Killer Colt

By: Harold Schechter

Narrated by: Robert Fass

An in-the-room account of John Colt's scandalous nineteenth-century murder trial from "America's principal chronicler of its greatest psychopathic killers" (Boston Review).

In this masterful account, renowned true-crime historian Harold Schechter takes you into the life and crimes of convicted murderer John Caldwell Colt, drawing parallels between John's rise to notoriety and his brother Samuel Colt's rise to fame as the inventor of the legendary revolver. With a killing that made headlines around the nation, John Colt became a cultural touchstone whose shocking villainy inspired and provoked such writers as Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, and Herman Melville.

Unlike his brother, John lived a nomadic existence, bouncing from one job to another. His one distinction, writing a reference accounting book, would play a part in his fall from grace, for in New York City, on September 17, 1841, John murdered printer Samuel Adams with a hatchet during a heated argument over proceeds from book sales.

A media circus ensued, galvanizing the penny press, which printed lurid headlines and gruesome woodcut illustrations. The standing-room-only trial created unforgettable moments in legal history, including such dramatic evidence as Samuel Adams's decomposed head. The verdict and its aftermath would reverberate throughout the country and beyond, giving John Colt lasting infamy.

©2024 Harold Schechter (P)2024 Podium Audio

Couldn't listen

I normally enjoy Schecter books a great deal, This one was an exception. it was packed with extraneous detail that did not support the actual story to the point that it was laborious and boring. For example, on and on with poems about dead children! I could not finish.