Speaker 1: You're listening to History on Trial, a production of iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 1: Listener Discretion Advised. Sarah White was starting to have a
Speaker 1: bad feeling about the man in the hat. As the
Speaker 1: ladies waiting room matron at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad
Speaker 1: station in Washington, d C. White was used to seeing
Speaker 1: all sorts of strange behavior. Travel could bring out the
Speaker 1: worst and even the most dignified citizens, but this man
Speaker 1: seemed especially off to her. She had been watching the
Speaker 1: man all morning, she would later recall, as he flitted
Speaker 1: from room to room at the station. He would look
Speaker 1: in one door and pass on to the next door
Speaker 1: and look in again. She said, he didn't seem to
Speaker 1: have a destination in mind or a train to board.
Speaker 1: He just circled head down, shoulders bent, face obscured by
Speaker 1: a dark hat. What business did he have at the
Speaker 1: train station? In fact, this man had very important business,
Speaker 1: a meeting of sorts. He had just arrived early because
Speaker 1: he wanted to make sure he got everything just right.
Speaker 1: He'd stopped and had his shoes shined. Then he'd approached
Speaker 1: the line of taxi carriages waiting outside the station and
Speaker 1: asked a driver about his rates. Once he'd learned the fair.
Speaker 1: The man said he'd let the driver know in a
Speaker 1: few minutes if he needed a ride once his business
Speaker 1: was complete. And then the man had walked inside the
Speaker 1: station and gone up to the newsstand counter. Could I
Speaker 1: leave some packages with you for a few minutes, he
Speaker 1: asked the clerk. Certainly, the clerk replied and took a
Speaker 1: stack of letters and a book from the man. Next,
Speaker 1: the man walked into the bathroom and pulled another package
Speaker 1: from his pocket. He inspected the contents. Everything looked right,
Speaker 1: everything was perfect. He was ready. Outside of the station,
Speaker 1: another man was disembarking from his carriage. He asked a
Speaker 1: nearby policeman, Patrick Kearney, for the time. It was nine
Speaker 1: twenty a m. He learned his train was scheduled for
Speaker 1: nine p thirty. In ten short minutes, the man and
Speaker 1: two of his sons would be speeding north, escaping the
Speaker 1: sweltering DC summer. He could hardly wait. His upcoming trip
Speaker 1: promised him a respite from his stressful job and an
Speaker 1: opportunity to see his beloved wife again after some time apart.
Speaker 1: Sarah White, from her perch in the waiting room, saw
Speaker 1: the second man enter the station and smiled. She recognized
Speaker 1: him right away. How couldn't she? This tall bearded man
Speaker 1: trailed by two teenage boys was President James Guardarfield. This
Speaker 1: was who the man in the hat had been waiting for.
Speaker 1: This was the moment he had been preparing for. Seconds
Speaker 1: after President Garfield walked into the train station, the man
Speaker 1: in the hat, an itinerant, ex lawyer and preacher named
Speaker 1: Charles Guittou, reached into his pocket and pulled out a gun.
Speaker 1: He raised his arm and shot the president twice. The
Speaker 1: first shot hit Garfield in the arm, the second ripped
Speaker 1: into his back. As Garfield lay bleeding on the station floor,
Speaker 1: Geto ran for the street. He didn't get far. A
Speaker 1: ticket agent grabbed him by the back of the neck
Speaker 1: and called out, this is the man. Officer Patrick Kearney,
Speaker 1: who had only just given Garfield the time, raced over
Speaker 1: and took hold of Getto. Curney knew he had to
Speaker 1: get the man to jail before the crowd at the
Speaker 1: station took justice into their own hands. Already people were
Speaker 1: shouting for Getou to be hanged on the spot. Getaux
Speaker 1: offered no resistance to Kearney. Neither did he try to
Speaker 1: deny what he'd done. He seemed to be proud of
Speaker 1: his actions. The rest of the country, of course, was horrified.
Speaker 1: Americans prayed for the president who lingered between life and
Speaker 1: death for more than two months and cursed his assailant.
Speaker 1: They called for Getou to be punished, to be thrown
Speaker 1: to wild dogs, to be burned alive, to be shot
Speaker 1: like he had shot President Garfield. No punishment seemed grave
Speaker 1: enough for what Charles Getau had done. But after Garfield
Speaker 1: finally died in September eighteen eighty one and the government
Speaker 1: prepared for Getou's trial, a problem emerged. Getau, many medical
Speaker 1: experts believed, was insane. If this was true, was he
Speaker 1: responsible for his actions? And if he wasn't responsible, how
Speaker 1: could the public get the closure or the vengeance that
Speaker 1: they longed for. In the end, many wondered could the
Speaker 1: justice system truly deliver justice in a case like this?
Speaker 1: Welcome to History on Trial. I'm your host, Mira Hayward.
Speaker 1: This week the United States, the Charles Guittow. No one
Speaker 1: expected James Garfield to become the Republican presidential nominee in
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty least of all James Garfield born in eighteen
Speaker 1: thirty one in a log cabin in Ohio, and fatherless
Speaker 1: before his second birthday, Garfield grew up in profound poverty.
Speaker 1: His hard working single mother, Eliza, always stressed education, even
Speaker 1: giving up land she could barely afford to lose to
Speaker 1: the local community so that a schoolhouse could be built.
Speaker 1: Young Garfield chafed against his mother's dreams for him and
Speaker 1: left home at sixteen to work on the Erie Canal,
Speaker 1: but after a close brush with drowning, returned home and
Speaker 1: re committed to his education. At age twenty, he was
Speaker 1: accepted to the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute, a college preparatory school.
Speaker 1: To pay for his education, Garfield worked as the school's
Speaker 1: janitor and handyman, but his innate academic gifts soon came
Speaker 1: to the notice of the administration, and in his second year,
Speaker 1: he traded in his job of handyman for that of
Speaker 1: assistant professor. It's all very goodwill hunting. A year later,
Speaker 1: he was accepted to Williams College in Massachusetts, where he
Speaker 1: graduated second in his class. He returned to the Eclectic Institute,
Speaker 1: quickly rising in the ranks to become the schools president
Speaker 1: by age twenty six. He also married his longtime sweetheart,
Speaker 1: a fellow Ohio and named Lucretia Rudolph, and the two
Speaker 1: began their family, which would eventually grow to include five
Speaker 1: surviving children. At the same time, he studied law and
Speaker 1: was admitted to the bar in eighteen sixty one. A
Speaker 1: year later, Garfield was nominated to replace a state senator
Speaker 1: who had died in office, but his burgeoning political career
Speaker 1: was interrupted by the outbreak of the Civil War. Garfield
Speaker 1: became a lieutenant colonel in the Union Army. He hated
Speaker 1: the violence of war, but as a lifelong ardent abolitionist,
Speaker 1: he was devoted to the Union cause. Though he had
Speaker 1: no military experience, he applied his intellectual prowess to the job,
Speaker 1: organizing a clever ruse at the Battle of Middle Creek
Speaker 1: that convinced his Confederate opponents that they were vastly outnumbered,
Speaker 1: despite the opposite being true. His surprise victory there made
Speaker 1: him a war hero. Ten months later, Garfield was elected
Speaker 1: to the House of Representatives, even though he hadn't campaigned
Speaker 1: at all. He was reluctant to take up his seat
Speaker 1: in Washington, believing he was of most use on the battlefield.
Speaker 1: It was not until a year after his election that,
Speaker 1: at the insistence of President Lincoln, he went to Congress.
Speaker 1: Garfield would spend seventeen years in the House of Representatives,
Speaker 1: gaining a reputation as a powerful, if occasionally long winded speaker.
Speaker 1: It was for his speaking skills that Garfield was chosen
Speaker 1: to introduce John Sherman at the Republican national Convention in
Speaker 1: June eighteen eighty. A fellow Ohioan and current Secretary of
Speaker 1: the Treasury, Sherman was a leading candidate for the Republican
Speaker 1: presidential nomination, if anyone could be said to be a
Speaker 1: leading candidate. At this deeply contentious convention in the summer
Speaker 1: of eighteen eighty, the Republican Party faced a schism, divided
Speaker 1: into two Factionsans who hated each other almost as much
Speaker 1: as they hated the Democrats. One part of the Republican
Speaker 1: Party was a group called the Stalwarts, supporters of the
Speaker 1: system of political patronage known as the spoils system. In
Speaker 1: this system, government jobs were awarded to a political party's
Speaker 1: supporters as a way to encourage party loyalty and government unity.
Speaker 1: The Stalwarts were led by the charismatic, controversial New York
Speaker 1: Senator Roscoe Conkling. On the other side of the Republican
Speaker 1: Party was a group called the half Breeds, a name
Speaker 1: given to them by the Stalwarts, who charged that they
Speaker 1: were only half Republican. Given this names racially offensive connotations,
Speaker 1: I'm going to avoid using it in this episode. This
Speaker 1: second group supported civil service reform. Instead of appointing party
Speaker 1: loyalists to government positions, they wanted appointments to be done
Speaker 1: on the basis of merit. James Garfield was a member
Speaker 1: of this sect in faction, as was the man he
Speaker 1: had come to nominate, John Sherman. The group was also
Speaker 1: considering nominating Maine Senator James Blaine. Senator Roscoe Conkling's longtime enemy.
Speaker 1: The Stalwarts had brought former President Ulysses S Grant as
Speaker 1: their candidate. Everyone expected a heated battle. Garfield just wanted
Speaker 1: to make his nominating speech and get home to his family,
Speaker 1: but things would not be that simple. By the fifth
Speaker 1: day of the convention, relations between the two factions were
Speaker 1: so fraught that observers worried whether the party would even
Speaker 1: be able to choose a nominee. Opposing politicians gave increasingly
Speaker 1: vitriolic speeches, driving the crowd wild, and then James Garfield
Speaker 1: rose to speak, calm and commanding. Garfield took control of
Speaker 1: the frenzied crowd, speaking slowly and eloquently about the need
Speaker 1: for thoughts. He reminded the crowd about the true purpose
Speaker 1: of their work, there to find the best representative for
Speaker 1: the Republican voters and the best candidate to serve the country.
Speaker 1: And then returning to his own purpose, nominating John Sherman,
Speaker 1: he asked the crowd, and now, gentlemen of the convention,
Speaker 1: what do we want? From somewhere in the hall, a
Speaker 1: voice cried out, we want Garfield. Garfield did not want
Speaker 1: the job. He had long felt that running for president
Speaker 1: was a toxic quest. I have so often seen the
Speaker 1: evil effects of the presidential fever upon my associates and friends.
Speaker 1: Garfield wrote in his diary in eighteen seventy nine that
Speaker 1: I am determined it shall not seize me. So the
Speaker 1: audience member's call caught Garfield off guard. He took a
Speaker 1: moment before resuming his speech, and then continued on to
Speaker 1: nominate John Sherman, to rock his applause from the crowd.
Speaker 1: The seed planted by that lone voice crying out for
Speaker 1: Garfield had taken root, and though Garfield repeatedly and strenuously
Speaker 1: denied that he wanted the nomination, momentum for his candidacy
Speaker 1: was growing. The next Monday, state delegates began to vote
Speaker 1: for the nominee. As ballot after ballot came in without
Speaker 1: a clear winner amongst the big three candidates of Blaine, Sherman,
Speaker 1: and Grant, delegates began wondering if it might be better
Speaker 1: to choose a new candidate altogether, And after his unifying
Speaker 1: performance on Saturday, who better, some said, than James Garfield. Slowly, slowly,
Speaker 1: more states switched their votes to Garfield, until finally, on
Speaker 1: the thirty sixth ballot, as one reporter put it, the
Speaker 1: stampede came. State after state pledged themselves to Garfield, giving
Speaker 1: him a landslide victory. The man who had called the
Speaker 1: desire to run for president a sickness, was all of
Speaker 1: a sudden the nominee. His vice presidential candidate would be
Speaker 1: Chester Arthur, a staun stalwart and protege of Conklings, whose
Speaker 1: addition to the ticket was an attempt to unite the party. Garfield,
Speaker 1: though horrified by the situation, knew that he could not
Speaker 1: back out, not if he wanted the Republican Party to
Speaker 1: maintain its fragile unity. But by the time Garfield won
Speaker 1: the election in November, that unity was already crumbling. The
Speaker 1: two factions were at each other's throats, each determined to
Speaker 1: control the direction of the party and the work of
Speaker 1: Garfield's administration. As he contemplated his role the night before
Speaker 1: his March eighteen eighty one inauguration, Garfield did not sugarcoat
Speaker 1: the challenges he faced. Tomorrow, I shall be called to
Speaker 1: assume new responsibilities, and on the day after the broadside
Speaker 1: of the world's wrath will strike, it will strike hard.
Speaker 1: Garfield could not know just how precient those words would be.
Speaker 1: Like James Garfield, Charles Getteaux had not had an easy
Speaker 1: start to life. He was born on September eighth, eighteen
Speaker 1: forty one, the fourth child of Jane and Luther Gettau.
Speaker 1: Jane died shortly after Getau's seventh birthday, leaving him and
Speaker 1: his two surviving siblings in the care of their father, Luther.
Speaker 1: Luther Neighbors would later remark was practical in matters of
Speaker 1: business and politics, but fanatical on the subject of religion,
Speaker 1: even for a country in the grips of an evangelical revival,
Speaker 1: Luther's Christian beliefs seemed extreme to those around him. Like
Speaker 1: his father, Charles Getaux, was zealous in his faith. At eighteen,
Speaker 1: Getou dropped out of the University of Michigan to join
Speaker 1: a religious commune called the Oneida Community in upstate New York.
Speaker 1: He quickly alienated his fellow members thanks to his laziness
Speaker 1: and egotism. The commune was infamous for its policies of
Speaker 1: free love and not monogamy, but Gaetou also found himself
Speaker 1: disappointed romantically. The women of Oneida were so annoyed by
Speaker 1: Getou that they nicknamed him Charles get Out. After six years,
Speaker 1: Getou left Oneida to found a Christian newspaper called The Theocrat,
Speaker 1: believing that he had been called by God to do so,
Speaker 1: but quit after four months, having realized he had no
Speaker 1: knowledge of the newspaper business. After another year at Oneida,
Speaker 1: Geto snuck out in the middle of the night. Tired
Speaker 1: of the rejection of the community. At loose ends, Getou
Speaker 1: decided to become a lawyer. Law school wasn't required in
Speaker 1: those days, and getto with only a few months experience
Speaker 1: as a law clerk, managed to pass the bar, in
Speaker 1: large part thanks to a sympathetic examiner. Getou was an
Speaker 1: awful lawyer. Those who saw him in the courtroom remembered
Speaker 1: instances where he threatened to assault jurors, rambled about theology,
Speaker 1: and failed to even address the charges his clients faced.
Speaker 1: Soon abandoning the law, Gettou became a traveling preacher. Nearly penniless.
Speaker 1: He snuck onto trains without tickets, and when confronted by conductors,
Speaker 1: would simply tell them he was quote doing God's work
Speaker 1: and had no money for train fare. He also had
Speaker 1: no money for lodging, but that didn't stop him from
Speaker 1: staying in the most opulent boarding houses available and then
Speaker 1: disappearing in the night without paying his bill. With most
Speaker 1: of his time occupied by sneaking on to trains and
Speaker 1: out of boarding houses, he didn't have much time to preach,
Speaker 1: and when he did get the chance, not much aptitude
Speaker 1: for it either. After he gave a lecture called is
Speaker 1: There a Hell? In Newark, New Jersey, the Newark Daily
Speaker 1: Journal ran a review of it headlined is there a Hell?
Speaker 1: Fifty deceived people are of the opinion there ought to be.
Speaker 1: People who met geto found him erratic, egotistical, and excitable.
