Trespassers at the Golden Gate

A True Account of Love, Murder, and Madness in Gilded-Age San Francisco

By: Gary Krist

Narrated by: Rob Shapiro

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 readers inside the untamed frontier town, a place where—for a brief period—otherwise marginalized communities found unique opportunities. Readers 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.

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.

Main story great but woke scolding distracts

Main story great but woke scolding distracts and is never tied in with the main plot.

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.

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.

Fascinating story

Excellent performance. Great overview of the development of San Francisco on top of an exciting true crime story.