Shot President
James A. Garfield on July 2, 1881 at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station (Washington, D.C.) as Garfield was en route to join his family in New Jersey, motivated by Garfield's rejection of his application to be Consul to Paris, an appointment he felt he deserved for his speeches supporting Garfield's candidacy. Athough he had nothing personal against Garfield, Guiteau wrote that God told him to kill Garfield so Vice-President Chester Arthur, and Arthur's patron, New York politician and power-broker Roscoe Conkling, "would save the Republic". Garfield died from massive infection and blood poisoning on September 19, 1881. As Guiteau, who plead not guilty by reason of insanity, implied at his trial, a medical inquiry determined Garfield's death was primarily the result of the incompetence of his doctors, most notably, his friend, Dr. Willard Bliss.
