers to corrupt unions and SWAT work. Ghost is an unparalleled view into how the FBI, through the courage of its undercover Special Agents, nails the bad guys.
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Interesting story, but narration eh
- By Ahdumb on 10-06-18
By: Michael R. McGowan, and others
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MS-13
- The Making of America's Most Notorious Gang
- By: Steven Dudley
- Narrated by: Christian Barillas
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Today, MS-13 is one of the most infamous street gangs on earth, with an estimated ten thousand members operating in dozens of states and linked to thousands of grisly murders each year in the US and abroad. But it is also misunderstood—less a drug cartel and more a hand-to-mouth organization whose criminal economy is based mostly on small-time extortion schemes and petty drug dealing. Steven Dudley brings listeners inside the nefarious group to tell a larger story of how a flawed US and Central American policy, and exploitative economic systems, helped foster the gang and sustain it.
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BLAME AMERICA
- By XIgnauta on 12-31-20
By: Steven Dudley
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The Black Hand
- The Bloody Rise and Redemption of "Boxer" Enriquez, a Mexican Mob Killer
- By: Chris Blatchford
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Rene "Boxer" Enriquez grew up on the violent streets of East L.A., where gang fights, robberies, and drive-by shootings were fueled by rage, drugs, and alcohol. When he finally landed in prison - at the age of 19 - Enriquez found an organization that brought him the respect he always wanted: the near-mythic and widely feared Mexican Mafia, La Eme. What the organization saw in Enriquez was a young man who knew no fear and would kill anyone - justifiably or not - in the blink of an eye.
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Intense, brutal, and informative
- By E on 07-08-15
By: Chris Blatchford
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The Black Hand
- The Epic War Between a Brilliant Detective and the Deadliest Secret Society in American History
- By: Stephan Talty
- Narrated by: Scott Aiello
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Beginning in the summer of 1903, an insidious crime wave filled New York City, and then the entire country, with fear. The children of Italian immigrants were kidnapped, and dozens of innocent victims were gunned down. Bombs tore apart tenement buildings. Judges, senators, Rockefellers, and society matrons were threatened with gruesome deaths. The perpetrators seemed both omnipresent and invisible. Their only calling card: the symbol of a black hand.
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Not a great listen.
- By Tabitha Rex on 12-08-17
By: Stephan Talty
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El Chapo
- The Untold Story of the World's Most Infamous Drug Lord
- By: Noah Hurowitz
- Narrated by: Shaun Taylor-Corbett
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the true story of how El Chapo built the world’s wealthiest and most powerful drug-trafficking operation, based on months’ worth of trial testimony and dozens of interviews with cartel gunmen, Mexican journalists and political figures, Chapo’s family members, and the DEA agents who brought him down.
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Not really about EL Chapo
- By edward on 07-30-21
By: Noah Hurowitz
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Pure Narco
- One Man's True Story of 25 Years Inside the Cartels
- By: Jesse Fink, Luis Navia
- Narrated by: Keith Scott
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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For a quarter century, Luis Antonio Navia worked as a high-level cocaine transporter for all of the major Colombian and Mexican drug cartels, including Pablo Escobar’s Medellín Cartel, and flooded the United States and Europe with cocaine before his dramatic arrest in Venezuela in 2000 during the 12-nation Operation Journey. The story of Navia’s rise, fall, takedown, imprisonment, and redemption is expertly researched and told by acclaimed biographer Jesse Fink.
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don't waste your credit
- By Gregory Miles on 06-07-24
By: Jesse Fink, and others
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The Unknown Mongol
- By: Scott Junior Ereckson
- Narrated by: Jeff Hays
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the true story of ex-Mongols M.C. National President Scott Junior Ereckson. From a young teen, peering from behind a bush at an unknown Mongol, Scott fulfills his childhood dreams. In later years, after many experiences, he becomes one of the most respected and feared Mongols to this day.
