Kidd Kraddick's Big Secret

Jamie Thompson:

On the last night of his life, Kidd Kraddick picked out a stranger on a street corner in the French Quarter. It was a broiling evening last July in New Orleans. Kraddick had just left an oyster bar and had spotted the man selling pirated DVDs out of his trunk. Kraddick's small entourage, a collection of friends and business partners, walked past the young man, nodding politely. But Kraddick stopped.

What are you doing? Why are you selling these? Don't you know that's illegal?

Kraddick's friends, waiting for him, were annoyed, eager to get on with their evening. But that's what made Kraddick one of the most successful radio hosts in the country—always asking questions, familiar…