![]() ![]() Within minutes, doctors converged on the fallen president, using their fingers to poke and prod his open wounds. On July 2, 1881, the president was scheduled to travel by train from D.C. "This is 16 years after Lincoln's assassination, but there's still no Secret Service protection." "So he had what he believed was a divine inspiration, a message from God that he needed to kill the president," Millard said. Day after day he visited the White House, even meeting Garfield once. Guiteau expected to be named minister to France. ![]() You know, the women there had nicknamed him 'Charles Get Out.'" He'd even tried a free love commune in the 1800s, and he had failed there, too. "A man who had failed at everything he had tried, and he had tried everything," Millard said. Delusional and grandiose, he drifted through life. ![]() ![]() "He would have, like, 100 office seekers every day."Ĭharles Guiteau was one of those office seekers. "Anyone could come and talk to the president," Millard said. "So could anyone just show up at the White House?" Rocca asked. "And, you know, this is the height of the spoils system" - under which anyone could petition the president in person for a government job, regardless of experience or ability. "He knew that it was going to be a very difficult and lonely position to be in," she said. ![]()
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