Charles J. Guiteau

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Template:Short description Template:Redirect Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox criminal Charles Julius Guiteau (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell; September 8, 1841Template:Spaced ndashJune 30, 1882) was an American poet and activist who assassinated United States President James A. Garfield in 1881. A mentally ill failed lawyer, Guiteau delusionally believed that he had played a major role in Garfield's election victory, for which he should have been rewarded with a consulship. Guiteau felt frustrated and offended by the Garfield administration's rejections of his applications to serve in Vienna or Paris to such a degree that he shot Garfield in Washington, D.C. on July 2, 1881. Garfield died on September 19 from infections related to the wounds. Caught in the act, Guiteau was tried, convicted, and executed by hanging on June 30, 1882.

Early life and education

Guiteau was born in Freeport, Illinois, the fourth of six children of Jane August (Template:Nee Howe) and Luther Wilson Guiteau,Template:Sfn whose family was of French Huguenot ancestry.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> His mother died in 1848, and in 1850, Guiteau moved with his family to Ulao, Wisconsin (near current-day Grafton), where he lived until 1855.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Soon after, Guiteau and his father moved back to Freeport.Template:Sfn As a child, Guiteau was slow to learn and his father was known to beat him for misspelling or mispronouncing words, or for failing to adhere to Luther Guiteau's religious standards.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

In 1860, Guiteau inherited $1,000 (Template:Inflation)Template:Inflation/fn from his grandfather and planned to attend the University of Michigan, but he failed the entrance examinations because of inadequate academic preparation.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He crammed in French and algebra at Ann Arbor High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he received numerous letters from his father that extolled the Oneida Community, the utopian religious sect in Oneida, New York, with which Guiteau's father had a close affiliation.Template:Sfn In June 1860, Guiteau quit school and joined the Oneida Community.Template:Sfn According to Brian Resnick of The Atlantic, the younger Guiteau "worshiped" the group's founder, John Humphrey Noyes, with Guiteau once writing that he had "perfect, entire and absolute confidence in [Noyes] in all things".<ref name=atlantic>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Sfn

Despite the free love aspect of the Oneida Community, Guiteau was generally rejected during his time there and his name was turned into a play on words to create the nickname "Charles Gitout".Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Guiteau left the community twice; the first time, he went to Hoboken, New Jersey, and attempted to start The Daily Theocrat, a newspaper based on the Oneida religion.Template:Sfn This failed and Guiteau returned to Oneida, only to leave again and file lawsuits against Noyes, in which he demanded payment for the work he had supposedly performed on behalf of the Oneida Community.Template:Sfn Guiteau's embarrassed father wrote letters in support of Noyes, who considered Guiteau irresponsible and insane.Template:Sfn

Early career

Guiteau had a checkered career that resulted in negative publicity and brushes with the law; newspaper notices in 1868 warned readers that he was falsely claiming to be an advertising agent for the New-York Tribune.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He later worked as a clerk at a Chicago law firm and passed a cursory examination to attain admission to the bar.<ref name=Oliver>Template:Cite book</ref> He was not successful as a lawyer; he argued only one case in court, and his client was convicted.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1869, Guiteau met and married librarian Annie Bunn.<ref name="Oliver"/> The bulk of his legal business was in bill collecting; she later detailed for the publishers of a Guiteau biography how he kept disproportionate amounts from his collections and rarely gave any money to his clients.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In 1872, Guiteau and his wife moved to New York City, one step ahead of bill collectors and dissatisfied clients.<ref name="Oliver"/> Guiteau took an interest in politics and identified with the Democratic Party.<ref name="Oliver"/> In the 1872 presidential election, he supported Horace Greeley, the Liberal Republican and Democratic candidate, against incumbent Republican Ulysses S. Grant.<ref name="Oliver"/> Guiteau prepared a disorganized speech in support of Greeley, which he delivered once.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Greeley was badly defeated, but during the campaign Guiteau became convinced that if Greeley won, he would appoint Guiteau as minister (ambassador) to Chile.<ref name="Oliver"/> Guiteau was physically abusive with his wife; when she wanted a divorce in 1873, Guiteau obliged by having sex with a prostitute who then testified to his infidelity; the divorce was granted in April 1874.<ref name="Oliver"/>

