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The Assassination of James A. Garfield, Part Two
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Welcome to the second episode of our series on the assassination of James A. Garfield. We deep-dive assassin Charles J. Guiteau. Things get wild.
Check out our YouTube channel, Fixate Today: Grey Matters
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Transcript
Introduction of Neurodivergent Hosts
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to Fixate Today, Gone Tomorrow. I'm Nikki, and I'm here with my Aunt Joy. We are two neurodivergent ladies who obsess about various topics. Joy is autistic, and I have ADHD, and we are letting our hyperfixations fly.
Assassination of President Garfield
00:00:16
Speaker
Today, we are fixating on the assassination of President James A. Garfield.
00:00:32
Speaker
Welcome back, everybody. Thank you for giving us a week off last week. It was nice. Did you have a lovely birthday? I had a very nice birthday, yes. And it got to about Tuesday, which was my birthday, and i was like, and don't want to work.
00:00:48
Speaker
This is supposed to be our fun time, not work. It is. It also is. But it's still some work. And I was like, I want to sit.
00:00:57
Speaker
So we are back for episode two of The Assassination of President James A.
Background on Charles J. Guiteau
00:01:02
Speaker
Garfield. Last episode, we walked through why I'm obsessed about this and then just talked about um a little bit of background about Garfield. And today we're going to get into the assassin himself,
00:01:13
Speaker
charles j gato my main sources were susan wells books an assassin in utopia along with the book talk she gave at my library assassination vacation by sarah vowell the new york times whitehouse.gov the dollop podcast crimes of the centuries podcast and wikipedia yay this gets fun now yeah he's a he's an interesting feller We're going to start going off the rails. Yes. Yeah. Last week was like the tame episode. From here on out, it's wackadoo. So Charles Gatteau was born the fourth of six children to Jane August and Luther Wilson Gatteau on September eight
00:01:53
Speaker
1841 in freeport illinois when he was seven years old his mother died and he was essentially raised by his older sister francis what it i mean probably not important but what it is mother diet i'm not even sure it's so sad back so there were so many
Guiteau's Early Life and Failures
00:02:09
Speaker
mothers who died back then so many kids yeah my kids always get screwed up yeah so yeah That and Nickelodeon and Disney shows. Have you have you ever noticed that?
00:02:18
Speaker
Like, they have a lot of dead mothers or, like, gone mothers in the shows. Like, even Disney movies. It's like, there has to be a dead parent. All right. Back to the matter at hand. So, according to kind of legends, there were rumors of insanity in the Gato gene pool.
00:02:36
Speaker
Okay. So, this. Yeah. Yeah. Like, that's a bad rumor. I mean, like, like, you know, you've got yeah families like the athletic family, the dumb family, the obnoxious family, you know?
00:02:50
Speaker
Yep. Know that you can get much worse than the insane family. Yeah.
Wisconsin Move and Oneida Community
00:02:54
Speaker
And today, a lot of it might just have been like, I don't know, his older sister, Frances, read too many books. or swinging the other way, ah their father is horribly brutal and abusive.
00:03:06
Speaker
True. Yeah. Because I was trying to think of it anything worse than like the insane family. And that would be like a family of murderers. But don't think that's a thing. I don't think we've ever... I don't think there's a family murderers. Okay. Oh, there it is.
00:03:20
Speaker
Okay, shouldn't have said that. Oh, maybe the bloody benders is on my list now of topics.
00:03:29
Speaker
All right. Oh, all right. so Continue. You might have to say the name of this Wisconsin city that Gato moved to because I can't say it. Nikki, I had notes on there to like I couldn't wait to hear you say it.
00:03:43
Speaker
Okay. I have no idea. Ulao, maybe? It's spelled U-L-A-O. And I will say we we have a lot of family connections in Wisconsin and spent a lot of time there. And I have never heard of this town.
00:03:55
Speaker
And actually, because of that, it was kind interested me. So I looked it up. I was just going to ask that. I did. Yeah. And well, first of all, um you know. You did? Wisconsin's got a lot of really little towns.
00:04:07
Speaker
And this one is called an independent community. So it's not even a town. Yeah. It's really an unincorporated ah community, I guess. um It's on Lake Michigan. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah.
00:04:21
Speaker
It's quite beautiful. Okay. Yeah. So. Yeah. I'm not surprised. All of Wisconsin, I feel like, is beautiful. Yeah. But it was like the cliffs of the lake. It was really pretty. But never heard of it. So.
00:04:32
Speaker
ah You know what? It's probably classy Wisconsin. Not where we. Yeah. We're not in the classy part.
00:04:39
Speaker
well in between and moved to Ulau, Ulau, Wisconsin, to be closer to him.
00:04:50
Speaker
I guess there were some members of the family there. But in 1855, he moved back to Freeport. I also imagine he left to get away from his abusive father, and it sounded tumultuous, home life. Yeah, hopefully it was his mother's side of the family he was...
00:05:03
Speaker
Moving to be closer to you. As a young man, Gouteau inherited $1,000, which in today's money is about $33,000 from his grandfather. And he attempted, with that money, attempted to enroll at the University of Michigan, but he failed the entrance exam. So we're starting the pattern of Charlie tries to do something and fails.
Marriage, Financial Issues, and Abuse
00:05:24
Speaker
but What I think I find him back and forth is he's got like a, he's smart in a way. He's really smart. And then, but has these major failures. Yeah. So it's like, he kind of has, it kind has a good plan.
00:05:37
Speaker
But then it falls through always. Yeah. And it's because I think the reason it falls through is because he's this like high opinion of himself. So some of the things that he could be doing and the ways he is smart, he's not going to follow through with those. He wants to he wants to be smart in this way. And I deserve to be smart in this way.
00:05:58
Speaker
I get that. um probably that way. Listen, I'm happy being mediocre. He does eventually pass the exam and get into the University of Michigan. He studied French and algebra.
00:06:12
Speaker
And his father was absolutely a helicopter dad trying to get he wanted him to be perfect in his studies. I'm kind of surprised his dad was involved in his life at this point that much. Yeah, he was still he was controlling. Yeah. For all of them. Ultimately, Gato gets so overwhelmed, he quits the program.
00:06:29
Speaker
Part of his personality is that he needed constant reassurance. But not only did he need constant reassurance, he saw it as disrespectful if he wasn't given reassurance.
00:06:42
Speaker
Yeah. That's a very interesting personality trait, um but i it's like you have like you're trying to fill a bucket with a hole in it, right? And so then it's never going to fill up.
00:06:54
Speaker
And that makes me really sad because, yeah, then there's never that feeling of a full accomplishment or full confidence in anything you do in life. You're an empty vessel. Yeah.
00:07:04
Speaker
And my understanding of him was a lot of kind of the same thing we just talked about. He he wanted to feel confident in things that or he wasn't gifted with. And so it was almost an an affront to him if you didn't tell him, you were really good at your French and algebra. You did great when it's like you didn't though.
00:07:21
Speaker
Which is interesting because I have this feeling his father did not give him a lot of positive feedback or positive reassurance. Well, in June 1860... gateau joined a community called the oneida community it was seen as a utopian sect we're gonna say cult i will tell you if you if you go to the the house that this community lived at which still stands and i've been to they will be very upset if you use the word cult they say they were not a cult they were a community are they seen do they see themselves like currently in a positive light
00:07:56
Speaker
Yes. Okay. Yes. They don't, like we did the tour. My husband and I stayed there and we can stay overnight there. So we did and we did the tour and was a lot of, and they did good things. There were some really interesting good things that the community did, but there was no focus on some of the bad things, which we're not going to get too deep into this episode. We're going to do it huge deep dive on the United community next episode. Okay. Cause I want to ask more questions, but I'll wait.
00:08:25
Speaker
and okay Real quick, though, how did he
Political Ambitions and Delusions
00:08:27
Speaker
get over? do we have any, like the guy, how did we, how did he get to New York or like? I don't know. He, well, I think he went, he specifically went to New York for this community.
00:08:37
Speaker
Okay. I think he had the urge to join. All right. So he just went. So Oneida, as I said, is about 45 minutes away from me. My library where i work has a pass that you can check out and go tour. Okay. go tour the the house
00:08:54
Speaker
so interestingly his father was already affiliated with this group he wasn't like a deep member but he he had ties to the group so i'm assuming that's how how goto got it yeah it learned about yeah i forgot that word but it can so weird because you think of his father who's abusive and he'd want to get away from him But here he's following. it Yeah. Yeah. what is Wants to please him.
00:09:20
Speaker
Guiteau worshipped the group's leader, John Humphrey Noyes. We're going to get way more into this. But the Oneida community believed in what they called group marriage.
00:09:30
Speaker
Also meaning a lot of people see it as a sex cult, a utopian sex cult. And Guiteau is ultimately rejected by everyone. He can't get married in the group marriage sex cult.
00:09:43
Speaker
Yeah. That's so bad. That is so bad when a cult rejects you. Yep. I can't remember where I put it. I might have read it in the next episode, but they his name's Gato, and his nickname was Get Out.
00:09:56
Speaker
ah He was just on so... oh We'll get into it. He was described as being quick to anger, and he was a bad laborer, which was required in the cults.
00:10:07
Speaker
Like they're a self-sustained community. Yeah. I was going to ask what, what kind of labor it was at farm. Like, yeah, they had like gardens, like everybody had a job and it's and where they were headquartered. It's this, it's called the Oneida community mansion house. So it's this, it's a huge mansion and it's on a lot of land.
00:10:25
Speaker
And so there was, you know, there's a library. Some people taught the kids, some people that they all had to do, they all had to work. to keep it sustained.
00:10:36
Speaker
going to be honest. It sounds kind of cool other than maybe the group marriage. Yes. We'll get into it. There's like, listen, I'm not going to say it's the worst cult there ever was, but as with most control, high control groups, someone always does a misstep and it goes downhill. Yeah. i was going to say maybe it's something starts, starts yeah fairly positive and then, it but it never seems to to stay that way.
00:10:58
Speaker
right. But what is very cool is there is a graveyard like a cemetery on the land. So when my husband and I went, we walked, kind of walked through the cemetery and looked at the, and there's a lot of the names we're going to talk about in the next few episodes.
00:11:13
Speaker
Like their, their graves are there. I mean, you call that cool. That I don't, that's a little dark, Nikki. It was, but it was just like, we were walking through. was my gosh, they're actually like here. They're buried here.
00:11:24
Speaker
Is this not your anniversary trip too? Maybe.
00:11:31
Speaker
Okay. Yes. Very romantic. I can imagine. were you walking handin hand in hand? Let's take a walk to the cemetery.
00:11:40
Speaker
So when Giteau was given a job, he would pout in the corner or angrily gesticulate. Like he would just get animated and how angry he was and he felt like he didn't have to do the work that everybody else was doing.
00:11:54
Speaker
He's meant for bigger things. He should be closer to the man in charge than being expected to work with everybody else. It's a pattern. That's a pattern that we keep seeing. Oh, yeah. So Gato left the community twice.
00:12:06
Speaker
The first time he ended up in Hoboken, New Jersey, where he tried to start a newspaper based on the community. Like he tried to almost do like an expose newspaper on the community because he was mad at them called the Daily Theocrat. Okay. So he he was in New Jersey, but he wanted to do a newspaper based on the Oneida community, not the local Hoboken community. Yep. Okay.
00:12:30
Speaker
I mean... It's ambitious to want to start a newspaper. Yeah. But. And hard because it failed. And he. guess I can't imagine because I don't know why these people in Hoboken, New Jersey would.
00:12:41
Speaker
No. Care. No. And so he returned to the community. Can't believe they took him back. And he left again. Now left is, a you know, up for interpretation. Did he leave? Was he kicked out?
00:12:51
Speaker
You know, whatever. However, this time he filed a lawsuit against Noyce and the community. In the lawsuit, he demanded money for the, i put in the notes, alleged work because he didn't want to work, but for the work that he had done for the community.
00:13:09
Speaker
And he estimated that the community owed him $9,000. I didn't realize this till just now, but we're talking about him, ah his grandfather inheriting $1,000, which was $33,000 in today's dollars.
00:13:24
Speaker
So by the community now owing him $9,000, that's a crap load of money. Yeah. I'm going guess he never got it. No. No.
00:13:34
Speaker
In the lawsuit, he also alleged that Noyce was addicted to masturbation, which given what we'll talk about next time probably isn't not true. Yeah. The concerning thing about this is that we never go over a topic where this does not come up.
00:13:48
Speaker
I know, right? So maybe have an issue? Listen, I've been picking the topics more, so maybe this is something I have to reflect about. There's a lot of addicted to masturbation going on.
00:14:00
Speaker
I'm just saying. Well, Guiteau's father is mortified that this lawsuit is happening, and he actually wrote letters in support of Noyce. Okay, let's just stop here for a second.
00:14:13
Speaker
When your abusive dad is a cult member and he's mortified by your behavior... That's bad. hu And in response to the lawsuit, it's like on record now that Noyes thought Guiteau was insane. Fair. Yeah. yeah So after the failure of the lawsuit, Guiteau moved to Chicago and worked as some sort of clerk, I think a law clerk, because he attained admission to the Illinois bar. Which again, like he's smart and like in some ways.
00:14:44
Speaker
Yeah. He has these moments. Yes. But... He was a terrible lawyer. He worked mostly in bill collecting. And I think that one of the biggest patterns is like I think he fails when he thinks whatever he's doing is beneath him. Okay. But he's not willing to do any work to go above and beyond to earn the next big job he or promotion. He thinks he should just have that job.
00:15:07
Speaker
He should start at the highest level. That makes sense. Absolutely. Makes sense. Also, he moves around a lot. He does move around a lot. Which find it interesting. and that day and age, I just, maybe people did, but I felt like people had more, like, roots.
00:15:20
Speaker
Seems like he jumps from place to place. Yeah, and I wonder if it's if that's kind of the same thing. It's like, well, I'll go to this new city well where they don't know my past and they know that I'm very important and should be respected.
00:15:32
Speaker
Yeah, I'll start over and they'll see what a genius I am. Yeah. In 1869, Charles Gatteau met a woman who married him. like She's a librarian named Anne Bunn.
00:15:44
Speaker
They met... Doesn't librarian name get more librarian than that? I know. Anne Bunn. You're picking this lady with this like long bun. I know. hair named Anne Bunn. I know.
00:15:57
Speaker
um I love this. They met at the YMCA. Okay. Cool. She had had an illegitimate child at 18, which at the time would have made it probably had a difficult time finding somebody who would be willing to marry her, given her social status as having an illegitimate child. She claimed that he was dishonest with money, not giving bill collections to clients.
00:16:22
Speaker
ah Okay, wait. yeah That's confusing me. Basically, like, so he was he would work as the bill collection like collections agency. He'd get the money. Yeah.
00:16:33
Speaker
And then he would not pass it on. Okay. Right. All right. Right. um She also said he was abusive and would regularly lock her in a closet. She said he would say, quote, I am your master and you are to submit to me.
00:16:46
Speaker
Well, as he is not great at... facilitating the bill collections in 1872. Guiteau and Anne flee from bill collectors and the clients that they've kind of, well, he's swindled and go to New York City. And this is where he begins exploring politics.
00:17:04
Speaker
So he identified as a Democrat, which we're we're talking in old timey times. Basically, Democrat and Republican were switched. Yeah, okay. I think it's important because I was, as we were going through this part, I actually kind of had to go back and kind of look it up So at the time, Democrats supported small central government, low tariffs,
00:17:24
Speaker
They were ah opposed to a national bank. They supported slavery and they appealed more to the Southern US. And so then Republicans, real quick, they were just opposed to the expansion of slavery. They've strung central government. They were in favor of a national bank and in favor of high tariffs and they had more Northerners support. So pretty much, yeah, just flip flop or what we call them.
00:17:51
Speaker
Yeah. Yes, so he was a Democrat. In the presidential election, he supported Horace Greeley against Ulysses S. Grant. Greeley lost badly against Ulysses S. Grant, but Gatot is absolutely convinced that if Greeley had won, he would have appointed him as ambassador to Chile.
00:18:10
Speaker
This is where he starts kind of getting this like obsession with being an ambassador. yeah And if anybody knows this, let me know. But I've never seen anything that said like Horace Greeley actually had any sort of relationship with him.
00:18:22
Speaker
And so there's not a lot of reason that he should think that he would be the ambassador to anywhere. That's what, ah yeah, it makes me question like how suddenly is he involved in in politics? Or is it just, yeah, in his and his mind that he is more important in the political world than he is?
00:18:37
Speaker
Yup. In 1874, Anne files for divorce, citing physical abuse and that she was given syphilis. Yuck. Mm-hmm. Guiteau responds to her filing by having sex with a sex worker, but this backfires because then the sex worker testified against him as being unfaithful.
00:18:57
Speaker
Thus kind of proving her giving Anne a way of getting a divorce. Guteau claimed that he intentionally got syphilis and passed it to Anne so that she would divorce him.
00:19:09
Speaker
Ugh. um so gross. Which I don't think is true. ah To me, that sounds like somebody who lost and is like, well, I did it anyway. I did it on purpose. I totally wanted you to divorce me. That's why I went and found a good... so I picked one who looked like she most... Yeah, I wanted you to file, so I gave you syphilis just on purpose.
00:19:29
Speaker
After the divorce, he moved to Chicago with his sister, Frances, and her husband. And there he decided... Okay, I'm feeling bad for Frances in a Yes, I am too. I'm wondering if Frances, like, loves her brother.
00:19:41
Speaker
i think... kind of raised him? Is he kind of... I'm assuming that he she was put into a maternal position for all the kids because I think she was the not just the oldest sister. I think she was the oldest. Okay. And I know you're the baby, so you don't know, but I'm the oldest sister and feel a lot of responsibility. Yeah. Even as an adult.
00:20:00
Speaker
But you don't have your insane brother moving back in with you. Thankfully, my little sister is probably more responsible than I am. So the sense of responsibility I have, I'm like, oh, you're good.
00:20:11
Speaker
I don't know. I'm just feeling like Frances is like, oh, God. Yeah. And her husband's like, does your weird brother have to live here? Are you kidding me? And she's like, he has nowhere to go. vibe.
00:20:23
Speaker
Yeah. So in Chicago, he decided to purchase a newspaper to push the politicians he liked and endorsed. It was like the first Fox News or Wall Street Journal. Yeah.
00:20:34
Speaker
Yeah, basically. He asked many people for loans, including his father, and everybody said no. In 1875, Guiteau's father publicly states that his son is possessed by Satan.
00:20:47
Speaker
How does one publicly state this? I don't know. Maybe he had a newspaper. Seems like everybody has a newspaper. I'm like, do you make a speech? I guess you had a newspaper ad.
00:20:58
Speaker
Yeah, right? You stand on the like on your balcony and just yell. Soapbox in Town Square. Yeah, exactly. So he made this statement after Gouteau attacked his sister Frances with an axe.
00:21:10
Speaker
I knew it. Yeah. Knew it was coming. And when... The suggestion of him going to an institution is given to him. He flees. He straight runs away. But what we'll see at the same time that this is all happening is Gouteau is starting to believe that he is divinely inspired.
Religious Fanaticism and Legal Troubles
00:21:25
Speaker
we've got some of that religious fanaticism stirring up.
00:21:28
Speaker
Now, this is the first time we really start hearing about the religious part of him. So and i I wonder, do you think this could be a response to his dad calling him satanic? don't know.
00:21:39
Speaker
Pendulum swinging? No, I'm. It could possibly. i almost still see it as kind of the same cycle of like, I'm more important than you think. And if you're not with me, if you're calling me Satan and I'm finally inspired, then I'm going to come out on top because you're wrong.
00:21:54
Speaker
Yeah. But I love you, dad. Exactly. I still want your approval. So he declared that he was going to, quote, preach a new gospel like Paul the Apostle. And he basically became a wandering preacher. He would preach in different cities and locations.
00:22:08
Speaker
But in December 1877, he did preach at a congressional church in Washington, D.C., kind of spiking more of his political things. I think he felt a little more divinely inspired there. How did he end up in D.C.? I'm going to keep asking these things.
00:22:22
Speaker
No idea. And like, is he a charismatic guy? That's what I'm not getting. i don't think so. I mean, because to be a wandering preacher and I don't know, to get the invite to go to the congressional church in D.C.,
00:22:36
Speaker
yeah like it seems like you would have to be somewhat charismatic or be i'm guessing it's it was probably like on the surface yeah and then if you like get anywhere scratch that surface a little bit you're like oh never mind yeah and again again a theme in what in the uh our obsessions have been a lot of preachers It's so weird.
