Episode 5: The Assassin and the Prophet
American Utopia
English - March 14, 2018 04:00 - 35 minutes - 16.7 MB - ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsHistory Society & Culture Documentary history marriage free love sex utopia oneida Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Previous Episode: Episode 4: Building Utopia
Next Episode: Episode 6: Sticky Love
In 1881, an Oneida Community alumnus named Charles J. Guiteau, shot and killed president James A. Garfield. And in many ways, Guiteau’s trial centered on the six year period that Guiteau had spent at Oneida. Guiteau’s lawyers, who mounted one of the first uses of the insanity defense, argued that the tyrannical policies and leadership style of John Humphrey Noyes had sent their client over the edge. And while Guiteau’s portrait of Noyes was hyperbolic and self serving, there was some truth to his critique of Noyes. And despite their many differences, these two men, one an assassin, the other a prophet, were surprisingly similar.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.