In July 1874, the The New York Herald accused Guiteau of fraud; engaged to collect a $300 debt, he reportedly agreed to accept $175 from the debtor, which he kept.<ref name="Bennett1874">Template:Cite news</ref> When the client objected, Guiteau argued that attorneys usually kept fifty percent of what they collected, and the $175 he had obtained represented his fifty percent of the $300 debt.<ref name="Bennett1874"/> News accounts of this incident caused Guiteau to sue Herald publisher James Gordon Bennett Jr. for libel; after requesting $100,000, he offered to settle for $25,000, which Bennett rejected.<ref name="Bennett1874"/><ref name="Civil1876">Template:Cite news</ref> The case ended in October 1876 when trial judge George C. Barrett required Guiteau to post a bond to guarantee court costs, which Guiteau was unable to do.<ref name="Civil1876"/>

Turning to authorship, Guiteau published a book on religion called The Truth, which was almost entirely plagiarized from the work of Noyes.Template:Sfn In early 1875, Guiteau attempted to establish a law practice in Toulon, Illinois, but he departed after about six weeks, trailed by unpaid bills and accusations of theft.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> By late 1875, Guiteau's father had become convinced that his son was possessed by Satan.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Conversely, Guiteau himself became increasingly convinced that his actions were divinely inspired, and that his destiny was to "preach a new Gospel" like Paul the Apostle.<ref name=atlantic/> In July 1877, he was arrested for embezzlement, accused of collecting over $3,000 on accounts due for several Chicago businesses and keeping the money for himself.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

After Guiteau's release from the Chicago jail, he began to wander from town to town speaking and preaching, and he was arrested again in September 1877, accused of failing to pay for his room and board while in Ann Arbor to give a lecture.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Locations where Guiteau spoke included Boston and Springfield in Massachusetts, Providence in Rhode Island, and Madison and Beloit in Wisconsin.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Other locations included Buffalo, New York, Jersey City, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Davenport, Iowa, and Washington, D.C.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His lectures were often sparsely attended and negatively reviewed.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Watertown1877">Template:Cite news</ref> They also generated little income; news reports after his visits frequently stated that he had absconded after failing to pay for advertising, food, and lodging.<ref name="Watertown1877"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

1880 presidential campaign

Guiteau spent the first half of 1880 in Boston, which he left owing money and under suspicion of theft.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On June 11, 1880, Guiteau was a passenger aboard SS Stonington when it collided with SS Narragansett at night in heavy fog near the mouth of the Connecticut River.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Stonington was able to return to port, but Narragansett burned to the waterline and sank with the loss of about 55 lives.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Although neither Guiteau nor his fellow Stonington passengers were injured, the incident left Guiteau believing he had been spared for a higher purpose.Template:Sfn

After the ship collision, Guiteau's interest turned again to politics.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> During the 1880 presidential campaign, the Republican Party was largely split into the Stalwart faction, led by Roscoe Conkling, who supported Grant for a non-consecutive third term, and the Half-Breeds, who supported James G. Blaine.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Guiteau supported the Stalwarts and wrote a speech called "Grant against Hancock", which he quickly revised to "Garfield against Hancock"<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> after dark horse candidate Garfield (not affiliated with either faction) won the nomination.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Ultimately, Guiteau changed little more in the text than switching Grant's name to Garfield's.<ref name="Bellamy">Template:Cite magazine</ref> The speech was delivered at most twice, and printed copies were passed out to members of the Republican National Committee at their summer 1880 meeting in New York.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Guiteau was a campaign hanger-on; he occasionally appeared briefly as one of several speakers at Republican rallies and was among those who left calling cards for Grant when Grant visited New York City in October.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Garfield won a narrow victory over Democrat Winfield Scott Hancock that November.Template:Sfn Despite his peripheral role, Guiteau believed himself to be largely responsible for Garfield's win and insisted that he should be awarded a consulship for his supposedly vital assistance, first asking for Vienna, then deciding that he would rather have the one in Paris.Template:Sfn