00:22:59
Speaker
But as a wandering preacher, what he would actually do is begin his speech. But in the middle of it, he'd cut short telling the congregations he'd be right back and he would steal their money and leave. Like their offering?
00:23:10
Speaker
Yeah. So in 1880... He ended up in Boston, having fled again, owing money and being accused of theft. And June 11th, 1880, he was a passenger on a ship called the SS Stonington when it collided with the DD, and please forgive me, Naragansett, I believe is another ship, in the Connecticut River. His ship returned with no one being injured, but the other ship sank and a lot of people died.
00:23:39
Speaker
Now, what this did was further convince him that he was divinely protected. He's here for a bigger reason and God wants him on Earth to do something important.
00:23:50
Speaker
Okay, so if it was a ship full of people, though, that survived, are they all to divinely protected? No, just him. Around that time, his father passed away. And this is when Gato directly got involved with politics, starting to work on some campaigns for people. This is where it gets a little confusing. We're going to talk about more ah political party stuff and factions of a political party. I am by no means any sort of expert.
00:24:19
Speaker
So if I get anything wrong, I'm very sorry. And I'm trying. And if anybody knows better than me, go on our social media and comment on... on our post for the episode. So up till this point, he identifies as a Democrat, correct?
00:24:33
Speaker
Correct. Okay. So we have to kind of back up and talk about the Republican Party at the time. During the 1880 presidential campaign, the Republican Party split into two factions. Before we started recording, we talked through how we would kind of explain what this is. And the best way I can explain it would be today's Republican Party has kind of broken into two factions of like traditional Republicans and the MAGA Republicans.
00:25:01
Speaker
So that's my understanding. Sounds like a good parallel. good Yeah. So one group was the Stalwarts led by Roscoe Conkling and... Conkling so actually supported Ulysses S. Grant to be president for a third term. Interesting. Heard that before.
00:25:18
Speaker
This was before term limits, though. So it wasn't in the Constitution quite yet. He was the Oneida County DA. Oh, OK. Oneida County. OK. We're in D.C. now. Yep.
00:25:34
Speaker
But there's this connection back back to New York. Interesting. Yep. The community that threw him out. Is it coincidence? Do you know? No, it is not a coincidence. All right. Roscoe Conkling hated Greeley, who was the Democrat that Goteau thought he'd be the ambassador to Chile if Greeley had won.
00:25:53
Speaker
Conkling was pro-civil rights, so he was one of the anti-slavery folks. And this is interesting. This is something I don't super understand because ok in theory isn't a thing anymore, at least on paper. So there is a system called patronage, and it's basically people in political power giving positions to other people within the government as repayment for political favors.
00:26:17
Speaker
And Conkling thought that was fine. He was cool with it. That's funny because I was going to say, like, isn't every politician, quote unquote, opposed to that and then yeah never changes. But no, this guy just yeah comes out and that and admits it. I mean, I'm going to give him little bit of a kudos for that. At least he says it. Exactly. So the other political group, and I hate the term because it feels feels racist to say, but it's not.
00:26:42
Speaker
It's not. It does because i I wrote that same thing in my head. Yeah. But it's the other group was called Half Breeds. I don't know where the term came from. Yeah. So just forgive me if that is something I should be saying because that's what they were called.
00:26:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:58
Speaker
I'm so scared. Don't yell at me. um So this group supported the ah other opponent, James G. Blaine. Blaine was in favor of overhauling the patronage system, basically making it so you have to have credentials to get you a job in the government.
00:27:15
Speaker
Guiteau supported the stalwarts. Garfield, President Garfield, was a stalwart and his vice president was a half breed. So despite that the factions of the Republican Party, both factions are represented in the White House. Okay. So James Blaine?
00:27:34
Speaker
I think he was just the opposition of the stalwarts during the presidential campaign. If I remember correctly, I think Garfield wasn't even meaning to run for president.
00:27:45
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. So maybe something happened. Maybe James Blaine was more the favorite. And then think so. he and Okay. We'll go with that. So under Garfield, Roscoe Conkling, the Oneida DA, expected a patronage. He expected to be granted something. And when he wasn't, he threatened Garfield with a physical fight.
00:28:08
Speaker
He then resigned from Congress, expecting others to try to stop him. So he sounds a little bit like Charlie Coteau. I say, I don't use bad words, but this guy kind
Plan to Assassinate Garfield
00:28:19
Speaker
of sounds like an ass.
00:28:20
Speaker
Yeah. So this caused the faction to get bigger. The stalwarts are now furious with the half-breeds for all of this. But ultimately, James A. Blaine was made Secretary of State.
00:28:32
Speaker
So that the leader or the figurehead of the half-breed faction. And Conkling hated him. I think Conkling was like the Matt Gaetz of his day.
00:28:43
Speaker
Yeah, that's what it feels like, right? So ultimately, Garfield won the Republican nomination. And when that happened, Guiteau turned his support to Garfield against the Democrat who was running for president, Winfield Scott Hancock.
00:28:57
Speaker
Guiteau wrote a speech initially supporting Ulysses S. Grant still. There are still people who want him for a third term. Like, what does Guiteau even have to do with any of this? Nothing. Okay, that's what... Nothing.