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Superb book ruined by muppet voices
- By Skinny Pete on 05-29-15
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The Corner
- A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood
- By: David Simon, Edward Burns
- Narrated by: Dion Graham, David Simon
- Length: 25 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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The crime-infested intersection of West Fayette and Monroe Streets is well-known - and cautiously avoided - by most of Baltimore. But this notorious corner's 24-hour open-air drug market provides the economic fuel for a dying neighborhood. David Simon, an award-winning author and crime reporter, and Edward Burns, a 20-year veteran of the urban drug war, tell the chilling story of this desolate crossroad.
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Insightful. A Must Read For Suburban Americans.
- By WitchCrafter on 06-01-21
By: David Simon, and others
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Tupac Shakur
- The Authorized Biography
- By: Staci Robinson
- Narrated by: Jamal Joseph, Staci Robinson
- Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Tupac Shakur is one of the greatest and most controversial artists of all time. More than a quarter of a century after his tragic death in 1996 at the age of just twenty-five, he continues to be one of the most misunderstood, complicated, and prolific figures in modern history. Drawing on exclusive access to Tupac’s private notebooks, letters, and uncensored conversations with those who loved and knew him best, this estate-authorized biography paints the fullest and most intimate picture to date of the young man who became a legend for generations to come.
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The Biography we’ve been waiting for
- By carl zayas on 02-24-24
By: Staci Robinson
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Unsuccessful Thug
- One Comedian's Journey from Naptown to Tinseltown
- By: Mike Epps
- Narrated by: J.D. Jackson
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Mike Epps is one of America’s favorite and funniest people, but the path to fame was paved with opportunities to mess it up. And mess it up he did. Growing up in “Naptown” - what people who live there really call rough-around-the-edges Indianapolis - Epps was drawn to a life of crime, but as he quickly discovered, stealing and dealing didn’t really fit his sweet sensibilities. Not to mention he wasn’t very good at it - take, for example, the day he had to call the cops on himself when a dog wouldn’t let him leave a house he was burgling.
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The performer is not good
- By Sgamble on 04-11-18
By: Mike Epps
What listeners say about Once Upon a Time in Compton
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- Anonymous User
- 01-22-25
perspective and knowledge
I love this book. it brought clarity to my perception. I love gangster rap and true crime perfect storm
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- Donald
- 05-14-18
Great read
Very interesting story. Moves along very well and it definitely keeps you interested. Very good insight and at times it’s hard to believe that this is a true story. Highly recommend it.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Jay Dawg
- 03-11-25
It’s alright
Kinda not exciting, needs some spice got pretty boring at chapter 3, it could just be me but just not my cup of tea
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- Anthony W. Gibbs
- 12-04-21
Excellent and Informative
This was excellent stuff. Great insight is given about the streets and the nature of the interplay between criminal, police, and society at large. I applaud the two policemen covered in this book. I wish more cops were like them.
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- Joe
- 08-12-24
The amount of dedication that people have for a job they love.
great insight to a life alot of people don't understand or just don't care about and the people who risk ther lives to try and make a difference...
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- chris alfred
- 03-27-20
Non stop action
This book is amazing, classic ghetto tales in the eyes of a cop. 🔥Must have.
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- Julio
- 12-10-21
Excellent book!
Very interesting look at their methods of policing. I spent many years as a teen and my 20's as a Compton gang member. Everyone knew Blondie & Ladd. Good cops, treated Everyone well. Sad the way their careers ended.
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- Amir Valian
- 03-25-22
A must listen!
This is a fantastic audio book that shows the real deal about Compton in that time period. We need more people like Tim and Bob. Good job by the author and narrator. Highly recommend! RIP Timothy Brennan!
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- Augustin
- 07-28-24
Terrible narator
The book looked promising but the narator totally destroyed it. No emotions, no inflection...Couldn't even understand some of the names mentioned in the book.
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- Mike C
- 08-09-19
Horrendous narration
Was looking forward to hearing the story of these guys. However the narrator was so atrocious I couldn’t listen. It’s read like a high school student giving a speech. No inflection, monotone, same cadence throughout. Authors rarely do a good job narrating their work. Very disappointing.
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3 people found this helpful