By the early days of Garfield's administration, which commenced in March 1881, Guiteau was living in Washington, D.C., destitute and forced to sneak between rooming houses without paying for his lodging and meals, and to walk around the cold, snowy city in a threadbare suit, without a coat, hat or boots.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Guiteau spent his days in hotel lobbies reading discarded newspapers to keep track of the schedules of Garfield and his cabinet and making use of the hotels' complimentary stationery to write them letters pressing his claim for a consulship.Template:Sfn Guiteau's requests to Garfield and the cabinet secretaries as one of many job seekers who lined up every day to see them in person were continually rejected, as were his numerous letters.Template:Sfn In the spring, Guiteau was still in Washington, and on May 14, 1881, he once more encountered Blaine, now Secretary of State, and inquired about a consular appointment; an exasperated Blaine finally snapped, "Never speak to me again on the Paris consulship as long as you live!"<ref name=atlantic/>Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Assassination of Garfield

Template:Main Guiteau considered himself a loyal Republican and a Stalwart and convinced himself that his work for the party had been critical to Garfield's election to the presidency. Later convinced that Garfield was going to destroy the Republican Party by abolishing the patronage system, and distraught after his final encounter with Blaine, Guiteau decided the only solution was to remove Garfield and elevate Vice President Chester A. Arthur, an acolyte of Senator Conkling, the Stalwart leader who managed Grant's 1880 campaign and who was not on friendly terms with Garfield.

The Webley & Scott 0.44 in. British Bulldog revolver Guiteau used to shoot Garfield.<ref>Elman "Fired in Anger" p. 166</ref>
President James A. Garfield with Secretary of State James G. Blaine after being shot by Guiteau, as depicted in a period engraving from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>"The attack on the President's life". Library of Congress.</ref>

Guiteau conceded that the president would be too strong to kill with a knife, stating, "Garfield would have crushed the life out of me with a single blow of his fist!" He settled on a gun after contemplating what weapon he would use.<ref name="The Stalking of the President | Smithsonian Magazine">Template:Cite web</ref> Guiteau felt that God told him to kill the president; he felt that such an act would be a "removal" as opposed to an assassination. He also felt that Garfield needed to be killed to rid the Republican Party of Blaine's influence.<ref name="atlantic" /> Borrowing $15 from George Maynard, a relative by marriage,<ref name="Trial Transcript: Cross-Examination of Charles Guiteau">Template:Cite web</ref> Guiteau set out to purchase a revolver. He knew little about firearms, but Guiteau believed that he would need a large-caliber gun.Template:Sfn While shopping at O'Meara's store in Washington, he had to choose between a .442 Webley caliber British Bulldog revolver<ref name="Trial Transcript: Cross-Examination of Charles Guiteau" /> with wood grips or one with ivory grips.Template:Sfn Guiteau preferred the one with the ivory handle because he thought it would look better as a museum exhibit after the assassination.Template:Sfn Though Guiteau could not afford the extra dollar for the ivory grips, the store owner dropped the price for him.Template:Sfn Guiteau spent the next few weeks in target practice – the recoil from the revolver almost knocked him over the first time he fired it.Template:Sfn

Path of the bullet that wounded President Garfield.

On one occasion, Guiteau trailed Garfield to the since-demolished Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station as the president was seeing his wife Lucretia off to a beach resort in Long Branch, New Jersey, but Guiteau decided to postpone his plan because she was in poor health and he did not want to upset her. Having been alerted to the president's schedule by a newspaper article, on July 2, 1881, he lay in wait at the railroad station, getting his shoes shined, pacing, and engaging a cab to take him to the police station to turn himself in after the shooting.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> As Garfield entered the station, looking forward to a vacation with his wife in Long Branch, Guiteau stepped forward and shot Garfield twice from behind; one shot grazed Garfield's shoulder, and the other pierced the first lumbar vertebra but missed the spinal cord.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> As he attempted to escape, Guiteau collided with policeman Patrick Kearney, who was entering the station after hearing the shots.<ref name="Kensmind">Template:Cite news</ref> Kearney apprehended Guiteau and was so excited at having arrested the man who had shot the president that he neglected to take the gun from him until after they arrived at the police station.<ref name="Kensmind"/> The rapidly gathering crowd screamed, "Lynch him", but Kearney and several other police officers took him to the police station a few blocks away.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Guiteau repeatedly said: "I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts. ... Arthur is president now!"<ref>Staff (July 3, 1881) New York Herald.</ref> Guiteau's weapon was given to the Smithsonian, but it has since been lost.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Death of Garfield