00:29:08
Speaker
Does any – is he relevant? No, he's inserting himself into things. Now, keep in mind, at that time – and we'll learn this later – like, there's not even a secret service. So, like, people who are running for president are just, like, living at home, like, being part of the community. And there's there's an elevated, obviously, position and, like, some recognition and respect. But it's not like today that – you know if we were neighbors with with the president we could just like call him up and be like hey do you butter
00:29:42
Speaker
ran out of butter for the cookies it's just this whole like writing a speech like who you gonna give this speech no that's the thing this is this is complete delusion but delusions of grandeur So in this speech that he initially wrote to support Grant, he just changed the word Grant, like the name Grant, to Garfield.
00:30:07
Speaker
And he passed out copies to this this speech to members of the Republican National Convention. But he didn't even change, like, biographical information. Just seeing them passing around these flyers or putting them on the windshield of their buggies. Mm-hmm.
00:30:23
Speaker
So he somehow, and this goes back to the thing that like, he's got to have some charisma. He convinced members of the Republican National Convention to let him give a speech in favor of Garfield.
00:30:37
Speaker
And he gave a speech, but the only people were there were about a dozen black people. Okay. Nobody else cared. Okay. Not sure how that dozen even cared, but.
00:30:49
Speaker
Yeah. And I wonder if it was more like, what is this guy saying? Mm-hmm.
00:30:55
Speaker
It's like watching a car wreck. Yeah, right? And I think even those people, the reason I mentioned their race is I'm assuming it was related to you know somebody who was anti-slavery as president. And this man is saying you know he's he's for Garfield.
00:31:13
Speaker
Listen to him speak. I don't know. But because He had these 12 Black people listening to him speak. He feels like that, like, shifted the tide of how the Black population of the North was going to vote.
00:31:31
Speaker
And so he believed himself to be responsible because of the speech for Garfield winning the election and becoming president. This one speech. Yes. Okay. Okay.
00:31:43
Speaker
And he felt he deserved a consulship for aiding in this win, first asking to be the ambassador to Vienna and then settling for Paris. He just doesn't seem like an ambassador to me, even no I mean, although, I mean, it does sound kind of a cool job.
00:32:05
Speaker
I wouldn't mind being an ambassador to Vienna or Paris. Right. but Right. So Guiteau repeatedly requests the position in person and via multiple letters. He and his letters were rejected from meeting with Garfield.
00:32:20
Speaker
And again, does Garfield have any clue who this guy is? Do we know? like nothing No. He's just like, he's like, this guy just keeps writing me letters talking about Paris.
00:32:32
Speaker
March 1881, Garfield's administration begins. And at the same time, Guiteau is unhoused. He is completely broke. His clothing is literally deteriorating.
00:32:44
Speaker
And he feels absolutely snubbed by President Garfield. He spent time basically in hotel lobbies, reading discarded newspapers to track Garfield.
00:32:55
Speaker
He wanted to know where he was at all times so he could write more letters, send them to wherever he was, asking for this consulship. Does this guy have a job? Like an income? Not at this point.
00:33:09
Speaker
Nope. On May 14th, 1881, Guiteau encounters Blaine, who, if you'll remember, is Secretary of State. And he's bugging Blaine about being the ambassador to France.
00:33:21
Speaker
And Blaine snapped at him, quote, never speak to me again on the Paris consulship as long as you live. I can see. So he is driving everyone bananas. Got it.
00:33:33
Speaker
Everybody's anger is increasing in him. So he's known now because everybody's annoyed with him. But not for good reason. He is forbidden from entering the White House because, again, at the time, you could just go into the White House.
00:33:46
Speaker
I'm going to say. At a time when the White House was famously yeah open to visitors, you just walk in the front door. yeah So it's the beginning of the administration. So consult positions are being given out to other people, as you have to do as the president.
00:34:02
Speaker
ah And Gouteau convinces himself that he should actually be president. He's up in the ante. ah Yeah. He followed Garfield around for three weeks.
00:34:13
Speaker
And forgive me for how I phrase this in our notes, but I said trying to get the nuts to shoot him. Okay. So when I first read that, though... i did I misunderstood, it and I thought he was like trying to get other nutty people to shoot. no he's Nope.
00:34:31
Speaker
I thought that for a while. but oh I love you.
00:34:36
Speaker
How do you coerce them? Do the guns use like chestnuts from the ground or something? I didn't gather that.
00:34:45
Speaker
but ah So even in church, he would follow Garfield to church and he would sit behind him deciding, could I hit him from here? Could I shoot him from here? He eventually settled on the idea that Garfield is destroying the Republican Party and the only thing he could do is assassinate him.
00:35:03
Speaker
He would have to remove Garfield so his VP, who is from the other faction of the political Republican split, Chester A. Arthur, can take over. So he goes about trying to figure out the logistics of of killing the president.
00:35:19
Speaker
He thought Garfield would fight back if he used a knife. I'm picturing these two old guys with a having a knife fight. I know mean, I can't. I just imagine, like, truly, I just, like, I imagine Garfield being like, just get pushed. What are you doing?
00:35:35
Speaker
Dude, that's a butter knife.
00:35:39
Speaker
So when he realized that Garfield would just fight back, he felt that God was telling him to kill the president with a gun.
00:35:48
Speaker
He had to borrow money to even purchase a revolver. and I'm wondering who the heck is lending him money at this point. I know. i know.
00:35:59
Speaker
ah He didn't know much about guns, but he settled on a large caliber weapon with an ivory grip. Now, why does this matter? Well, it's because he thought the ivory grip would look better in a museum.
