In Dispute: 10 Famous Trials That Changed History

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: Sign up for our newsletter so that you’re the first to know when new episodes drop! Listen to J. Craig Williams’ other podcast, Lawyer 2 Lawyer. Tell us what you’re looking forward to the most for this show on LinkedIn, Facebook, X or Instagram!  Purchase the e-book.    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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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: Sign up for our newsletter so that you’re the first to know when new episodes drop! Listen to J. Craig Williams’ other podcast, Lawyer 2 Lawyer. Tell us what you’re looking forward to the most for this show on LinkedIn, Facebook, X or Instagram!  Purchase the e-book.  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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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: Sign up for our newsletter so that you’re the first to know when new episodes drop! Listen to J. Craig Williams’ other podcast, Lawyer 2 Lawyer. Tell us what you’re looking forward to the most for this show on LinkedIn, Facebook, X or Instagram!  Purchase the e-book.  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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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: Sign up for our newsletter so that you’re the first to know when new episodes drop! Listen to J. Craig Williams’ other podcast, Lawyer 2 Lawyer. Tell us what you’re looking forward to the most for this show on LinkedIn, Facebook, X or Instagram!  Purchase the e-book.  Purchase the hardcover.   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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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: Sign up for our newsletter so that you’re the first to know when new episodes drop! Listen to J. Craig Williams’ other podcast, Lawyer 2 Lawyer. Tell us what you’re looking forward to the most for this show on LinkedIn, Facebook, X or Instagram!  Purchase the e-book.  Purchase the hardcover. 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices