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Trespassers at the Golden Gate : a true account of love, murder, and madness in Gilded-Age San Francisco / Gary Krist.

Krist, Gary, (author.).

Summary:

"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."-- Provided by publisher.

Record details

  • ISBN: 9780593444214
  • ISBN: 0593444213
  • ISBN: 9780593444238
  • ISBN: 059344423X
  • Physical Description: xx, 376 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map ; 25 cm
  • Edition: First edition.
  • Publisher: New York, New York : Crown, [2025]

Content descriptions

General Note:
Map on lining papers.
Bibliography, etc. Note:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 315-360) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:
A Restless Man -- A Town of Mud and Gold -- Setbacks -- No Place for a Lady -- Assorted Insurrections -- An Ungovernable Woman -- Blue, Gray, and Silver -- The Fortunes of War -- The Silver Magnet -- Love in Bloom -- Provocateurs -- Living Dangerously -- The War After the War -- A City on the Move -- Broken Promises -- Bicoastal Relationships -- Wife vs. Wife -- A Splendid Ruin -- A Threat -- The Restless Ghost -- The Great Man Honored -- Dueling Cliches -- A Female Hercules -- Neither Saint Nor Demon -- The Lady Triumphs
Subject:
Fair, Laura D., 1837-1919.
Crittenden, Alexander Parker, 1816-1870.
Murder > California > San Francisco > History > 19th century.
San Francisco (Calif.) > History > 19th century.
San Francisco (Calif.) > Social conditions > 19th century.
Genre:
True crime stories.

Available copies

  • 19 of 19 copies available at NC Cardinal.
  • 1 of 1 copy available at McDowell County Public Library. (Show)

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 19 total copies.
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Marion Library 979.46 KRI (Text) 37810435835649 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Cliffdale Library 979.461 KRI (Text) 31781069085486 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Eden Library 979.461 K (Text) 31554012298070 Adult Nonfiction Available -
G.V. Barbee, Sr. Library 979.461 KRI (Text) 31420621494999 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Greene County Public Library 979.461 K (Text) 39149008491607 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Henderson Main Branch 363.728 C (Text) 33258009655601 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Hope Mills Library 979.461 KRI (Text) 31781069085478 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Hudson (Caldwell) 979.461 Kr (Text) 50669013201554 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Leland Library 979.461 KRI (Text) 31423621410528 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Macon County Public Library 979.461 K (Text) 39493110635655 Adult Nonfiction Available -