00:36:11
Speaker
He actually didn't have he didn't borrow enough money for the ivory grip. But the shop owner just let him have it. I imagine he was driving him crazy and was like, you just take it. Get out of here.
00:36:23
Speaker
So he has a little win. Yeah, he has a little win. and And the revolver did end up in the Smithsonian for a time, but has since been lost. It's like the final dig.
00:36:35
Speaker
Yeah. I know. So he spent a lot of time practicing shooting. But the first time he fired the weapon, the recoil knocked him down. Okay, again, not picturing a real tough guy Right.
00:36:49
Speaker
So the first planned attempt, Guiteau actually postponed because Garfield's wife, Lucretia, was in bad health and he didn't want to upset her.
00:37:01
Speaker
mean, that was kind of kind of him. I know. It's such a weird, like, okay. Okay. But for the next, his next planned attempt, he actually does it. July 2nd, 1881, he shoots Garfield at a train station.
00:37:17
Speaker
Basically what he did was he was, well, he got a shoeshine knowing that Garfield would be in the station. And he booked a taxi to get him as like an escape route while he was waiting for Garfield.
00:37:29
Speaker
for garfield
00:37:32
Speaker
okay i was wondering about that it's like his getaway car he was immediately charged with murder once the president died he was apprehended like in a second um he believed he'd ah be applauded for the assassination but in reality everyone he had swindled his entire life came forward and got their names in the papers and their 15 minutes of fame instead Now, this, I think, is, like, particularly egregious, and I don't know if it's just him being a terrible person or, like, this delusional, but he wrote the vice president, who was now, after Garfield died, the president, a letter expecting gratitude for getting now President Arthur a raise.
00:38:15
Speaker
raise? Uh-huh. salary raise? Yeah. And even suggesting cabinet members he should pick.
Trial, Execution, and Mental Health Analysis
00:38:26
Speaker
While in prison, Guiteau wrote a book called The Truth and the Removal, which is straight plagiarized from the Oneida community leader, Noyes.
00:38:37
Speaker
And except for the part where the book ends with an ask for someone to be his wife.
00:38:45
Speaker
I'm in prison. and writing this book. And my epilogue is... I need a wife. ah All right. So 29... So but we'll get into the trial also. The trial is a whole thing.
00:39:01
Speaker
um He was obviously found guilty. He was sentenced to ah death by execution. 29 days before the execution, Guiteau wrote a poem asserting that God commanded him to kill Garfield so that Secretary of State Blaine couldn't go to war with Chile and Peru.
00:39:18
Speaker
what was there, like, some stuff happening with Chile and Peru? Nothing I know of. Okay. He claimed President Arthur knew about the assassination and was on board with it because this would be the way to save the United States.
00:39:32
Speaker
I don't know from what. Arthur obviously had refused to pardon him, and Gouteau believed that this refusal was the, quote, basest ingratitude. I kind of like the little phrase. Basest ingratitude. I'm not sure if it means anything. I know.
00:39:50
Speaker
um He also assumed that Arthur would have pressured the Supreme Court into hearing the case. Okay.
00:39:58
Speaker
So this is very creepy, but this is also the song in Assassins is as he's walking to the gallows, he smiled throughout the walk to the gallows, even as the executioner put the black hood on his head.
00:40:11
Speaker
We're going to talk more about the execution later, you said, right? Because there's a lot to it. Yeah. Okay. All right. There's a lot to it. He was buried in a corner of the jail yard of the execution space.
00:40:25
Speaker
i don' I don't know. The execution area? His family, the family that was left and willing to claim him, I suppose, couldn't afford a private funeral.
00:40:36
Speaker
This part I hate. Pieces of the rope used to hang him were sold as souvenirs. That's pretty awful. Uh-huh. Rumors of the guards digging up the corpse to sell began swirling.
00:40:51
Speaker
Like, is he this infamous by this point? There was a lot of, like, people wanted to know why he it's was this way. And I guess that execution becomes like this whole thing in and of itself. that i so Right. And there's, I mean, like, this was entertainment at the time, you know?
00:41:12
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that people wanted to know. because And it's obviously gone from, like, nobody knows who this guy is to, like, the entire world knows who this guy is because he killed the president.
00:41:24
Speaker
Yeah. It's like the story of the week. Well, I guess killing the president may be more than a week. So ultimately... The body was, think the phrase is disinterred, dug up.
00:41:37
Speaker
His body was exhumed um and sent to the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Maryland. Now, was this so that they could study it because of the insanity? Or do we know why this happened?
00:41:51
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, ultimately, they wanted to to study his brain. Okay. So they did do a psychological assessment of him in 1881.
00:42:01
Speaker
psychiatrist alan mcclain hamilton deemed gateau sane at the time of the murder the um his autopsy showed that gateau had a condition called phimosis which basically is an inability to retract foreskin and sorry yeah and just like a little minor detail from an autopsy at the time that was thought to have led to his insanity
00:42:33
Speaker
Which I did look up. yeah Oh, did you? Tell me everything. There's nothing to tell. It doesn't say one thing. That didn't mean a reason for unzannonce.
00:42:46
Speaker
Well, they did ah an autopsy specifically on his brain, and it showed a strong possibility of neurosyphilis, which is basically when the syphilis gets to your brain.
