
Trespassers at the Golden Gate
A True Account of Love, Murder, and Madness in Gilded-Age San Francisco
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Narrated by:
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Rob Shapiro
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By:
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Gary Krist
About this listen
The sensational, forgotten true story of a woman who murdered her married lover in Gilded Age San Francisco and the trial that epitomized the city's transformation from raucous frontier town into modern metropolis—from the New York Times bestselling author of Empire of Sin
Shortly before dusk on November 3, 1870, just as the ferryboat El Capitan was pulling away from its slip into San Francisco Bay, a woman clad in black emerged from the shadows and strode across the crowded deck. Reaching under her veil, she drew a small pistol and aimed it directly at a well-dressed man sitting quietly with his wife and children. The woman fired a single bullet into his chest. “I did it and I don’t deny it,” she said when arrested shortly thereafter. “He ruined both myself and my daughter.”
Though little remembered today, the trial of Laura D. Fair for the murder of her lover, A. P. Crittenden, made headlines nationwide. As bestselling author Gary Krist reveals, the operatic facts of the case—a woman strung along for years by a two-timing man, killing him in an alleged fit of madness—challenged an American populace still searching for moral consensus after the Civil War. The trial shone an early and uncomfortable spotlight on social issues like the role of women, the sanctity of the family, and the range of acceptable expressions of gender, while jolting the still-adolescent metropolis of 1870s San Francisco, a city eager to shed its rough-and-tumble Gold Rush-era reputation.
Trespassers at the Golden Gate brings listeners inside the untamed frontier town, a place where—for a brief period—otherwise marginalized communities found unique opportunities. Listeners meet a secretly wealthy Black housekeeper, an enterprising Chinese brothel madam, and a French rabble-rouser who refused to dress in sufficiently “feminine” clothing—as well as familiar figures like Mark Twain and Susan B. Anthony, who become swept up in the drama of the Laura Fair affair.
Krist, who previously brought New Orleans to vivid life in Empire of Sin and Chicago in City of Scoundrels, recounts this astonishing story and its surprisingly modern echoes in a rollicking narrative that probes what it all meant—both for a nation still scarred by war and for a city eager for the world stage.
©2025 Gary Krist (P)2025 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“In this masterful work of true crime, Krist wraps a detailed portrait of a booming late nineteenth-century San Francisco around an engrossing account of a scandalous murder. . . . Krist recreates [Laura] Fair’s two trials—she was eventually acquitted on grounds of temporary insanity—with meticulous research and a novelist’s flair for drama. This top-shelf blend of history and entertainment is as edifying as it is exciting.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A tale of mad love, murder, and the rough-and-tumble mores of early San Francisco . . . [and] a lively, richly detailed social history that ably brings together many narrative strands.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“An amazingly rich and detailed work of nonfiction of keen interest to anyone interested in the history of the development of San Francisco . . . [Trespassers at the Golden Gate] is much more than a crime story.”—Bay City News
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Story
Northern Ireland, 1975. Violence has erupted on the streets of Belfast. After years as a guerilla army, the IRA is clashing with Loyalist gangs and heavily armed British soldiers. But the Troubles have spilled beyond the island: An ocean away, in the heart of Philadelphia’s Irish enclave, a teenage girl finds a letter in her mailbox. Inside is a bullet, and the message is clear: The next one is for you or your family. As reporter Ali Watkins reveals, the conflict in Northern Ireland might have gone very differently had it not been for a small ragtag band of gunrunners in the United States.
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A factual reporting with the tone of a suspense novel
- By John T F on 05-01-25
By: Ali Watkins
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The Fifteen
- Murder, Retribution, and the Forgotten Story of Nazi POWs in America
- By: William Geroux
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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The revelatory true story of the long-forgotten POW camps for German soldiers erected in hundreds of small U.S. towns during World War II, and the secret Nazi killings that ensnared fifteen brave American POWs in a high-stakes showdown.