After a long, painful battle with infections, possibly brought on by his doctors' poking and probing of the wound with unwashed hands and non-sterilized instruments, Garfield died on September 19, 11 weeks after being shot. Modern physicians familiar with the case state that Garfield would have easily recovered from his wounds with sterile medical care, which was not common in the United States until a decade later,<ref name=Schaffer>Schaffer, Amanda (July 25, 2006) "A President Felled by an Assassin and 1880s Medical Care" The New York Times.</ref> while Candice Millard argues that Garfield would have survived Guiteau's bullet wound had his doctors simply left him alone.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Rutkow, a professor of surgery at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, has argued that starvation also played a role, suggesting "in today's world, he would have gone home in a matter of two or three days."<ref name=Schaffer/>

The conventional narrative regarding Garfield's post-shooting medical condition was also challenged by Theodore Pappas and Shahrzad Joharifard in a 2013 article in The American Journal of Surgery. They argued that Garfield died from a late rupture of a splenic artery pseudoaneurysm, which developed secondary to the path of the bullet adjacent to the splenic artery. They also argued that his sepsis was actually caused by post-traumatic acute acalculous cholecystitis. Based on the autopsy report, the authors speculate that his gallbladder subsequently ruptured, leading to the development of a large bile-containing abscess adjacent to the gallbladder. Pappas and Joharifard suggest this caused the septic decline in Garfield's condition that was visible starting from July 23, 1881.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Trial and execution

An illustration of the jail where Guiteau was confined after his arrest.

Once Garfield died, the government officially charged Guiteau with murder. He was formally indicted on October 14, 1881, on the charge of murder, upgraded from the previous charge of attempted murder. Guiteau pleaded not guilty to the charge. The trial began in Washington, D.C., on November 17 in the Supreme Court for the District of Columbia (which became the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia). The presiding judge in the case was Walter Smith Cox. Although Guiteau would insist on trying to represent himself during the entire trial, the court appointed Leigh Robinson to defend him. After less than a week of trial, Robinson retired from the case. George Scoville then became lead defense counsel. While Scoville's legal experience lay in land title examination, he had married Guiteau's sister and felt obliged to defend him. Wayne MacVeagh, the U.S. Attorney General, served as the chief prosecutor. MacVeagh named five lawyers to the prosecution team: George Corkhill, Walter Davidge, retired judge John K. Porter, Elihu Root, and E. B. Smith.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

The trial of Guiteau, as depicted in the French newspaper L'Illustration, 1881

Guiteau's trial was one of the first high-profile cases in the United States where a defense based on a claim of temporary insanity was considered.<ref name="NYT_1881">Template:Cite news</ref> Guiteau vehemently insisted that while he had been legally insane at the time of the shooting (claiming God had taken away his free will) he was not really medically insane, which was one of the major causes of the rift between Guiteau and his defense lawyers.Template:Sfn The judge gave the jury instructions based on the M'Naghten test.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The defense hired Edward Charles Spitzka, a leading alienist,Template:Efn as an expert witness in support of an insanity defense. Spitzka had stated that it was clear "Guiteau is not only now insane, but that he was never anything else." While on the stand, Spitzka testified that he had "no doubt" that Guiteau was both insane and "a moral monstrosity".Template:Sfn He came to the conclusion that Guiteau had "the insane manner" he had so often observed in asylums, adding that Guiteau was a "morbid egotist" with "a tendency to misinterpret the real affairs of life". He thought the condition to be the result of "a congenital malformation of the brain".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Corkhill, who was the District of Columbia's district attorney and on the prosecuting team, summed up the prosecution's opinion of Guiteau's insanity defense in a pre-trial press statement that also mirrored public opinion on the issue:

Template:Blockquote

1881 political cartoon from the magazine Puck, showing Guiteau holding a gun and a note that says "An office or your life!" The caption for the cartoon reads "Model Office Seeker".