Speaker 1: He could sound rational, but only if you didn't listen
Speaker 1: too closely. As a psychiatrist who later examined him would
Speaker 1: say of Getto's speaking style, all of the links in
Speaker 1: the chain are there, but they are not joined, each
Speaker 1: one good and strong of itself, but without relation to
Speaker 1: any other. He couldn't hold down a job or stay
Speaker 1: in one place for long. He alienated everyone he knew
Speaker 1: with his constant demands for money. He even lost almost
Speaker 1: all of his family support. His father Luther, in an
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy five letter to Gaetou's older brother John, wrote
Speaker 1: that Getou was quote capable of any folly, so stupidity
Speaker 1: or rascality. The only possible excuse I can render for
Speaker 1: him is that he is absolutely insane and is hardly
Speaker 1: responsible for his acts. The only person still willing to
Speaker 1: put up with Getoau was his older sister, Francis Scoville,
Speaker 1: but her support nearly had deadly consequences. In the summer
Speaker 1: of eighteen seventy five, when Getoaux was staying with Francis
Speaker 1: and her husband George in Wisconsin, he threatened to attack
Speaker 1: his sister with an axe. Terrified, Francis asked her physician
Speaker 1: to examine Getteaux and determine if he should be institutionalized.
Speaker 1: After speaking with Getau, the doctor told Francis to get
Speaker 1: her brother to an asylum without delay. Before she could, though,
Speaker 1: Getou ran away and resumed his itinerant lifestyle. It wasn't
Speaker 1: long before a new obsession began to shape Getau's life. Politics.
Speaker 1: He was a staunch Republican and a particular fan of
Speaker 1: President Grant and Senator Conkling, two members of the Stalwart Faction.
Speaker 1: As the election of eighteen eighty approached, Getoau began thinking
Speaker 1: of ways he could get close to Republican politicians and
Speaker 1: secure himself a place in the next administration. Ignoring the
Speaker 1: fact that he had no relevant experience, Getou was convinced
Speaker 1: that the Republicans would be lucky to have him. During
Speaker 1: the election, Getou became a familiar figure around the Republican
Speaker 1: party headquarters in New York, a slight, shabbily dressed figure
Speaker 1: with the unnerving ability to walk so quietly that you
Speaker 1: didn't know he was there until he stood right next
Speaker 1: to you. His presence was tolerated, if not appreciated, by
Speaker 1: party officials. Chester Arthur even let Geteau make a speech once. This,
Speaker 1: like all of his other public speaking attempts, was a
Speaker 1: complete disaster, as Kendice Mallar describes it in her book
Speaker 1: on Garfield and Getteau, Destiny of the Republic quote. Geteau
Speaker 1: had spoken for only a few minutes, explaining later that
Speaker 1: it was too hot, he didn't like the torchlights, and
Speaker 1: there were plenty of other speakers waiting to talk. Despite
Speaker 1: his objectively abysmal performance, Getou was, Millard, writes, convinced that
Speaker 1: the speech he gave at night had played a pivotal
Speaker 1: role in putting Garfield in the White House, and that
Speaker 1: it should certainly guarantee him a position of prominence in
Speaker 1: the administration. After Garfield's inauguration in March eighteen eighty one,
Speaker 1: Getoau moved to Washington, d C. To join the ranks
Speaker 1: of office seekers. In those days, anyone hoping for a
Speaker 1: federal appointment would simply show up to their prospective employer's headquarters,
Speaker 1: be it the Post Office or the White House, and
Speaker 1: wait in line for a chance to speak with the boss.
Speaker 1: This was an exhausting process for candidate and employer alike.
Speaker 1: Garfield complained that almost all of his time was taken
Speaker 1: up by seeking with office seekers, most of whom were
Speaker 1: completely unqualified, including the completely unqualified Charles Getteau, who told
Speaker 1: everyone that he met that he wanted to be assigned
Speaker 1: to the American consulate in Paris. No, he did not
Speaker 1: speak French, but that didn't deter him. His loyalty to
Speaker 1: the Republican Party and what he saw as the crucial
Speaker 1: role he had played in the election should be enough
Speaker 1: to secure him the job, he thought. Not everyone agreed.
Speaker 1: The Secretary of State James Blaine, got so sick of
Speaker 1: Getou appearing in his office that he eventually snapped, telling
Speaker 1: Getou he had quote no prospect whatever of receiving the
Speaker 1: job and to quote never speak to me about the
Speaker 1: Paris consulship. Again. Garfield was similarly dismissive of Getou's prospects.
Speaker 1: He described a letter of Getau's as a quote illustration
Speaker 1: of unparalleled audacity and impudence. But Guetto did not know that.
Speaker 1: He thought he had a champion in the president. But
Speaker 1: that all changed in May eighteen eighty one, when a
Speaker 1: dramatic chain of events took the Republican intra party war
Speaker 1: to the next level. Senator Roscoe Conkling, the leader of
Speaker 1: the Stalwarts, had been making Garfield's life in office difficult,
Speaker 1: and the two men were engaged in a ferocious public
Speaker 1: battle over the New York Customs House. As the principal
Speaker 1: port of entry for the United States, the New York
Speaker 1: Customs House managed enormous sums of money in customs duties,
Speaker 1: and the appointment to run the Customs House was considered
Speaker 1: one of the most prestigious and lucrative positions in the country.
Speaker 1: For years, Conkling, as the Senator for New York, had
Speaker 1: essentially controlled who got the post. But Garfield wanted Conkling
Speaker 1: to know that those days were over, and so he
Speaker 1: nominated Judge William Robertson, a politic call, enemy of Conklings,
Speaker 1: to the post. Conkling was enraged. He and fellow New
Speaker 1: York Senator Thomas Platt concocted an audacious plan in response
Speaker 1: to Garfield's move. They would resign from the Senate right
Speaker 1: before the vote to confirm Robinson. Then, having avoided the
Speaker 1: vote and rebuked Garfield, they would return to the Senate.
Speaker 1: How while in those days, state legislatures chose senators, and
Speaker 1: Conkling was confident that the New York State Legislature would
Speaker 1: stand with him. On May sixteenth, Conkling and Platt resigned,
Speaker 1: but in his fury Conkling had made a deadly political miscalculation.
Speaker 1: The New York State Legislature, sick of Conkling's antics, did
Speaker 1: not reinstate him or Platt. Conkling was finished. Besides Conkling,
Speaker 1: no man was more deeply hurt by this turn of
Speaker 1: events than Charles Guettou. He had long idolized Conkling, and
Speaker 1: he was baffled and distraught at what he saw as
Speaker 1: Garfield's betrayal of the Republican Party, not to mention the
Speaker 1: personal betrayal. After months of petitioning, Geto still hadn't received
Speaker 1: a posting to the consulate in Paris. For days after
Speaker 1: Conkling's resignation, Geteau stewed he had come to Washington confident
Speaker 1: in both his own prospects and the prospects of the country,
Speaker 1: but everything was falling apart. His clothes were fraying, he
Speaker 1: could barely afford to eat, and his creditors were hounding him.
Speaker 1: What could he do, how could he fix this? On
Speaker 1: the night of May eighteenth, inspirations struck divine inspiration, Geteau
Speaker 1: would say a message straight from God. Quote. If the
Speaker 1: President was out of the way, everything would be better.
Speaker 1: With Garfield gone, Vice President Chester Arthur, an accolyte of Conkling,
Speaker 1: would take control, and the new President Arthur would not
Speaker 1: be able to deny who had gotten him there none
Speaker 1: other than the brave Charles Getou. But could he really
Speaker 1: kill the president? The idea horrified him. Geto recalled, but
Speaker 1: quote it kept growing upon me, pressing me, goading me.
Speaker 1: For the rest of May he fought a ceaseless internal battle,
Speaker 1: But on June first, he came to a resolution. James
Speaker 1: Garfield must die. With his mind made up, Gettou set
Speaker 1: to work. He borrowed money from a friend, saying it
Speaker 1: was to cover his housing bill, but instead using the
Speaker 1: fifteen dollars to buy an ivory handled revolver. He went
Speaker 1: to look the facilities at the Washington d c. Jail
Speaker 1: to make sure he could tolerate a confinement there. Seven
Speaker 1: years earlier, Geteau had spent a month in the tombs
Speaker 1: the notoriously filthy Manhattan jail for non payment of rent
Speaker 1: and felt he could not survive another experience like that.
