Charles J. Guiteau

Charles J. Guiteau (born September 8, 1841, Freeport, Illinois, U.S.—died June 30, 1882, District of Columbia Jail, Washington, D.C.) was a lawyer and aspiring politician who assassinated Pres. James A. Garfield. Guiteau, who experienced mental instability, believed that he had helped Garfield win the 1880 election and was angry when the president refused to grant him a foreign consulship. On July 2, 1881, Guiteau shot Garfield two times, and the president died on September 19. Guiteau was charged with murder. He pleaded insanity but was convicted, and on June 30, 1882, Guiteau was executed by hanging.

Early life

Guiteau was one of six children born to Jane (née Howe) Guiteau and Luther Guiteau. His mother reportedly suffered from mental health issues, and she died in 1848. The younger Guiteau attended the University of Michigan but left in 1860 before graduating. He then became a member of the Oneida Community, a utopian religious commune in New York state. Life was far from perfect for Guiteau, however. While he supported the group’s practice of “free love,” he was unpopular with the female members, who called him “Charles Gitout.” Guiteau also objected to helping with menial chores, and other members found him conceited. Guiteau left after some six years, and his life became increasingly marked by instability and delusions of grandeur.

A failed marriage and growing instability

Over the next decade Guiteau pursued various careers—including newspaper publisher and insurance salesman—with little success. In 1868 he passed the bar in Illinois and opened his own law firm. The following year he married a librarian named Anne Bunn. However, Guiteau was abusive and unfaithful, and the marriage ended after five years. Guiteau later went to live with his older sister Frances Scoville. In 1875 she claimed that he moved as if to strike her with an axe, causing her to flee. After a local doctor said he should be institutionalized, Guiteau abruptly left. He subsequently worked as a traveling preacher.

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In 1880 Guiteau turned his focus to politics, largely driven by his quest to become famous. He joined the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party and supported Garfield in the 1880 election. At one point he gave a speech, though it was not noteworthy.

The assassination

After Garfield won, Guiteau sought a consulship in the new administration, believing he had played a key role in the victory. Guiteau began sending a barrage of letters to Secretary of State James Blaine, requesting a posting in Vienna and then Paris. He also managed to see both Garfield and Blaine. However, when it became clear that the desired position would not be forthcoming, Guiteau decided to kill Garfield. Guiteau believed that he had been denied the post because he aligned with the Stalwarts and that Garfield was planning on ending the patronage system, a polarizing issue within the party. Guiteau thought that Garfield’s death would end the divisions among Republicans. In addition, Guiteau assumed that after taking office Chester A. Arthur, a Stalwart, would reward him with a job.

On July 2, 1881, Guiteau followed Garfield to the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C. There he shot the president twice. The first shot grazed Garfield’s arm, while the second bullet pierced his back and lodged behind his pancreas. The bullet did not strike any vital organs, but a parade of doctors searched for the bullet, none of whom had sterilized their hands or medical instruments. Infection set in and eventually developed into sepsis. Garfield died on September 19, 1881.

The trial

After shooting Garfield, Guiteau had peaceably surrendered to police, announcing, “I am a Stalwart. [Chester A.] Arthur is now president of the United States.” Guiteau’s trial began in November 1881. His brother-in-law George Scoville acted as his attorney, and Guiteau pleaded insanity. (While Guiteau believed that he was legally insane, he denied that he was actually insane.) Edward Charles Spitzka, a prominent alienist (psychiatrist), testified that Guiteau was mad and said that he was a “moral monstrosity.” Throughout the trial, Guiteau’s actions lent support to an insanity claim. He insulted various people in the courtroom, including the jurors, at one point calling them “low, consummate jackasses.” When he testified, his responses were in the form of poems. At one point, he claimed to have been acting on the orders of God. Nevertheless, on January 25, 1882, Guiteau was found guilty, and he was later sentenced to death.

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Last words and death

Before his execution on June 30, 1882, Guiteau read a poem he had written, “I Am Going to the Lordy.” He described the work as “a child babbling to his mamma and his papa.” It read:

I am going to the Lordy, I am so glad,
I am going to the Lordy, I am so glad,
I am going to the Lordy,
Glory hallelujah! Glory hallelujah!
I am going to the Lordy.
I love the Lordy with all my soul,
Glory hallelujah!
And that is the reason I am going to the Lord,
Glory hallelujah! Glory hallelujah!
I am going to the Lord.
I saved my party and my land,
Glory hallelujah!
But they have murdered me for it,
And that is the reason I am going to the Lordy,
Glory hallelujah! Glory hallelujah!
I am going to the Lordy!
I wonder what I will do when I get to the Lordy,
I guess that I will weep no more
When I get to the Lordy!
Glory hallelujah!
I wonder what I will see when I get to the Lordy,
I expect to see most glorious things,
Beyond all earthly conception
When I am with the Lordy!
Glory hallelujah! Glory hallelujah!
I am with the Lord.

When he finished, Guiteau was hooded, and a noose was placed around his neck. Following an earlier agreement, when Guiteau dropped the paper on which the poem was written, the trapdoor was opened, and Guiteau fell, breaking his neck.

Autopsy and burial

After Guiteau was executed, an autopsy was performed. Although the doctors found nothing significant, some later pathologists have said that his brain showed signs of syphilis. Guiteau was initially buried at the prison, but officials became concerned that someone might steal his body and sell it. His remains were thus moved to what is now the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Silver Spring, Maryland. A portion of Guiteau’s brain ended up at the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia.