An Assassin in Utopia: The True Story of a Nineteenth-Century Sex Cult and a President's Murder

It was heaven on earth—and, some whispered, the devil's garden.
Thousands came by trains & 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 & Cotswold sheep, & whizzing mills. They gaped at the people who lived in this place—especially the women, with their queer cropped hair & shamelessly short skirts. The men & women of this strange outpost worked & 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 & free love to the sexual training of young boys by older. men..