Speaker 1: But he found the DC jail to be much more
Speaker 1: to his liking. He began to follow the president around town,
Speaker 1: hoping to determine the best place to make his move. Garfield,
Speaker 1: like all the presidents before him, traveled through the country
Speaker 1: unaccompanied by security. Getou also prepared for the celebrity he
Speaker 1: believed the assassination would guarantee him. Years earlier, Getou had
Speaker 1: written a book called The Truth, a Companion to the Bible,
Speaker 1: which had failed to find a publisher, in large part
Speaker 1: because it was a blatant, sloppily executed plagiarism of a
Speaker 1: book by the founder of the Oneida community. But Getou
Speaker 1: felt confident that his soon to be fame would have
Speaker 1: publishers in knocking at his door, so he re edited
Speaker 1: the manuscript. Getting The Truth published was not just a
Speaker 1: side effect of the assassination. In Getou's view, it was
Speaker 1: one of the main motivations. Two points will be accomplished
Speaker 1: by the assassination, Getou wrote, It will save the republic
Speaker 1: and create a demand for my book, The Truth. This
Speaker 1: book was not written for money. It was written to
Speaker 1: save souls in order to attract public attention. The book
Speaker 1: needs the notice the President's removal will give it. With
Speaker 1: everything in order, Getoau made his final preparations. On June twelfth,
Speaker 1: he went to Garfield's church and thought about shooting him there,
Speaker 1: but he ended up getting distracted by the sermon and
Speaker 1: missed his opportunity. On June eighteenth, he trailed the President
Speaker 1: and the First Lady to the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station,
Speaker 1: where they planned to board a train to New Jersey.
Speaker 1: Lucretia Garfield was recovering from a week's long illness, and
Speaker 1: doctors hope the sier would strengthen her. It was only
Speaker 1: the sight of her frail form that stopped Getou from
Speaker 1: shooting Garfield that day. She clung so tenderly to the
Speaker 1: President's arm that I did not have the heart to
Speaker 1: fire on him, Guetto said. Garfield returned from New Jersey
Speaker 1: on June twenty seventh to meet with his cabinet. Getou
Speaker 1: lurked in the park across from the White House to
Speaker 1: keep an eye on his quarry, but he would not
Speaker 1: make his move for five more days. On July second,
Speaker 1: when Garfield returned to the railroad station. Getou was finally ready.
Speaker 1: He wrapped up a copy of his book and addressed
Speaker 1: several letters to leading politicians that explained his motivations. The
Speaker 1: President's tragic death was a sad necessity, read one letter,
Speaker 1: But it will unite the Republican party and save the republic.
Speaker 1: Life is a fleeting dream, and it matters little when
Speaker 1: one goes. I presume the President was a Christian and
Speaker 1: that he will be happier in Paradise than here. Getou,
Speaker 1: dressed in his finest clothes, traveled to the station early
Speaker 1: and deposited his letters and book with the newstand clerk.
Speaker 1: It was time to complete his mission. An hour later,
Speaker 1: two shots rang out and Garfield fell to the floor.
Speaker 1: Garfield's wounds were not immediately fatal. Doctors treated him on
Speaker 1: the second floor of the railway station before moving him
Speaker 1: to the White House so he could recover at home.
Speaker 1: His doctors posted medical updates regularly, which were transmitted across
Speaker 1: the country and displayed on public billboards. Crowds gathered beneath
Speaker 1: them to learn news of the president's condition. The horrifying
Speaker 1: act of the attempted assassination gave the country something to
Speaker 1: unite around North and South, Republican and Democrat. Everyone hoped
Speaker 1: for gentle James Garfield's swift recovery. For some time, it
Speaker 1: seemed like the President would pull through. His strength seemed
Speaker 1: to be increasing, his color was better, his attitude, though
Speaker 1: always courageous and hopeful, seemed improved. But by early August,
Speaker 1: a month after the shooting, it became clear that something
Speaker 1: was very wrong. Garfield was feverish and exhausted, losing weight
Speaker 1: at an untenable rate. His wounds were leaking puss. By September,
Speaker 1: those around him could not avoid the truth he was dying.
Speaker 1: Realizing this, Garfield requested one last trip to see the ocean,
Speaker 1: a sight which had always soothed him. On September fifth,
Speaker 1: thousands of people came out to see the president travel
Speaker 1: by a special train to New Jersey, where citizens had
Speaker 1: laid down thousands of feet of track overnight to allow
Speaker 1: Garfield to travel straight to the front door of a
Speaker 1: seaside cottage. When the train got to the cottage, though
Speaker 1: an unforeseen obstacle arose. The engine was not strong enough
Speaker 1: to travel up the hill that the cottage shatowtop. Grasping
Speaker 1: the problem, two hundred local men ran forward and silently
Speaker 1: pushed the huge train to the front door. James Garfield
Speaker 1: got his wish to see the ocean before he died.
Speaker 1: He lived for nearly two weeks in that cottage by
Speaker 1: the sea, attended by two of his lifelong best friends,
Speaker 1: his doctors, and his wife and daughter, but his body
Speaker 1: was failing. Late on the night of September nineteenth, he
Speaker 1: cried out in pain, summoning his loved ones to his bedside.
Speaker 1: Within half an hour, he was dead. All across America,
Speaker 1: a great cloud of mourning descended. Black bunting draped the
Speaker 1: White House, and a crowd of more than one hundred
Speaker 1: thousand mourners gathered at the Capitol to see the president's
Speaker 1: body lie in state. Beneath the sadness, a beating heart
Speaker 1: of anger lay churning. Their president was dead. The American
Speaker 1: people said, when would his assassin pay? Ever since the shooting,
Speaker 1: most people had assumed that Charles Getaux would have to
Speaker 1: be insane to have done what he'd done. Even James Garfield,
Speaker 1: upon learning the identity of his assailant, had said that
Speaker 1: the man must be mad, since he had no understandable motive.
Speaker 1: To many However, Guittoau's mental state had no bearing on
Speaker 1: the punishment he deserved. In the words of one reporter
Speaker 1: from the New York Times, quote, while it seems incredible
Speaker 1: that a sane man could have done so desperate and
Speaker 1: utterly inexcusable a deed, the feeling is quite general that
Speaker 1: it would be best to execute him first and try
Speaker 1: the question of hisanity afterward. But the lawyer's task with
Speaker 1: running Gautou's trial could not afford such a cavalier attitude.
Speaker 1: While there was immense public skepticism about insanity please in
Speaker 1: which a defendant pleads not guilty by reason of insanity,
Speaker 1: the strategy had been successfully used in a number of
Speaker 1: high profile cases. The prosecutors were terrified that Gudteau would
Speaker 1: escape the noose. Government authorities were too. Attorney General Wayne McVeigh,
Speaker 1: concerned that Washington's District Attorney George Corkhill was too inexperienced
Speaker 1: to lead the prosecution alone, recruited several prominent lawyers in
Speaker 1: private practice to join the team, including Walter Daviage, a
Speaker 1: highly regarded Washington lawyer, and former judge John K. Porter,
Speaker 1: who had worked on Henry Ward Beecher's defense team, which
Speaker 1: you can hear all about in episode two of History
Speaker 1: on Trial. Porter recommended to Corkill that they employ doctor
Speaker 1: John Gray, superintendent of the Utica Asylum and one of
Speaker 1: the country's foremost mental illness experts, to help guide the prosecution.
Speaker 1: Gray agreed to come on and spent more than a
Speaker 1: week working with Porter on identifying and recruiting the best
Speaker 1: witnesses money could buy. The defense had no such luxury
Speaker 1: of resources or talent. The only lawyer in the country
Speaker 1: willing to take on Getou's defense was his brother in law,
Speaker 1: George Scoville, and even then Scoville was not enthusiastic about
Speaker 1: the case, announcing if I didn't think the unfortunate man
Speaker 1: was insane, I would not defend him at all. Scoville
Speaker 1: was barely qualified for the role. Though he had practiced
Speaker 1: law for thirty years, he was a patent lawyer and
Speaker 1: had only defended two prior criminal cases. At Guetou's arraignment
Speaker 1: on October fourteenth, Scoville asked Judge Walter Cox to appoint
Speaker 1: additional council as well as authorized subpoenas for witnesses, which
Speaker 1: he thought was the only way to get people to
Speaker 1: come testify on Getou's behalf. Cox agreed to both requests,
Speaker 1: and on October twenty sixth, local lawyer Lee Robinson joined
Speaker 1: the defense team. Robinson was never happy with his role, though,
Speaker 1: and ended up resigning from the defense a week into
Speaker 1: the trial. Two months later, Charles Reed, the Illinois States
Speaker 1: Attorney and a good friend of George Scoville's, joined the defense,
Speaker 1: but for most of the trial Scoville worked alone. The
Speaker 1: defense also had a shadow lawyer of sorts. Geteaux, a
Speaker 1: lawyer was technically qualified to represent himself, and he insisted
Speaker 1: on controlling every aspect of his defense. He made it
Speaker 1: clear to Scoville that while he accepted the use of
Speaker 1: the insanity defense, he did not want Scoville to quote
Speaker 1: waste time proving that he was generally insane, only that
Speaker 1: he had been insane during the mission of the crime.