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Very Interesting and a Great Book
- By Marissa on 05-02-25
By: William Geroux
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Show Trial
- Hollywood, HUAC, and the Birth of the Blacklist (Film and Culture Series)
- By: Thomas Doherty
- Narrated by: Keith McCarthy
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1947, the Cold War came to Hollywood. Over nine tumultuous days in October, the House Un-American Activities Committee held a notorious round of hearings into alleged Communist subversion in the movie industry. The blowback was profound: the major studios pledged to never again employ a known Communist or unrepentant fellow traveler. The declaration marked the onset of the blacklist era, a time when political allegiances, real or suspected, determined employment opportunities in the entertainment industry. Hundreds of artists were shown the dooror had it shut in their faces.
By: Thomas Doherty
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Out of the Darkness
- The Story of Mary Ellen Wilson: 150th Anniversary Edition
- By: Eric A. Shelman, Stephen Lazoritz M.D.
- Narrated by: Eric A. Shelman
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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It's now been over 150 years since ASPCA agents, at the direction of founder Henry Bergh, rescued little Mary Ellen Wilson from her abusive New York tenement home back in 1874. It's also been over 25 years since Eric A. Shelman and Stephen Lazoritz, M.D. released Out of the Darkness: The Story of Mary Ellen Wilson, which remains the only book about the little girl's case.
By: Eric A. Shelman, and others
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The Wayfinder
- The Life of the Late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Founding President of the United Arab Emirates
- By: Daniel Slack-Smith
- Narrated by: Ramiz Monsef
- Length: 4 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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The Wayfinder tells the story of the life of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founding President of the United Arab Emirates, and explores the key relationships, challenges and events that shaped his outlook on the world.
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Guilt by Matrimony
- A Memoir of Love, Madness, and the Murder of Nancy Pfister
- By: Daleen Berry - contributor, Nancy Styler
- Narrated by: Courtney Patterson
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Fewer than twelve hours after her body was found and without any evidence, police decided a married couple from Denver had killed her. Within a few days, they arrested and charged Nancy Styler, a friend of Pfister's who'd had a falling out with her after a business deal went sour, and Dr. Trey Styler, Nancy's disabled husband, who recently lost the family home, his medical practice, and any hope of a peaceful retirement for himself and his wife. Eleven days later, police also arrested and charged Kathy Carpenter, Pfister's underpaid and overworked personal assistant and closest friend.
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How unlikable everyone is in this situation
- By gas girl on 04-16-25
By: Daleen Berry - contributor, and others
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Typhoid Mary
- An Urban Historical
- By: Anthony Bourdain
- Narrated by: Nathan Osgood
- Length: 4 hrs
- Unabridged
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This is a tale of pursuit through the kitchens of New York City at the turn of the century. By the late nineteenth century, it seemed that New York City had put an end to the outbreaks of typhoid fever that had so frequently decimated the city's population. That is until 1904, when the disease broke out in a household in Oyster Bay, Long Island. Authorities suspected the family cook, Mary Mallon, of being a carrier. But before she could be tested, the woman, soon to be known as Typhoid Mary, had disappeared.
By: Anthony Bourdain
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Night of the Grizzlies
- By: Jack Olsen
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Jack Olsen's true account, traces the causes of the tragic night in August 1967 when two separate and unrelated campers, a distance apart, were savagely mangled and killed by enraged bears. The award-winning author of thirty-three books, Jack Olsen’s books have published in fifteen countries and eleven languages. Olsen's journalism earned the National Headliners Award, Chicago Newspaper Guild's Page One Award, commendations from Columbia and Indiana Universities, the Washington State Governor's Award, the Scripps-Howard Award and other honors.
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Thought provoking
- By JJ on 03-14-25
By: Jack Olsen
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Beyond Division
- The Resilient Lives of Thirty Diverse Israeli Women Leaders
- By: Bilha Chesner Fish MD
- Narrated by: Randye Kaye
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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This unique collection of personal stories reveals the experiences, struggles, and successes of thirty diverse women leaders, post-pandemic. Beyond Division paints a vivid picture of Israel's challenges—past, present, and future—while depicting a love of country that unites all and inspires hope.
