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

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/this-feels-criminal-a-true-crime-podcast-formerly-killer-queens-688053/charles-guiteau-i-merely-shot-him-james-garfield-assassination-pt-2
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/this-feels-criminal-a-true-crime-podcast-formerly-killer-queens-688053/charles-guiteau-i-merely-shot-him-james-garfield-assassination-pt-2.md
Podcast: [This Feels Criminal: A True Crime Podcast (Formerly Killer Queens)](https://stenobird.com/podcast/this-feels-criminal-a-true-crime-podcast-formerly-killer-queens-688053)
Published: 2026-07-09T21:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://c0b0f33f-1a7d-4159-9c72-ac64e29a132b.libsyn.com/charles-guiteau-i-merely-shot-him-james-garfield-assassination-pt-2
Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/claritaspod.com/measure/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/c0b0f33f-1a7d-4159-9c72-ac64e29a132b/KQP444_JamesGarfield_P2_First_Edit.mp3?dest-id=5408875
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Duration seconds: 2319

## Resource

"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.

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## Transcript

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