Speaker 1: Scoville knew that Gaetau's request was impossible to comply with.
Speaker 1: Scoville's only chance of proving that Getau was not responsible
Speaker 1: for the assassination was by proving that Getau had a
Speaker 1: compelling history of mental illness. On October nineteenth, Scoville released
Speaker 1: a public letter asking people who had witnessed Guittau behaving
Speaker 1: erradically to come forward and testify. In he wrote, quote
Speaker 1: the interests of patriotism, justice, humanity, and mercy. Despite Scoville's pushback,
Speaker 1: Getou continued to try to run his own defense. Throughout
Speaker 1: the first weeks of October. He tried to get Judge
Speaker 1: Cox to accept the plea that he had written. When
Speaker 1: Cox refused, Getou handed the plea over to the papers,
Speaker 1: who of course published it right away. In the document,
Speaker 1: Getoau declared himself not guilty because quote, the divine pressure
Speaker 1: on me to remove the president was so enormous that
Speaker 1: it destroyed my free agency, and therefore I am not
Speaker 1: legally responsible for my act. He also claimed that he
Speaker 1: was literally not responsible for Garfield's death. It was not
Speaker 1: his bullets, he argued, but Garfield's bumbling doctors who had
Speaker 1: killed the president. Finally, Getou argued that Washington b C
Speaker 1: was the wrong venue for the trial, since Garfield had
Speaker 1: died in New Jersey. This third claim was baseless. The
Speaker 1: shooting had taken place in BC after all. Scoville decided
Speaker 1: to abandon the medical malpractice argument too, but keep it
Speaker 1: in mind, because we'll return to this surprising claim. Later,
Speaker 1: the only focus of the defense in Scoville's mind was
Speaker 1: proving Geto not guilty by reason of insanity. In that task,
Speaker 1: the defense certainly had their work cut out for them.
Speaker 1: The uphill battle the defense faced became apparent as early
Speaker 1: as jury selection, which began on Novemas fourteenth. It was
Speaker 1: almost impossible to find jurors who had not already made
Speaker 1: up their mind on Getto's guilt. One perspective, juror, the
Speaker 1: aptly named John Lynch, summed up the feelings of many
Speaker 1: in the jury pool when he said, I think he
Speaker 1: ought to be hung or burnt or something else. I
Speaker 1: don't think there is any evidence in the United States
Speaker 1: to convince me any other way. Over the course of
Speaker 1: three days, one hundred and seventy five men were questioned
Speaker 1: on matters of religion, capital punishment, and insanity. Eventually a
Speaker 1: suitable jury was found. On Thursday, November seventeenth, the prosecution
Speaker 1: began its case. Before Da George Corkhill could begin his
Speaker 1: opening statement. However, Gettou stood up and objected to the
Speaker 1: presence of Lee Robinson, the court appointed defense lawyer. Robinson
Speaker 1: was unnecessary, Geto said because he would be his own counsel.
Speaker 1: I intend to be heard in this case, he announced,
Speaker 1: and I will make a noise about it. Getou would
Speaker 1: certainly be making a lot of noise in the coming months.
Speaker 1: Judge Cox, afraid of giving the defense any possible grounds
Speaker 1: for an appeal, treated Getoaux with kid gloves throughout the trial,
Speaker 1: never silencing him despite his numerous outbursts which both horrified
Speaker 1: and entertained observers. In this instance, Getou eventually sat down,
Speaker 1: but not before further insulting his lawyers and reasserting his
Speaker 1: own role as a quote agent of the deity. Finally,
Speaker 1: Corkhill could deliver his opening statement, which was a standard
Speaker 1: recital of the facts and an appeal for sympathy for
Speaker 1: Garfield's bereaved family. The prosecution followed their opening with a
Speaker 1: steady procession of witnesses who laid out the facts of
Speaker 1: Getou's planning for the murder, the details of the shooting,
Speaker 1: and Garfield's treatment and death. On Saturday the nineteen the
Speaker 1: defense introduced Garfield's doctor, who helpfully provided the jury with
Speaker 1: a five inch segment of Garfield's spine so they could
Speaker 1: observe the injuries for themselves. After this first round of
Speaker 1: prosecution witnesses, George Schoville delivered the defense opening. A main
Speaker 1: component of his argument was the question of how exactly
Speaker 1: the jury should determine Gueteau's level of sanity and subsequently,
Speaker 1: his level of responsibility. At this time, most US states
Speaker 1: used the McNaughton rule to determine the validity of an
Speaker 1: insanity plea, named after a British man, Daniel McNaughton, who
Speaker 1: had attempted to murder British Prime Minister Robert Peel in
Speaker 1: eighteen forty three and who had been acquitted on the
Speaker 1: basis of his insanity. The rule was a result of
Speaker 1: a review by the British courts into whether it was
Speaker 1: too easy for defendants to claim insanity. Under the McNaughton rule,
Speaker 1: a defendant now had to prove that quote at the
Speaker 1: time of the committing of the act, the party accused
Speaker 1: was laboring under such a defect of reasoning from a
Speaker 1: disease of the mind as not to know the nature
Speaker 1: and quality of the act he was doing, or if
Speaker 1: he did know it, that he did not know it
Speaker 1: was wrong. It's a strict standard, and by the eighteen eighties,
Speaker 1: criticism to the rule's rigidity was growing. In his book
Speaker 1: The Trial of the Assassin Guiteau, Psychiatry and Law in
Speaker 1: the Gilded Age, Charles E. Rosenberg discusses some of the
Speaker 1: commonly raised objections to the McNaughton rule, which Rosenberg notes
Speaker 1: is quote not a medical test for sanity, but a
Speaker 1: legal test for responsibility. First, the test did not allow
Speaker 1: for any nuance in the question of responsibility, as John Bucknell,
Speaker 1: an English authority on insanity and the Law, argued, quote,
Speaker 1: the law did not provide in theory for degree of responsibility.
Speaker 1: One was either sane and responsible or insane and absolutely irresponsible.
Speaker 1: Yet clinical observation, even common sense experience attested to the
Speaker 1: existence of every conceivable gradation of mental power and control.
Speaker 1: The question of control was another big one. Someone might
Speaker 1: know that an act was wrong, but were they truly
Speaker 1: responsible for their actions if their mental illness compelled them
Speaker 1: to act. By the time of Geteau's trial, two new
Speaker 1: legal standards which hoped to address the deficiencies in the
Speaker 1: McNaughton rule had appeared. The first was the irresistible impulse test,
Speaker 1: which is just what it sounds like. Could a mentally
Speaker 1: ill defendant control their actions or was the impulse to
Speaker 1: commit the crime irresistible. Several states had adopted the irresistible
Speaker 1: impulse test beginning in the mid nineteenth century. The second
Speaker 1: test originated in New Hampshire and thus became known as
Speaker 1: the New Hampshire Rule. This was the most lenient test,
Speaker 1: asking only if the defendant's actions were a product of
Speaker 1: their mental illness. If so, they could not be held responsible.
