An Assassin in Utopia

The True Story of a Nineteenth-Century Sex Cult and a President's Murder

By: Susan Wels

Narrated by: Kitty Hendrix

Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

This true crime odyssey explores a forgotten, astonishing chapter of American history, leading the listener from a free-love community in upstate New York to the shocking assassination of President James Garfield.

It was heaven on earth—and, some whispered, the devil’s garden.

Thousands came by trains and carriages to see this new Eden, carved from hundreds of acres of wild woodland. They marveled at orchards bursting with fruit, thick herds of Ayrshire cattle and Cotswold sheep, and whizzing mills. They gaped at the people who lived in this place—especially the women, with their queer cropped hair and shamelessly short skirts. The men and women of this strange outpost worked and slept together—without sin, they claimed.

From 1848 to 1881, a small utopian colony in upstate New York—the Oneida Community—was known for its shocking sexual practices, from open marriage and free love to the sexual training of young boys by older women. And in 1881, a one-time member of the Oneida Community—Charles Julius Guiteau—assassinated President James Garfield in a brutal crime that shook America to its core.

An Assassin in Utopia is the first book that weaves together these explosive stories in a tale of utopian experiments, political machinations, and murder. This deeply researched narrative—by bestselling author Susan Wels—tells the true, interlocking stories of the Oneida Community and its radical founder, John Humphrey Noyes; his idol, the eccentric newspaper publisher Horace Greeley, founder of the New Yorker and the New York Tribune; and the gloomy, indecisive President James Garfield—who was assassinated after his first six months in office.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Susan Wels (P)2023 Blackstone Publishing

Fascinating

I had no idea about any of this, so I was completely fascinating. However, the narrator’s voice was harsh and unpleasant.

Interesting topic, narrator meh

The topic was interesting and I definitely learned something new for me in US history.

The narrator's nasally voice seriously made me want to turn it off and then I got to a point where I just waited it out. I don't think I could handle another piece with this narrator. Seriously grating.

Surprising

I was a bit surprised by this book. I learned things I didn't realize I wanted to know.

Fascinating story!

I have never really heard anything about Garfield’s assassination, and never anything about the Oneida Community. I was totally riveted!

Not for me

Interesting story but really didn’t care for the narrator. Very flat voice that took me out of the story every time.

Gripping!

A captivating story told in a compelling and refined style. Wels has breathed life into long departed souls and animated them for a modern audience. I knew nothing of her characters but now I can’t stop roaming in their psyche. Brilliant!

Fascinating account of Oneida Cult

It was extremely interesting to learn about the 1800s cult explosion. It was very scholarly and academic. So it was not as critical as I had hoped of the malignant narcissism of Noyes. I wish there had been more former member voices. Moses David Berg, the pedophile sex cult leader of the Children of God copied so many aspects of the Oneida cult.

Required reading

A compelling portrait of 19th century America that looks a whole lot — distressingly so — like 21st century America.

Interesting history

It was a really well done and fairly short historical summary of the assassination of President Garfield and from a bit of a different perspective. I would also suggest an excellent book on the same subject call Destiny of the Republic. It is much more detailed and a truly excellent book

Most people would not believe such things happened

I had heard about the community of Oneida from a course on America’s Religious History. Most people are surprised to learn about a community of Free Love or Sex because they think people in those days were more straight laced than people of today. The book addresses the Oneida Community, their founders and industry, and the US Presidents of the era. The book weaves the story of the Assassin and how he tried to interject himself into the lives of these various people. He was a real loser but you still see people like him today.