The infamous cheating scandal from the 1919 World Series, between the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds, broke America’s belief in the purity and innocence of baseball. As the story slowly unfolded, it became filled with all the colorful characters you’d expect from 1920s America: baseball players with catchy nicknames, short-tempered gangsters/gamblers immaculately dressed in business pinstripe suits, newspaper reporters and radio broadcasters with flowery descriptions of the trial as if itself was a baseball game, and even New York mob boss Arnold Rothstein, who was alleged (but never proven …) to be the impetus of the scandal.
Unfortunately, the Black Sox trial transcripts were lost long ago, requiring modern-day historians to rely on newspaper reports of trial testimony, which sometimes were sensationalized for their readers and at other times were directly contrary to one another. From this reality, admittedly many of the facts about the scandal we examine in this episode are (true to this show’s title) In Dispute.
LINKS:
SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR VOICE ACTORS:
Todd Berger as Eddie Cicotte
Brandon Harpold as Shoeless Joe Jackson
Adam Lockwood as Carl Victor Little
Alan Chudnow as “Sleepy Bill” Burns
Chad Trudeau as James “Ropes” O’Brien
Dennis Kennedy as David Zelzer
Tom Mighell as Al Spink
Jim Brady as Commissioner Landis
Lily Spader as Newspaper Journalist #1
Nathan Todhunter as Newspaper Journalist #2
Thomas Wolfe as Radio Broadcaster #1
Cari Lockwood as Radio Broadcaster #2
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Thirty shots fired in thirty seconds at the O.K. Corral left three men dead and three more wounded and turned into a month-long trial with some thirty witnesses in late fall 1881. Since then, their legendary gunfight with the Clantons and McLaurys has kept the town of Tombstone, Arizona alive and has been the source of inspiration for many books and films over the years.
125 years later, many questions are still left unanswered: Were the Clantons and McLaurys cattle thieves deserving of their death? Why was Doc Holliday, a gambler and notorious gunslinger, deputized by Virgil Earp? Why did the coroner’s inquest not issue a verdict? And this 1880s criminal trial asked the original Star Wars question: who really fired first?
LINKS:
SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR VOICE ACTORS:
David Woodham as Wyatt Earp
Scott Well as Wesley Fuller
Jeremy Brown as Ike Clanton
Ken Sutherland as Prosecutor Lyttleton Price
J.D. Freedman as Defense Attorney Tom Fitch
Jamie Duarte as Sheriff Johnny Behan
Hon. Franz E. Miller, ret. as H.F. Sills
Wylie Aitken as Judge Spicer
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Countless historians have debated whether abolitionist John Brown was, as President Lincoln put it, a “misguided fanatic,” or, in the words of Malcolm X, “the only white man worthy of joining his Organization for Afro-American Unity.” Rather than categorize John Brown or define his place in history, our goal with this episode is to examine his trial from a lawyer’s perspective, allowing you to understand how he became such a controversial figure.
LINKS:
SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR VOICE ACTORS:
Troy Starr as John Brown
Doug Bryson as Court Reporter
John Doe as John Allstadt
Evan Dicharry as Albert Grist
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When an unruly crowd of angry colonists attacked a small platoon of British soldiers in 1770, five Bostonians were killed and several others wounded. John Adams, a then-34-year-old lawyer who would eventually become the second president of the United States, took on a bold and unpopular defense of the soldiers and orchestrated their trials in a way that defied conventional thinking. To better understand the historical context of the Boston Massacre, what actually went down, the aftermath of the tragedy, and the surprising takeaway trial lawyers should have after hearing John Adams’ closing arguments, Attorney J. Craig Williams invites you to bundle up and relive the astounding altercation that’s still talked about to this day.
LINKS:
SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR VOICE ACTORS:
Scott Well as John Adams
Alan Chudnow as Samuel Quincy
Skyler C. as Josiah Quincy
Alan Parsons as Captain Thomas Preston
Robert Mattson as Samuel Adams
Dan Ring as Daniel Calef
Patrick Correia as Richard Palmes
Kate Kenney Nutting as the female witness
Neil Harvey as the British Soldier
Brian Driesen as Benjamin Lee
Andrew Clark as Thomas Handaside Peck
Robert "Terry" Terelak as Ebenerzer Bridgham
Jud Pierce as Dr. John Jeffries
Christopher Rogers as John Hogdson
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In 1692, claims of satanic rituals, ghosts, and seemingly “afflicted” children stirred puritanical imaginations, deepened by petty rifts between powerful families and rival congregations in Salem Village (now known as Danvers, Massachusetts). In response to the growing number of citizen complaints and imprisonments, Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor William Phips appointed a man with no legal training to preside over the trials. More than a dozen poor decisions and questionable verdicts later, townspeople became all too familiar with death sentences by hanging. Hear the full story unravel with voiceover reenactments, historical context and present-day reflection from Attorney J. Craig Williams.
LINKS:
SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR VOICE ACTORS:
Troy Starr as John Hathorne
Doreen Wiley as Sarah Good
Kevin McGrath as Cotton Mather
Dave Scriven-Young as Stephen Sewell
Evan Dicharry as Judge
Georgia Well as Bridgett Bishop
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Enjoy this exclusive first look at the J. Craig Williams' new podcast series 'In Dispute: 10 Famous Trials That Changed History' coming to Legal Talk Network June 18th. Go beyond the basic historical accounts recapped in law school textbooks and soak in every aspect of the trials with fascinating reenactments of actual conversations preserved through trial transcripts and court reporters. Then, receive an exclusive courtroom backstage pass to hear legal analysis and modern-day reflections from Seasoned Attorney J. Craig Williams. Get ready to dive into the trials of the Salem witches, Chicago Black Sox, OJ Simpson, McMartin preschool childcare providers, and more!
LINKS:
SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR VOICE ACTORS:
Meghan Steenburgh as News Reporter
Daniel Rover Singer as William Jennings Bryan
Scott Well as Clarence Darrow
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Join us as we take a journey through time to discover the most interesting and impactful court cases in world history. Go beyond the basic historical accounts recapped in law school textbooks and soak in every aspect of the trials with fascinating reenactments of actual conversations preserved through trial transcripts and court reporters. Then, receive an exclusive courtroom backstage pass to hear legal analysis and modern-day reflections from Seasoned Attorney J. Craig Williams. Get ready to dive into the trials of the Salem witches, Chicago Black Sox, OJ Simpson, McMartin preschool childcare providers, and more!
LINKS:
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