Speaker 1: In eighteen eighty one, Washington d c. Courts only subscribed
Speaker 1: to the McNaughton rule. Getau's many public statements before the
Speaker 1: trial had made it clear that he both knew the
Speaker 1: shooting to be a crime, and also that he had
Speaker 1: planned his actions, not acted on impulse. In order for
Speaker 1: Getou's defense team to have even a chance at acquittal,
Speaker 1: they would need to convince the court to adopt a
Speaker 1: new test of insanity and responsibility. In his opening statement,
Speaker 1: Scoville urged the court to adopt a standard closer to
Speaker 1: the New Hampshire Rule, telling the jurors quote, it will
Speaker 1: be for you to say, taking all the facts in
Speaker 1: this case, whether this crime would have been committed by
Speaker 1: the accused if he had been of sound mind, judgment,
Speaker 1: and reason. He reminded the jury that society's understanding of
Speaker 1: mental illness and its treatment of mentally ill people had
Speaker 1: progressively improved over the past centuries, and argued that the
Speaker 1: legal consideration of mental illness should follow the same trend.
Speaker 1: After Scoville wrapped up, the defense introduced witnesses from Getau's past,
Speaker 1: all of whom testified to his mental instability. These witnesses
Speaker 1: included the Scoville family physician who had assessed Getaux in
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy five after his attempted attack on his sister,
Speaker 1: as well as a neighbor of Getau's at a boarding
Speaker 1: house who described the defendant as abnormal. The only defense
Speaker 1: witness most observers cared about, though, was the defendant himself.
Speaker 1: On November twenty eighth, Charles Geteau took the stand in
Speaker 1: his own defense, a characteristic performance. For example, when Scoville
Speaker 1: asked him to identify some of his letters, Getou could
Speaker 1: not stop himself from commenting on how nice his own
Speaker 1: handwriting was. His rational way of speaking about seemingly irrational
Speaker 1: topics was also on full display. In measured tones, he
Speaker 1: laid out his belief that if Garfield had stayed in office,
Speaker 1: the Republican Party would have inevitably collapsed, leading to a
Speaker 1: government takeover by the Democrats and eventually complete national financial collapse.
Speaker 1: As Scoville led him through his reasoning for killing Garfield,
Speaker 1: Guettou began to get frustrated that no one seemed to
Speaker 1: understand that his actions had not been a crime against
Speaker 1: the nation, but a gift to America. Some of these days,
Speaker 1: he exclaimed, instead of saying getto the assassin, they will
Speaker 1: say getto the patriot. For the prosecution, John Porter conducted
Speaker 1: the cross examination of Gettou, working to draw a line
Speaker 1: between Geto's claims of divine inspiration and the actual actions
Speaker 1: he had taken. Question who bought the pistol? The deity
Speaker 1: or you? Answer? I say the deity inspired the act,
Speaker 1: and the deity will take care of it. Question were
Speaker 1: you inspired to buy that British bulldog pistol? Answer? I
Speaker 1: do not claim that I was to do that specific act,
Speaker 1: but I do claim that the deity inspired me to
Speaker 1: remove the president, and I had to use my ordinary
Speaker 1: judgment as to the ways and means to accomplish the
Speaker 1: deity's will. Question did it occur to you that there
Speaker 1: was a commandment thou shalt not kill. Answer if it did,
Speaker 1: the divine authority overcame the written law. Porter's cross examination
Speaker 1: also highlighted another prosecution theme. Scoville had brought forward witnesses
Speaker 1: who testified to Geto's in ay to hold down a
Speaker 1: job or stay in one place for long as evidence
Speaker 1: of his mental illness, But Porter and the prosecution interpreted
Speaker 1: this pattern of behavior as evidence not of mental illness,
Speaker 1: but of moral failing. In the words of George Corkhill,
Speaker 1: the prosecution was trying to show that quote, what the
Speaker 1: defense calls insanity is nothing more than devilish depravity. The
Speaker 1: direct and cross examinations of Getau took a combined six days,
Speaker 1: and by the end lawyers at witness alike were all exhausted,
Speaker 1: but the trial had to continue. The following Monday, December fifth,
Speaker 1: the expert witnesses arrived. In total, thirty six men were
Speaker 1: called by both sides to testify to Getow's sanity or
Speaker 1: lack thereof. George Scoville's inexperience with criminal law showed itself
Speaker 1: clearly during this phase of the trial. While prosecutors walked
Speaker 1: their expert witnesses through carefully constructed lines of questioning. Scoville
Speaker 1: asked most of his questions only one question. First, he
Speaker 1: delivered a long hypothetical in which he described a man
Speaker 1: who sounded a lot like Getau, and then asked the
Speaker 1: expert if, given these facts, he would describe such a
Speaker 1: man as insane. This did not make for compelling testimony.
Speaker 1: Despite the more convincing performance of the prosecution's experts, some
Speaker 1: observers wondered whether they were protesting just a little too
Speaker 1: hard about Getou's sanity. Could it be that the public
Speaker 1: hatred of Getou and the desire for a conviction was
Speaker 1: swaying these experts judgment. Finally, after more than two months
Speaker 1: of testimony, closing arguments began on January twelfth, eighteen eighty two.
Speaker 1: Walter Davige, the Washington criminal lawyer, began for the prosecution.
Speaker 1: He held nothing back, saying of getto, I grant his egotism,
Speaker 1: I grant his unpressed and to love of notoriety. But
Speaker 1: I think it will be difficult for counsel on the
Speaker 1: other side to convince you that because a man is egotistical,
Speaker 1: he ought to have the privilege of slaying another. Further,
Speaker 1: Daviage discussed the potential danger of an acquittal on the
Speaker 1: basis of insanity, saying that it would be quote tantamount
Speaker 1: to inviting every crack brained, ill balanced man, with or
Speaker 1: without motive, to resort to the knife or to the pistol,
Speaker 1: and to slay a man for party purposes, or it
Speaker 1: may be without any purposes whatever. Charles Reed delivered the
Speaker 1: first defense, closing in plain language. He asked the jury
Speaker 1: to consider Guetau's actions both during the crime and during
Speaker 1: the trial and decide if they were really the actions
Speaker 1: of a sane man. Would a sane man believe that
Speaker 1: the country would thank him for killing the president? Would
Speaker 1: a sane man describe himself as an agent of God
Speaker 1: on a mission of murder? Reid told the jurors that
Speaker 1: they ought to judge Getau's culpability themselves, using common sense
Speaker 1: instead of relying on expert witnesses. Will you send a
Speaker 1: man to the gallows on the opinion of doctors? He asked.
Speaker 1: George Scoville also went after the doctors in his defense closing,
Speaker 1: pointing out that the prosecution's experts had all agreed that
Speaker 1: Getaux had no brain disease, while also acknowledging that no
Speaker 1: brain disease could be diagnosed into l autopsy. It was
Speaker 1: an absurd contradiction, Scoville argued. Getau, inspired by this point,
Speaker 1: shouted out those experts hang a man and examined his
Speaker 1: brain afterward, and Scoville disputed Davage's point about the dangerous
Speaker 1: precedent a not guilty verdict would have on the legal
Speaker 1: system in the country. On the contrary, he said, executing
Speaker 1: a clearly insane man would quote constitute a permanent discredit
Speaker 1: to American courts. After skill Ville concluded, Gettou asked to
Speaker 1: deliver a closing of his own. Judge Cox denied his
Speaker 1: request at first, but after the prosecution said they had
Speaker 1: no objection, allowed Geteau to proceed. Geteau prefaced his speech
Speaker 1: by saying, with no apparent humor, I am not afraid
Speaker 1: of anyone shooting me. The shooting business is declining. In
Speaker 1: the rambling speech that followed, Getou compared himself to a
Speaker 1: number of American heroes, including George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant,
Speaker 1: and John Brown. Here he stopped and performed a verse
Speaker 1: from the popular Civil War song John Brown's Bodies in
Speaker 1: an odd chanting voice. I suffer in bonds as a patriot,
Speaker 1: he continued, because I had the inspiration and nerve to
Speaker 1: unite a great political party to the end that the
Speaker 1: nation might be saved another desolating war. Geteau ended with
Speaker 1: a threat, if a hair of my head is harmed,
Speaker 1: this nation will go down in desolation. All you can
Speaker 1: do is put my body in the ground, but this
Speaker 1: nation will pay for it as sure as you are alive.