00:42:57
Speaker
And that could have caused some mental instability. Although I feel like it sort of started before that. Yes. Yeah. Maybe. yeah Since then, even like in more modern times, that's kind of been debunked.
00:43:10
Speaker
The former chair of neurology at Ohio State University, George Paulson, argued ah against neurosyphilist and argued for Guiteau having schizophrenia and, quote, grandiose narcissism.
00:43:25
Speaker
And in 2014, criminal psychologist Kent Keel diagnosed Guiteau as a psychopath. So I know a little bit about this um this person, this psychologist. He developed, like, it's called the PCL-R scale, which is basically a psychopathy checklist.
00:43:44
Speaker
And he did this after he, like, somehow figured out that he had the traits of a psychopath himself. But he didn't have some key traits that made it so he didn't act violent or anything like that. But part of his brain makeup was that he had some of these traits. And so he... This is the psychologist who had some of these traits? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:44:08
Speaker
So he basically then, like his life's work became developing this checklist that scientifically gives you information about a person's brain makeup if they have these traits of being a psychopath.
00:44:21
Speaker
ah According to this scale, Guiteau was 37.5 out of 40 on the psychopathy checklist. Like, is this part of like the DSM or anything? Or is it just this?
00:44:35
Speaker
I don't think it's the DSM, but I think the FBI has used it. Like, it's part of criminal profiling. Okay. Okay. So it's a risk somewhat of a respected... ah check yes and i actually remember i don't maybe it was around that time no it was earlier than i don't remember but there was a show i remember there being a tv show on like discovery id or something and they would talk about and he was he was like the talking head on it and they would talk about like a serial killer and and they would go through his life and be like he's at the end of the show they would say like the number that the person had so when i read that i was like i know what they're talking about was a tv show
00:45:17
Speaker
ah go So 37.5 out of 40, right? That's pretty high. So that is Charlie Gatteau. yeah At least to start with.
00:45:29
Speaker
At least to start with. i I lean toward the yeah schizophrenia and grandiose narcissism. Yeah.
Episode Wrap-up and Next Preview
00:45:38
Speaker
I mean, we've spoken about how I feel like the narcissist word is thrown out a little ah little too often these days. But, i mean, yeah, I could see that.
00:45:49
Speaker
I think the word, I think, like, the term narcissism is a person like this. You know what i mean? Like, yeah it's, it's, ah seems like there's a clinical diagnosis of that in Charles Guiteau. Yeah.
00:46:04
Speaker
It seems to be. Yeah. All right. We're going wrap up for this episode. Next week, we're going to do a deep dive into the Oneida community. And I've had photos from when my husband and I stayed there forever that I like purposely haven't shared because I wanted to post them on social media for the next episode.
00:46:23
Speaker
Okay. I'm pretty, I'm pretty interested in this. I'm pretty excited. This combines, this combines two of our, like, I'm super passionate. Like i have an obsession with like hotels. It's, it's,
00:46:35
Speaker
i I love hotels. I love their history. So this is like the convergence of our two, you into cults and me into hotels. I know. And I will say I did definitely sneak into places I wasn't supposed to. And when I told my mom, she was like, yeah, you're just, you're you've you're channeling joy.
00:46:54
Speaker
No, i I totally do that. I totally that. And I did it before the tour. And so during the tour, they were like, well, don't go there. And my husband was like, you went there, didn't you? and I was like, shut up.
00:47:07
Speaker
There's kind of a little rush. Sneaking into rooms you're not supposed to. I mean, not guest rooms. No, no. What is kind of cool is that if a room's not being occupied, they keep the door open.
00:47:21
Speaker
ah So you can actually see into the, it is very cool. And then ah they put your last name on the door if it's occupied. So you know that someone's in there, but once it's unoccupied and been cleaned, they keep it open.
00:47:35
Speaker
So as you're walking around, you can see the guest room. So is each room a little bit different, I'm assuming? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I got to go stay there. No, we've stayed twice. I'm going to stay there before this lifetime is through.
00:47:47
Speaker
Yes. it's At least we can get the pass from my library and go tour it. Then we don't have to pay. Yeah, but I'm to spend the night. i feel like I'm going to have to pay for that.
00:47:59
Speaker
Yeah. Do they have a restaurant? No, but it's in, like, Oneida is like kind of a village. So there's a lot of food like around village. Exciting. I can't wait to hear more about the.
00:48:10
Speaker
Yeah. And it's a lot of stuff like ah the, i already figure what it's called. I think it's Oneida Flatware. Silverware that's from this community.
00:48:22
Speaker
um And where I live, it's like all over still. It's hard. It's harder and harder to find. But um a lot of restaurants and stuff still use the flatware from the Oneida community. Yeah. It's very cool.
00:48:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:36
Speaker
I was actually a little confused at the beginning because when we were talking about Wisconsin, I think there's an Oneida County in Wisconsin too. um anyways, at first when I was reading through this, that's what I was thinking. but Nope, real close to me.
00:48:49
Speaker
Well, this is fun. Yeah, I'm excited for next week. I kind of like doing the the historical old-timey ones too. I might have to do a couple more. Yeah, they're fun. All right. Y'all have a good week. All right, we'll talk to you later. Bye.
00:49:03
Speaker
ae
00:49:13
Speaker
Bye.