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This Feels Criminal: A True Crime Podcast (Formerly Killer Queens) Podcast
Charles Guiteau: "I Merely Shot Him" | James Garfield Assassination- Pt. 2

Charles Guiteau: "I Merely Shot Him" | James Garfield Assassination- Pt. 2

This Feels Criminal: A True Crime Podcast (Formerly Killer Queens) vor 2 Monaten

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38:39

"I did not kill the president. The doctors did. I merely shot
him." That was Charles Guiteau's defense.

In 1881, a failed lawyer and preacher convinced himself he'd
single-handedly won James Garfield the presidency — and that the
president now owed him a job. When the reward never came, he
decided Garfield had to die. In Part 2 of Founding Felons Week,
Tyrella and Nikita get into who Guiteau really was and how he got
there: the Oneida free-love commune that rejected him, his
pattern of latching onto powerful men and then turning on them,
the ten-week media circus of a trial, and the 1882 execution
where he asked for an orchestra.

It ends on the grim irony of a man who spent his whole life
desperate to be remembered — and got his wish, as a brain on
display at the Mütter Museum.

New here? Start with Part 1 (the shooting and the nearly 80 days)
before this one.

Content warning: this episode discusses an assassination, capital
punishment, child abuse, and preserved human remains.