Speaker 1: Nothing could appropriately follow this performance, so the court adjourned
Speaker 1: for the day. After taking Sunday off, the trial resumed
Speaker 1: on Monday with the final prosecution closing argument to be
Speaker 1: delivered by John Porter. Porter was exhausted and infuriated by
Speaker 1: the long, slow trial, and he laid into not just Guettoau,
Speaker 1: but also the defense lawyers in his venomous closing. In
Speaker 1: one striking moment, he evoked Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth
Speaker 1: and said getto was worse because at least Wilkes Booth
Speaker 1: was brave. Gettou, Porter said, should be regarded as the
Speaker 1: most cold blooded and selfish murderer of the last sixty centuries.
Speaker 1: He ended with an appeal to the jury gentlemen, you
Speaker 1: must now do your part in making assassination reprehensible. With that,
Speaker 1: it was time for Judge Cox to instruct the jury.
Speaker 1: Though the defense had argued strenuously for the court to
Speaker 1: consider the new Hampshire rule in its legal framework for
Speaker 1: the case, Cox denied their requests. The only rule that
Speaker 1: the jury could rely on in determining the validity of
Speaker 1: the insanity plea, he made it known, was the McNaughton rule.
Speaker 1: Guetau's mental state was only relevant if it had caused
Speaker 1: him not to know that his actions were wrong. Indifference
Speaker 1: to what is right is not ignorance of it, and
Speaker 1: depravity is not insanity, and we must be careful not
Speaker 1: to mistake moral perversion for mental disease, Cox told jurors.
Speaker 1: After concluding his instructions, he sent the jury to deliberate.
Speaker 1: It was four thirty five pm on January twenty fifth,
Speaker 1: eighteen eight two. The jury returned at five point forty.
Speaker 1: It was dark outside already, and the old courtroom, which
Speaker 1: did not yet have gaslights, was illuminated only by candles.
Speaker 1: In the shadowy flickering candlelight, the jury foreman rose and
Speaker 1: told Judge Cox that they had reached a conclusion for
Speaker 1: the charge of murdering President James Garfield. They had found
Speaker 1: the defendant, Charles J. Getteaux, guilty. On February third, Judge
Speaker 1: Cox sentenced Charles Getoaux to be hanged on June thirtieth,
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty two. The defense filed several appeals, all of
Speaker 1: which were rejected. Getau's siblings, John and Francis petitioned President
Speaker 1: Arthur to stay the execution, and a group of neurologists
Speaker 1: asked the president to appoint an independent commission to assess
Speaker 1: Getau's mental competency. Arthur through seriously considered both requests, but
Speaker 1: ultimately did not grant either. In his cell, Getou remained calm,
Speaker 1: certain that one of his imagined high powered allies would
Speaker 1: save him from the noose, but by the end of
Speaker 1: June he had become reconciled to his fate. On June
Speaker 1: twenty ninth, he paid a prison worker to wash and
Speaker 1: press his black suit. On June thirtieth, he had his
Speaker 1: shoes shined, just as he had on the day of
Speaker 1: the assassination. Getou wanted to look his best outside a
Speaker 1: crowd of more than a thousand people milled around the gallows,
Speaker 1: anxiously awaiting the prisoner. Their number included two hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty members of the public who had gotten tickets to
Speaker 1: the execution. More than twenty thousand people had requested a spot.
Speaker 1: Getou was escorted onto the scaffold shortly after noon. He
Speaker 1: appeared calm holding a poem that he had written that
Speaker 1: morning and had been given permission to read. He began
Speaker 1: by paraphrasing a verse from Matthew. Except ye become as
Speaker 1: a little child, ye cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Speaker 1: The following lines were quote intended to indicate my feelings
Speaker 1: at the moment of leaving this world. If set to music,
Speaker 1: they may be rendered very effective. The idea is that
Speaker 1: of a child babbling to his mama and his papa.
Speaker 1: Running for twenty six lines. The poem reveals Getau's continuing
Speaker 1: belief in the righteousness of his crime. He read it aloud,
Speaker 1: in keeping with his introduction, in a falsetto childlike voice.
Speaker 1: I saved my party and my land, glory, hallelujah. But
Speaker 1: they have murdered me for it, and that is the
Speaker 1: reason I am going to the lordy glory, Hallelujah. Glory, hallelujah,
Speaker 1: I am going to the Lordy. When he finished, his
Speaker 1: legs were bound together, black hood was placed over his
Speaker 1: head and a noose slung round his neck. At his
Speaker 1: own signal, dropping the piece of paper his poem was
Speaker 1: written on, the trap door was sprung and Charles Guettou
Speaker 1: plummeted down dead in an instant. Gueteaux was buried in
Speaker 1: the jail courtyard, but his body would not rest for long.
Speaker 1: A few days later it was exhumed and taken to
Speaker 1: the Army Medical Museum, where doctor D. S. Lamb, the
Speaker 1: same doctor who performed the autopsy of Garfield, dissected the assassin.
Speaker 1: Sections of his brain were sent to neurologists around the country.
Speaker 1: The physical evidence of any brain damage or disease was inconclusive,
Speaker 1: and we now know that mental illness often does not
Speaker 1: manifest in observable physical differences in the brain. Today, parts
Speaker 1: of his preserved corpse are still stored in a National
Speaker 1: Museum of Health and Medicine. Lucretia Garfield took her children
Speaker 1: back to Ohio and set to work organizing her husband's papers,
Speaker 1: eventually creating the first presidential library in the couple's home
Speaker 1: of Lawnfield in Mentor, Ohio. For many people, Garfield's memory
Speaker 1: started to fade. Within years of his assassination. He became
Speaker 1: more of a symbol than a man. It was a
Speaker 1: transformation that had begun during the trial, where Garfield was
Speaker 1: held up as an emblem of everything right with America,
Speaker 1: a hard working, self made, morally upright leader, while Geteau
Speaker 1: represented everything wrong with the country, fame obsessed, narcissistic, and selfish.
Speaker 1: But before long, Geteaux came to symbolize something else, entirely
Speaker 1: a failure of the American legal system, as Charles Rosenberg
Speaker 1: puts it. Within a dozen years of Getou's execution, few
Speaker 1: interested physicians doubted that he had been insane. Those harshest
Speaker 1: in their judgment did not hesitate to call the trial
Speaker 1: a miscarriage of justice, disgraceful to the legal and medical
Speaker 1: professions alike. Part of this shift in opinion was due
Speaker 1: to Getou's execution itself. His death had allowed for a
Speaker 1: release of quote emotional energies that made impossible any real
Speaker 1: debate while the assassin still lived. Per Rosenberg, and the
Speaker 1: strange manner in which Getaux had gone to the gallows,
Speaker 1: the poetry the play acting. The seemingly implacable conviction that
Speaker 1: he had done no wrong made many who had believed
Speaker 1: that he had faked his insanity for the trial reconsider
Speaker 1: what benefit could there be in behaving this way when
Speaker 1: the end was both near and inescapable. This reckoning with
Speaker 1: the truth of Getou's mental competency prompted a reconsideration of
Speaker 1: the ethics of trying and executing him. But the reckoning
Speaker 1: wasn't entirely new either. Recall this quote from the New
Speaker 1: York Times. The feeling is quite general that it would
Speaker 1: be best to excit gute him first and try the
Speaker 1: question of his sanity afterward. Many Americans, including some of
Speaker 1: the lawyers who worked on Getou's trial, had serious questions
Speaker 1: about his mental competency even as the trial progressed. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, the predominant feeling was that such
Speaker 1: a crime must be punished. How to balance those two beliefs.
Speaker 1: The true questions at the heart of Charles Getou's trial
Speaker 1: are about the role of the legal system. Is it
Speaker 1: purely retributive, Whose rights are prioritized? Who do we care
Speaker 1: most about protecting. We can see two different approaches to
Speaker 1: these questions. In the arguments of the lawyers, the prosecutor
Speaker 1: Davage argued that Getteaux must be convicted in order to
Speaker 1: serve as a deterrent, while the defense attorney Scoville the
Speaker 1: legal system needed to model progressive treatment of the mentally ill.
