
The Last Pirate
A Father, His Son, and the Golden Age of Marijuana
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $18.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
MacLeod Andrews
-
By:
-
Tony Dokoupil
About this listen
In the tradition of Blow and Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, The Last Pirate is a vivid, haunting and often hilarious memoir recounting the life of Big Tony, a family man who joined the biggest pot ring of the Reagan era and exploded his life in the process. Three decades later, his son came back to put together the pieces.
As he relates his father’s rise from hey-man hippie dealer to multi-ton smuggler extraordinaire, Tony Dokoupil tells the larger history of marijuana and untangles the controversies still stirring furious debate today. He blends superb reportage with searing personal memories, presenting a probing chronicle of pot-smoking, drug-taking America from the perspective of the generation that grew up in the aftermath of the Great Stoned Age. Back then, everyone knew a drug dealer. The Last Pirate is the story of what happened to one of them, to his family, and in a pharmacological sense, to us all.
The Last Pirate is a cultural portrait of marijuana’s endless allure set against the Technicolor backdrop of South Florida in the era of Miami Vice. It’s a public saga complete with a real pirate’s booty: more than a million dollars lost, buried, or stolen—but it’s also a deeply personal pursuit, the product of a son’s determination to replant the family tree in richer soil.
©2014 Tony Dokoupil (P)2014 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Rough Draft
- A Memoir
- By: Katy Tur
- Narrated by: Katy Tur
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a box from her mother showed up on Katy Tur’s doorstep, months into the pandemic and just as she learned she was pregnant with her second child, she didn’t know what to expect. The box contained thousands of hours of video—the work of her pioneering helicopter journalist parents. They grew rich and famous for their aerial coverage of Madonna and Sean Penn’s secret wedding, the Reginald Denny beating in the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and O.J. Simpson’s notorious run in the white Bronco.
-
-
I loved Katie’s first book “Unbelievable”, this is even better!
- By GB on 06-16-22
By: Katy Tur
-
Saltwater Cowboy
- The Rise and Fall of a Marijuana Empire
- By: Tim McBride, Ralph Berrier Jr.
- Narrated by: Wes Talbot
- Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1979, Wisconsin native Tim McBride hopped into his Mustang and headed south. He was 21, and his best friend had offered him a job working as a crab fisherman in Chokoloskee Island, a town of fewer than 500 people on Florida's Gulf Coast. Easy of disposition and eager to experience life at its richest, McBride jumped in with both feet. But this wasn't a typical fishing outfit.
-
-
Great made even better by the fact it's non fictio
- By Porkchop on 01-11-18
By: Tim McBride, and others
-
Smuggler's Blues
- A True Story of the Hippie Mafia
- By: Richard Stratton
- Narrated by: Richard Stratton
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Stratton was the unlikeliest of kingpins. A clean-cut Wellesley boy who entered outlaw culture on a trip to Mexico, he saw his search for a joint morph into a thrill-filled dope run smuggling two kilos across the border in his car door. He became a member of the Hippie Mafia, traveling the world to keep America high, living the underground life while embracing the hippie credo, rejecting hard drugs in favor of marijuana and hashish.
-
-
Voice actor please apply
- By micheal on 06-30-16
By: Richard Stratton
-
Prequel
- An American Fight Against Fascism
- By: Rachel Maddow
- Narrated by: Rachel Maddow
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inspired by her research for the hit podcast Ultra, Rachel Maddow charts the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century. Before and even after our troops had begun fighting abroad in World War II, a clandestine network flooded the country with disinformation aimed at sapping the strength of the U.S. war effort and persuading Americans that our natural alliance was with the Axis, not against it.
-
-
The fight to keep democracy alive
- By Rex on 10-19-23
By: Rachel Maddow
-
Enough
- By: Cassidy Hutchinson
- Narrated by: Cassidy Hutchinson
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ever since a childhood visit to Washington, DC, Cassidy Hutchinson aspired to serve her country in government. Raised in a working-class family with a military background, she was the first in her immediate family to graduate from college. Despite having no ties to Washington, Hutchinson landed a vital position at the center of the Trump White House.
