Charles J. Guiteau

(1841-1882)

American assassin

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Charles Julius Guiteau ( ghih-TOH; September 8, 1841 – June 30, 1882) was an American writer and lawyer who assassinated United States President James A. Garfield on July 2, 1881. Guiteau falsely believed he had played a major role in Garfield's victory, for which he should be rewarded with a consulship. He was so offended by the Garfield administration's rejections of his applications to serve in Vienna or Paris that he decided to kill Garfield, and shot him at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C. Garfield died two months later from infections related to the wounds. In January 1882, Guiteau was sentenced to death for the crime, and was hanged five months later. Executed two days short of the anniversary of his crime, Guiteau remains by far the longest-lived presidential assassin in U.S. history, and the only one put to death under federal law.