Speaker 1: Getau's execution also helped put the assassination, a deeply bewildering event,
Speaker 1: into a familiar framework. Commit a murder, go on trial,
Speaker 1: be found guilty, be executed. It was a pattern that
Speaker 1: the American public could follow. It allowed them to contextualize
Speaker 1: and make sense of the unthinkable. It allowed them to
Speaker 1: believe that Geteaux was an evil man with simple selfish motives.
Speaker 1: This narrative allowed the public to ignore the more complex
Speaker 1: reality of the situation. Sometimes for reasons that are beyond
Speaker 1: our control, bad things happen. The historian Henry Graff has
Speaker 1: described society's treatment of Geteau as a defense mechanism, a
Speaker 1: way of protecting our own understanding of the world's order.
Speaker 1: Graph notes that historians have continued to perpetuate this defense
Speaker 1: mechanism even up to the present by referring to Geteau
Speaker 1: not as a mentally ill man, but as a quote
Speaker 1: disappointed office seeker. Geteau's execution promised a kind of emotional catharsis,
Speaker 1: a feeling of evening the scales when something terrible has
Speaker 1: been done. It's natural to want someone to pay. But
Speaker 1: what if that someone has diminished capacity? This is still
Speaker 1: a question we struggle with, particularly in death penalty cases,
Speaker 1: with the stakes of answering that question incorrectly are so high.
Speaker 1: But there is one thing we know about Charles Guettou's sentence.
Speaker 1: It did not serve as a kind of turrent Davage
Speaker 1: had envisioned. No account of the trial can make this
Speaker 1: point better than Charles Rosenberg's book, which has served as
Speaker 1: an invaluable resource for this episode. Halfway through drafting his
Speaker 1: manuscript on the assassination of President Garfield, news arrived from Dallas.
Speaker 1: President John F. Kennedy had just been shot and killed.
Speaker 1: That's the story of the United States v. Charles Guittau.
Speaker 1: Stay with me after the break for a look into
Speaker 1: the surprising truth behind Goodies Utoe's shocking claim that medical
Speaker 1: malpractice was truly responsible for President Garfield's death. Throughout his trial,
Speaker 1: Charles Getou blamed Garfield's doctors for the president's death. General
Speaker 1: Garfield he said died from malpractice. According to his own physicians,
Speaker 1: he was not fatally shocked. The doctors who mistreated him
Speaker 1: ought to bear the odium of his death, and not
Speaker 1: his assailant. Unlike many of Getau's outlandish claims, his idea
Speaker 1: about medical malpractice has more than a grain of truth
Speaker 1: to it. President Garfield's death was a tragedy for many reasons,
Speaker 1: but perhaps most of all because of how preventable it was.
Speaker 1: The wounds that he sustained on July second should not,
Speaker 1: and in most cases, would not, have been fatal unless
Speaker 1: the page was heavily weakened by a blood infection, which
Speaker 1: Garfield was, and what caused that blood infection most likely
Speaker 1: the unsterile practices of his doctors. Though Garfield had access
Speaker 1: to the best physicians in America, prevailing scientific prejudices and
Speaker 1: the ego of one man conspired to doom him. Nearly
Speaker 1: twenty years before Garfield's shooting, the British surgeon doctor Joseph
Speaker 1: Lister had drawn a connection between Louis Pastor's work on
Speaker 1: micro organisms and the post surgical infections his own patients suffered.
Speaker 1: Lister theorized that Pastor's micro organisms were the cause of
Speaker 1: wound infection and became convinced that a sterilized medical environment
Speaker 1: was the best way to prevent such infections. Today these
Speaker 1: conclusions seem obvious, but in the mid nineteenth century they
Speaker 1: were revolutionary, and like any revolutionary idea, they took some
Speaker 1: getting used. By the eighteen eighties, most European doctors subscribed
Speaker 1: to Lister's practice of sterilizing tools and environments, and they
Speaker 1: had noticed a corresponding decrease in infection rates. But most
Speaker 1: American doctors were still skeptical and questioned the usefulness of
Speaker 1: Lister's admittedly tedious sterilization procedures. Unfortunately, one such skeptic would
Speaker 1: end up managing Garfield's medical care. As soon as Garfield
Speaker 1: was shot, doctors began to flock to the president, after all,
Speaker 1: there was no more prestigious patient in the country. A
Speaker 1: large number of doctors, however, did not translate to better care.
Speaker 1: The first doctor by Garfield's side, the health officer for DC,
Speaker 1: stuck his unclean finger directly into Garfield's bullet wound, and
Speaker 1: this would not be the last time an unsterile instrument
Speaker 1: was introduced into the president. Doctor doctor Willard Bliss, not
Speaker 1: a mistake. His given first name was doctor, assumed control
Speaker 1: of Garfield's medical care once the President was back in
Speaker 1: the White House. Bliss became convinced that he was the
Speaker 1: only one who could save the President and refused to
Speaker 1: listen to any other medical professional, going so far as
Speaker 1: to ban them from Garfield's presence. This was bad news
Speaker 1: for Garfield. Though Bliss was a friend of Garfield's and
Speaker 1: cared deeply for the President, he was also an opponent
Speaker 1: of Lister's sterilization methods and a proponent of a number
Speaker 1: of unorthodox cures. Bliss fed the wounded President an unhealthy
Speaker 1: diet of alcohol and rich foods, kept the president's friends
Speaker 1: and family away when their emotional support was most needed, and,
Speaker 1: worst of all, regularly inspected Garfield's wounds with unsterilized probes.
Speaker 1: When Garfield's autopsy was conducted, the attending physicians were horrified.
Speaker 1: Running through Garfield's right side was a long wound. Bliss
Speaker 1: was convinced that this was the path the bullet had traveled,
Speaker 1: but the bullet had actually traveled into Garfield's left side.
Speaker 1: The so called bullet wound had in reality been created
Speaker 1: by Bliss's blind probing. The overall condition of the President's
Speaker 1: body was also shocking. He was filled with abscesses and puss,
Speaker 1: clear signs of a system wide infection. Had Garfield been
Speaker 1: shot just fifteen years later, writes Candice Millard, expressing the
Speaker 1: view of many historians and modern medical professionals, the bullet
Speaker 1: in his back would have been quickly found by X
Speaker 1: ray images and the wound treated with antiseptic surgery. He
Speaker 1: might have been back on his feet within weeks. Had
Speaker 1: he been able to receive modern medical care, he likely
Speaker 1: would have spent no more than a few nights in
Speaker 1: the hospital. Even had Garfield simply been left alone, he
Speaker 1: almost certainly would have survived. It's not just the benefit
Speaker 1: of hindsight that allows us to see what Bliss did wrong.
Speaker 1: Doctors in Garfield's day were highly critical of Bliss. Bliss
Speaker 1: refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing, declaring in a statement that
Speaker 1: quote I should receive as I merit, the sympathy and goodwill,
Speaker 1: as well as the lasting confidence of every patriotic citizen.
Speaker 1: This kind of ghetto s qbris certainly did nothing to
Speaker 1: endear Bliss to his medical critics, one of whom wrote,
Speaker 1: in a brilliant turn of phrase that quote. Garfield's death
Speaker 1: proved with certainty that, as the poet Thomas Gray had
Speaker 1: written more than a century earlier, ignorance is bliss. Thank
Speaker 1: you for listening to History on Trial. The main sources
Speaker 1: for this episode were Candice Millard's book Destiny of the Republic,
Speaker 1: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a
Speaker 1: Precedent and Charles E. Rosenberg's book The Trial of the
Speaker 1: Assassin Guiteau, Psychiatry and Law in the Gilded Age. For
Speaker 1: a full bibliography, as well as a transcript of this
Speaker 1: episode with citations, please visit our website History on Trial
Speaker 1: podcast dot com. History on Trial is written and hosted
Speaker 1: by me Mira Hayward. The show is edited and produced
Speaker 1: by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer Trevor Young and executive
Speaker 1: producers Dana Schwartz, Alexander Williams, Matt Frederick, and Mira Hayward.
Speaker 1: Learn more about the show at History on Trial podcast
Speaker 1: dot com and follow us on Instagram at History on
Speaker 1: Trial and on Twitter at Underscore History on Trial. Find
Speaker 1: more podcasts from my I heart Radio by visiting the
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Speaker 1: favorite shows,