The California Kid
You’ve read the shocking one-sided tale of international drug kingpin Owen Hanson in The Rolling Stone, VICE, and the LA Times—but now he’s ready to tell his side of the story.
A surfer kid from California, Owen Hanson was still in his twenties when he found himself the leader of a multimillion-dollar criminal empire. What began as an attempt to fit in with the rich kids at the University of Southern California soon grew into gambling and loan sharking, which then opened the door to drug trafficking and money laundering. Hanson wasn’t just involved in this stuff—he excelled at it. Living the fast-paced lifestyle of the rich and famous, Hanson was finally gaining the respect he craved. But with the cartel, a serious drug-abuse problem, and the pursuit of the FBI all threatening to overtake him, it wouldn't be long before his glamorous lifestyle caught up with him.
The California Kid follows Owen from his roots as a USC star athlete from a broken home, where his idolization of the rich and famous began, to his descent down a dangerous path where he would stop at nothing to earn the love and respect of the people around him. The story that follows is almost too wild to believe—but Owen bears the 21-year sentence to prove it.
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Book details
- Author
- Owen Hanson, Alex Cody Foster
- Imprint
- Turner Publishing Company
- Published
- Pages
- 256
- Formats
- Hardcover, Paperback
- Subjects
- Biography & Autobiography › Criminals & Outlaws
Biography & Autobiography › Memoirs
Biography & Autobiography › Sports - Topics
- drug trafficking · criminal empire · true crime · memoir · organized crime · money laundering · University of Southern California · loan sharking
- ISBN-13
- 9781684420506 (Hardcover)9781684420520 (Paperback)
About the authors
OWEN HANSON is a former college athlete and co-author of The California Kid: From USC Golden Boy to International Drug Kingpin.
Hanson played football at the University of Southern California before his arrest for drug trafficking in 2015. He pleaded guilty to racketeering and conspiracy to distribute drugs and was sentenced to 21 years in federal prison in 2017, a story covered by Rolling Stone, VICE, and the LA Times. While incarcerated, he earned an MBA from California Coast University. He was released in 2024.
ALEX CODY FOSTER is a #1 Amazon bestselling ghostwriter and co-author of The California Kid: From USC Golden Boy to International Drug Kingpin and author of The Man Who Hacked the World: A Ghostwriter’s Descent into Madness with John McAfee.
The Man Who Hacked the World won a Nonfiction Book Awards Silver Award for Memoir and was a Next Generation Indie Book Award finalist. Foster is featured in the Netflix documentary Running with the Devil: The Wild World of John McAfee, and is the founder of Ghostwriting University, an online course for writers.
Alex lives in New York City.