A Harbor of Deceit: A Gilded Age Tale of Money, Murder, and Madness

TWO GUNSHOTS. A HASTY SUICIDE VERDICT. AND A CITY DETERMINED TO BURY THE TRUTH ALONGSIDE THE BODY.

In the autumn of 1885, the Gilded Age splendor of Newport, Rhode Island, was shattered. Benjamin J. Burton-a prominent Black entrepreneur-was found dead on his kitchen floor with a gunshot to his head, another to his heart, and unchewed bread still in his mouth.

Despite the bizarre scene, authorities moved with suspicious haste, declaring it a suicide and burying Burton without an inquest. But as whispers of a cover-up began to circulate, the truth could no longer be ignored.

A Harbor of Deceit follows an unlikely trio forced to navigate a community fractured by the accusation of patricide, and a tangled web of uncooperative authorities to find justice:

P.J. Galvin: The son of an Irish immigrant and the youngest member of the Newport bar, thrust into a spotlight he never asked for.

The Pinkerton Detective: A gritty New York investigator who specializes in the secrets people kill to keep.

Aunt Emily: Burton's formidable sister-in-law, a woman who refuses to let anyone silence her family's tragedy.

As the investigation deepens, the spotlight turns toward Burton's own family-specifically his son-in-law, a brilliant medical student on the verge of becoming one of the country's first Black surgeons. When a deathbed confession reveals a cold-blooded plot to fund a medical education with a father's life, Newport is split in two. Is it a case of ruthless ambition, or is an innocent man being framed?

Based on the popular non-fiction account featured in Smithsonian Magazine and Narratively, this is the haunting true story of a 19th-century crime that riveted a nation. It is a masterful exploration of a courtroom drama where the line between guilt and innocence is blurred by the shadows of the Gilded Age.