Guiteau became something of a media sensation during his entire trial for his bizarre behavior, which included his cursing and insulting the judge, most of the witnesses, the prosecution, and even his defense team, as well as formatting his testimony in epic poems which he recited at length, and soliciting legal advice from random spectators in the audience via passed notes. He dictated an autobiography to the New York Herald, ending it with a personal ad for "a nice Christian lady under 30 years of age." He appeared oblivious to the American public's hatred of him, even after he was almost killed twice himself. He frequently smiled and waved at spectators and reporters in and out of the courtroom.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

A cartoon depicting Guiteau as a dangerous fool, from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper.

Guiteau sent a letter in which he argued that Arthur should set him free because he had just increased Arthur's salary by making him president.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> At one point, Guiteau argued before Cox that Garfield was killed not by the bullets but by medical malpractice; "The doctors killed Garfield, I just shot him."<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Throughout the trial and up until his execution, Guiteau was housed at St. Elizabeths Hospital in the southeastern quadrant of Washington, D.C. While in prison and awaiting execution, Guiteau wrote a defense of the assassination he had committed and an account of his own trial, which was published as The Truth, and the Removal.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

To the end, Guiteau was making plans to start a lecture tour after his perceived imminent release and to run for president himself in 1884, while at the same time continuing to delight in the media circus surrounding his trial. He was found guilty on January 25, 1882, and sentenced to death.Template:Sfn After the guilty verdict was read, Guiteau stepped forward, despite his lawyers' efforts to tell him to be quiet, and yelled at the jury, saying, "You are all low, consummate jackasses!", plus a further stream of curses and obscenities before he was taken away by guards to his cell to await execution. Guiteau appealed, but his conviction was upheld.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Twenty-nine days before his execution, Guiteau composed a lengthy poem asserting that God had commanded him to kill Garfield to prevent Blaine's "scheming" to war with Chile and Peru. Guiteau also claimed in the poem that now-President Arthur knew the assassination had saved the United States, and that Arthur's refusal to pardon him was the "basest ingratitude."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> (The Evening Star printed this poem,<ref>Template:Cite newspaper</ref> but omitted two verses denigrating Arthur and the Supreme Court.) He had (incorrectly) presumed that Arthur would pressure the Supreme Court to hear his court appeal.

Portrait by C. M. Bell, taken at the D.C. Jail on February 6, 1882

Guiteau was hanged on June 30, 1882, in the District of Columbia, just two days before the first anniversary of the shooting. Guiteau survived Garfield by nine months and eleven days.Template:Sfn The night before, Guiteau was restless, tossing and turning in his cell. That morning, he seemed calm. On the way to the gallows, Guiteau was accompanied by warden John S. Crocker, hangman Robert Strong, the Rev. W. W. Hicks, and four guards.<ref name="StarEOG">Template:Cite newspaper</ref> His hands were tied. He tripped on the first step of the scaffold and stubbed his toe. On the scaffold, Hicks delivered a short prayer; then Guiteau read aloud from Matthew 10:28–41 (Guiteau's hands being tied, Hicks held the Bible open for him);<ref name="StarEOG"/> then likewise delivered a "last dying prayer" in which he declared that God "did inspire the act for which I am now murdered" and predicted that "this government and this nation, by this act, will incur Thy eternal enmity," adding that "Thy divine law of retribution will strike this nation and my murderers." Guiteau also excoriated President Arthur as "a coward and an ingrate whose ingratitude to the man that made him and saved his party and land from overthrow has no parallel in history."<ref>Phillips (Me.) Phonograph, July 4, 1882</ref> Finally, Guiteau "chant[ed], in a sad, doleful style,"<ref name="StarEOG"/> a poem "that I wrote this morning about 10 o'clock" called "I Am Going to the Lordy", which he had written during his incarceration.Template:Efn Multiple times during the reading, Guiteau's voice faltered and he began sobbing, even stopping to lay his head on Hicks' shoulder.<ref name="StarEOG"/><ref name="O'Sullivan">Template:Cite book</ref> After he finished reading his poem, a black hood was placed over Guiteau's head. He shouted out "Glory!" three times. By prearrangement with Strong, Guiteau signaled that he was ready to die by dropping the paper; and the gallows trapdoor was sprung.Template:Sfn After only one sign of muscle contraction, Guiteau was cut down. Although the rope had broken his neck instantly with the fall, doctors noted that Guiteau's heart and pulse were still detectable, but within fourteen to sixteen minutes after the hanging, his heart and pulse slowed down, and stopped.<ref>Template:Cite newspaper</ref>

