At first, it was believed Garfield would not survive the night. However, the President's wounds were not immediately fatal. He lingered for 80 days before dying on September 19th 1881. At his trial Guiteau pleaded insanity but was hanged on June 30, 1882.
On 2 July 1881, two months after he was sworn in as the 20th President of the United States, James Abram Garfield was shot in Washington's Baltimore and Potomac railroad station as he was boarding a train for Williamstown, Massachusetts.
Garfield was shot by Charles Guiteau, a mentally disturbed, unsuccessful office seeker. He was struck by two bullets from Guiteau's 44 caliber pistol. One bullet grazed the President's right arm. The second bullet entered the right side of Garfield's back, breaking a rib and piercing the spine The bullet lodged within inches of the backbone below the pancreas. As he was shot, the President cried out "My God! What is this?"
There was much controversy at the time over whether Garfield died from the assassin's bullet or the incompetence of his doctors.
Hetzler's Fakebook
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