The interlude between the shooting and the president's death is the central focus of Candice Millard's book, Destiny of the Republic. He died in New Jersey on September 19, 1881, 200 days after taking office. President Garfield, an Ohio Republican reluctant to run for president, was in office for a few months before the shooting in Washington, D.C., on July 2, 1881.

Whereas Czolgosz refused a defense or even to speak with a psychiatrist, the trial of Guiteau brought out a battle of expert witnesses-a “Who's Who” of psychiatry. The Lincoln and Kennedy assassins, Booth and Oswald, were killed before coming to trial. Both were tried, convicted, and promptly executed (Guiteau by hanging and Czolgosz by electrocution). 1 Garfield was shot by the pathologically obsessed Charles Guiteau, 2, 4 and McKinley by anarchist, Leon Czolgosz. The killers and would-bes, as a group, took the stage in Stephen Sondheim's Assassins, a 1990 musical (book by John Weidman). 3īracketed by the murders of Lincoln and Kennedy, those of Garfield and McKinley, too, have their following. One author took an “assassination vacation” to shadow places and things associated with these events. Indeed, at the time of this writing, there were current nonfiction books on Presidents Lincoln ( Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard) and Kennedy ( Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero by Chris Matthews and Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard). 2 We seem obsessed with reworking scenarios of these lives cut short. So do what you dare.” -from Assassins by Stephen Sondheim 1Īmerican presidential assassinations continue to be a source of fascination for various reasons, not the least of which is attempting to understand the mentality of the perpetrator.

Garfield destiny of the republic