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Guiteau's body was not returned to his family, as they were unable to afford a private funeral, but was instead autopsied and buried in a corner of the jail yard.Template:Sfn With tiny pieces of the hanging rope already being sold as souvenirs to a fascinated public, rumors immediately began to swirl that jail guards planned to dig up Guiteau's corpse to meet demands of this burgeoning new market.Template:Sfn Fearing scandal, the decision was made to disinter the corpse.Template:Sfn The body was sent to the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Maryland, which preserved Guiteau's brain, as well as his spleen (which the autopsy discovered to have been enlarged), and bleached his skeleton. These were placed in storage by the museum.Template:Sfn Parts of Guiteau's brain remain on display in a jar at the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia.<ref name=atlantic/>

Psychological assessment

In 1881, psychiatrist Allan McLane Hamilton testified that he believed that Guiteau was sane when he assassinated Garfield.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Upon his autopsy, it was discovered that Guiteau had the condition known as phimosis, an inability to retract the foreskin, which at the time was thought to have caused the insanity that led him to assassinate Garfield.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> An autopsy of his brain revealed that his dura mater was abnormally thick, suggesting he may have had neurosyphillis, a disease which causes mental instability. George Paulson, formerly the chair of neurology at the Ohio State University, disputed the neurosyphillis diagnosis, arguing that Guiteau had both schizophrenia and "grandiose narcissism".<ref name=atlantic/>

In 2014, the criminal psychologist Kent Kiehl said that Guiteau was a psychopath, giving him a score of 37.5 out of 40 on the PCL-R scale.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In media

The life of Guiteau, focusing on his psychological disturbances and his plan to kill Garfield, is the subject of "Portrait of an Assassin", a radio play by James Agate Jr., produced as Episode 1125 of CBS Radio Mystery Theater and was first broadcast on October 8, 1980, where Guiteau was played by John Lithgow.

Guiteau is depicted in Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's musical Assassins, wherein he mentors Sara Jane Moore, who attempted to assassinate Gerald Ford.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Guiteau sings parts of "I am Going to the Lordy" in the musical's song "The Ballad of Guiteau".<ref name=Sondheim>Template:Cite book</ref>

In season 28 episode 3 of the 2016 PBS documentary series American Experience, Guiteau was portrayed by Will Janowitz in Murder of a President.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In the American Dad! episode "Garfield and Friends", Hayley Smith uses Guiteau's DNA to revive him and uses him like a bloodhound to track down a revived Garfield.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The Ramblin' Jack Elliott song "The Death of Mister Garfield" recounts the assassination and the reactions of a fictional witness.<ref name="Reineke">Template:Cite book</ref> Johnny Cash learned the song from Elliott, and later recorded a re-worked version as "Mr. Garfield".<ref name="Reineke"/>

In the alternate history short story "I Shall Have a Flight to Glory" by Michael P. Kube-McDowell in the 1992 anthology Alternate Presidents edited by Mike Resnick, Guiteau and Garfield are allies against Samuel J. Tilden, who has become a tyrannical president.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In Death by Lightning, a Netflix 4-part series based on the 2011 book Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard, depicted are the election and presidency of James A. Garfield (Michael Shannon), as well as how his path crossed with the deluded admirer Guiteau (Matthew Macfadyen).

See also

Notes

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References

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Sources

Further reading

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