-
-
Painful
- By Melissa C. on 09-28-23
-
Unbelievable
- My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History
- By: Katy Tur
- Narrated by: Katy Tur
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The NBC journalist who covered - and took fire from - Donald Trump on the campaign trail offers an inside look at the most shocking presidential election in American history. Intriguing, disturbing, and powerful, Unbelievable is an unprecedented eyewitness account of the 2016 election from an intelligent, dedicated journalist at the center of it - a thoughtful historical record that offers eye-opening insights and details on our political process, the media, and the mercurial 45th president of the United States.
-
-
It's hard to know what to say
- By Cheryl B on 09-17-17
By: Katy Tur
-
Rough Draft
- A Memoir
- By: Katy Tur
- Narrated by: Katy Tur
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a box from her mother showed up on Katy Tur’s doorstep, months into the pandemic and just as she learned she was pregnant with her second child, she didn’t know what to expect. The box contained thousands of hours of video—the work of her pioneering helicopter journalist parents. They grew rich and famous for their aerial coverage of Madonna and Sean Penn’s secret wedding, the Reginald Denny beating in the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and O.J. Simpson’s notorious run in the white Bronco.
-
-
I loved Katie’s first book “Unbelievable”, this is even better!
- By GB on 06-16-22
By: Katy Tur
-
Saltwater Cowboy
- The Rise and Fall of a Marijuana Empire
- By: Tim McBride, Ralph Berrier Jr.
- Narrated by: Wes Talbot
- Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1979, Wisconsin native Tim McBride hopped into his Mustang and headed south. He was 21, and his best friend had offered him a job working as a crab fisherman in Chokoloskee Island, a town of fewer than 500 people on Florida's Gulf Coast. Easy of disposition and eager to experience life at its richest, McBride jumped in with both feet. But this wasn't a typical fishing outfit.
-
-
Great made even better by the fact it's non fictio
- By Porkchop on 01-11-18
By: Tim McBride, and others
-
Smuggler's Blues
- A True Story of the Hippie Mafia
- By: Richard Stratton
- Narrated by: Richard Stratton
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Stratton was the unlikeliest of kingpins. A clean-cut Wellesley boy who entered outlaw culture on a trip to Mexico, he saw his search for a joint morph into a thrill-filled dope run smuggling two kilos across the border in his car door. He became a member of the Hippie Mafia, traveling the world to keep America high, living the underground life while embracing the hippie credo, rejecting hard drugs in favor of marijuana and hashish.
-
-
Voice actor please apply
- By micheal on 06-30-16
By: Richard Stratton
-
Prequel
- An American Fight Against Fascism
- By: Rachel Maddow
- Narrated by: Rachel Maddow
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inspired by her research for the hit podcast Ultra, Rachel Maddow charts the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century. Before and even after our troops had begun fighting abroad in World War II, a clandestine network flooded the country with disinformation aimed at sapping the strength of the U.S. war effort and persuading Americans that our natural alliance was with the Axis, not against it.
-
-
The fight to keep democracy alive
- By Rex on 10-19-23
By: Rachel Maddow
-
Enough
- By: Cassidy Hutchinson
- Narrated by: Cassidy Hutchinson
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ever since a childhood visit to Washington, DC, Cassidy Hutchinson aspired to serve her country in government. Raised in a working-class family with a military background, she was the first in her immediate family to graduate from college. Despite having no ties to Washington, Hutchinson landed a vital position at the center of the Trump White House.
-
-
Painful
- By Melissa C. on 09-28-23
-
Unbelievable
- My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History
- By: Katy Tur
- Narrated by: Katy Tur
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The NBC journalist who covered - and took fire from - Donald Trump on the campaign trail offers an inside look at the most shocking presidential election in American history. Intriguing, disturbing, and powerful, Unbelievable is an unprecedented eyewitness account of the 2016 election from an intelligent, dedicated journalist at the center of it - a thoughtful historical record that offers eye-opening insights and details on our political process, the media, and the mercurial 45th president of the United States.
-
-
It's hard to know what to say
- By Cheryl B on 09-17-17
By: Katy Tur
-
American Desperado
- My Life - From Mafia Soldier to Cocaine Cowboy to Secret Government Asset
- By: Jon Roberts, Evan Wright
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall, Erik Davies, Mark Deakins, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2008 veteran journalist Evan Wright, acclaimed for his New York Times best-selling book Generation Kill and co-writer of the Emmy-winning HBO series it spawned, began a series of conversations with super-criminal Jon Roberts, star of the fabulously successful documentary Cocaine Cowboys. Those conversations would last three years, during which time Wright came to realize that Roberts was much more than the de-facto “transportation chief” of the Medellin Cartel during the 1980s, much more than a facilitator of a national drug epidemic.
-
-
BEST First Person (realistic) Criminal Account
- By aaron on 12-05-11
By: Jon Roberts, and others
-
Spare
- By: Prince Harry The Duke of Sussex
- Narrated by: Prince Harry The Duke of Sussex
- Length: 15 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow—and horror. As Princess Diana was laid to rest, billions wondered what Prince William and Prince Harry must be thinking and feeling—and how their lives would play out from that point on.
-
-
Gutterball!
- By Jimmyjoejangles on 01-10-23
-
Belonging
- A Daughter’s Search for Identity Through Loss and Love
- By: Michelle Miller
- Narrated by: Michelle Miller
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Though Michelle Miller was an award-winning broadcast journalist for CBS News, few people in her life knew the painful secret she carried: her mother had abandoned her at birth. Los Angeles in 1967 was deeply segregated, and her mother—a Chicana hospital administrator who presented as white, had kept her affair with Michelle’s father, Dr. Ross Miller, a married trauma surgeon and Compton’s first Black city councilman—hidden, along with the unplanned pregnancy. Raised largely by her father and her paternal grandmother, Michelle had no knowledge of the woman whose genes she shared. Then, fate intervened when Michelle was twenty-two. As her father lay stricken with cancer, he told her, “Go and find your mother.”
-
-
Get over it!
- By Dawn Starostka on 06-01-23
By: Michelle Miller
-
The Covenant of Water
- By: Abraham Verghese
- Narrated by: Abraham Verghese
- Length: 31 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time.
-
-
Story Telling At Its Best
- By Regina on 05-06-23
By: Abraham Verghese
-
Survival of the Fastest
- Weed, Speed, and the 1980s Drug Scandal That Shocked the Sports World
- By: Randy Lanier, A.J. Baime - contributor
- Narrated by: Jonathan Beville
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the unbelievable, unforgettable, unparalleled story of an ordinary guy whose attempts to become famous doing the thing he wanted most—become a world class race car driver—devolved into a you-can’t-make-this-up tale of one of the biggest crime rings and drug scandals of the 1980s. Now, with the help of New York Times bestselling author A.J. Baime, Randy tells the whole truth for the first time ever, a gripping narrative unlike any other, a sports story for the ages, and shocking a true crime epic.
-
-
Surprising, Gripping, and so Human
- By B. Greene76 on 08-04-22
By: Randy Lanier, and others
-
Smuggler
- By: Roger Reaves
- Narrated by: Roger Reaves
- Length: 24 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Roger Reaves grew up a poor farm boy in Georgia and went from making 'moonshine' to becoming one of the most prolific smugglers of the 20th century. He covered six continents, transporting 20 ton ship loads of hash, tons of cocaine, and completed more than 100 sorties across the US border with plane loads of marijuana. His friends and associates spanned the globe - from Medellin Cartel kingpins Jorge Ochoa and Pablo Escobar, to "Mr. Nice" Howard Marks and the infamous Barry Seal who was Roger's close friend and employee.
-
-
5 stars
- By Kacy Smith on 01-09-22
By: Roger Reaves
-
Kings of Cocaine
- Inside the Medellin Cartel - An Astonishing True Story of Murder Money and International Corruption
- By: Guy Gugliotta, Jeff Leen
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 14 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the story of the most successful cocaine dealers in the world: Pablo Escobar Gaviria, Jorge Luis Ochoa Vasquez, Carlos Lehder Rivas, and Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha. In the 1980s, they controlled more than 50 percent of the cocaine flowing into the United States. The cocaine trade is capitalism on overdrive - supply meeting demand on exponential levels. Here you'll find the story of how the modern cocaine business started and how it turned a ragtag group of hippies and sociopaths into regal kings.
-
-
Almost Perfect.