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Echoes of Fear
- The True Horror of the Atlanta Child Murders
- By: Dr. Marcus X Ellington
- Narrated by: Richard Mason's voice replica
- Length: 4 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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A chilling true crime investigation that will leave you breathless. Between 1979 and 1981, Atlanta became a city under siege. Dozens of Black children, teenagers, and young adults vanished—many found murdered, their cases left unsolved. Fear spread like wildfire, and the community demanded justice. But when Wayne Williams was arrested and convicted, the questions didn’t end… they only deepened.
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The Tragic History of the Atlanta Murders
- By Smith on 04-23-25
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Rot
- An Imperial History of the Irish Famine
- By: Padraic X. Scanlan
- Narrated by: Stephen Hogan
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1845, European potato fields from Spain to Scandinavia were attacked by a novel pathogen. But it was only in Ireland, then part of the United Kingdom, that the blight’s devastation reached apocalyptic levels, leaving more than a million people dead and forcing millions more to emigrate. In Rot, historian Padraic X. Scanlan offers the definitive account of the Great Famine, showing how Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom and the British Empire made it uniquely vulnerable to starvation.
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Really great work of history
- By Anonymous User on 04-12-25
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Story of a Murder
- The Wives, the Mistress, and Dr. Crippen
- By: Hallie Rubenhold
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 16 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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On February 1, 1910, the vivacious, diamond-adorned music hall performer Belle Elmore suddenly vanished from her home, causing alarm among her friends, the entertainers of the Music Hall Ladies’ Guild. Their demands for an investigation would lead to the unearthing of a gruesome secret and trigger a fevered international manhunt for Belle’s husband, medical fraudster Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen.
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Great but none of the heart of The Five
- By S. Armor on 04-13-25
By: Hallie Rubenhold
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Homestand
- Small Town Baseball and the Fight for the Soul of America
- By: Will Bardenwerper
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Batavia, New York—between Rochester and Buffalo—hosted its first professional baseball game in 1897. Despite decades of deindustrialization and evaporating middle-class jobs, the Batavia Muckdogs endured. When Major League Baseball cravenly shut them down in 2020—along with forty-one other minor league teams—the town fought back, reviving the Muckdogs as a summer league team comprised of college players.
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Not Bull Durham nor The Circus of Baseball
- By Anonymous User on 05-04-25
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The Case of Constance Kent
- By: John Rhode
- Narrated by: Graham Scott
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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On the morning of 30 June 1860, young Francis Saville Kent, not yet four years old, was found to be missing from the family home, Road Hill House, in the village of Road in Wiltshire. A search was mounted, and the child’s body was soon found, wrapped in a blanket from his cot and stuffed into a privy in the grounds of the house. His throat had been cut to the bone by some sharp instrument.
By: John Rhode
What listeners say about Trespassers at the Golden Gate
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- evboy
- 03-17-25
Fascinating story
Excellent performance. Great overview of the development of San Francisco on top of an exciting true crime story.
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- Michael A. Guhin
- 05-05-25
Masterful Historical Tale
Gary Krist has once again crafted a tale that provides insight and knowledge regarding the birth and growth of a great American city — San Francisco this time — with a fascinating mixture of love and death and the related trial. Gripping as all the parts are woven together into the broader and compelling picture.
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- Suzanna
- 04-29-25
Story of a City
While the story is centered on a murder, this book is a history of San Francisco. The author masterfully pieces together original source information into an interesting story of the birth and growth of a city and the mores of those who lived there. Additionally, it’s a story of the times—gold rush, Civil War, Women’s movement, etc. It reads more like a novel than a text book.
The narration was excellent, as well.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 03-15-25
Constantly jumped around without any rhyme or reason.
Did not follow a good pattern. One sentence talked about one thing the next one something entirely different.
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