- By Nick on 10-31-18
By: Guy Gugliotta, and others
-
Confidence Man
- The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America
- By: Maggie Haberman
- Narrated by: Maggie Haberman
- Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Few journalists working today have covered Donald Trump more extensively than Maggie Haberman. And few understand him and his motivations better. Now, demonstrating her majestic command of this story, Haberman reveals in full the depth of her understanding of the 45th president himself, and of what the Trump phenomenon means.
-
-
This is the only one you have to read
- By Amazon Customer on 10-06-22
By: Maggie Haberman
-
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
don't waste your credit
- By Gregory Miles on 06-07-24
By: Jesse Fink, and others
-
The Cornbread Mafia
- A Homegrown Syndicate's Code of Silence and the Biggest Marijuana Bust in American History
- By: James Higdon
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 14 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the summer of 1987, Johnny Boone set out to grow and harvest one of the greatest outdoor marijuana crops in modern times. In doing so, he set into motion a series of events that defined him and his associatesas the largest homegrown marijuana syndicate in American history, also known as the Cornbread Mafia. Author James Higdon takes listeners back to the 1970s and ‘80s and the clash between federal and local law enforcement and a band of Kentucky farmers.
-
-
Mixed bag, but ultimately worth a credit
- By A. Lucchese on 01-14-13
By: James Higdon
-
Dark Alliance
- The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion
- By: Gary Webb
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel
- Length: 20 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In July 1995, San Jose Mercury-News reporter Gary Webb found the Big One - the blockbuster story every journalist secretly dreams about - without even looking for it. A simple phone call concerning an unexceptional pending drug trial turned into a massive conspiracy involving the Nicaraguan Contra rebels, L.A. and Bay Area crack cocaine dealers, and the Central Intelligence Agency.
-
-
Bigger than You Thought
- By Susie on 04-28-14
By: Gary Webb
-
The Unknown Mongol
- By: Scott Junior Ereckson
- Narrated by: Jeff Hays
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Superb book ruined by muppet voices
- By Skinny Pete on 05-29-15
Critic reviews
"NBC News senior writer Dokoupil offers a gripping examination of his longtime marijuana-dealing father, as well as a researched look at the evolution of American narcotics laws.… Dokoupil’s sharp eye for detail makes for a lively and often moving narrative full of cinematic scenes and snappy dialogue. Dokoupil draws on his experience as a reporter to deliver an unflinching and detailed look at a criminal family’s life." (Publisher’s Weekly)
"There is a pseudoheroic, merry-band-of-pirates tone to these often-hilarious adventures in the drug business during the Reagan era. Dokoupil recounts how the smuggling and distribution business ran and contextualizes it within the 'Great Stoned Age'. Partly the history of a generation, yet very much a family story…though there are no heroes, readers owe the author thanks for this well-told, ironic, and gripping story." (Booklist)
What listeners say about The Last Pirate
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Who? Me?
- 05-15-15
a fun interesting read.....
I'm no book reviewer but I found this book to be fun, interesting, exciting, sometimes humorous and written from a first person point of view that lends a real sense of honesty to the book. highly recommended.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Nairobi Kim
- 06-02-15
Engaging
From the first chapter you're transported into the world of drugs, illicit encounters and thoughtful emotion. The performance was excellent in conveying the story, feeling and times.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tim Scofield
- 10-25-22
Tony captured a time gone by
and a difficult period of his life with a lovely warmth and humor. Bravo 👏
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gayle Merrill
- 05-28-23
Well done Dokoupil
As a fan of Tony on CBS Mornings I finally read Tony’s book. It was well written, and absorbing . What a great (but tough) story told in a way that kept me going back for more. I hope he writes more books. My only disappointment is he didn’t read the book himself. Thanks fir a great read.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- tim
- 10-04-21
coudn't get into it
some interesting stuff but i couldn't really get into it to much. guess i was hoping for more. not dissapointed i got it but won't be listening to it again
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Nick
- 06-27-17
Waste of time.
this book is complete garbage. the author constantly reminds us that the subject of the book is "my father". I think I must've heard that phrase 100 times in the first 2 hours of the book. at some point, refer to him by his name. on top of that, it feels more like a show-and-tell, than an actual recount of what happened. we get it, you're really proud of your dad.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!